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[WIP] WHEELS - Kart Racing

Wilsonator
Honored Guest


A fast paced, chaotic kart racing game

Welcome to my WIP thread for my submission, a kart racing game which is heavily influenced by my Mario Kart project which I stopped working on for fears of getting a Cease & Desist, I have since then wanted to create the same game but with my own assets, and I saw the Mobile VR Jam as a great opportunity to do that.

Introducing WHEELS, a fast paced, chaotic kart racing game with some unique mechanics and features for VR.




This project is a challenge for me as I came into it knowing basically nothing about 3D Modelling, and have been learning while I develop the assets I need - I've luckily learned a pretty interesting way to build tracks, and have got ideas for 4 total courses.

Current Features:

  • Unique, arcade car physics model that allows the racers to drive upside-down, this is comfortable for VR as your car doesn't flip.

  • 8 AI racers which use the exact same car physics as the player, the only difference is that the input is controlled by the AI instead of using a controller

  • Race System with laps and race positions

  • The 'three screens' feature from my old Mario Kart demos:

    • Left screen will show the map

    • Middle screen will show the rear view camera

    • Right screen will show the current lap, position in race and current lap time

    • A smaller screen will slide up when you pick up an item, showing which item you currently have, it slides down again upon using the item

  • Basics of the Item System in place

  • Runs very smoothly on the Gear VR, even with a full track model!


Here I'll detail what I hope to get into my final build, not all of this stuff might be finished in time but I would love to get it all in:

The Courses

Cliffrock Coast
Current Status: 55% Complete
Laps: 3
This track is very simple and is intended to ease players into the game, based on a peaceful cliffside, the road will be smooth and relatively flat, taking racers along the cliffside, over a bridge, past a lighthouse and through a small wooded area. This is the simplest and smallest of the 4 included tracks.



Mount Thundersmoke
Current Status: 55% Complete
Laps: 2
This track is my personal favorite, the race begins by taking you along a windy forest road, with a huge thunderstorm raging. As you come out of the forest you will begin the ascent up the huge volcano - Mount Thundersmoke. The road twists up the mountain like a snake, and then takes you inside the volcanic chamber along a bridge, before it loops up and around the crater and then launches you back down the side of the mountain. This is the largest track and so only has two laps.

Frostfreeze Forest
Current Status: 70% Complete
Laps: 3
Set in a wintery forest, this track will take you along a snowy road, down along the side of a freezing lake, and then through some icy caverns, where icicles could detach and fall upon unsuspecting victims. This track is more complex than Cliffrock Coast but is relatively tame compared to Mount Thundersmoke and Cloudgate Skyline.



Cloudgate Skyline
Current Status: 5% Complete
Laps: 3
The most bizarre track in the game is Cloudgate Skyline, inspired by the Rainbow Road levels in the Mario Kart games, this course is set in a deep blue sky, taking racers along golden roads through the blue and defying physics by taking you along rainbows that twist in every direction, players will also bounce on the fluffy white clouds. This track is probably the least tame of all of them, as you will be driving upside-down, sideways, and bouncing on clouds.

The Items

Bear Trap
The bear trap will be a droppable item that will close on anyone who drives over it, temporarily stopping them.

Standard Missile
The standard missile will move straight along the road, bouncing off walls until it hits a racer, temporarily stopping them.

Golden Missile
The golden missile will home in on the racer in front of you, however will explode instantly if it hits anything else.

Super Missile
The super missile will launch up, pause for a moment and then home in on wherever the player is looking, like a laser-guided missile, it will explode on impact.

Flux Core
The flux core is a golden battery which will give your car a temporary boost.

Snail Slime
The snail slime will be dropped behind the user for 3-7 seconds, leaving a trail that will slightly slow down anyone who drives over it.

Multiplayer

Currently, the game does NOT support multiplayer and I do not know if I will support it, simply due to time constraints. If I can reach all my other goals and have enough time before the deadline, I will look into trying to add some form of multiplayer, however due to my lack of mobile development experience, it may not happen.

However - I would like to continue development on this after the Mobile Jam, win or lose, and will release a more feature-complete version in the future with more tracks, items and vehicles (currently just one), and of course multiplayer. I'll also consider working on a PC version for the Rift.

I will update this post with any screenshots and videos of progress during the Jam, and would love to hear thoughts or suggestions if you have any. 😄

Wish you all luck in the VR Jam!
31 REPLIES 31

spinaljack
Protege
Instead of IK you can do 2 or 3 animations with arms holding the wheel at full lock left and right and then blend between them. Might produce more natural looking arm positions and subtle movement in the hands/ elbows.

Wilsonator
Honored Guest
"spinaljack" wrote:
Instead of IK you can do 2 or 3 animations with arms holding the wheel at full lock left and right and then blend between them. Might produce more natural looking arm positions and subtle movement in the hands/ elbows.


True - I guess I'm thinking IK because I was using that for the old Mario Kart stuff which had positional tracking so it made more sense there.

Wilsonator
Honored Guest
Also, here's a WIP screenshot of Frostfreeze Forest, the road texture here is a temporary one I grabbed off the internet, I will be adding a proper texture for this soon:

HomerS66
Expert Protege
If the third person view already exists, it would be nice to have it as an option, as Mario Kart was always in third person and maybe works in VR aswell? But not sure of course.

Wilsonator
Honored Guest
"HomerS66" wrote:
If the third person view already exists, it would be nice to have it as an option, as Mario Kart was always in third person and maybe works in VR aswell? But not sure of course.


I might have it in as an optional feature if I have time - currently it doesn't use VR, which is mainly the reason it exists (so I can comfortably test without putting a headset on), if I have time I will look into adapting it to VR but as it is at the moment all the UI stuff is on the screens attached to the kart so I'd need to redesign a bit.

Wilsonator
Honored Guest
Another screenshot of Frostfreeze Forest, I've now made a road texture and a cliff texture. Yes, the road has a very sheer drop here.



I also created a very nice menu system last night that I'll show when I upload a video 🙂

Wilsonator
Honored Guest
Updated the first post with my Milestone 3 gameplay video.. this is in third person as I cannot get the Oculus Rift working with the Gear VR integration on the PC, the actual game is in first person inside the kart though.


HomerS66
Expert Protege
Nice, do you see what weapon you got in first person view and have a mirror?

Wilsonator
Honored Guest
"HomerS66" wrote:
Nice, do you see what weapon you got in first person view and have a mirror?


The mirror is there, the item isn't there yet but I plan on adding that tomorrow, it'll be a little panel that slides up when you get an item and back down when you use it 8-)

HomerS66
Expert Protege
Sounds good, only the weapon selection sound could get a bit annoying after some time. But maybe it's different in game when you are concentrating on racing.