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  • Racing game - TrackMaster: Free-For-All Motorsport

Demo version 0.0.2 is out and Linux version now available!

And, just a picture for your amusement...

7 days later

Demo 0.0.3 out!

https://trackmaster.itch.io/trackmaster-free-for-all-motorsport

Here is the changelog:

  1. New track
    • Folded HorseShoe
  2. Graphics options
    • Full screen mode on/off
    • HDR on/off
    • MSAA levels
    • Shadows on/off/quality
  3. Gameplay options
    • Configurable time to reset vehicle (after toppling over or sideways)
    • Invert camera rotation horizontal axis
    • Invert camera rotation vertical axis
    • Auto reset camera on/off
    • Auto reset camera time setting
  4. Sound
    • Fireworks sound disabled (until I add other sounds to the game, there is no point in having this sound)
  5. Gameplay improvements
    • Removed containers from Figure 8 track (really, they were annoying right?)
    • Monster truck center of gravity lowered a bit for better handling
    • Vehicle wheels now spin freely when accelerating/reverse is released (on previous version, it braked)
    • Handbrake now works
    • Truck scale adjusted. It is now wider and more coherent to real trucks. It is now much more stable when making turns.
    • Muscle car physics suspension improved. This is the vehicle I'm less satisfied yet, the acceleration is not good and it topples over too easy.

Here are some pictures to illustrate the changes in the truck and the car.

8 days later

Just modeled a loop in Blender, imported into Godot, made a few adjustments... and it worked!

The texture is ugly and the camera is not good yet while in the loop, but it's sure a lot of fun!

It will be in the next version of the demo!

19 days later

Small update: loop and ramps! https://trackmaster.itch.io/trackmaster-free-for-all-motorsport

Although this update is small in terms of amount of additions, the loop and the ramps actually change the gameplay completely, with lots of different possibilities!

  1. Added loop and ramps to the Freestyle Arena
  2. Added ramps to the Figure 8 Track
  3. New arena: Flat Arena (right now it doens't seem like much, but it will be useful in modes like tag and demolition)
2 months later

@Megalomaniak said: Demolition derby? :D

Yes! And that's just one of the modes!

a month later

An update on what's going on in the development right now: I'm adding computer controlled vehicles, and trying to teach them on how to drive!

Since this is a physics based game, it's one thing to tell the computer to accelerate, turn and brake. It's completely different to make it take into account the grip of a Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) vehicle, or the monster truck to not tip over because of it's size and acceleration.

In the video, I'm driving against computer controlled vehicles, and the white cubes are targets that the computer have to follow to... maybe complete the track. It's not working exactly like it should, but I think it's chaotic and fun already.

2 months later

Trackmaster Bloopers, Glitches, Stunts & Silly Stuff Vol. 1! Not an update actually, but fun anyway! I think it helps development to have fun with our own mistakes and the game unexpected behaviours!

@Saitodepaula said: I'm planning on releasing the vehicle setup as open source in Github, it's just not good enough I think.

Well, personally, I'd say anything would be better than nothing, and then also people who know something might join in and help you make it better. :)

I'm personally also not satisfied with the default stuff, but I don't have any knowledge of how to go about doing most vehicle stuff on my own either way, and I have no clue how to work with 6DOF nodes. But there's next to nothing out there to learn from... The best I could do so far, after following along with Bastiaan Olij's vehicle video series, was to get Stunt Playground's godot port and tinker with it. I managed to get my own monster truck working to the point of doing believable back-flips and jumps, but then... it still has the original 5 gears instead of 2, its wheels go through the floor of course and it topples over in nonsensical ways, and I've no idea how to turn the rear wheels the opposite way, how to get a working handbrake, how to lock the wheels when handbraking, how to make wheels skid when flooring the gas, how to allow my car to do a donut spin or nose wheelies, etc...

My ultimate goal is actually to try to do something inspired in Destruction Derby 2 and Carmageddon, but of course getting a monster truck to work is the most fun, and I figured it was also quite nice for learning the wheel settings and stuff. :)

20 days later

Early Access!

TrackMaster is really a project I have began because of those moments of "if no one is making the game I want to play, I'll make it". I want the physics and chaos of the old Destruction Derby games, the freedom of old games like Interstate'76 and of modern games like BeamNGDrive, the crazy modes of Test Drive: Eve of Destruction, the mayhem of Twisted Metal (the first one), the Monster Trucks from Monster Truck Madness, all this with split screen multiplayer, and more, much more, is that too much to ask?

And now, after 1 year of development, and 6 months on itch.io, TrackMaster: Free For All Motorsport enters early access phase!

This means the game is now availble for you to buy it, and from now on, the development cycle will be consistent, with new vehicles, tracks and game modes being added at a regular basis.

I've spent the last months making improvements in the code, code structure and menus structure, so that the game is ready for more content: vehicles, tracks and game modes!

This also means a couple more things:

  1. The full version of the game is now version 0.1. The only game mode available is free roam, but now with the possibility of computer controlled vehicles. And, although free roam is the only option, the AI vehicles will behave according to each arena: in the race tracks they will (try) to race, in the free arenas, they will just roam or try to be at a specific point, like in the new Master of the Hill Arena. Bear in mind that the computer is pretty bad at driving at the moment, and by this I mean, really bad...
  2. The demo version is now at version 0.1 too.
  3. Wait, this means that, right now, the demo and the full game are the same? Yes. And I took this decision so that anyone who wants to buy the game now, will make an informed decision, and will do so more as a way of contributing to future development than as a way of having a finished game right now. I do plan to release one update for the full game, still in january, with at least one more vehicle and one more track. You can expect, along 2021, at least monthly updates, with one vehicle and/or track each. So, a few months from now, the full game will have way more vehicles, tracks and game modes than the demo.
  4. You can see how I'm planning to develop the game along 2021 in the table below. This table will always be updated, and I will present these updates here, on itch.io and at trackmasterthegame.com/planning.
  5. So, the plan:
  6. 0.5 is planned to the end of 2021. The game at this point will feature all the vehicles (7 classes, with a varying number of models inside each class, to a total of 26 models), 11 tracks (plus the tracks variations) and 14 game modes planned now.
  7. 1.0 (end of early access phase) is planned to the middle of 2022. The game at this point will feature on-line multiplayer, LAN multiplayer, track editor and of course, more vehicles, tracks and game modes are probably going to be made.
  8. Nothing prevents some features to come out earlier than planned, like on-line multiplayer, I just can't promise it now.
  9. After 1.0, free updates with more of everything described above, and, why not, some new and cool things, like an open world, real world tracks, steering wheel support, vehicle destruction (with soft body!), missions and scenarios... but this are just dreams right now and I can't promise any of this.

So, the idea is to build a racing game that is easy to play, with a nice balance of fun and physics simulation, so that there are always new stuff to do and try, but that you can play in a relaxed way if you want. As long as the game proves to be good and is financially viable, I don't plan to abandon it after some features have being added, it could go on for years, why not!?

I really like the way games like Euro/American Truck Simulator, BeamNGDrive, Cities Skylines and Elite Dangerous are made: with great involvement from a community and constant and free updates and improvements. I don't think I'm going for the paid DLC way, even for the big content updates. I like the idea of a game you can have at the beginning, with just a few features, but a solid foundation, and years later you are still able to have fun with it, but with much more content, and more important, with no more money for it.

So, if you like the idea of a racing game to play the way you want, with any vehicle that comes to your mind, in crazy tracks, with lots of chaos, mayhem and solid physics, I hope you can enjoy the game from now on!

a month later
18 days later

Update 0.1.1 brings 2 new weird vehicles and 1 new chaotic track!

a month later
24 days later

Update 0.4 - ExplosiVan!

What? A helpless van? I'm just going to ram it with a Monster Tru... wait, what is it carryin...BOOM!

Hello, I'm making a car game with rigidbody wheels and physics joint suspensions like you do and I'd like to know how do you set up the car's center of mass ? When I try to place it somewhere realistic, the car stands on two wheels on its own. Can you please help me?

@Unityfugee said: Hello, I'm making a car game with rigidbody wheels and physics joint suspensions like you do and I'd like to know how do you set up the car's center of mass ? When I try to place it somewhere realistic, the car stands on two wheels on its own. Can you please help me?

Hi, I'll be glad to help!

I suggest you open a thread, so that we can discuss it in better detail. Post some screenshots or videos of your setup. When dealing with physics and joints, there are so many aspects to consider that it's difficult to say what could be going wrong (like the mass of the bodies, the stiffnes and damping of the joints, even the physics FPS).

EDIT - One of the most important things I forgot to mention: the physics engine. Bullet lets you set the center of gravity position. Godot Physics makes an average of CollisionShape centers.

https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/classes/class_rigidbody.html

Nevermind, I think I solved it. I think it had something to do with the way I placed the joints in code.

Thanks for the tip, by the way !

23 days later