Matt Jones wants to be the Tony Hawk of mountain bike games so started his own publisher to do it
MAVRIX launches into early access on PC today to give mountain bike enthusiasts a faithful way to recreate trials, trails, and stunt challenges in a video game.
If you've ever looked around at the video game landscape and wondered 'where are all the mountain bike games?', so too has professional Red Bull athlete and slopestyle rider Matt Jones. Having travelled the world competing in contests that have seen him test the limits of what stunts and tricks are even possible on a mountain bike, the sportsman and YouTube star is now intent on bringing this thrill to an all-new audience.
The answer, he thinks, is MAVRIX, a dedicated MTB video game set in a picturesque open-world Wales designed to let players mimic bike riding more accurately than ever before. To make MAVRIX a reality Jones just had to do one small thing first: start his own publisher.
'Authenticity has been the core of our approach to building Cascade Interactive,' says Jones on his most recent creative (and possibly outlandish) business venture. Started after Jones became frustrated by the current lack of representation of extreme sports games in video games, the plan was to do it himself, alongside twin brother Jono and video game industry veteran Chris Lee. 'I'm friends with a lot of Red Bull athletes across almost all extreme sports, right? They've watched this journey and watched me announce MAVRIX, and they're very interested'.
Before the likes of surfing, freeskiing, or possibly even soapbox derby racing receive their own game published by Cascade Interactive, however, the initial goal is to do justice by the sport that Jones knows and does best. From the hour-and-a-half preview I recently played, MAVRIX certainly has the potential to do the world of competitive mountain bike riding justice.
Boasting 100 square kilometres of downhill racetracks, technical trails, and stunt challenges, I was surprised by how quickly cycling your way up to and taking on all these various opportunities quickly became second nature.
A lot of this comes down to the unique control scheme MAVRIX implements. Rather than simply map acceleration to R2 like a lot of other racing games and call it a day, it was important for Jones to try and replicate the real act of MTB riding on controller as closely as possible. This means, similar to the handlebar setup on most man-powered bikes, R2 instead activates the front wheel's break while L2 operates the back. This frees up R1 for peddling. Not that you'll need it most of the time you're making your way to a destination, since it's easy to build natural momentum up incredibly quickly when going downhill.
Tricks of the trade
'It came very quickly to me actually that that should be the control mechanic because I've spent the last 15 years just hanging on to handlebars,' Jones emphasises. Having tapped Virtuous subsidiary, Third Kind Games, to take on development duties under Cascade's direction, the team there got to work making this unusual control scheme feel practical and intuitive – and have continued to do so for the past 18 months. '[When] I announced that's what we should do with the brakes, everyone looked shocked. I couldn't believe it had been missed'.
The idea is to set a new standard genre standard. 'There's only so many things you can do while riding a bike,' the Red Bull star continues. 'You can move your weight around, you can turn the handlebars, and pedal. We've got all those inputs taken care of with your fingers so there's no reason that everything you can do on a bike in real life shouldn't be possible with that controller in your hands'.
Although Cascade is only publishing MAVRIX in early access and using a partner to develop, Jones' personal history and detailed knowledge of all things MTB riding Is what he and his two fellow company co-founders believe will give MAVRIX – and any other future titles – an edge.
Playing MAVRIX myself, I can see how easy it'll be for biking enthusiasts and even those yet to ever ride a bike to get caught in the game's loop. The physics feel believable, the ability to switch from third- to first-person view instantly helps make taking on technical trails feel actually achievable, and always giving you reasons to keep getting better is the promise of acquiring new sponsorship deals (just like in real life) that earns you 'Moolah' that can then be used to buy better bikes, better gear, and more flashy cosmetics. Better yet, at least in its current early access version, there are no microtransactions in MAVRIX to speak of.
Although slightly retooled to make way for MTB locations of interest, this version of rural Wales is also a beautiful one to explore and take in at your own pace. My build was absent of a lot of other rides, but I can imagine this softer mood changing massively when you start riding with your friends on a single server in the hopes of getting the best time on a trail or hitting a particular ramp the hardest.
If there's one thing that's letting MAVRIX down right now, it's the absence of expected stunt manoeuvres as I catch a lot of air, such as a tailwhip. Jones and the team assure me after my play session that these extra, more detail-orientated aspects are sure to come as MAVRIX's community takes hold and starts providing feedback. The sentiment so far has been to nail the basics, which do make the bike feel good to handle.
When I first sat down to play MAVRIX and speak with Matt Jones, the first thing I noticed about him was his beaming smile and undeniable enthusiasm for getting this into the hands of players. The prospect of a non-game developer aiming to revolutionise an entire genre is something I'd usually brisk at, but judging by Jones' infectious passion and record-breaking career in MTV riding so far, by the end of my session I'm left in a place where I believe that he just might do it.
MAVRIX isn't the most polished or perfect racing game I've played, but that's par for the course with a PC only, early access release where it's clear there's so much room for this foundation to be built upon. A series of extreme sports games developed and powered by the knowledge and passion of people who are the best at them in the world? It's not a bad plan of attack for a brand-new publisher to make its core philosophy.
'Once we're done with MAVRIX, we're going to crack straight on with more games,' sums up Jones, still beaming. 'I'd love it that Cascade in the future just builds the best extreme sports games because we've got the knowledge, the team, and the tech to do so'.
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