Turbo Dismount

Turbo Dismount is a 2014 action vehicle simulator video game developed and published by Finnish developer Secret Exit Ltd. for iOS, Android, macOS and Microsoft Windows. The game was first unveiled at GDC 2013 and was released in early access the following year on January 10, 2014, and remained in early access until fully releasing on Steam in May 2014. Turbo is the latest in the Dismount series and serves as a follow up to Stair Dismount, developed under their original name tAAt. Much like the other games in the series, the aim of the game is to cause as much chaos as possible.

Turbo Dismount
App icon
Developer(s)Secret Exit Ltd.
Publisher(s)Secret Exit Ltd.
Designer(s)Jani Kahrama
Jouni Tuovinen
Niko Stenberg
Taina Myöhänen
EngineUnity
Platform(s)iOS
Android
Windows
macOS
Release
  • Windows, macOS
  • May 21, 2014[lower-alpha 1]
  • iOS
  • September 24, 2014
  • Android
  • November 12, 2014
Genre(s)Vehicle simulator, Action
Mode(s)Single-player

Turbo Dismount's gameplay involves the player placing a crash test dummy in one of a wide selection of vehicles and aim to cause as much damage as possible to rack up points to achieve a high score. After each crash, the player can choose to view the crash with an adjustable replay feature. The game also allows the player to create their own courses and share them with other players online.

The game received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the presentation and the camera but was criticised for being limited in scope. The game has been downloaded over 500,000 times on Steam.

Gameplay
A view of a crash caused in a sports car, through the replay feature.

Turbo Dismount is vehicle simulator with a focus on ragdoll physics, much like the other games in the Dismount series starting with Stair Dismount[lower-alpha 2] in 2002.[1] The player is in-charge of a crash test dummy, which can either be called Mr. or Ms. Dismount depending which one the player picks,[lower-alpha 3][3][4] that can be put in a variety of vehicles. The dummy can also switch positions in the vehicle to change the crash outcomes.[5] Some examples of vehicles the player can choose from are a sports car, a truck,[1] a bus,[6] a fire truck or a tricycle;[7][8] each varying in shapes and stats.[9] At the time of the game's release in early access, the game featured 10 vehicles and 13 levels for the player to choose from.[1] Since then though the game has been updated numerous times to add more.

Within the crash courses, the player can place down obstacles such as brick walls, ramps and turbo pads in order to change the outcome of the crash.[1] The player can also be chased by police cars.[2] The player can then send the vehicle using pre-set paths into a level to cause damage and rack up points to try and beat the high score. Alternatively the player can switch to manual steering, if the level allows it, so they can control where they crash.[2] After the crash is complete, the player can use an Instant Rewind feature that can allow them to playback the crash from different camera angles and replay speeds.[10] The game's replay feature allows players to record and share their crashes onto social media.[11][lower-alpha 4] On top of this, the Steam version of Turbo Dismount allows players can create their own levels that can be shared on the Steam platform for other players to download.[12]

Development
Secret Exit CEO Jani Kahrama at GDC 2010

Turbo Dismount was developed and published by Finnish-based game developer Secret Exit Ltd., with company founder and CEO Jani Kahrama served as co-developer for the game alongside developers Jouni Tuovinen, Niko Stenberg and Taina Myöhänen, credited under Team Secret Exit.[8][13] The game was developed using the Unity game engine.[14]

During the development of the game, Team Secret Exit wanted to go against the standard of most ragdoll/physics sims by making Mr. Dismount a more sympathetic type character towards the player. One way the developers displayed this was by having Mr. Dismount cling to vehicles, making it look like the dummy is gripping on for dear life when the vehicle is sent out to crash. During an interview with Kill Screen, Kahrama went onto say the crash dummies themselves were inspired by "little posable wooden mannequins" and was quoted as saying:

Mr. Dismount is not a crash-test dummy, he’s an abstraction of a human figure, by having a simplified, abstract visual style the viewer’s attention is not on the surface details, but instead on the movement itself.[8]

Another way the devs tried to make the player feel empathetic towards Mr. Dismount was by making the player focus on the sound design of the dummy during the crash. By having Mr. Dismount make gruesome sounds during impacts, without the use of gory imagery, Kahrama believes it would evoke "a stronger emotional response than full-on graphic violence”.[8]

Release

Turbo Dismount was first unveiled at GDC 2013 and was described as a follow up to Stair Dismount.[15] The game was initially scheduled to release in late 2013, with the mobile releasing first and the devs aiming towards a Steam release later on with Steam Greenlight. During a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki in November 2016, Jani Kahrama mentioned that during the development of Turbo Dismount, Secret Exit were close to bankruptcy and so they decided they needed to do things differently which was to release a playable web demo. Then on they went through Steam Greenlight which Kahrama said they got through that phase rather quickly.[16] Secret Exit ended up releasing the game on Steam in early access on January 10, 2014,[17] with the full version releasing later on May 21 the same year. The game was later brought over to the App Store on September 24, 2014,[18][19] and on Google Play Store on November 12, with the latter being optimised for the Nvidia Shield Tablet.[20][21] The mobile version of the game is freemium based, with 3 levels and vehicles available at the start.[5] The game can purchased in full or in-app purchases can be used to purchases levels individually and each purchase reduces the price of the game's total price.[9]

According to Kahrama, the game had already become profitable by the time early access was finished and continued onto say that the mobile version of the game became the most profitable. One aspect of this success was attributed to YouTube, claiming that content creators such as Pewdiepie and Markiplier were key in helping make this game visible to a wider audience.[16]

Updates

Another aspect of the game's success was attributed to the constant stream of updates. As of November 2016, Turbo Dismount was updated 22 times with each update adding at least a new vehicle, cosmetic or level.[16][22] Sometimes the updates could be related to the seasons; in 2014 and 2016 for its respective winter seasons, they added a turkey head cosmetic and a couch vehicle respectively.[23] Meanwhile, in the summer of 2015, they added a superbike, a level and new summer related cosmetics.[24] To celebrate the date Back to the Future 2 was set, an update was launched that added an homage to the DMC DeLorean time machine was added in the form of the "LeDorean" vehicle.[25]

During an update in February 2015, manual steering was granted to every level in the game and also introduced the police car hazard. In addition, new dummy types were added in a free character bundle.[2] Later that same year, in addition to a new vehicle and cosmetics, support for iPhone 6s and iPad Pro was added.[26]

Reception

Critical reviews

Turbo Dismount received "generally favourable" reviews according to review aggregator website Metacritic, achieving a score of 85/100 based on 5 reviews.[27]

Overall critics praised the game for its presentation and cartoony violence. Many claiming the fun of the game from watching the chaos that could be caused. Andrew Fretz of Touch Arcade described the dissonance between the aspect of being a "light-hearted physics sim" whilst featuring "high speed collisions and dismemberment" to be one of the big enjoyments of the game for him.[5] The cartoony violence of the game had Pocket Gamer's Nadia Oxford recommend the game to "fans of The Three Stooges's slapstick antics".[28]

Other aspects of the game that were received positively were the camera and the replay feature. The replay feature was described as having a lot of options to review the crashes; according to Gamezebo the feature was to support the gameplay to the fullest.[11] Pocket Gamer described the camera as being done really well for being fully adjustable.[28]

Critics were mixed on the overall substance of the game, describing the game as being "a bit shallow". Carter Dotson from Gamezebo noted that whilst Turbo Dismount was fun and had variety, it was "limited in scope" and "repetitive"; detailing that the game didn't have a lot to offer outside of the main gameplay and said this likely came down to the concept rather than execution.[11]

Sales

On Steam, the game is believed to have been downloaded between 500,000 and 1,000,000 times based on data on SteamSpy.[29] For the iOS version, the game appeared in the top 10 most downloaded free apps for 2 weeks after release.[30][31]

Notes
  1. Was available in early access on January 10, 2014.
  2. Known by its original Finnish name "Porrasturvat".
  3. More dummy types were added in a future update.[2]
  4. The iOS version of Turbo Dismount's recording feature ran on the Everyplay service.[6]

References
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  2. Musgrave, Shaun (February 2, 2015). "Update Mondays: 'Geometry Dash', 'Farm Heroes Saga', 'Real Racing 3', 'Doug Dug', And More". Touch Arcade. Archived from the original on May 6, 2023. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  3. Dotson, Carter (September 30, 2014). "TURBO DISMOUNT TIPS, CHEATS, AND STRATEGIES". Gamezebo. Archived from the original on September 28, 2023. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
  4. Nelson, Jared (March 22, 2014). "GDC 2014: Watch Us Get Wrecked in 'Turbo Dismount', Upcoming Sequel to 'Stair Dismount'". Touch Arcade. Archived from the original on January 24, 2022. Retrieved October 14, 2023.
  5. Fretz, Andrew (October 3, 2014). "'Turbo Dismount' Review – A Bang Up Good Time". Touch Arcade. Archived from the original on March 26, 2023. Retrieved September 21, 2023.
  6. Brown, Mark (June 20, 2014). "PGC 2014: Hands-on with barmy accident sim Turbo Dismount for iOS". Pocket Gamer. Archived from the original on September 28, 2023. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
  7. Wichtowski, Leo (January 15, 2014). "Meet Kotaku Ken, Our Crash Test Dummy". Kotaku. Archived from the original on February 8, 2023. Retrieved September 21, 2023.
  8. Solberg, Dan (April 1, 2014). "Why Are Ragdoll Physics So Funny?". Kill Screen. Archived from the original on September 28, 2023. Retrieved September 21, 2023.
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  20. Orry, James (November 13, 2014). "Half-Life 2: Episode 1 is coming to Nvidia Shield tablet". Video Gamer. Archived from the original on October 25, 2023. Retrieved September 21, 2023.
  21. Etherington, Darrell (November 13, 2014). "Nvidia Shield Tablet Gets Lollipop Nov. 18, Grid Streaming Game Service Coming This Month". Tech Crunch. Archived from the original on September 28, 2023. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
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