Examining Pacer’s distinctive visual design

The visual design is the skin of all futuristic racers, and their soul if you like. From the gritty and neon-like design of to the clean and clinical look of each style has its own merits and fans within the genre.

“The aim for our visual design was to present a sci-fi aesthetic that had some sort of realistic grounding in it,” explains Carlton about Pacer’s design. “A lot of futuristic environments in games are quite sterile which makes them look futuristic but makes them feel ‘other’ and throws you out of the experience,” he says. “We went with a gritty dystopia future look, almost cyberpunk but without all the neon. So we have areas that are dirty, muddy and rusted, but it looks like those with the money in the world, have tried to gloss over it with shiny technology.”

Worldbuilding is a major thing in gaming today, even a seemingly disconnected series of racing circuits will often have a story to tell. ‘We wanted to show how a track or the environment of that track had come to be without being tied to building everything to look clean or sterile,” notes Carlton. “We can then put in visuals associated with the sport (as it exists in the world) to look more akin to an idealised future,” he adds.

“The work of The Designers Republic helped a lot in this regard,” Carlton explains. “They created brilliant artwork with a future corporate style and imbued each racing team and associated sponsors with identities which gives itself a unique identity.”