Phil Clandillon Creative Director

Riff Racer

A futuristic stunt-attack racing game which generates tracks from music.

“I'm pretty sure at one point I didn't blink for an hour, and the game was so engrossing I didn't even notice.”

Sean Flint, IndieGames.com

About the project

Riff Racer is a high-octane music based racing game where players can create racetracks from the songs in their music collection. It's available for Windows PCs from Steam, and for iOS devices from the App Store. The iOS version game supports streaming with Apple Music.

Riff Racer's MEGA (Musical Environment Gaming Algorithm) takes any song, analyses it down to its core components and creates a unique racing experience from it. Verses, choruses and drops become checkpoints, and the environment and cars are styled to the genre of music being played.

My roles

My duties on the project included:

  • Working with the FOAM team on game design.
  • Art directing Riff Racer's retro-futuristic look.
  • Art directing and commissioning the design and modelling of the game's vehicles.
  • Creating unique colour pallettes for each genre of music.
  • Designing the UI for the game which works across multiple languages and alphabets.
  • Creating Riff Racer's branding.
  • Working with the dev team to test and refine the game's user experience. Creating the game's branding.

Screens

An in-game action shot showing the Ghost vehicle mid-jump.
Urban music environment, Ghost vehicle.
Pop genre environment, Comet vehicle.
Pop genre environment, Comet vehicle.
Rock genre environment, ghost mode, Monaco & Razor vehicles.
Rock genre environment, ghost mode, Monaco & Razor vehicles.
Classical genre environment, Harrington vehicle.
Classical genre environment, Harrington vehicle.
Dance genre environment, Pulse vehicle.
Dance genre environment, Pulse vehicle.

Branding, icons & UI

The Riff Racer logo design.
Riff Racer logo and custom word marque.
Icon design for UI & HUD.
Icon designs for UI & HUD.
Type guidelines for the UI.
Type guidelines produced as part of the brand guidelines.
A selection of screens from Riff Racer's UI.
A selection of UI screens

App store & social media

Icon and screenshot designs for the iOS App Store.
Icon and screenshot designs for the iOS App Store.
Examples of assets created for social media channels.
Examples of assets created for social media channels.

The result

Riff Racer gained a 91% approval rating on Steam before launching on iOS with a global feature from Apple. It's the first iOS game to feature support for streaming with Apple Music and was TouchArcade's Game of the Week on launch.

Credits

Developer
FOAM Entertainment
Creative Directors
Phil Clandillon & Steve Milbourne
Producer
Simon Poon Tip
Graphic & UI/UX Designer
Andy Goodridge
Artist
Andrew Hammond
3D Artist
Jon Botros
Developers
Ritchie Brannan (PC) & Philip Tossell (iOS)

© 2018 Phil Clandillon