I’m going to take a break from the main game from now to work on side projects for a few weeks. Mainly portfolio pieces and experiment with Unreal Engine more. In the meantime here’s what I did the past two weeks.
Mini Game Prototype: Husky Drift
I had this silly idea of a husky drifting a car. I had purchased the model a while ago and I’m making sure I get the most use for it lol.
It’s very arcady, but focusing on weight shifting and momentum, and most importantly fun. I found myself doing laps for several minutes every time I test it, and some friends who playtested it found it hard to stop playing once they figured out the physics of it, so I think the fun part is a success. At least for a prototype.
Here are a few recordings of the game, starting by the first version to the latest
This one was just to make sure my idea of the physics (“point and accelerate”) works. I did not use the included physics engine, I programmed everything myself and my code is doing rotation and translation of the car on its own. As a result there are no collisions yet.
I am going to make several cars and presets (maybe an upgrade system too?), so I made the car properties adjustable very early on. The example above is what happens when I put a rotation speed value that’s WAY too high.
In the 2nd version, I added several behaviors, like speed loss when the angle difference is too high (the car is sideways or backwards relative to its current movement direction), tweaked the acceleration and max speed, and also made the car have more grip and rotate faster when slowing down (the weight shifts toward the front wheels). I also smoothed the turning speed a bit, meaning the car turns slowly when you press the button and then it picks up rotation speed as you continue holding it down, this gave the car weight, and also made Scandinavian flicks a viable tactic when entering sharp corners.
I also added some smoke particles that emit from the wheels when the car is drifting (based on the angle difference between the car and movement direction)
This isn’t based on “real” physics simulations, it’s just about how I wanted an arcade drift/racing game to feel like, especially with me playing a lot of Dirt 2.0 and Assetto Corsa and other realistic racing games.
In this version I added speed-dependent camera zoom in/out, and tweaked the properties of the car, making it faster and also slightly easier to turn, and lowered the strength grip increase when slowing down. Combined with a longer circuit with smoother turns (first one was too hard for first-time playtesting).
I still need to handle collisions and variable terrain height, but other than that, this feels ready for levels and taking it from a prototype to a mini game.
As a bonus, here’s a picture of the husky in the car, sticking his head out the window because of course he’s going to do that.
Interaction System Improvements
I made a new component for the NPCs to look at the player. If an NPC Actor has the component, it will rotate to face the player. I can set the rotation speed, minimum and maximum values for the randomized delay between rotation checks. If the angle difference is below the threshold then the NPC will not attempt to rotate.
It’s not perfect, but it can be combined with “Follow Spline” to make the NPC look at you when not walking.
I also added an option to lock the interaction target to the NPC you’re following when “Follow Spline” is engaged. This prevents interactions with other actors, and also allows you to interact with the actor you’re following even if they’re far from you.
I made the “Question” interaction to make the camera focus on the player. If the content of the question is blank (eg. multi-choice actions, not responding to an actual question), then the camera will automatically focus on the player. Otherwise it’s optional, and I can choose if the camera looks at the player or not for each interaction.
And finally I experimented with lighting scenarios. It was weird at first but it made sense when I got it working. It allows me to have different lighting setups with baked lighting, which makes things a lot easier, and I don’t have to make different copies of the same level for every variation.
Story Writing
I did a lot of story writing, finished some tricky parts of the lore and story delivery, especially with the ending. I currently have almost 30 pages detailing the events, and that’s not including dialog, minor characters, or any other “slice of life” interactions.
Olympic Airsoft Rifle Model
I haven’t made any hard-surface models in a long time now, so it’s going to be my first portfolio piece. I am doing it like a product visualization gig, so I’m not making a game-ready or properly textured version for it. Not right now at least. It’s still WIP, but here’s what I have right now.
Those are all the work-related updates I have for this week. As a side note I played and finished Night in the Woods, and I still like the story delivery, characters, small talk and the slice of life aspect of it. I played a bit of Arctic Eggs before I gave up. I liked the gameplay for a bit, but I feel like that game is for people with patience. Venba was a very good game, I finished it in one setting. I liked the story and art style and the little mini games. I just started playing Journey, it looks fun so far.
Thanks for reading, I hope to see you again next week.