Founded in June 2020 by three young entrepreneurs, Kadir Danışman, Doğukan Şen, and Yusuf Demir, Istanbul-based Spektra Games‘ Highway Racer Pro launched globally last week and became the #1 Racing Game in the US and 45+ countries.
Following the news, we caught up with Kadir Danışman and talked about Highway Racer Pro’s development journey.
Can you share the origin story of Highway Racer Pro? Was there a specific concept, market insight, or personal inspiration that sparked the idea?
When we started planning a new racing game, we noticed the Traffic Racing genre was overlooked in terms of realism and quality on mobile. Despite its popularity on PC, there weren’t high-quality, easy-to-play traffic racers on mobile.
We saw an opportunity to bring a realistic yet accessible driving experience to mobile by optimizing controls, physics, and visuals, delivering the thrill of PC traffic racing to a much broader audience.
At what stage during development did you decide to launch the game without any marketing support? What informed that decision, and what was your mindset going into it?
As a self-publishing studio, we always aim for profitability, but we believe that relying solely on paid marketing isn’t the only path. We decided to explore TikTok, confident that if our target audience saw the game, it could generate organic buzz.
On the 11th day of posting daily, one video went viral with over 1M views, giving us a strong start. In just 30 days, we have achieved over 10M views and 350K pre-registrations. Of course, we also kicked off our paid campaigns after launch, but the early organic traction was a powerful catalyst for launch momentum.
What was the most significant technical or creative challenge your team encountered during development, and how did you navigate it?
Our biggest challenge was balancing realistic car physics with accessible controls. Steering had to feel smooth, responsive, and skill-rewarding.
We ran multiple A/B tests and playtests, eventually introducing a lane-assist system for casual players while preserving depth for skilled drivers. This blend allowed us to maintain a high-quality experience without alienating casual audiences.
The game offers a variety of modes, including 1v1 duels, time trials, and score-based challenges. What was the creative process behind designing these distinct gameplay experiences?
We knew from the start that racing against NPCs in dynamic traffic would be the core thrill. Side modes like time trials and score-based challenges came naturally, as they extended the overtaking mechanics into new objectives. Every mode was designed to amplify the adrenaline rush while giving players various ways to master traffic racing.
Highway Racer Pro stands out with its impressive visual fidelity. Could you walk us through the technical pipeline and artistic decisions that led to this level of quality?
Visual fidelity in a racing game involves many layers: cars, environments, shaders, and level design. All our maps are inspired by real-life cities and highways. For each map, we spend weeks collecting real-world references and satellite images to build authentic environments, then adapt them for optimal gameplay. Our artists and level designers work hand-in-hand throughout the process.
Since cars are the core attraction, we aimed for maximum visual quality while maintaining performance. We developed custom car shaders with real-time reflections, ensuring every environmental detail is reflected on the car body. Advanced optimization techniques like LODs, UV mapping, texture compression, and efficient post-processing were key.
To deliver this experience across all devices, we built a dynamic quality system that automatically adjusts shaders, LODs, batching, and material counts, keeping the visuals high-end without compromising performance.
Your Discord community has become a key part of the game’s ecosystem. How did you approach building that community from the ground up, and what lessons would you share with other developers looking to do the same?
When we achieved virality on TikTok, we wanted to ensure we could convert that attention into actual players and gather their feedback. We launched a Beta Testing track for users who wanted to support us during development and invited over 6,000 testers.
The critical part was truly listening. Players immediately notice when their feedback is ignored. We took every suggestion seriously, even when it wasn’t possible to implement all of them. By interacting transparently and making visible changes based on their input, we built trust.
For other developers, it’s important to remember that these players are eager to invest countless hours into your game, while also playing many others. Their feedback is invaluable, and they can often warn you about red flags before you even realize.
To what extent did player feedback from your community influence the final shape of the game? Can you share any specific features or changes driven by user input?
There were a lot of things, but to give an example, camera customization was a standout. Initially low on our priority list, players demanded full control over camera angles, distances, dynamics, and rotations.
We implemented it, shared it on social media, and saw immediate positive reactions. Today, players share their custom setups online, organically driving new users to the game.
Looking ahead, what are your short-term and long-term plans for Highway Racer Pro?
Highway Racer Pro was developed in just one year, which is extremely fast for a high-quality racing game. To achieve that, we had to prioritize core features and cut some content for post-launch.
In the short term, our focus is on stabilizing the game, fixing remaining issues, and expanding content with new cars, events, and game modes to keep players engaged.
Long-term, our vision is to turn Highway Racer Pro into a social hub where players create crews, compete in PvP races, climb leaderboards, and showcase their cars. We believe that the social and competitive layer is what keeps players coming back over time.
Co-Founder & CEO of Spektra Games
