Hi.
Here’s a bit more info on our Unity Awards 2009 entry and some early concepts/screens:
Vector Racer is a turn-based racing game for the iPhone. The gameplay is based on the pen and paper game Ractrack, but instead of a grid based system we’re using physics to drive the cars. Each turn starts with the players choosing a target for their car. There’s a limited area where you can place the target, based on the current velocity of the car. The gameplay is all about inertia and momentum, so accelerating and braking needs to be planned or you’re bound to crash into something.
The game alternates between user-input (slow-motion or frozen time) and simulation (normal time) so we’re working on a lot of slow-motion effects for the game like physics driven objects around the track and particle effects that freeze when the turn ends. We’re also developing a super cool camera controller that will take full advantage of the bullet-time effect in the game. We’re testing two play modes, one where time stops each turn giving the players unlimited time to make a decision. The other mode just slows down time for about two seconds so players are forced to make quick decisions.
The game is set in a post-apocalyptic environment, and each level has one or two major landmarks/structures as integral parts of the track. For the first track we’ve chosen the Statue of Liberty and a supertanker (Exxon Valdez). Visually we’re going for a cartoony style (probably lightmapped) to get away from the standard dark mad-max type worlds often associated with this kind of environment. Humor will also play a part in the game. The story is still quite new and we’re working on finalizing it. We started out with the gameplay idea so the name will also change to reflect the story rather than the game mechanics.
We’re three people developing the game. Kim Hansen is doing all the concept art and is the guy responsible for the world/environment (He did the visuals for Gooball too). Nils Koster is a low-poly and texturing guru and will model most of our assets. Most, if not all of the coding will be done by me.
We’ve all got other things going on so we’re trying to limit scope as much as possible. At least for UA, after that we’ll see. Hopefully we’ll be able to finish one track, and wrap it up with all the normal things - title-screen, credit-creen, instructions and so on.
Looking beyond UA we’d like to add more tracks to complete the universe. Bluetooth network would be super for this game I think, allowing players to control their car on their own screen - then you wouldn’t know your opponents moves. AI opponents, highscores…
/Patrik Svensson
