working on a quick little wii racing game

I've always wanted to do a racing game but the code always annoyed me anytime I tried to implement it. This time around I will be playing it safe and keeping my ambitions simple. I am thinking along the lines of Road rash, radrace nes or snes fzero - long flowing tracks, traffic (but not the annoying kind that tries to kill you) and 3d backgrounds. Low poly graphics in my typical style, menu, scores, 60fps, quicker than ps5 loading times, etc. Obviously nothing to show now but if you know how my previous threads are then you know how this process unfolds. discuss below. no timeline,, hopefully something playable by dec 25,2020. April2021

Testing version available for Download: test build.

*playing on dolphin requires virtual SD card.

 

@Lostbhoy Once I find the code I will see if I can hook it up!

 

Only found 3 racing games on wiibrew; ZeRace, UFO_Racer and Tick_Tock_Car_Race. All of which are time trial games with no traffic. I figure that it is because these types of games are difficult to code especially getting the car handling to be correct. I am looking up tutorials on youtube but most of the videos seem to be based around Unity engine and the others are based on real world car physics which is too much for me to code. I am not worrying about real car physics since I am going for a more "arcadey" style driving similation.

* Desert Bus doesnt count as a driving game.

 

I think its a port. And it just drives in a straight line forever. Its an endurance game. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_&_Teller's_Smoke_and_Mirrors#Desert_Bus

 

I am looking up simple racing games on youtube and saw this straight line infinite racer but I though NO. I want turns and corners! More like this one

 

TIlt control is a possible option. I will put it in the settings if you desire. If you played NewoEscape it has motion controls in it. give it a whirl.

 

Worked on it alittle today. As with all of my hobby homebrew projects I have to be very careful with my inital game development goals so that I stay focused on what I want to build. So the first thing I worked on is getting the car to move forward and turn left and right. Once I got turning down I started generating a track which is mostly a series of points. Generating this track gave me a bit of trouble at first. I re-wrote the generation that I created for newotokyo because racing tracks have fewer crazy turns. In the process of re-writing it I made it much simpler which is what you want to do everytime you re-write your code.

The problem with auto generating a track vs hand creating it is dealing with the overlapping sections. When you hand craft levels you avoid overlaps. Auto generating the track saves me a bunch of time , time which I THEN waste by writing more code to fix bugs in the auto generation. lol. Such is life. Anyway I had originally done some overlapping track code in citydemo but I could not even look at that code anymore because it was so complicated I wrote something simpler.

So what do I have so far; turning left, right, auto-gen track. Next thing to work on is tunnels, fences and car collision between car and track and fence.

 

And you know technically I could build a driving/racing game with just these features; gas, breaking, turning and a track. But of course I like to add a little extra just incase someone "actually" likes the game they have something extra to play when the wii scene is no longer active.

Ever played a game to completion and wished there was just a little bit more? Yeah, thats why AAA games are so expensive and popular. Wii homebrew doesnt have that luxury. Of course since I'm only doing wii homebrew with limited time I can never reach AAA quality. But I am always trying to get better while sticking to the basic things that a homebrew thing needs to be called a "GAME". I'm currently watching lots 1986 outrun of videos on youtube (for the gameplay, not the graphics).

 

Ah another weekend. First big obstacle is getting the vehicle to properly bounce of the sides of the track. Gonna be making FZero like floating tracks with railings and some without so that If you are not careful you can go fying off the edge and exploding. Anyway if I dont figure out this wall bounce thing I can always make it so that you just instantly die when you hit a wall. lol but I dont think people would like that.

 

Its approaching another weekend. I am already thinking about the tasks I want to work on. I can see why there arent many homebrew racing/driving games. Its not really a popular genre. Racing games are basically moving from start to finish as quickly as possible. At its base a time attack. Obstacles such as traffic, hazards, probably a boost meter for extra risk/reward are really just icing on the racing cake. I personally like smooth corners and long winding roads in my racing games. Good see if I can work on a track over this weekend (bouncing off walls still not working, lol).

 

I keep watching this and wondering why he never added more tracks or something else. And on top of that it takes 26 seconds to complete a lap. Not much room for improving that lap time.

 

I have the basic framework up and running now. It is harder than I thought to draw a textured track so I am going to keep it wireframed under I figure out the way to get the car to turn while you are not pressing the gas. Good progress this weekend!

 

This was one of those days when I should be doing something else - more productive but I worked on keeping the vehicle on the track after going up a hill. The default tendancy is go flying off into the air. Anyway screenshots. I am putting buildings in the background behind the floating highway that you are going to race on. THe building colours are only placeholders . In the final game everything is going to be black and purple