YouTube Stars Hit The ‘Fastlane’ In New Mobile Game

Influencers hold a particularly fond place in the hearts of video game developers, and can sometimes make or break a title’s success. For its upcoming release, Fastlane: Road to Revenge, Space Ape Games knew that YouTube creators would play a major role . . . literally. They’re in the game.

Space Ape teamed up with more than 20 popular YouTube personalities including Kwebbelkop, Jelly, Slogoman, The Alvaro845, Chief Pat, Team Epihany Jake, Galadon and several more by making them characters in Fastlane, complete with realistic likenesses and personalized missions.

“Each YouTuber will have their very own dedicated event in the game in the weeks following launch,” Space Ape CMO, Mickey Elimelech told ION. “Our art team is working with them to create their likeness in the game, and each event will have a unique story-line that we will be working with them to create. Some will be writing their own stories and some will get their fans involved in the story writing.”

Fastlane: Road to Revenge allows players to collect exotic cars and upgrade them with armor, weapons, special abilities and more while competing for high scores in multiplayer leagues and on leaderboards. Online streaming isn’t just for console and PC games anymore—with the rising popularity of mobile streams on YouTube, Space Ape realized the importance of not only including creators in their games’ marketing, but in the development, as well.

“We’ve been in touch with YouTubers for many years and we’ve been engaging with them from the very early development stages of our games,” Elimelech explained. “We believe that involving influencers during the development process gives us a much better chance of understanding why they think the game would be interesting for their audience and shape the game accordingly. The YouTubers we selected are all mobile gaming channels—we feel that we have a good fit with the games that they cover, and they have high engagement with their audience. But, most importantly, it’s their excitement and passion about Fastlane, because that is what will ultimately motivate and inspire their fans to check out the game.”

The retro-style arcade shooter will launch this spring with a one-week event featuring quests from each YouTuber, and subsequent weeks will feature one four-day event starring one or two of the YouTube stars, according to the developer. Needless to say, everyone involved is pretty excited.

“This is such a unique opportunity to interact with my fans—I’ve never encountered something like this before,” said YouTube personality, Kwebbelkop in a statement. “
To be able to share a game with my fans in which I’m an actual boss character is awesome! I think my favorite part is going to be the community-created quests. I’m looking forward to seeing what my fans come up with and then actually seeing it implemented in-game. This is going to be epic. It will also be super cool to align with some of my YouTuber friends and compete against others as we race through the streets of Fastlane.”

Fastlane: Road to Revenge launches this spring for iOS and Android devices.