A car drifting game inspired by the PS1 era, with extremely nonrealistic handling. There’s a hub world for selecting cars and tracks with challenges, and a free roam mode where you can drive around and explore the maps.

It started out as a realistic driving game with physics for each wheel, but it was too unstable to even drive in a straight line. I decided to go the opposite direction and make it as arcadey as possible, with a focus on drifting.

The game got quite popular fast, with multiple people playing at the same time. Initially, there was one single big lobby everybody joined, but it was later split into singleplayer and player-made lobby instances.

I added smoke particles and drifting sounds, almost everything with a CC0 license. Everything to make the drifting as satisfying as possible.

I experimented with adding a simulation-style driving model which worked okay, but it was very difficult getting used to. Main focus was still on the arcadey drifting.

Replays were added, where it automatically recorded all your driving and you could play it back all at the same time. Pretty fun seeing the chaos with dozens of cars driving around.

Started working on a street level, which then became a hub world with a car shop, body shop, and track selection. As with old games, it contains a few secrets too.

I picked textures from real photos and asset packs, and made the environment out of simple shapes to retain the old-school feel.

Expanded the hub world with a plaza, a throwback to those old 3d shockwave games you played in the browser.

Redesigned the UI to be more retro, wasn’t very happy with it though. Something was missing.

That’s much better. I quite like the font I found, it fits the game well. The speedometer is much more engaging now that it’s just not a number.

I also made some changes to the dialog and menu system, making it look less modern. There’s still a bit of an issue with legibility since the fonts don’t support bold or italics, but I think the colors help.

And this is where I left the game for now. I made a taxi minigame prototype with a new city, but it’s not very fun yet. I’ll probably come back to it later. Right now, I have other game plans.

April 2nd, 2024 - May 4th, 2024