Zero Gear - an indie multiplayer kart racing game

[Bic-B@ll]

i see. is it that you feel there isn't enough art at the moment or just that that's your field so you're sticking to it? i dont mean anything by this but it looks like you have a bunch of characters/carts/hats...enough for a release, i think more important things are game modes/tracks, obviously they're different beasts and probably more difficult/time consuming, but they're the meat of the game and in the long run would make it more enjoyable, funny hats only do so much.

[zaphod]

I can make tracks but I can't script new game modes. I already have one in the pipe ready to be scripted (hockey map) I will start on more after I make a few more items since they are quick to do. We can't really work on more than one thing at a time with only one artist and one programmer.

[zaphod]

I am trying to get a little more exposure for ZG before we come out with the next beta version, I submitted our trailer video to digg,

http://digg.com/pc_games/Trailer_released_for_physics_driven_PC_Kart_game_Zero_Gear

if you want to toss a digg our way.

[Bic-B@ll]

i dugg it. fyi it just popped up here:

http://theawesomer.com/

[Jenn0_Bing]

Heh, i just came here to mention that Bic .

[Bic-B@ll]

the beauty of rss feeds on my igoogle homepage

[zaphod]

long time no updates, I am in the middle of making a map to test out a new gameplay mode that will basically just trying to be the first to get from start to end, with checkpoints along the way to save the progress you have made should you fall off.

In other happenings, I just moved into some new office space with my brother eeenmachine. I'm looking forward to having a nice quiet place to work on Zero Gear!

[-HP-]

AH man... this is looking so great!!

When?! When will this be finally released?! You want our money or what? lulz

[Bic-B@ll]

that looks cool is it going to be set check points or are you simply reset a certain distance back from where you fell off? i love the barrel roll flips but the track needs some thickness to it, it looks funny being paper thin

[zaphod]

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.

[FrieChamp]

long time no updates, I am in the middle of making a map to test out a new gameplay mode that will basically just trying to be the first to get from start to end, with checkpoints along the way to save the progress you have made should you fall off.

In other happenings, I just moved into some new office space with my brother eeenmachine. I'm looking forward to having a nice quiet place to work on Zero Gear!

Nice Benz, yours?

[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.

[Deathy]

Heh, nice work. reminds me a bit of Trackmania.

[zaphod]

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

[zaphod]

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.