the game was created using the unity game engine, with pre-production starting in january 2014. the production was delayed until june 2015 for santa ragione to work on "fotonica", an action first person runner, whilst still working on the imagery, movies, and music for "wheels". shortly after, "wheels" was placed on steam greenlight. the game was eventually greenlit and was released for linux, microsoft windows and os x on 20 september 2016. the playstation 4 version was released on 4 october 2016, and the xbox one version was released on 18 november 2016. the first mobile version of the game was released for ios on 19 october 2016, and after the release of the nintendo switch, the game was released exclusively via the nintendo eshop the following year on 2 november 2017.