How the Mad Max game was made

A scene from the new Mad Max video game.

John Fuller, senior producer at Avalanche Studios, explains how much work went into making the Mad Max game as exhilarating as the movie.

The visuals for the game look incredible - how did you go about capturing the characters and landscapes?

John Fuller: We had a lot of inspiration from collaborating with George Miller and his team early on. We wanted to expand that visual language to keep players engaged and excited about an abundance of gameplay content - tastefully concealed in a seemingly desolate landscape. We also had a lot of fun coming up with crazy character names and personalities, as well seeing what the voice talent could do with them.

The game lets you custom-build your own Mad Max-style car. How many options are available?

Right from the start, we wanted car customisation to be something very memorable. Crafting a crazy vehicle of destruction is about as Mad Max as it gets.

So we have gone to town with upgrades and attachments in all sorts of areas, like handling, performance, weaponry, defences, appearance and even displaying trophies of fallen enemies. Even though we have given players the option to change their Magnum Opus at any stage, we hope people will feel their car is an extension of their character and have a favourite load out that is unique to them.

How closely does the game tie in with the movie's mythology - and with the plot of the recent Mad Max film?

We have tried to make it as independent as possible from Fury Road in terms of timeline. There doesn't seem to be a consistent timeline in any episode of the Mad Max story and I think the same is true of ours.

There was some controversy over whether to use Australian or American accents in the game - can you explain what happened?

We got a lot of feedback from Mad Max fans that anything other than an Australian Max would not feel as authentic. When the time came to choose our final cast, we were delighted to be able to take into account the views of the fans.

Out of everything to do in the game, what are your favourite moments?

Sometimes, it's great to just take the Magnum Opus out into The Wasteland and play around.

Sometimes, something completely emergent happens, usually in vehicle combat. For example, if you see a convoy and get lucky and snipe the tyre of the right vehicle at the right time, you could potentially cause a chain reaction of crashes, leaving easy pickings for you to go in and mop up.

Since it's all based on physics and AI, you never know what the outcome of certain actions are going to be.