Road 96: Mile 0follows Zoe and her best friend Kaito as he slowly begins to show her that the world they’re living in may not be exactly good as she thinks. While many elements from the first game remain the same—a bleak world juxtaposed with a pulsating, upbeat soundtrack—DigixArt Studio decides to take a new approach to storytelling inRoad 96: Mile 0with a more intimate format from the perspectives of two best friends.
Game Rant spoke with studio co-founder and creative director Yoan Fanise about the importance of rhythm games, howRoad 96: Mile 0tells a more intimate story than its predecessor, the background of its killer soundtrack, and more.The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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Q: Thank you for taking the time to work with me and answer some questions about your upcoming gameRoad 96: Mile 0.Before we begin, please tell us who you are and what you do at DigixArt studio.
Fanise:Hello, my name is Yoan Fanise, and I’m the creative director ofRoad 96: Mile 0and also co-founder of DigixArt Studio based in the South of France.
Q: Tell me a bit about the development of the narrative for this game. What was your process for developing this story, and where did the inspiration come from?
Fanise:Mile 0is a mix of many inspirations, the prequel that explains a lot of things in Petria’s world. We wanted to focus more on the contrast between those very few rich people isolating themselves in White Sands and the rest of the country collapsing. My real life inspiration was when I lived in Singapore in those kinds of places; they were less luxurious, but still kind of creating a fake reality around you. You could choose to stay inside 24/7, but then your perception of the country would be totally different from its diversity and hidden poverty. The artistic influence was the Korean movieParasite, with this twist from a funny story to a scary gory ending. I love the daring changing of genre in the middle of a story.Mile 0has a similarity to that.
Q: Did you always have Zoe in mind as a main character, or did the idea for telling her backstory come later in planning?
Fanise:In its big brotherRoad 96, you meet Zoe five times. She’s the rouge of this procedural story. And she’s very different; players wondered why she was on the road. We decided to explain her backstory, as it explains a lot about Petria’s dark secrets. Some people don’t like her, and we hope they will understand why she’s acting like that. There are also more explanations in the first book,Road 96: Prologue, about the ‘86 events, and in the next one,About a Girl, that tells the unseen moments of her life duringMile 0andRoad 96.
Q: We see the appearance of many of the main characters from the first game, but there is a new face in the mix this time–Kaito. Where did the idea for his character and his friendship with Zoe come from?
Fanise:It is kind of a funny story - we wanted to experience the point of view of a typical Petrian teenager, running into economic troubles and with a growing anger for the country’s leaders. During an early brainstorm, I looked atLost in Harmonyartwork on the wall, and that was suddenly obvious; it had to be Kaito, whose backstory with Aya perfectly fit Petria’s lore. Although he’s from the poor capital with a different background, he’s ok that Zoe gets close to him, and she quickly becomes his best friend. Zoe feels more attracted to girls and has no intention to go in the love zone - that’s perfect for Kaito, who still grieves for Aya, who died from cancer duringLost in Harmony.
Q: Besides Zoe, there are a handful of returning characters like John, Sonya, and even Adam, Sonya’s bodyguard, who we learn the backstory of in this narrative, as well. How did it feel to bring back so many great characters from the first game?
Fanise:Players love the characters you meet inRoad 96. We love them too, they’re like our children, and we wanted to dig more into the ones that fit with this new plot. We hope the fans of Jarod and Stan & Mitch will forgive us. There could be so much more we want to tell about them too, each of them could have their own spinoff alaBetter Call Saul.
Q: Jumping off of that last question, why choose to focus on both Kaito and Zoe as well as their relationship rather than have a story that just focuses on one of them?
Fanise:As the theme was the contrast, we wanted the player to feel it inside their body, therefore playing the two of them was a powerful mechanic. The more it goes, the more you switch, and this creates deep emphatic dilemmas.
Q:Mile 0approaches narrative design a bit differently than the first game.Road 96felt like a much more open, transient experiencewhere you meet many people along the way, whereasMile 0feels like a much more contained and intimate story that focuses on two people. I’m curious what you think about this. Was this intimacy intentional or do you think it was a byproduct of the narrative design of this game?
Fanise:Intimacy is a good term to describeMile 0. It’s a huit clos, or centralized in one location - the opposite of open roads, and this is what it is all about, the home you’re departing from, the reasons behind it. The kind of arena is less fighting with voyage ellipses and procedural generation. We wanted to not repeat ourselves, to surprise the players. A short and sweet experience that explains a lot of things about Petria.
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Q: Obviously the rhythm games are a huge component to the gameplay ofMile 0. We saw some of them in the first game, but this game really expands on them. Why choose to make them such a prominent feature ofMile 0?
Fanise:We wanted to prove to ourselves that we could also do a real gameplay system beyond the narrative gauges and the mini activities, separated from each other. Bring in gameplay that has a bit of skill for people who like that with some replayability.
Q: The skating and rollerblading games are also not just for fun, but are often used to carry the story and deliver major changes to the characters’ thoughts around their stances on important beats in the story. How did you arrive at this decision, and why use them not only for fun but to develop the story further?
Fanise:We wanted to avoid a bicephal or schizophrenic-feeling experience, with two kinds of two distinct games side by side. And each ride is in fact developing a strong narrative moment, in a way that is not realistic, but metaphoric to show what happens in their minds - strong decisions, deep traumas they try to overcome. And some of those big choices are even inside the rides.
Q: What does the process ofdesigning the skateboarding and rollerblading sequencesactually look like? How did you come up with and execute on those ideas?
Fanise:We made gameplay with some similarities inLost in Harmony, our first game, and we wanted to further explore this frenetic ride feeling. What could it be in pure 3D, in sync with the music flow, but still with simple and accessible controls, plus a jump or dash? We iterated a lot on those sequences, and it is a really different challenge than making a compelling story. It has to be super precise in the timings.
Q: I would imagine it’s also not easy to design these segments of gameplay, especially around syncing animations to music, so I’m curious if you could share some of the challenges you and your team faced integrating these mini-games into the overall game? How did you overcome them?
Fanise:The level designers and animators did an amazing job, it was an iterative process. They started from the music track, creating a path with certain speeds, turns and bumps, then imagined which portion would “talk” about the meaning of that sequence. These were initially placed in the story with a narrative goal. Then they started to place obstacles and wahoo animations, and considered how to let players breathe with mini-cinematic moments before going back to gameplay; this let the player breathe between two waves.
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Q: Speaking of the music, it plays an equally huge role in this game—especially in the mini-games—but also in the world’s background music and collectible cassettes. Why make music such a central aspect of the game?
Fanise:Music is the language of emotions, universal and subtle. This is the tool we prefer to work through to evoke feelings, to make things go beyond words.There are so many things that can pass through music. This is why we like to work with different composers, both famous and less famous. Each character and moment requires a specific tone - I’m not a big fan of “drones” or quiet music that stays in the background and doesn’t convey anything. I prefer an ugly transition between two strong emotional melodies rather than a super complex technical music system that forces you to stay in the same scale or tempo.
Q: How did you come to work with all of these amazing collaborators on the soundtrack? Did you work with anyone again who contributed to the firstRoad 96?
Fanise:The music casting takes some time. We test with existing placeholder tracks, we try a lot of things, and suddenly you feel that this one fits, you get a symbiotic impression, and you know this is the band you need for this beat. We are so proud to collaborate with The Midnight, Kalax, Arslan Elbar, Alexis Laugier and, for an old guy like me, licensing a track from The Offspring is definitely something.
Q: How has reception from your community been surroundingMile 0,and how does it feel to be able to deliver another installment in theRoad 96story?
Fanise:The community was really surprised, and this is what we wanted, not repeating ourselves, bringing new gameplay, new structure and new characters. We have so much to tell, so much to create. Some may think this is just a skate game, some just a walking simulator, but this is neither - this is a UFO, a sweet candy with multiple flavors. We hope they’re gonna like it.
Q: What would you say is your proudest achievement with this game, and are there any moments in gameplay that stand out to you as your favorite?
Fanise:For me the last ride,when Zoe escapes, is the best moment. The emotion and gameplay blends together in one epic moment, the environment twists around you; it gives me the chills every time I play it. And also there is one particular ending that makes me cry every time I get this one, literally.
Q: Lastly, is there anything else you’d like to say or share that we haven’t touched on yet?
Fanise:Thank you very much for your questions that really dig into the process of game creation. We are so proud and lucky to craft games, and we have a wonderful community. We can’t wait to surprise them with the next game.
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Road 96: Mile 0is available to play now on PC, PlaySation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
