"Near Future Americana" MindsEye Director Leslie Benzies…

The phrase "futuristic America" typically brings to mind an enormous city populated with skyscrapers, vehicles, and chrome as far as the eye can see. Redrock City, the primary setting of the upcoming action-adventure game MindsEye, certainly fulfills that vision—but with a twist. MindsEye's Redrock City is located in the middle of a harsh and unforgiving desert. Build a Rocket Boy's upcoming game features a unique blend of technologically advanced cityscape paired with stark desert wilderness, each with its own strengths and dangers.

In a conversation with The Best War Games, MindsEye director Leslie Benzies describes Redrock as "a high-tech city surrounded by open, unpredictable terrain." Benzies, who has prior experience developing both urban and wilderness settings in games such as the Grand Theft Auto series and Red Dead Redemption, praised the contrast because it makes MindsEye's world visually unique and compelling. The desert city benefited both the game's themes, which focus on the ever-changing relationship between humanity and technology, and its many gameplay features.

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By Nick Rodriguez

Redrock Feels Like A Real Futuristic American City

The team at Build a Rocket Boy designed Redrock as a realistic interpretation of a near-future American city, featuring the "hallmarks of the world we live in, but with a slight twist to them." Technology has become omnipresent, with innovations from drones to artificial intelligence governing every aspect of life in Redrock. As Leslie Benzies explained.

"The city itself is a living experiment in the existential potential of man and machine."

Combining real-world inspiration with the styles of film directors such as Christopher Nolan, J.J. Abrams, and Ridley Scott, Redrock is a visually stunning city that contrasts elegantly with the wild, undeveloped desert that surrounds it. That also helps the chrome gleam of everyday technologies found in Redrock, with Benzies explaining that "AI, drones, implants, and automation run most of the systems." The result is both a world that feels "familiar and coherent" to MindsEye's players and a "vibrant and interesting" setting that encourages exploration and discovery.

MindsEye's Dual Setting Allows For Innovative Gameplay

In addition to Redrock framing and accentuating the themes of MindsEye, the combination of futuristic city and desert wasteland allowed the team at Build a Rocket Boy to feature multiple gameplay elements. These include action-packed combat and fast-paced driving including high-speed chases "with that same intensity you'd get from an action film," as Benzies said. Players can even further expand the many areas of Redrock and the world of MindsEye by creating their own maps and missions using the advanced Build.MindsEye system.

Within the city itself, buildings and packed roads make combat feel tense and chaotic. The inclusion of the desert allows for the implementation of more open world-style gameplay, including open-ended exploration via the many vehicles protagonist Jacob Diaz can obtain and drive. Benzies described how the city and desert work together to enhance every element of MindsEye's gameplay:

"From a gameplay point of view, the setup gives us a lot of range. The city gives you structure, vertical movement, and dense combat spaces. The desert opens everything up—more freedom, vehicles, and aerial exploration."

Ultimately, Redrock is a fusion of the familiar and the futuristic, a world where man and technology coexist to an unprecedented degree, but the surrounding desert reminds its inhabitants that Earth's wilderness can never be truly replaced or defeated. Whether they're driving in a sleek Silva Sedan or getting a birds-eye view with Diaz's companion drone, there is something to discover around every corner in Redrock. This near-future, quintessentially American setting brings to mind the likes of Night City and Stray's Walled City 99 while also bringing its own flavor to the genre.

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