Zero Gear - an indie multiplayer kart racing game

[Bic-B@ll]

awesome, now all it needs is a ufo flying around, maybe marvin the martian too

[Warby]

it seems to me that you have been posting updates for zero gears for years now

... when will you be done with this ?

i know that the last 10% take 90% of the time so tells us at least are you guys in the last 10% block ?

*will buy on day one*

[zaphod]

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!

[Minos]

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!

No worries, I'm sure it will pay off in the end

/me pets zappy

[Furyo]

Give me a price, I'll buy

[FrieChamp]

*takes out some euro bills out of his wallet and puts them into a small box with a "Zero Gear" tag on it*

[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

It does appear un-natural though when you make a jump and it goes all lob-sided, Is it really necessary to have proper physics and suspension values? If you look at the most successfull games from this genre i.e. Mario Kart - their physics system are extremely simple, if non existant - kart always stays upright + basic gravity for jumps +basic settings for torque, accelleration, speed etc. Atm I think the biggest problem I see is that the karts dont feel 'grounded' so to speak, they seem a bit floaty and odd. Dont get me wrong though it still looks awesome but I think it's one area that needs a bit of polish.

[zaphod]

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.

[Bic-B@ll]

WELL?

[zaphod]

we are working on it! Really!

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

[zaphod]

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*

[Bic-B@ll]

love it! just needs one of those orange track back flips

[2d-chris]

Appears that the game will have allot of content

[Mazy]

ZOMG TIS A NEW MICROMACHINES!

[Sentura]

ZOMG TIS A NEW MICROMACHINES!

what i was thinking

AND THAT SI AWESOEM