JDM: Rise of the Scorpion pulls from manga-fueled street racing

JDM: Japanese Drift Master is far more than an homage to anime and manga racing series like Initial D—even if Polish developer Gaming Factory is first to admit this was their starting point for developing an open-world street racer set on the streets of Japan. Ahead of the release of the full game at the end of the year, the team are giving players a taste of what to expect with an original prologue, JDM: Rise of the Scorpion.

“In our team, we have people who have been interested in Japan since childhood,” notes Krzysztof Bosko. “The cultural heritage of manga and anime are also an integral part of the culture of this part of the world, so Japanese Drift Master is a kind-of tribute to this not-easy art form.”

So what is Japanese Drift Master? Set around the fictional Haikama Lake, you'll customize and tune-up your own vehicle—including licensed cars from real brands—and use them to become a street racing legend. While this is Gaming Factory's approximation of Japan and not a recreation of a real location, it captures the experience of driving the country's winding mountain roads.

Gaming Factory has leaned into its inspirations in order to create something for not just car enthusiasts, but anime and manga fans who may be less familiar with the genre. On the one hand, the game has full steering wheel support, providing maximum immersion as you drift around tight mountainous roads in street races at all times of the day and night. But you don’t need one to have fun taking your car to the limit, and there are others who will simply enjoy driving the exact car featured in Initial D, still perhaps the most iconic Japanese series about street racing,

Initial D began publication in 1995 and became a near-instant hit. No matter your knowledge of the street racing scene, the manga translated to the static page the speed and intensity of barreling down hills at 100 miles per hour where even a slight miscalculation could spell disaster.

A big part of Initial D's appeal lay in its characters, though. It elevated the rivalries between racing teams, creating people you could root for even if racing wasn’t your thing. You watched series protagonist Takumi Fujiwara grow from a gas station attendant with a street racing fixation into someone to be feared in a race.

The rivalries, intensity, and excitement of Initial D is something JDM: Japanese Drift Master hopes to replicate—in some ways quite literally.

“A game that takes place in Japan couldn’t not feature manga,” says Bosko. In JDM: Japanese Drift Master, you likewise assume the role of an unknown, a foreigner who wants to make a name for himself on the Japanese drifting scene and earn respect through competition. In a nod to the works that influenced it, the journey to be the best hashiriya (street racer) in Japan is told through dynamic manga-inspired panels that bring the intensity of the challenge and conflicts of these characters to the fore.

While the full scale of the story is still under wraps, we'll get our first taste with JDM: Rise of the Scorpion, which scales down the map and provides a free glimpse into this world. JDM: Rise of the Scorpion serves as a prelude to the full game. You may be an unknown in JDM: Japanese Drift Master, but the street racing scene at Haikama Lake existed long before you arrived, and has more than its share of conflict and strife even without your intervention.

In JDM: Rise of the Scorpion, you play as the titular Hatori "Scorpion" Hasashi, a member of a long-standing Japanese family. Strict parents and high expectations couldn't keep Hasashi away from the ruthless world of drifting, and he eventually grows to become one of the best and most feared street racers in the area. As a key figure in the world of JDM: Japanese Drift Master, this prologue is a chance for players to become acquainted with Hasashi ahead of the full game’s release.

While the story will propel you forward, there’s just as much fun to be had perfecting your drift in both JDM: Rise of the Scorpion and JDM: Japanese Drift Master—especially when you're forced to adapt to the ever-changing weather system. There’s a delicate balance between realism and accuracy throughout JDM: Japanese Drift Master. The fictional Haikama Lake allowed the team to prioritize fun race lines over accuracy, but the team did reference Google Maps satellite imagery and record sound on-location to replicate the feel of driving in Japan.

“We drew heavily from references, using Google Maps or photos which we analyzed and recreated in-depth,” explains Bosko. “Players have already sent us photos of real places they discovered in our open world. We’re extremely curious how many of them players will discover in the full version. One of our teammates also flew to Japan to record his drives on one of the tracks and to record sounds, from the noise of Tokyo streets to the out-of-town flora and fauna to sports cars racing and drifting on the tracks.”

Gaming Factory has also worked closely with its growing community of car enthusiasts and fans, offering betas for the title through its Discord and attending events in Poland and further afield to test the game, hear feedback, and implement it into the experience. As car lovers themselves, the team put a lot of effort into recreating the feel of each car, working with brands on licensed cars to ensure they feel like driving the real thing and replicating the feel of street racing and drifting, while still allowing the cars to be tuned and customized in-game to fit their style.

“More than a few of us have sports-tuned cars. We have people who race or drift. And in addition to physical vehicles, there are sim racers on our team," says Bosko. "You can count on one hand the employees who are not related to motorization. I can confidently say that the smell of gasoline is even noticeable in the air during our meetings!"

As far as making the cars feel as realistic as possible, “This is first a matter of our proprietary physics, as well as cooperation with professional drifters and racing drivers whose feedback is invaluable in setting variables such as the weight distribution of the car, steering behavior in different situations, suspension work, and more,” Bosko continues.

It’s a delicate balance, but one Gaming Factory was dedicated to achieving. As car enthusiasts making a game about street racing, they want to please the players who devote their lives to racing games with accurate physics and cars they can tune just like the real vehicles they likely have parked in their own garage. Still, they don’t want to solely target this niche, and the hope is that the story will engage players who wouldn’t typically be drawn to the genre, with an homage to anime and manga that anyone can appreciate.

Though JDM: Rise of the Scorpion plays out from another character’s perspective, it's a taste of what’s to come from the final game—and more importantly, it’s free. Gaming Factory hopes releasing it will help JDM: Japanese Drift Master reach a wider audience, and help improve the final game further ahead of launch.

“We really like feedback from players because it helps us learn what they expect. With prior demos, we collected a lot of interesting comments and implemented some of them, and we hope to hear a lot of constructive comments from JDM: Rise of the Scorpion too!”

JDM: Rise of the Scorpion releases August 8 on the Epic Games Store, and JDM: Japanese Drift Master is due out this fall.