Howdy all, good morning!
I wanted to share something that I’ve been working on this week:
The idea started with the idea of a novel control mechanism for a twin-jet-engine vehicle, where the engines are held together by a magnetic coupler and then pulling a driver that is loosely attached by cables.
I was thinking if it would be possible to control each engine independently, apply thrust with the triggers, control jet vectors with the thumb-sticks, and use the bumpers for air-brakes.
After a few tests and some practice (it takes a bit to get the feel for the many ways one can turn the vehicle), I really think it came together pretty well. After doing the traditional desert environment, I build and tested the track “Jungle Run”, which requires mastery of the air-brake drift to beat the AI opponents.
Side note: I realize there is a AAA “pod racing” game coming out this week, I am very excited for it! I think it’s a pretty unexplored territory for gaming, so I can’t wait to get my hands on it, couldn’t, even. I have no idea how the control mechanism works in that game.
The big thing I was hoping for was a sense of overwhelming speed while still having control, and I think I got pretty close. See the “Speed FX” in the Tunings panel in the Settings to ramp them up/down. (Note: there are lots of options for messing with the physics, up to and including gravity. You have five slots to save and quickly load differing “Tunings”)
There is a solid variety of tracks out there now. I’m very happy with “The Moon” which I very sneakily modeled on the Moon. You race along the side of “Plato”, a crater, and then descend into Mare Imbrium.
The “Thalassa Run” is a track based on a scene from the movie “Interstellar” where folks land on a water planet and find some fun physics at work, but not the right vehicles to enjoy it. Watch for sharks!
“Betelgeuse Run” will probably get renamed when I rework it, but the idea there is racing across the surface of the star. Also inspired by a scene in a movie , this time “Fury Road” with the fire tornados and stuff (that’s the one in the screnshot).
This is still VERY early in development (see the Changelog for the timeline so far…), but I was happy enough with where it is to share a bit.
I would love some feedback. It’s live and working, initially designed to play with a controller, I spent some time on mobile controls, so they “work”. Phones are tough, tablets are better, PC’s with controllers are best (each trigger controls engine thrust independently so having tactile control helps a lot).
I’ve been adding some polish and now am basically feature complete for my MVP including a “High Score” table (no online accounts yet, all local data is just “localStorage” on your machine), so I wanted some feedback.
LAN and Split-screen multiplayer are both fairly well tested (ha…relatively, I should say). I haven’t implemented Split-Screen and LAN simultaneous yet, but it’s in the Plan.
Online Multiplayer should work (we have a relay up and listening), but I don’t really have the environment or stuff yet to really dig in.
Regarding AI: note the name of the game. note the name of the AI opponents. I have been doing AI-assisted development for a couple years now, both for fun and my day job. Gaming has always been fun for me, and the creative power these tools now possess is amazing. Test the limits of their power with your imagination. Happy to discuss tool use, tips, and tactics. Not interested in fighting. There’s too many fun games to play!
