While still studying in Digipen, I was invited by my friend, Lim Jia Ying, to work on this game together with him, which is entirely made in the Unity Engine. It's a project that only both of us have been working on in our free time as a passion project, for us to experiment and mess about. He was the torch bearer and really started the whole project.
This racing game is heavily inspired by Initial D, an anime series where people race against each other on mountain passes and narrow roads. It is however an entirely different feeling game in terms of design and handling from the Initial D arcade games you see in the arcade, which have massively unrealistic physics, where cars handle extremely weird if you have experience with real life racing.
For our game, we made the way cars drive in a unique way. While going for semi realistic handling in the style of a simcade, it is by design that majority of the cars are able to go around corners faster while drifting (Without compromising handling in a unrealistic way). This however is unlike what's done in Need for Speed or Ridge Racer, where the physics are entirely unbelievable or "on rails".
Cars have proper physics where the cars have proper weight transfer, engines with dynamic torque curves, turbos(which affect power output dynamically), anti-lag systems, and have simulated limited-slip differentials.
For example, the Nissan GTR R32's ATTESA system, which is a dynamically controlled all wheel drive system, is simulated in a simplified way, where the percentage of power sent to the front wheels is controlled based on data that a real car can obtain in the real world.
In this project, I've thus far been responsible for:
- Engine physics
- Turbo and Anti-Lag Systems
- Limited Slip Differentials
- Dynamic torque vectoring
- Dynamic AWD system (ATTESA)
- Drivetrain physics (Transfer of power from engine to the wheels through a gearbox)
- Car audio system
- Controller haptic feedback
- General assisting in debugging or implementation of other systems if needed
Majority of the other systems, menus, gameplay, online leaderboard, multiplayer, replays, are developed entirely by Jia Ying.
As for art assets, they are all taken from other 3D modellers who made free modifications for a game called Assetto Corsa.
Because of the art assets, along with the cars being Initial D replicas, means that this is a game that is unable to be marketed or sold.
However, we do have plans in the future, shall we have the funds, to make our own IP, based off this project with the same or similar physics, as it's a game we both wanted that nobody has really executed in the way that we wanted.
For now, this will remain as a fan made game, built entirely on our passion on cars. It is playable and free to the public, which we are trying to keep within a small community. As of the making of this post, we have 419 players, which were mainly gathered solely through word of mouth and our YouTube channels.
