Super Turbo Drifters

Hey there,

I started this little project last Christmas, while we were wrapping up on Ori and the Blind Forest. I'm basically just doing this cause I always wanted to create a Local Multiplayer Game that I could play with my friends on the couch - And I've always been a huge fan of Super Mario Kart, but disliked where the Mario Kart series was going with the crazy powerups, blue shells, bullet bills and all that jazz. So it's a bit of a back to the roots thing.

Didn't yet have a ton of time to spend on it, but I feel like it's coming together nicely:



Try the latest Prototype:

http://www.warsoup.com/files/superTurboDrifters01.zip

Controls (Requires an Xbox Controller!):

A: Accelerate
X: Break
RB: Drift
B / Tap A: Boost (only works when the Drift Bar has been maxxed!)
LB: Use Powerup
ESC: Restart Race

Just implemented a raceStart (with fully functioning TurboStart (press and hold A while the countdown is on 2)!) and raceEnd sequence, also quickly implemented the Mario Kart Powerup system yesterday just to see if it fits into the gameplay (haven't hooked up the powerups except for the green and red shell and since there's no other driver on the field, the red shell just plops down on the track)

Would be great if you guys could try it and give some feedback!

 

Cool, I like it!

 

Ah! Has that Mario Kart feel... really nice

 

What do you guys think about the controls? Was it easy enough to get used to the drifting? My personal record is 00:55:62 - Wonder if someone can break it

 

Controls appeared to be responsive (had to knock the dust off my Xbox controller lol). However, I'm impartial about drift force when not in a turn. The vehicle drifts going in a straight line with the same force and maneuverability as when its going into a turn.

 

I don't have a controller to try it, please include keyboard controls.

 

I'll have to think about keyboard controls... I doubt it's going to feel that great using a keyboard for now. All of these games usually rely heavily on a controller, especially because of the analog input.

 

Yeah, I just haven't disabled drifting while driving straight yet Shouldn't be possible indeed.

 

Build is updated. Now the drifting whlie driving straight isn't possible anymore and you see your lapTimes and track record at the end. My personal best is 00:54:62. See if you can beat me! Hint: Press and Hold A while the Countdown shows '2' to get a Turbo Start

 

Looking great so far! I can totally see myself getting lost in hours of playing this, maybe because I have a soft spot for kart racers.

I love the small leaning animation when you turn left and right, helps add to the physicality of the game, it even adds character. Controlling without drifting feels great, but I did have some trouble with drifting. I felt like the drifting into the turn was a bit too jarring and sensitive. I tried lightly moving my analog stick but after a certain point it just jumped to a severe turn. Drifting away from the turn on the other hand felt really good. Maybe even experiment with adding a slight delay to when you press the drift button. In many kart racers that I have played had the car jump up before initiating the drift.

There were some smaller things that I noticed and some weird stuff that happened as well. I feel like the road is a bit too narrow, I was driving off track a fair bit even after familiarizing myself with the track and controls. When I was drifting and hit a jump if I let go of the drift I would completely lose forward momentum and turn in the direction the kart was facing. I also fell through the world a couple of times. I also think the camera is a tad bit too far back away from the kart, maybe bring it slightly closer to the lower half of the screen. Also in the future you might want to mess with moving the camera over to the left and right as you turn and drift.

Other than those things, I think the game so far is looking awesome. The boost felt good (though the way you have it set up encourages "snaking", unless that is what you were going for). The aesthetic of game looks great, even with the placeholder models. And the gameplay is shaping up to be really fun! My personal best is 01:09:77, gotta get better!

P.S. Have you tried the game "ModNation Racers", if you are finding the newer Mario Karts a bit too chaotic check out that game. While it can get a bit crazy sometimes it still is a lot of fun to play.

 

Hey Darkays:

I recorded this little video to show how the drift is supposed to be used atm.

Glad you like it already, it's still super early, but it's fun to race around I feel

I know ModNationRacers - I'm not a huge fan of the modern Kart Racers, they always feel a bit too physics'y to me. I didn't use Unitys Physics for the driving here at all, cause I just couldn't get that to feel 'right'. So it's all hand-coded stuff, even the gravity, to get more control over exactly what this thing should feel like.

 

"I'm not a huge fan of the modern Kart Racers..."

Oh boy. Now I'd like to know what are the non-modern Kart Racer games you remember playing. I can't think of any. And Super Mario Kart is, as far as I'm concerned, THE Kart Racing game/series.

 

Well, the main inspirations here are Super Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing and Crash Team Racers. I didn't like where Mario Kart headed after SMK and I'm not a huge fan of the more physics based racers out there.

 

OK, I'll just leave it at that. Game looks like it functions the way you want it to.

 

I'll have to try this out once I get my PS3 controller hooked up - unless it won't work with a PS3 controller?

I also found less fun with the SM Kart versions after the last one on game cube.

The squiggly screech marks shift oddly in the corner before going through the tunnel. I understand why, but it's kind of distracting.

Very nice initial iteration on the classical kart racer.

 

Well, right now I'm just using the X360 button defaults for input - so as long as you use one of the 360 input layers, you should be fine with a DS3 Controller

 

Quite a lot of changes have been made since the last update! Also, I imported one of the tracks from Mario Kart 8, to get a better feel for how the mechanics work:



You can download and try it here (Some of the collisions don't work right, etc. etc., but it's an interesting study):

http://www.warsoup.com/files/superTurboDriftersDonutPlains3.zip

Feedback is very welcome

 

Hey , just tried the latest version!

I like the feeling of the controls, though there are some issues that need fixing imo. For example you can keep drifting even though you keep going straight, or you can steer right even though the car is in "drift left" position. I think you shouldnt be able to have so much control of the car while drifting. This could add another skill level on the driving part, since you will have to learn when to start drifting on each turn of the level so as to keep the momentum going.
Btw tried to play in full screen on my 27inch monitor and my eyes started bleeding from the huge scanlines and crt effect, pls add option to turn off the effect for the demo

 

Thanks for the feedback, moure!

I quickly changed some code and updated the zip file, so the drift doesn't happen anymore when you're not steering (I do still want people to be able to course correct, but I agree that the feel isn't quite there yet) and you can now toggle the 'Old TV' filter if you press F on your keyboard.

Keep em coming

 

Tried the new build, much better! The only obvious thing i can see now is the change direction during drifting behaviour - best shown here http://gfycat.com/ImpeccableComplexBeagle
I think that when you hard change steering direction during drifting the car should also try to drift on the new direction. Though you could add an anti-stabilizing effect there so as to not be able to change drift direction all the time. (maybe different cars have different stability stats? some allow you to change drift direction easier than others? Loud thinking )

 

really like the look of this, looks to control in a really stylized way, will be watching this thread for sure

 

Wanna play together?

2 Player Splitscreen Build:

http://www.warsoup.com/files/superTurboDriftersDonutPlains32Player.zip

4 Player Splitscreen Build:

http://www.warsoup.com/files/superTurboDriftersDonutPlains34Player.zip

Really need to hook up that goddamn menu system.

 

No keyboard controls?

 

The drifting looks really cute and fun Have you played Burnout ? Burnout has great drifting!

 

@Haagndaaz: No keyboard controls for now! I'll focus on just getting it all done and working nicely on the controller, then do the keyboard stuff. Kart Racers should be played with controllers, I think

@XCO: Yup, played Burnout The drift is a mish mash of things I know, but I'll keep improving it still

 

The drifting really has improved! I also think that the wider track layout really helped the feel of the kart (cart?) as well. Great improvements!

I still feel like the drifting is a little too sensitive in terms of correcting your direction, but I respect the fact that you are going for the Super Mario Kart feel so take that critique as you will. But it really is turning out nice. I will try out the 2 player build later on to see how racing someone else feels.

Oh btw, the "Exit Game" in the pause menu doesn't actually exit the game.

 

Thanks for the feedback, I'm definitely still playing around with making the drifting feel even better

Exit Game does actually 'exit the game', by taking you to the titleScreen, but the titleScreen wasn't part of the build settings, should be all good

 

Ok, got a chance to play it 2 player with my bro.

He likes it, he thinks the drifting is fine so it may just be me who needs to get over the drifting. Who knows...
We fell through plenty of areas around the track, merging past terrain, and no clipping blocks. We also noticed that the laps weren't going up as we went around the track. Not sure if this isn't implemented yet.

Some other things that I noticed while playing by myself was that the turbo doesn't go up if you are adjusting your drift. Is this intended? I find it a bit strange, but I could understand where it would be beneficial for that to happen. Last thing is that the game was pretty slow playing 2 player, its even a bit slow in the single player build. But of course optimization comes later, just thought I would mention it as it is starting to effect the quality of play slightly (in my opinion).

 

Ah, cool, glad you tried it

I think the biggest problem with the drifting is basically just drifting into one direction, then pushing the analog stick the other way and the feel you get as a result of that. The actual drift itself, most people seem to get used to that fairly quickly.

Yeah, the colliders for the track aren't really well setup an the collision detection stuff still has bugs in it. The laps should actually be going up and down properly, as long as you drive along the track itself and don't cut through walls, etc.

And yeah, it's not optimized at all yet. I just threw a high poly car model in and the track is fairly high poly, there's no occlusion culling or anything, so it'll slow down on less performant systems.

Thanks for all the feedback and trying it with your bro, highly appreciate that