#UntitledDrivingGame Devlog #1 - A month into my stylized combo based multiplayer driving indiegame!
This devlog was originally posted on my website:
https://elocnat.com/blogs/untitleddrivinggame-devlog-1.html
š³ Why #UntitledDrivingGame?
Letās back up for a second and talk about what my motivations for #UntitledDrivingGame are. Why not just work on one of the other two projects that I announced? Simply put: while they all revolve around driving (which will allow me to focus on a specific niche of games that I want to make), they each have very different styles and focus.
- #UntitledDrivingGame will be an unrealistic fun/stylized driving game with planned multiplayer.
- Project T.A.R. will be an endless single-player game with arcade driving.
- Drive Bye will be an open world story based driving game with multiplayer elements.
Iāve left specific details out on purpose, but in a way I came up with the games in the opposite order I plan to make them. Drive Bye started out as the first commercial game I wanted to make and quickly evolved into the first game I feel like I really need to make - but also the one I need to take my time on & get right. Project T.A.R. will allow me to prototype and implement a more realistic vehicle system as well as allow me to focus on a very small singleplayer story. #UntitledDrivingGame will allow me to go through the process of building and releasing a commercial game, but more importantly a multiplayer (driving) game so I can figure out what it actually takes to build & support one. All of these projects will bleed into each other at some point and Iām excited to take on each of them for different reasons.
š³ Implementing a Vehicle Base
Now back to #UntitledDrivingGame; honestly I wasnāt exactly sure what I was building at first. One thing I knew for certain was that I wanted a more fun focused driving experience & that realism was not the goal in gameplay or graphics. With that in mind, instead of using a vehicle plugin from the marketplace, the base vehicle started out as the hovercraft from my game Veehickle to which I quickly added wheels & updated the mesh with a placeholder sedan Iāve used previously. This base just uses 4 corner raycasts that each extend from a point on the physics body to the ground and push the vehicle up with force. You can then just apply force to move & torque to turn the vehicle.
Iāll just say it right now: I canāt really recommend creating your own vehicle system for a solo commercial project unless you know what youāre doing. I definitely donāt but luckily Iām stubborn & have an existing base + plenty of time to play around with and tweak the vehicle. Ignoring the base & granted I added more functionality than driving around, it took almost a full month to get the vehicle to a place where it felt good enough for me to be okay with switching focus and itās still nowhere near finished. It might look good in the videos, but what you donāt see is how many times the vehicle still spins out grinding a rail or how when it lands sometimes the ass end pounds the earth 100 times a second until you jump (okay it sounds funny but itās annoying). Thatās not even to mention things like network replication or the need to ensure that your physics are tied to a fixed timestep so that they donāt break when Timmy tries to run the game on his toaster.
š³ What's the goal?
So I have a working physics vehicle base that can jump around, grind on splines, flip & roll in the air; what now? While I was working on that I also started prototyping some small gameplay elements here and there. I first started by adding in a passenger that you could deliver to a destination. Crazy Taxi? Next I added a package that you could deliver. Smugglerās Run? Then I added some letters to pickup. Tony Hawkās Pro Skater? Seeing the previous tweets you wouldnāt be off base if any of those titles came to mind as they are all among the games being used as inspiration for #UntitledDrivingGame.
The goal of #UntitledDrivingGame is to be a combo based stylistically fun driving game with multiplayer elements. Thatās the route Iām headed toward; itās not the best elevator pitch but I donāt want to go too much deeper into it until I have some gameplay actually ready to show off. I want the game to have both singleplayer and multiplayer modes but I think the game will really shine in multiplayer & I am building the game mechanics with that focus in mind. I want the game to suit a wide range of skill & playstyle while still remaining fun and ācompetitiveā for everybody. I very much want to craft an experience thatās easy to get into & succeed in without being a mechanical genius or memorizing the single best route for the most points but that still offers players the ability to dominate. Hopefully thatās not digging myself into a bottomless pit from the beginning.
In shooting for a stylized driving experience, I am also aiming towards a stylized art direction. Iāve always preferred 3D games & loved seeing graphical improvements over the years, but my honeymoon with loving hyper-realism in games ended somewhere in the middle of the PS3 era. When indie gaming started really hit its stride around that time I developed a love for more āartisticā styles that didnāt pop up very often in mainstream AAA games. Iāve never been big into comics and Iām not into anything anime related so a lot of these styles were new to me. It constantly blows my mind to see how these playable experiences can be depicted in so many different styles and palettes. The fact that today so many shaders exist to give you the base of these effects and instantly transform the look & feel of your game is even more wild. One particular effect Iāve always loved is toon shading plus using an outline effect to go with it so Iām going for that as the art direction for #UntitledDrivingGame.
The level youāve seen up until now is just a playground level. Itās possible that Iāll leave it in the game as a tutorial or home level (or maybe even as a secret unlock) but it will not be the first main level in the game. The first level Iām working on codenamed LATC is under construction. One of my goals for the first map is to focus on verticality instead of making it span a massive area. I want the player to feel like they are driving a vehicle but controlling it more like a pawn thatās rapidly moving through a landscape in ways & areas a vehicle normally wouldnāt traverse. This map will feature an sprawling brick campus nestled in the middle of a downtown area surrounded by some other to be determined landmarks: Iām not exactly sure of the scale yet but I have a main area to focus on building out now.
š³ What's next?
Whatās next? Iām going to continue building out the LATC level while prototyping gameplay elements and tuning the vehicle. I personally feel that I really need to have at least one āfirst pass completeā map to implement the gameplay and tweak it in any meaningful way. I need to test out basic networking to ensure that my physics vehicle can be replicated and that I can at least have two controllable pawns in a server at one time. After that I can start honing in on tying the gameplay mechanics together and really work towards a playable prototype. I estimate itās going to take me around two months to get to that state without any major roadblocks (which means it will take me four if Iām lucky).
Thatās about it for now. I didnāt want to get too technical because to be honest I havenāt done anything super technical in the project yet, Iām still barely scratching the surface of the hard parts that are yet to come. Iām aiming to have (at the very least) a vertical slice of this project done in a year which means I need to have something ready by September 2021. I think thatās doable and so far I think Iām on a good track. Iād be lying if I said I feel like this project by itself is going to provide me any sort of income or profit at all when itās all said and done, but I feel really good about it so far. I canāt wait to see what it becomes & share it with everybody.
Follow me on Twitter to stay up to date with my work & watch #UntitledDrivingGame evolve!
Get Tristan Cole's Pro Driver
Tristan Cole's Pro Driver
Imagine Crazy Taxi & THPS had a baby...
Status | In development |
Author | elocnat |
Genre | Racing, Action, Sports |
Tags | Arcade, Driving, Fast-Paced, Multiplayer, Music, Skating, Unreal Engine |
Languages | English |
Accessibility | Interactive tutorial |
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