Devlog 10 v.1.1.0

So this is probably my last last devlog; this is the last devlog (I think) before my second ship. The second ship is essentially based on feedback from people who rated my first.

Changes since v.1.0.0

• Added settings for volume.
• Improved rover stability.
• Optimized performance.

Things I was hoping to add

• More settings that edit a lot of the values available, like the amount of rocks being spawned; the rocks might get too annoying for some people.
• Multiplayer modes
• More feature-packed things

I’m probably not going to add this to the project because after this I have exams, and then more exams, so yeah.

Challenges I had to overcome

• Learning Unity by myself for the first time
• Learning Blender by myself for the first time
• Having to learn C#, though this was easier because I already know C++

Things I learnt

• Game development is NOT easy
• You can’t make Forza Horizon 5 in a month
• Things exist outside of school

Thanks to everyone who rated my first ship. I didn’t realize how much people rated projects, and I was losing hope I’d get any good feedback, but the feedback I got was amazing, pointed out exactly what the problem was and how they would like it fixed, exactly what they liked about my project, etc.

Below is the complete playthrough of the game, from getting out of that dust storm to getting to the final point and falling down the Caldera of Olympus Mons.

Devlog 09 v.1.0.0

This is the last devlog for this project, and I did NOT have enough time because school came by way faster than i thought. But it is what is is

DUST STORMMSSSS

Devlog 08 v.0.3.0

I’m gonna make this short… I added dust storms, Music, a way better UI, and better vehicle physics. I attempted a better camera movement feature and failed miserably. I added a cool in game menu:

Devlog 07 v.0.2.0

So the last devlog was v.0.1.0; this is just the less-buggy, actually normal-looking UI version. Anyway, I just realized I have only 2 days to finish my project because I am going back to the UAE. My summer vacay in India is over, and in the UAE I’ll be way too busy with school stuff. At least it was nice while it lasted. I’m gonna have to pull all-nighters smhw … But honestly, I’m happy about the project till now; for a first game, I think it looks gud.

Changes since v.0.1.0

• Added a smarter particle system.

• Added way better UI, all made in Canva. I lowk spent too much time on the credits.

• I added ambient music

Things I need for v.0.3.0 or at least v.0.5.0

• Actual land structures

• Dust dust devils

• Clouds

Devlog 06

So basically, this is probably going to be the alpha version of my project… It is very under-polished, especially the UI, but I hope it is good enough for playtesting! I want to upload it on itch.io for feedback before I start polishing and adding finishing touches and features. But I have no idea if uploading to itch.io is allowed.

Changes:

• Added UI, including the main menu, credits, and HUD.

• Added particle effects to the rover.

• Added a better mesh I made in Blender.

• Added lights and a cool backlight when you click the brakes

• Added checkpoints; there are four of them, with the fourth being called the finalPoint.

• Added a pointer object that points you in the right direction for the next checkpoint.

Things I need to add:

• The checkpoints being actually visible, instead of just boring nothingness.

• A way better UI; currently it’s just text and primitive white squares.

• Better particle effects

• More Mars phenomena, like land structures, dust devils, clouds (I need to research them first), etc.

• Add a lander next to the rover for the lore, which is explained below:

Basically, the lore is just that the Lander messes up and lands on the wrong crater, so the rover has to go by itself from the crater to the actual mountain “opening” called the Caldera; the journey is shown in a picture below. The reason I chose to only make the journey from that crater to the caldera instead of the whole mountain is just that Olympus Mons is HUGE. 600km wide and 21km tall, so even in a slightly scaled down version of the mountain, it still is going to take way too long and be way too boring to be playable.

But anyway, I am really happy that this has actually reached a stage where it can be considered a game… even if it is classified as “barebones”

Devlog 05 (I think… I lost count)

The video below is the complete playthrough of the game till now, btw.

So today I just optimised things, made the code better, etc etc. I added rock spawning, and some actual feel of speed by increasing the FOV with higher speeds. Here are all the changes I made and what I need to do:

Changes

• I added a script that increases the FOV of the camera when the speed increases… I tried making the FOV increase with acceleration, but that ended up really bad

• I added a script that spawns rocks in a 1000 x 1000 area, so if you get to the edge of that spawned square of land, it spawns rocks at the next square. This is temporary because it gets very glitchy when you get to the edge of the spawned square, and you can see the rocks spawning, which isn’t very polished.

• I added way better suspension, but it still rolls over pretty fast… any Unity devs here know what to do? The vehicle is 1500 kg with 8 wheels…

• (ignore my out of context accomplishment but I am very proud of it) I defeated my cousin in badminton 7 - 3…

• Yeah, nothing else lol…

That’s that… now let’s get into things I plan on doing

Things I plan on doing:

• I got to get that rock spawning thing better… I’m thinking of slowly spawning a huge area when the game is loading… I just have to figure out how…

• I need a good skybox; the main objective of the game is to make people fall in love with Mars (currently they’ll just get pissed at it for the annoying rocks…)

• I need some actual UI; currently, it is really bare-bones

• I need to add particle effects

• I also need something to keep people from getting bored… driving around a crater is not gonna cut it…

And yeah… That is what I have done till now. The stupid thing is that I had studied Unity specifically for this project… I only knew C++ and Unreal Engine would bake my pc alive… So I had to learn Unity from scratch (help)

Devlog 04:

So this devlog has added VERY unstable features… You usually see devlogs where the features are perfect and polished, but I really need to sleep, so I’ll figure the bugs out tomorrow.

Firstly, I made this rock spawner; previously, it was a plain land of absolute nothingness… You couldn’t really see anything, in fact; when you were driving fast, all you would be able to see was an almost flat landscape, so you genuinely had almost no idea whether you were going fast or just not moving at all… The rocks removed that; our brain needs something passing by to judge the speed…

Secondly, I made this thing where the FOV increases based on the speed… It was a good addition except it was concerningly shaky… I tried to move it all into LateUpdate(), but that did absolutely nothing at all whatsoever;t it would be really cool once I get it to be smooth.

Thirdly I TRIED to add a rock spawning mechanism where the rocks spawn based on your location… It worked but only when you are at the edge of the already spawned chunk of land… I tried to make it spawn a bit earlier… (That is what you can see based on the following video )

Anyway, I use a potato, so I hope the one frame per next Christmas video recording doesn’t irritate you.

slightlyyyyyy crashed unity hehe

Devlog 03

So this was a headache… until now, everything was relatively easy. I had conveniently forgotten to save the project, so I had to recode the movement system. I added wheel colliders… (I gave up on using my own wheel models because you can barely see the wheels anyway; I thought it would be better to get some work done on other things…) I made an e-brake option and a reset option in case you get stuck… But now I am stuck with this weird bug… does anyone know how to make wheel meshes follow the wheel collider? Because whatever I did is messing up my wheels… Well, after this (after fixing this bug, I hope…) I’m going to be adding a soul to the mountain because currently it’s just a plane modified using a heightmap… I got some cool rocks from Sketchfab so I can add some roughness to the current plane mountain, and then I need to do some other things, which I will think about later… I also need to add the actual game other than the physical stuff (I hope ToT); I need to add the main menu, and a hell lot of stuff before this competition ends… (I’m fried)

NOTE: I just realized how bad the video recording is, sorry guys

Devlog 02

So basically… Wheel colliders were way too scary, so I decided to make my own wheel colliders from scratch cuz I can (no I cant). Hope I can actually get this project done in time, but this wheel collider issue is NOT helping… I have an emergency plan but that involves a very boring looking wheel… Anyway if you want you can analyze the bug below… I call it ‘The dance of wheels’ (ill try smth more creative next time)

Devlog 01

So basically I am trying to create a small little simulator which allows people to experience driving in another planet, I first had to find a DEM somewhere. A DEM is just a heightmap of a place. I wanted the DEM of Olympus Mons, the mountain the game is set at. It was a headache but I found it at some USGS website, I went into websites way too sketchy for my liking but I found it. After that I had to import it into Blender and then turn it into an actual model. So that is over, what I am working on right now is the rover itself… I made the model in Blender, and to call the model low-poly is an overstatement, but I am proud of it (somewhat). I was focusing on physics anyway ;-; Now the goals I have for the game is getting the physics and wheels to work. Unity did have wheel colliders but after a few hours of the wheel colliders appearing always somewhere random except where its supposed to be itself, I decided to somehow make my own wheel system… Wish me luck! (im so fried…)