Star Wars Galactic Racer’s devs tested its roguelite progression system by turning it into a board game
Fuse Games tested the roguelite progression system for its arcade racer Star Wars Galactic Racer by creating a physical board game prototype. According to creative director Kieran Crimmins, this unconventional approach allowed the team to validate game mechanics before committing to full digital development.
Crimmins explained the methodology with the phrase: “You can’t know if you can feel the system until you can play the system.” The strategy echoes Jake Solomon’s prototyping approach for Firaxis’ XCOM reboot, where designers built a simple board game version using scrap paper to test mechanics and identify what made the game fun.
For Star Wars Galactic Racer, the board game prototype served as a low-fidelity testing ground for the roguelite progression system—a design pattern where players navigate runs with escalating challenges and permanent progression between attempts. By abstracting the mechanic into a tabletop format, developers could rapidly iterate on balance, pacing, and reward structures without the overhead of programming or asset creation.
The approach highlights a broader design principle: physical prototyping and playtesting remain valuable tools even for digitally-native games. By reducing a complex system to its core mechanics, designers gain clarity on whether a system feels engaging before investing engineering resources. Fuse Games’ use of this technique demonstrates how proven game design practices from strategy games like XCOM translate effectively to fast-paced arcade racers, regardless of genre differences.