Week 8

So, this was the last week of production and a lot of things have happened. But to begin with, here is the second track of the game, the Rumble Eight.

This track is a lot smaller than the other, ”main track”. While the large one takes around 45 seconds (best time) – 1 minute and 30 seconds (average beginner time) per lap, this one lands at around 15 seconds (best time) – 30 seconds (average beginner time).

The track overlaps itself in the middle of it, originally the tracks weren’t meant to pas above/below eachother, but rather, continue through eachother. This turned out to be too difficult and since we were pressured for time this week, this is what I went with. The clamps are also present in this level and there are only two holes in the track. Since the track itself is so short, two holes was the optimal number in order to not overflow the track with them.

Same with the boosters,  given the small amount of track space I had to work with along with how curvy the track is, the amount of boosters that a player can get in one lap around the track are 2. Since the boosters are most efficient when chained together however, the boosters stats need to be different on this track in order to matter. The time that the booster ”buff” lasts is slightly longer and the power is greater than on the other track.

 

This all seemed really well, until a certain issue we had had in the game was resolved. We had had issues with a stuttering of the ships, almost like lag except that there was no drop in FPS. When this issue was fixed, the speed of the ship as well as the power of the boosters changed drastically. Before, taking all the boosters in the loop (around 11 of them) would present a challenge in controlling the speed, but it was far from impossible. After the fix, taking three boosters would send the player flying off the track with no hope of controlling the speed.

The result was that the player speed and booster speed all needed to be changed and time was an issue at this point. I spent the last few hours of the project trying to re-balance the speed of things again. The player speed was easily fixed, the boosters on the old track were also fixed to the point that it felt like it previously had.

The boosters on the new track however, never reached the same sweet spot again, this was a mistake that I had made, when I was driving around the track, the boosters power felt fine. When we presented the game at GGC however, it became very clear that they were still far too powerful. The boosters sent the players flying off the track the first time that they grabbed it and for the rest of the race, they avoided them. Halfway through all this, the boosters were revamped and fixed to the point where they were acceptable again.

This only happened because I was too comfortable with the game and our controls and as a result I balanced them in a way that was unfair to newer players. How unfortunate that this mistake was made in such an untimely manner.

 

 

 

Week 7

So this week has been all about balancing the level with booster placements further and in general finishing the level up.

This is how the level is going to look in the build for GGC. Supporting pillars have been added to explain how the track is kept afloat. In the area under the loop in the back, there is a ring that surrounds the tracks, this ring represents the start and goal of the track.

We have also added in these ”clamps” around the tracks. These are partially meant to explain how the track is kept together without needing to add in pillars that support both tracks. From a gameplay perspective, their purpose is to warn the players of an incoming swap that the player needs to preform due to holes in the tracks.

The boosters have been tweaked in power, placement and visibility. The power was difficult to tweak, since I have played with a setting for a prolonged time and have had time to adapt to it. The placement was changed mainly in the loop, making them easier to pick up but also easier to avoid if the players felt that the speed was too much to handle.
The visibility was also changed since their glow used to be so weak that they were barely visible.

 

Having gotten the feedback that the level is too big and removes too much of the ”player versus player” element, the group has decided to add in one more level, a level that is smaller in lap size and larger in width of the track itself, this should place players closer to one another and therefore encourage ”competition”. With this said, the larger level is still going to remain in game, but is going to be more focused on a ”time trial” type of gameplay.

 

 

 

Week 6

This week has not been all that different from the previous weeks. Last weeks post included a picture of a track that I explained was going to be scrapped/remade.
So, this week I have remade the track, welded it together, matched the collision track and tested the level.

These are screenshots of the track as it is in engine when I tested it. Some issues were encountered with the spiral and the sloped curves as the ship started pulling back and forth, we suspected this would because of the collision plane. As a result I have recently remade the collision track with 2-3 times more geometry and the curved tracks were also remade with more geometry to make the curves smoother. The ”remade” version has not yet been put into and tested in unity, that is, however the next step.

In these pictures, part of the track is below the ground, this was done for testing purposes to see how high up the loop is going to reach. The idea with the lower area that is currently under the ground, is to have it drop into a pit which will be filled with trash, giving more variety to the scenery.

As uninteresting as it may be, here is a look at the remade version in 3dsmax since it’s the only way for me to show it:

The curves and slopes have been changed slightly to make them smoother to drive across, hopefully this will also translate when I test it out in the game.

The idea behind the slopes is to shield the players vision from the horizon in some parts of the track. Just seeing a straight line start to end looks dull, just adding some slopes to a straight area makes it feel like there is more going on in the track then there actually is. The slopes also make the swapping mechanic more important, in a downward slope, the upper track will give the player better vision of whats to come, and the opposite applies in an upward slope.

 

One lap around the track with no boosters/obstacles placed out took 1 minute and 30 seconds, which is a decent enough time that allows for 2-3 laps around the track. I will probably add more gaps in the tracks as well to force the players to swap between the tracks more frequently.

 

Week 5

Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot to show for week fives late post. I spent the better half of the week at home after having been food poisoned.

I continued modelling some environment but instead of putting up a picture of that this week as well, I’m going to put up a screenshot of the work I did today (Monday).

 

 

This would  be the start of how the level is being built. The blue, yellow, green, red and teal lines that run through the tracks are splines. When those are put out, I use the ”track” mesh and path deform it onto the splines. Matching these up, adding the right amount of track chunks and re-scaling them to fit the track and to match the previous segment is a bit fidgety and therefore, time consuming. While building this version of the track though, some issues occurred in specific areas of the track. The yellow spline is supposed to be twisted 360 degrees, when doing this on too short of a distance though, certain areas of the chunks clip through itself. In order to create a twist that doesn’t have those issues, the track needs to be as long as the entire blue segment (the second longest segment of the track), which is far too long. The red spline ”drop” is steep in a way that makes the track chunks connections too sharp.

As a result, this track is, unfortunately, going to be scrapped/rebuilt and the track chunks are being rebuilt to be easier to manipulate and to fit the track better (hopefully with a lower tri-count as well).

And that is going to be it for week fives post. Hopefully I won’t get sick anymore before GGC.