Ghost Bike, the upcoming cycling ’em up from Nidhogg makers Messhof, is now called Wheel World. The name change is designed to reflect some substantial changes to the game itself – and there’s a new trailer to show its current condition as a seemingly chill game about tinkering with bikes and riding them around pastel-coloured worlds.
The main issue seems to be that “ghost bikes” are a thing in the real world, and the association no longer made sense as the game has changed.
“The gameplay in Wheel World has gone through a number of iterations in terms of gameplay and structure, and the narrative has had to adapt along the way,” explains the announcement over on Steam. “At the point last year when it felt right to announce the project, we came up with the name Ghost Bike based on where the narrative was. It was a game about dying on a bike after being hit by a car and ending up in a cycling valhalla. While it wasn’t directly based on real world ghost bikes (those white bikes memorializing cyclists killed by drivers), there was enough overlap to feel like the name was justified and the associations would be a positive one from both directions. But as things changed in the gameplay (to make it more fun to play), and thus the story (especially in tone) it fit less and less.”
Wheel World is now a game “about the joy and freedom of living around bikes”, where you can customise your bikes in some pretty weird and wild ways.
Messhof also suggest that some of the iteration has been down to Wheel World representing a lot of firsts for the studio. “It’s of course our first 3D game, which also makes it our first game made with Unity. It’s our first game using a physics library, our first game made with a big team and hence our first game funded by a publisher, and our first game with a real narrative (with characters and dialogue boxes even!).”
New territory or not, I’m excited for anything Messhof produce. Nidhogg is a classic, Flywrench is wonderful, and I’m fond of designer Mark Essen’s older work such as Cowboyana and Punishment 2: The Punishing.
Wheel World found its way onto the list of our most anticipated games of 2024, thanks to noted bike-liker Alice O. Maybe I can tempt her out of her field to write about it when it now arrives in early 2025.