Zero Gear - an indie multiplayer kart racing game

yea I have gotten a few comments about the thickness as well, I was going for like a rainbow road type vibe but I will probably end up adding just a little bit of thickness (and tripling the polycount) I was planning on putting the checkpoints at set places, mostly after each tricky part - it is kind of supposed to play like a rocket jump map, where you have to get through each part in stages ( unless you are a master like me )

We hope to release the game sometime this summer, at least that is all the time we can afford to continue development.

Quote from robert.briscoe

Looks awesome but one thing that really stands out for me is the really unnatural way the karts start randomly rotating whenever they're in the air and spinning wildy when they land. Looks kinda broken.

The karts never randomly start rotating, they do bounce around on landing (monday I will try ratcheting the kart body restitution down) - the kart physics setup is something I am endlessly wrestling with. We are using bullets built in vehicle model which has a lot of suspension values to tweak, all of which dramatically change the way the kart behaves. It is easy to get it set up to perform well in some situations, but there always seems to another situation you just broke while tuning it for another. It is a long and slow and painful process.

Also, definitely not my benz

Here is some more progress on dressing up the space jump obstacle map - I added most of the space dressings and put some signs directing you in many parts.

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I sure hope we are in the last 10%

We pretty much have most things that are going to make it into the first release done at least in terms of the framework, right now we are standing back and re-working the weak parts of our technology that testing has indicated needs more work. Once that is smoothed out, we will be focusing on a few more minor features and adding as much new game modes and maps as we can. We need to have something ready to release by the summer, or else figure out how to fund more development since we are both closing in on the home stretch of our savings.

Both mine and Brian's lives have pretty much become consumed by this game, and we will be extremely excited to release it no matter what the reception. We have put a lot of blood, sweat, tears and money into this project!

we have to use real physics because the entire game is built around and utilizes a realistic physical simulation. I understand exactly though the point you are making, it is all about adjusting the physical values of the kart and suspension to appear the most stable, while still allowing for movement over any shaped track or terrain. It's a tricky tightrope but it is slowly evolving to a happy place. Since that last video I have lowered the restitution of the kart body and of the game world dramatically, which really cuts down on any amount of bouncing around you do before regaining control of your kart. It gives you a much better chance of staying in control when landing from a long jump if you are somewhat level. So we are going to keep tuning it as much as possible, but we will never be able to or even desire to use "fake" physics since physics is pretty much what our entire game revolves around. It is a physics-based kart combat game much more than it is an on-rails racing game.

we are working on it! Really!

in the mean time be hypnotized by the wonderful colors: http://nimblebit.com

Really long time with no post, my sincerest apologies! I know everyone is just waiting for the game to come out, but we still have road ahead of us to get to that point. Instead, I will tease you with more media! HaHa!

This is a new level I have been working on for the last few weeks - it's inspired by the old "rats" style maps for various FPS games where the environment is giant and all the players appear to be very tiny. You can see that this one takes place in a game room.

I know a lot of people are going to ask when the next beta is going to be open, all I can say is a very nebulous "soon".

*click to supersize*

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