Id Software boss says original Rage was 'every shade of brown'

Rage 2, unlike most end-of-the-world wasteland adventures, appears to be a very colorful game: Bright, neon pink was established as its "signature color" even before the game was officially revealed to the world. It's a little incongruous as these things go, but it's a style that Avalanche and id embraced in order to help the game stand out from its predecessor, as well as certain other post-apocalyptic games that are set to show up next year.

"We knew that Rage was every shade of brown. We knew that Mad Max was every shade of brown," id Software studio director Tim Willits told us at E3. "We had gone deep into brown."

The game world of Rage 2, which is set long after the events of Rage 1, is such a bright and vibrant place because of the actions of the lead character in the original game. Opening the Arks, the Vault-like underground shelters intended to preserve human life through the cataclysm of the Apophis asteroid strike, enabled the development of different biomes, which of course injected a degree of color and diversity into the game that simply wasn't there in the original.

"Then we wanted to evolve our characters with more color and diversity. Then we wanted to make the guns more colorful, and then the intensity of the game—we wanted to blow it out, to be more crazy than Rage," Willits said. "And it needs to stand apart from everything else, especially with that 50,000 pound gorilla we have to deal with."

That gorilla, by the way, is Fallout 76—Willits was pointing toward it as he spoke.

"We wanted a strong, identifiable look, not only from the initial design of the game but all the way to making sure that the world knows we're here," he said. And while it may visually jarring, it's also apparently paying off: "People love the pink."

Rage 2 doesn't have a release date yet, but it's set to come out next year.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.