Hello everyone!
Roads of Rage is going to release on June 30th 2025 at about 11am PDT! It's price will be $8 with a 10% launch discount. We have chosen to release the game without a publisher or major marketing strategy with the hope that granting players full access to our game will show the hard work and features we put into Roads of Rage over it's year long development.
Change of plans?
Whereas before we wished to hold off release for the sake of adding features and building awareness, we've had a change of heart after learning about Steam's "grey zone", which describes games who sell well on Steam that nobody knows about. Additionally, there's talk among seasoned indie dev veterans how the secret to indie game success is that there is no secret, such that sheer chaos and randomness grant success to little known indie devs like us. If that is indeed true, then our old plan to withhold release to gather wishlists, marketing, and a publisher has only hindered our overall success. No more idling by, it's time to put Roads of Rage out there.
A look back
Like all good ideas, Roads of Rage emerged from a long car drive and a shower, the moments when our mind opens to the inspiration particles flowing within cosmic background radiation. It began with an acknowledgement of no new beat 'em ups, which turned into a non-human beat 'em up game, which turned into a car beat 'em up. "Roads of Rage", a pun and a reference to one of the oldest beat 'em ups, after that the game practically wrote itself. A large country with little public transportation has fostered a culture of vehicles, we need only look around to see the archetypes and personalities of car characters. Month after month of relentless coding, debugging, and working with freelancers eventually built our game. We then took a step further by adding many more features like minigames, color customization, and accessibility like total input customization. We pushed the idea of Roads of Rage to it's naturally end and then some with what little resources at our disposal, and that alone makes us proud. "You never work on a masterpiece, you always work towards it."
Can you help us?
We are unpublished, which means we need your help more than ever. There is a growing resentment towards AAA games and their corporate strategies. In fact, big name publishers are the #1 scapegoat for canceled, incomplete, and overpriced video games. If you, cherished reader, seek to change the gaming industry into a utopia of low prices and developer support, then help us spread Roads of Rage to the public (specifically to Reddit, which has a strict no self-promoting rule). Roads of Rage is designed to fill a niche in the gaming industry by being the only car beat 'em up, but it will not be our only game. Harness Games plans to continue making unique and fun games, the quality of which will only improve with your support. Additionally, a successful Roads of Rage will grow with future patches of additional levels and content. Help us spread creativity throughout the industry and propagate video games as the greatest artform of our time!
As always, thank you for supporting indie devs like us!
-Harness Games