Stunt Double

A few posts back I mentioned we were working on a new game prototype which was basically a downhill ski-game with a special twist. Well the special twist is that in this game you're driving a car downhill while slaloming, grinding and jumping insane ramps!! It's like SSX but with cars! 

The prototype proved to be quite fun to play so we got a go on this project.

There was one problem we've soon noticed while playing the prototype: the car stunts looked a bit boring when the cars only turned, rolled and twisted in the air. It missed that extra wow factor you need in an "extreme sports" game like this. 

Another problem is that cars can't really give the player any feedback when successfully performing a stunt, we could have shown some sparks or particles but that wouldn't look very impressive. 

Then someone here got the ingenious idea to turn the cars into cabriolets and put two characters inside. Now we're not only limited to car stunts but we can also add character stunts and even combine them. This change made the game instantly more fun to play and by adding the characters we can give the player much more feedback by making them wave, cheer and shout. It also adds to the overall arcady feel of the game.

Work in progress image of the two characters inside a dummy car.

One of the drawbacks is that this decision does add to the complexity of the game, beside relatively simple the car animations we also have to animate two separate characters which also have to interact with the car and each other. We do think this extra effort will set this game apart and make it much more attractive and fun to play, I guess we'll know in a few weeks when the game is released.

-Matt