Creating a Racing Game

3DMA

Hello together.

As i saw several Devs around here that publish the creation process during the actual creation of their game, i thought i open one here too.

I am making a Racing game, Top Down view.

The princip and concept is the same as for example Nitro Racer or GS Rally. In fact i used those templates a little bit to learn how to play with drive physics in GameSalad to be honest

As i am Graphic and 3D Designer, i have different expectations and ideas of how this game should look like.

I use my own 3D Models of Cars and other Stuff, make those Renderings usable for Gamesalad and it should work. First Tests show that i have to adjust the physics badly. But it´s a constant learning process. Here my first in Game Screen Shot.

Sorry for the Watermarks, but you know ;-)

I play with Layers and Layer animation / movings for Clouds or for example the Streetlights. I use the basic Track functionality structure of Nitro Racer and the Lap Time concept of GS racer...
The cars drive Physics are more or less an own experimentation... still in progress...

I use red filter that turn the display slightly red when the car hits an object and goes intenser with every time the car hits again... and disappears slowly after a second or two.

I use timer and black png to have a day / night cycle ... as soon as the night falls it goes darker during 5-10 seconds (slow darkening, or however you call it) and the car lights and streetlights go on. cars have break lights that turn on as soon as you break... and so on.... i have skit marks, moving vegetation,..... and a lot more, nearly too much to list...

right now i am doing the track layout creation for about 10-15 Tracks
Then i will have to spend a lot of time in designing and decorating the visible environment.

Still on the To Do List:

• Main Menu
• Shop
• Track Map
• 3d Animations of Track intros (fly throughs or fly overs)
• Weather System
• Car Power Up System
• Car modifications... (choose this set of wheels and you drift 75% less for example)
• Car presentation animations
• Facebook integration
• Server Set up
• ghost system (you can drive against yourself by choosing a previous race)

and the list goes on and on...

I will update this from time to time. But as this is some kind of "Side Project" as i still have my business to run, i´m not sure how long it´s gonna take.

My personal death line is by the end of September.

Hopscotch

Looks fantastic @3DMA‌ ! Keen to follow the progress.

3DMA

Thank you. BTW i have my first question for this.

For my first track i kind of sliced the background image and manually puzzled it in GameSalad, as GameSalad for whatever reason does not accept images bigger then X... (why actually? )

So i need in fact several actors for only the background image.

Is there an better way to do this? Or am i doing it correctly already?

Thank you

Bub

I don't even... You are an amazing graphic designer.

3DMA

Thank you @Bub , the thing is, i like game salad and i like 2D games but i don´t like too much the cartoonish style, if you know what i mean ;-)

So here is what CAN be done if you want

Socks

Looking good !

Hopscotch

@3DMA,

the maximum allocatable sequential graphics memory size is 2048x2048px on the iOS devices. This leads to the limit.

You are doing fine by slicing it up into section.

3DMA

@Hopscotch thanks a lot for the info. That way i don´t have to worry and / or experiment more with this point.

Bub

Do you use photoshop?

3DMA

i use Photoshop too, amongst other tools.

Pro

Purely astonishing!

Loaded

Looks great, all the best with the project. Keep the updates coming.

UtopianGames

Love the look

Having made several racing templates if you can get the feel and balance right your onto a winner.

Darren.

jamie_c

Very impressive graphics, nice work.

gamestudent

Oh baby! that looks polished up!

jay2dx

this looks so good can't wait for more

beefy_clyro

Lovely work! Looking forward to seeing more!

AfterBurnett

That looks insanely good. Road looks a little narrow (though realistic), is that just that stretch of the road? I imagine cornering/overtaking would be tough... or are you going for a realistic approach, rather than something like Retro Racing? That would be cool, don't think I've ever seen that in a top down racer!

allc1865

You created those graphics?

3DMA

Hello guys & gurlz

I have my next question regarding this project.

Has someone of you any experience or any idea of how to realise a mini map?

Here is what i did so far:
Actor (Car) sends its coordinates to attributes, mini map spawns an actor that represents the actual car (a dot, for example). I have the actual map as a simple black and white graphic (black background, white race track) of every track.

But how to copy the current situations on the race track to the mini map?
my idea was a mini map that shows only a certain area around your current position, as you can see in my screenshot above.

The problem is that i don't know how to realise that with the back ground images of the mini map itself.

the alternative wold be to display the racetrack as a mini schema and place the dots as you drive along....

I´m a little bit stuck at this point.

Maybe i just need a day or two to step away from this project to see it clearer lol...

Thanx a lot in advanced anyway.

kipdev

What kind of programs do you use for artwork? Its outstanding work. I only use Photoshop for my game art which alot of feedback i got with my games is the artwork, i would love to know how to make images look better, if you would be kind enough to provide any tips

Nabbo (ReflectiveByte)

Wow beautiful art.. I wish I could play a game with that graphics ..

Hopscotch

@3DMA, how involved will your tracks be?

You could tile the minimap, or build it up out of individual sections. Then let these sections fade in and out at the extremities of the visible portion of the movable mini track.

Quite doable if your minimap can be broken into 20 or so sections.

3DMA

@kipdev‌
Thank you. But it looks more then it really is
Just a bit Photoshop, some nice graphics, arrange them nicely and you are nearly there. So it´s nothing extraordinary. Just a bit time, dedication and a little bit of creativity. Everyone can do this.
In fact, once i´m done with this project, i plan to make a series of tutorials of creating UI Design and Arts.

@Nabbo‌
Thank you Soon you will be able to play it. At least i hope hehe

@Hopscotch‌
Actually i didn´t think about fade in and out the current section of the mini map. It´s a good idea which i´m going to try out
Till now i was trying to have a moving mini map.

thanx a lot

jamie_c

This tutorial isn't mine, but it might be helpful:

Hopscotch

@3DMA, I do mean a moving minimap, not very accurate yet but in priciple:

The finer the detail on the segments the better, if it consists of pre drawn and nicely connecting elements it should look quite good.

Fade out the segments if they are a predefined distance away from the minimap car, e.g. using magnitude().

3DMA

Thanx BIG TIMES @jamie_c‌ and @Hopscotch‌
I will have a closer look into this and see what i can do

Thank you very much

3DMA

Hey Guys 'n' Gurlz...
Sorry for the long break, but i had an traffic accident and been recovering. Everything fine now and i´m going back to work on the projects. So hopefully soon i will post updates again on progress in design and concept.

First i´m gonna check the ideas from @jamie_c‌ and @Hopscotch‌ and see if i can implement them in my Game.

Cheers again to you two

Hopscotch

Sorry to hear @3DMA, hope things are mending.

Now back to work on the digital traffic, it is safer!

gamestudent

Owch, Hope you healed well! Good luck on the mini map!

Socks

@3DMA said:
Hey Guys 'n' Gurlz...
Sorry for the long break, but i had an traffic accident and been recovering.

Ok, no one wants to say it but I feel someone should . . . . you are taking your research for this game a little too far.