Parcel Corps is what happens when Uber Eats and Jet Set Radio get mashed together into their own, vibrant indie game. You’re skidding, grinding, and doing tricks on a free-flowing bicycle across a colorful cityscape while trying to carve out the biggest piece of the pie for your bicycle courier business. You’ve just got the competition and the newly arrived crude oil CEO Rich Villainé to contend with, that’s all. After the incredibly slick gameplay and style of Parcel Corps caught our eye, we decided to go hands-on and interview some of the team from Billy Goat Entertainment while at GDC in San Francisco.
After choosing which of the three corporations to represent in Parcel Corps, you’ll be rail grinding, wall riding, bunny hopping, and Akira style bike sliding your way around the city to get the people what they’ve ordered. Just like in Crazy Taxi, you’ll sometimes have a time limit though, so you’ll need to pick up your packages and drop them off as fast as you can in the indie game.
While at GDC we learned even more about Parcel Corps’ gameplay loop from studio director Will Barr and programmer Michael O’Kane, who walked us through what to expect.
“Whenever you get dropped on one of these nine levels, You’re tasked with going and finding businesses in the environment to get them to sign up to your delivery app,” we’re told. This involves getting out there on your bike and making deliveries, while trying to complete them with as much style and grace as possible.
As Parcel Corps is a game about delivery, the team at Billy Goat has put a lot of thought into what types of packages you can deliver, and how these will impact play as well. Different packages will “encourage you to play in a different way, so with the fragile package, you might want to try and avoid roads and cars because they’re dangerous. We’ve also got packages that you need to shake up, there’s a milkshake you’ve got to shake up properly before your destination by going out of your way to do tricks.”
Just like in the Jet Set games, you’ll eventually have the police coming after you if you’re not too careful, so not only will you have to contend with knowing the fictional streets of New Island like the back of your hand, but you’ll also have to navigate them while being hunted down. “Similar to Jet Set, whenever the police come after you, things escalate very quickly. It starts off with them just coming after you with their batons, but it’s not long before they’re, you know, SWAT teams and attack helicopters and all that kind of stuff.”
The bombastic gig economy and lively stylings of Parcel Force are certainly making it an indie to watch this year, and with a release still to be announced, you can wishlist and keep up to date with Parcel Corps over on Steam right now.
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Additional reporting by Nat Smith for PCGamesN at GDC.