Dev Log 5 - UI / Polish

Dev Log - UI / Polish

This week I added collisions, cars driving the opposite direction, position and lap rudimentary UI, and a speedometer.

Originally I planned to have more realistic collisions, but these were proving to be difficult to implement. Mainly due to the way the cars interact with the spline. Any kind of custom physics was breaking the game after only a few laps, so I removed the jump, and simplified the collisions.

I'm not happy with the collision effect but at least it makes it sort of like a game now.

The position and lap UI was easy to do. I just calculate each car's position and current lap and determine if my car is further. If it is, it updates the position. One thing that can make this a confusing for players if the lap a particularly slow car the position doesn't update and they assume it's a bug. Or I suppose if an opponent car laps you, which you then pass, it also won't update.

The speedometer is just a two vectors. One arc and one line. Simple sprites would look better, but I was just trying to get the functionality down.

Removing the jump and adding simplified collisions improved the game but it's still not something I'd push to completion. I'm not happy with the level design workflow. This is my primary concern. It must be a dynamic and fun track but not take weeks to design.

I'm still loving / hating splines. The ease in which I could add opponents was surely a bonus. Having to shelve one of the more interesting features with jumps is a major negative.