The player begins as the driver/controller of a blue RC toy car at the beginning of a competitive time trial race. The objective of the time trial is to complete three laps of the backyard circuit in a faster time than your opposition, but ultimately to unlock the next stage, the player must complete the level and win at least one gold star. A player can win a maximum of three gold stars and with each star, the player also earns points that can be spent in the car garage on upgrades and customizations. This was just a bare minimum prototype, and so alot more mechanics will be added in the future, such as a combat system and a battle royal arena gamemode.
Throughout this project, I have been on a steep and consistent learning curve
with Unreal Engine. I spent a great deal of time diving deeper into Unreal and
Blueprints, starting with looking at UE4’s PhysX System and then moving on
learning how to rig a vehicle in 3DS Max.
After this, I focused on learning how to compose a level design that offered a balance of creative visuals and challenging, fun gameplay. As part of this process, I learnt a lot about texture mapping and materials, lighting and reflections, the considerations that need to made with regards to file size, and optimisation.
Moving on from the level design, the next task was to work out how to build a
checkpoint and racing line system to ensure that I could track player progress
around the track and respawn players, should they overturn. In addition to this, I
also needed to devise a way to implement opponent AI to simulate a
competitive racing experience.
Implementing the User Interface was challenging and I learned a lot about UI/UX principles in addition to learning how to implement my user interface in Unreal Engine. Finally, some finishing touches were added such as soundtracks, cut sequences and nitro powerups to make a richer user experience.