So, a lot of things have changed(to the better) since I made my last entry. I have been making some good progress on the game. But what's the real good news, is that I have engaged in a collaboration with another programmer who I met on #gamedev, and he is responsible for primarily funding the game and porting it to Android and iOS. I should note, he has already published his own successful indie game on Android, with pretty good sale numbers. For this project, he has hired a quite good and experience 3d artist who has already started churning out some nice content. The name of the project has also changed: We finally decided that "Windchasers" isn't really appropriate for a futuristic racing game featuring sci-fi vehicles, so after some thought we opted for "Hyperdrive". Yes, a few of you might remember it's also the name of a similar game by Midway. However, the copyright has expired and we're good to go :)

So now, with most of the core programming in place(I really have only the "fun" bits to do next, like adding more weapons, game modes, powerups, enemies, etc etc) it's just a question of how we want to proceed. The usual approach in this kind of games is having one of more linear "campaigns", where the players faces a series of challenges, unlocking vehicles and tracks as he goes along. While we will have that, my mind is set on a more extensive Career mode, which will incorporate some very light RPG elements. In each "round", you enter an event out of several available. Succeeding in races will earn you money and XP points, as well as enabling you to ascend the pilot ranks, which in turn you can spend in buying new vehicles, upgrades, weapons or improving your pilot's stats.

The plan is also to have 3 "boss" enemies with unique vehicles, which you have to deal with in the end. There are quite a few ideas floating around...for example I am thinking of having some amount of environment destructiblity and multiple routes/shortcuts in the tracks. I have already implemented some basic environmental "hazards", like the rotating blades you will see in the videos. Or having some out-of-the-ordinary events, like a pissed off opponent challenging you to a duel after the main racing ends. But we'll see how it goes. We don't wanna release a poorly-made and completely bland indie game, but we don't want the development to go on for ever. At some point, you draw the line and ship the game. Of course, implementing multiplayer is still a quite important goal, and my partner has already written a message broker API that we can use for various facilities.

With that said, I have recorded some new videos of how the game is right now....Note those are just test levels, with very few of the models being made by the artist for the moment(the rest are from my collection of stock models I've purchased through the years). Specifically, the artist made the track section model you see in the second video.

So here they are:

Enjoy...and as always leaving comments with impressions and suggestions is greatly appreciated! :)