Game prototype update

Since I've had a week or so to dedicate to my Unity project again, I've decided to start implementing those nifty advanced features I've been talking about. Mainly jumping between different versions of the track, basic AI, and a smooth camera, as well as some more inventory items.

The track in itself has been a learning experience for me, as it needs to be fun and challenging at the same time. Not just from an art point of view, but from a level design perspective too. To be honest I think I got a bit TOO ambitious with the current track design, but I was going for a vertical slice style concept :)

The AI, while it works well enough, is still pretty dumb. A lot of it's movements I need to tone down on curves because it clearly can't steer fast enough to avoid the track edge, and due to the physics, it ends up crashing. With no reset feature yet, once you crash, it's game over :)

The smooth camera was a simple matter. I simply needed to unparent the camera from the player, and then add frame averaging to both position and rotation. 4 frames for position, and 16 for rotation. The update the position, rotation, and apply an offset to look pretty.

I like my laser weapon too: a line renderer with an instanced prefab at the very end. I'm debating whether to add any sort of autoaim to the inventory items. Either as a cone, or only vertical like in Extreme G3. Although I'm not quite sure how to implement it without testing the positions of each racer every frame. Maybe have a invisible "target" which always stays ahead of the ship and follows the track? Hmm, I'm certain there are tutorials or whitepapers on this kind of thing, lol.

I've mentioned this before, but I'm looking forward to working with a programmer or two on this! Someone who can take this to the next level in terms of polish and functionality. So far my code works, but something tells me it could be prettier and more optimized. Good a demo, but might not scale well for a full game.

Here is the latest video update of my work. Mind you that there is still a lot of grey blocking and temp art, so don't expect anything TOO fancy, yet ;)

Woot!

-M