1st devlog

I started writing SFRacing (SFR) early 2023. It's primarily influenced by 1990s top down racing games such as SuperCars 2 but also GTA 1, Carmageddon and a bunch of other Atari/Amiga/DOS game aesthetics. Plus Automobilista 2 has really floated my boat recently in VR. I can see what they've done and it's inspiring me to keep going. Also a game called West Racing which was never released but I liked the sound of was something that intrigued me.

I also plan to expand on the simple circuit racing style of top down game. I may involve RPG elements such as keeping the car running/buying tyres/fuel, real world moving between tracks etc. but one step at a time..

Initially I was using GameMaker as it was a 2d game but the further into development the more I realised I'd need true 3d which I feel is lacking from top down racing games and I really needed to employ as I had grand level ideas. I made the switch to Unity around April. 

Initially I used tilemaps to create the levels as they offered a sense of creativity but after a while felt restrictive in my workflow and also required artistic skill plus the visual tiling was not always what i wanted although I did like the obvious 'level design' look.

I want to create levels really quickly, without restriction and with an element of fun. I want to keep a strict pixel aesthetic as it pleases my eye and it's what I grew up on.

Around May/June 2023 I switched to a different method for level creation where I would create a picture in Aseprite which would be read by Unity. To cut a long story short I now have a system whereby I create an image in Aseprite which sits on a mesh created in Blender. The image is read by Unity and according to what colour is in the track image it generates Simplex noise to create bumps on mud, rolling hills on grass and flatland on tarmac etc. 

To do - AI, race stages (prerace (practive/qual)/race/postrace), weather, day/night cycles, car graphics (currently flat shaded 3d models)...