Since its first trailer, OctaRace caught our eye — partly thanks to its bold artistic direction, and partly because of the nostalgia it evokes. The game clearly pays homage to Micro Machines V3, a legendary title from the original PlayStation.

So when we found out it was being developed by Pixel Almost Perfect, a French studio made up of just two developers, our curiosity only grew. We reached out to Ghislain Avrillon and Adrien Vernotte, founders of the studio, to talk about the game and our shared passion.

In this interview, Ghislain kindly took the time to answer our questions during a 40-minute chat. A passionate discussion you can read below — covering many aspects of the project and highlighting the Kickstarter campaign.

While the game is already set for a digital release, the campaign allows you to support the small team and help fund a physical edition, as well as post-launch content — not to mention Kickstarter-exclusive rewards.

Let me start with my favorite childhood game — the one that inspired OctaRace — Micro Machines V3. What can you tell me about it?

It’s a generational game. I used to play it with my friends as a teen. We had those multi-taps to play with eight players — and when we didn’t have them, we’d just share the four controllers. It was amazing. It was insane. People were yelling, people were crying… but we were having a blast.

There were three or four of us who played regularly, and then others who joined in gradually — so there was always a mix of skill levels. Just wonderful memories.

It was also incredibly unfair sometimes — like when you’d cut a corner and survive, or blow up for no reason!

You knew exactly which parts were glitchy. You’d clench your cheeks and hope for the best — and sometimes you’d make it. The others would yell because you were supposed to explode… and didn’t. That was part of the charm — it was awesome.

So how did the idea for OctaRace come about?

It came from those memories, plain and simple. Before OctaRace, we made a game called OctaFight, a fighting game. When it came time to start our second project, Micro Machines immediately came to mind. My approach is to dig into those childhood experiences — things that made me laugh, that moved me as a kid — and try to remake them in my own way. A sort of modern version, but not too modern.

So with OctaRace, Adrien [Adrien Vernotte] and I wanted to make a racing game. Micro Machines had a big impact on me. Adrien and I were also big fans of Crash Team Racing. We wanted drifting, multiplayer action…

Our identity at Pixel Almost Perfect is very much about multiplayer — up to eight players — which clearly comes from Micro Machines. OctaRace is couch sessions with friends, racing fun, colorful and simple. Visually it’s low poly, low resolution — more PlayStation 1 style — and I find that kind of constraint helps me be creative. It forces bold choices in the design, shapes, and colors…

Given how beloved Micro Machines is, why do you think we don’t see more games that capture that same level of fun?

That’s a tough one. It has a lot to do with trends. These days, games tend to focus on solo experiences or online multiplayer. Playing together on the couch, with real people sitting next to you — that’s just not a thing anymore.

Also, the charm of those pixelated, simple graphics is that they leave room for imagination. When you add too much detail, you kind of kill the magic.

How many of you are working on OctaRace?

There’s just two of us. Adrien [Vernotte] is my partner — he’s a programmer, handling the technical infrastructure, online features, and ports. I handle visuals, animation, design, UI… We do get help from outside folks on specific elements.

When did you realize “Okay, this formula works”? Was there a lightbulb moment?

When we pitched the project to a potential publisher, we made a prototype. We launched the game during the pitch and just started playing. After a while, we kind of forgot we were supposed to be presenting. We were just trash-talking each other and having fun.

Later, the publisher said, “What convinced us was how much fun you were having with your own game.” Even in the early days — with bugs and rough visuals — the core gameplay was already fun. That’s when we knew we had something.

Can you talk about the vehicles? I saw there's customization.

We have around a dozen vehicles. They take on the color of your chosen character. You can also add purely aesthetic customizations — no gameplay impact. There are already six different handling types across the vehicles, so we didn’t want to overcomplicate things. We want it to stay accessible.

For example, if you equip a police siren, your horn sounds like a police car. If you stick a solar panel on top, your engine sound changes and there’s no smoke behind your car anymore.

There are 12 vehicles and 6 driving types — so two vehicles per type. For instance, there’s a fishing boat and a sailboat — they belong to the “floating” type, and handle the same, but look totally different.

Power-ups were a big part of Micro Machines — are there any in OctaRace?

We found an alternative — there are some, but they’re optional. Think of it like Super Smash Bros. We call them “Octa Rules” — game modifiers that can be enabled. There’s a roulette at the start of a match. Some are passive — like low gravity, where everyone floats after a jump. Others are active — bombs, shields, that sort of thing. It’s a pool of random modifiers that spice up each round.

The characters also seem to matter a lot. I always picked Dwayne in Micro Machines. I loved that guy.

There are eight characters. Each has a unique backstory written with the help of Pipomantis — a writer for Canard PC, Gamekult, and others. He also helped us with game design.

The characters were created by Simon “Hutt” Trousselier, art director at Splashteam (the folks behind Tinykin). He’s an amazing artist.

Characters are super important to me. Like you said, with Micro Machines, you remember Dwayne and his colors. There was Jade, Spider — they were all stereotypes. We wanted that too — silly archetypes of all kinds: men, women, short, big… so players can identify with one and stick with it. That favorite character becomes your go-to.

Do you have a favorite character yourself?

Ah! I really like O’Sullivan — the big Irish guy who carries a sheep under his arm. And actually, the real boss of the duo is the sheep!

So the characters have a story, did you create a "script" like in Micro Maniacs?

The characters do have a story, there is a little scenario — it's something we cared about, to provide some context. There is a progression system: by playing, you gain experience, no matter the game mode. You level up as a driver, and at every significant driver level, you earn rewards like a new vehicle, customization options, a music track unlocked in the jukebox...
And the more people play, the faster you gain experience!

The tracks are set in biomes, how many are there?

Today, there are eight biomes. I got inspired by, and want to pay tribute to, the developers of Lonely Mountains — the mountain biking game, which is amazing — I really drew from their design.

Each biome has three connected tracks: a short, a medium, and a long one. So, three tracks per biome, eight biomes, which makes 24 tracks currently. But there will probably be more in the future if all goes well; I already have quite a bit of content in the works.

We talked about the very trendy solo experience nowadays, and at the same time the desire to have a fun multiplayer game, how did you manage to find the balance?

It took a lot of work, a lot of research. We approached the game design by trying to think of every type of player, so that when they launch the game, there's something to engage them for the short or long term.

We have three main modes in OctaRace. The main one, OctaRace itself, is really a multiplayer mode — you can play solo against bots but it’s a very chaotic multiplayer, very fast matches, really the mode we know from Micro Machines.

Then there is a pure solo mode, Time Attack, somewhat inspired by TrackMania, where you hit checkpoints and laps, record your times on the leaderboard, and compare yourself with friends and world records — that’s for the time attack enthusiasts.

We also wanted a more chill mode, so we created Free Roam, a free exploration mode where you can freely roam each biome. Collect coins, discover secrets... These are three very different modes for three very different gameplay experiences. You’ll have one kind of experience when playing with friends, another when playing solo training in Time Attack, and you can introduce a younger player to the game with Free Roam without any time or stress constraints.

We’re thinking about other game modes we could add later; the game is made to be expandable — in vehicles, biomes, and game modes.

Can you tell us more about the game’s music?

The music and sound design are done by Alexis Laugier, he works in Montpellier, is super nice, and has worked on many Montpellier-based productions including Tinykin, Road 96, Have a Nice Death, and many other French and Montpellier productions. He’s a top-notch sound designer and musician and has been with us since OctaFight. In terms of music content, there’s a dedicated track per biome and a track for the main menu.

In Micro Machines, many people struggle with the idea of moving up and down the screen with the camera above the track — did you implement a driving school?

We put in a small tutorial so first-time players can test the controls. It’s very simple: learning to turn, accelerate, and drift — drifting builds boost to go faster.

Is there an Easy to play, Hard to master aspect?

That’s something you hear in most video game productions, but yes, we try to do that too. Something simple in mechanics so you can quickly play with friends, but when you want to dig deeper, you discover different gameplay layers, synergies, and interactions. Different vehicle types, different surfaces depending on the biomes.

Each character is associated with a biome. For example, Wilson is a grimy castaway — he belongs to the Pirate Islands biome, which is sandy, so driving on sand is different from driving on dirt, grass, asphalt, or snow — each biome brings a different gameplay.

There is also a weather system, but it’s purely aesthetic and doesn’t affect driving. However, each time you start a race, the time of day and weather are different, and the camera angle rotates, so the camera’s starting angle changes every game start — except in Time Attack. So in OctaRace, you can’t memorize the directions by heart. The track is the same, but only the camera orientation changes.

Vehicle handling also interacts with the surface type. For example, if you play a heavy vehicle that’s not very maneuverable, on asphalt it’s manageable, but on ice it becomes even harder to handle.

So you can take a boat on asphalt?

Of course! We don’t limit anything — we don’t care at all. It will be totally silly and that’s part of the fun, no questions asked. There’s a little logic though: if there’s a puddle, all other vehicles fall in, but the boat can pass. Flying vehicles can glide after a jump... You have passive advantages or disadvantages depending on the vehicle you choose.

Any Easter eggs planned?

Yes, definitely.

There is a Kickstarter campaign — can you tell us why it’s necessary for you?

It will help us produce a physical version, strengthen the online features, and especially, for the long term, keep supporting the game with new content.

When you see OctaRace, you immediately think of Micro Machines, and you even claim it as a spiritual successor — doesn’t the game’s legacy put extra pressure on you?

Obviously, but also a great pride at the same time. It’s exactly what we grew up with and what we want to pay tribute to. So yes, pressure, but positive pressure. They were genius guys; now they do realistic games (Codemasters), whereas we’re about the opposite of realism. Everything is about cheating — you always try to exaggerate and cheat to make the game fun, instinctive, and enjoyable.

Here’s a fun anecdote about Micro Machines V3 and OctaRace: the design of the base vehicle in OctaRace is directly inspired by the Micro Machines car, the one from the menus and loading screens. That design is perfect — perfectly simple.

Many thanks to Ghislain for kindly giving us some of his time for this interview. You’ve probably already played or seen projects he worked on. An animator and animated film director by training, he joined Ubisoft in 2012, where he learned video game development on the job. His credits include Rayman Legends, Valiant Hearts: The Great War, and the much-anticipated Beyond Good and Evil 2…

OctaRace is scheduled for 2025 😉 A demo is already available on Steam.

The game will be released on PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Switch, and Xbox.
The Kickstarter campaign is accessible via > this link <.
A wide range of contributions and rewards is available (starting at €10 with the digital game).
For my part, I’m going for the Mary-Jane Pack!