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[Soul Challenger]

This relaxing drive gives me the creeps.. 
It's no easy feat to convey this kind of emotions through a short video: really good stuff.

Thanks! Posted a new one, right below 

Looking beautiful!
Showed to a non-gamer and they were impressed & scared.

Thank you Here's a new video from the perspective of a chaser:

I'm really looking forward to this! Been a lurker here along time and this is one of the first projects that got me excited that I wanted to ask you a question: do you need a music composer for this? I'm a musician who has started working on atmospheric digital and analog music using synths, basses, drums and guitars. If you need someone I would love to give it a shot to see if I can create some mood music for you.

Thanks for your offer, but I do have a music composer. We've been working together over 15 years.

Ooooh I really like the overcast during day. It really manages to stay creepy :D

Haven't really started working on the "day"/night feel and look, so it's great to read your positive feedback about this 

Man this stuff really inspires me. I'm a newbie to game development! Where did you learn to make this world / graphics / modeling and such?

Been doing CGI animation since 1998 (self taught) so that helps a lot. And then, been and still am hand drawing a lot - that also adds to the mix. Concerning game-dev, still learning a lot and won't be stopping anytime soon Just hang on there and don't get discouraged!

[quantumpotato]

Creepy chase video.
At first I didn't think the music fit - too happy sounding - and then I thought hm, it's even creepier if the pursuers are listening to smooth upbeat music while hunting someone down to kill them.. like it's just a regular day for them.

I like how we don't have any context for why the player is fleeing, wearing a rabbit mask etc... keep up the great work. So excited to play this.

[BlaCGaming]

Absolutely love the concept and artstyle!

I have seen a few awesome ideas on reddit regarding how the game could play and I would like to bring this one to your attention, because I think it would be crazy awesome, creepy and super tense:

"I like the idea of a survival game where your car is essential to survival and the gif was awesome but random zombies would be significantly less scary than a faceless attacker also pursuing you in a car. Having to scavenge for supplies, repair, fight things, and get back to your car before you see those headlights in the distance would be a lot of fun."

I can imagine it so perfectly, you get away from the chasing car and you find a spot to loot. You hurry the hell out of your car and run around trying to collect everything and in the distance (while everything else is dark and creepy) you see lights and hear a roaring engine. I would be so tense I would just ignore everything thats left and run the hell out of there 

Hope you consider this and some other ideas, a lot of upvotes for this answer, so definitely a lot of people interested in this idea 

[Soul Challenger]

Creepy chase video.
At first I didn't think the music fit - too happy sounding - and then I thought hm, it's even creepier if the pursuers are listening to smooth upbeat music while hunting someone down to kill them.. like it's just a regular day for them.

I like how we don't have any context for why the player is fleeing, wearing a rabbit mask etc... keep up the great work. So excited to play this.

The music is just temporary - it's from an album that I've been enjoying more and more in the past weeks (

). But yeah, been discussing this with my music composer and we agreed it would amplify the scary bits if there were also "happier" tracks as a contrast.

Speaking of audio, I further tweaked the engine sound:





it's slightly better but still not sounding like it should: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4DJthD9A-g, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neLy49bMmqc&t=461s

Absolutely love the concept and artstyle!

I have seen a few awesome ideas on reddit regarding how the game could play and I would like to bring this one to your attention, because I think it would be crazy awesome, creepy and super tense:

"I like the idea of a survival game where your car is essential to survival and the gif was awesome but random zombies would be significantly less scary than a faceless attacker also pursuing you in a car. Having to scavenge for supplies, repair, fight things, and get back to your car before you see those headlights in the distance would be a lot of fun."

I can imagine it so perfectly, you get away from the chasing car and you find a spot to loot. You hurry the hell out of your car and run around trying to collect everything and in the distance (while everything else is dark and creepy) you see lights and hear a roaring engine. I would be so tense I would just ignore everything thats left and run the hell out of there 

Hope you consider this and some other ideas, a lot of upvotes for this answer, so definitely a lot of people interested in this idea 

I like those ideas too but it would definitely cost a lot to enable the players to get out of the car. There could be some specific locations where the player could get out though.

[Soul Challenger]

Started testing how it would look with real volumetric lighting 

[coah]

Looks real good 

[Greipur]

Yes, very atmospheric! How demanding is it with these effects performance-wise? I still remember how sluggishly Alan Wake (which also used volumetric lighting extensively) ran on my PC, but it was worth it.

[Pineapple]

I watched one of the videos and I remembered that one person said that while the visuals are perfect, the audio isn't quite there yet.

I think I know what would help, a lot - the music should be coming from the car radios, and should be interrupted by static sometimes. And if you ever exit the car, the music should stop when you stray far enough from it. Having the music be completely outside of the scene doesn't quite fit in a game with an atmosphere like this.

[quantumpotato]

I watched one of the videos and I remembered that one person said that while the visuals are perfect, the audio isn't quite there yet.

I think I know what would help, a lot - the music should be coming from the car radios, and should be interrupted by static sometimes. And if you ever exit the car, the music should stop when you stray far enough from it. Having the music be completely outside of the scene doesn't quite fit in a game with an atmosphere like this.

That would be cool!

SoulChallenger, I think your game is going to win awards. Looking fantastic.

[Xonatron]

I am liking this. Your videos/gifs look great. Only hearing about it right now! I'm in!

[Soul Challenger]

Looks real good 

Thank you 

Yes, very atmospheric! How demanding is it with these effects performance-wise? I still remember how sluggishly Alan Wake (which also used volumetric lighting extensively) ran on my PC, but it was worth it.

Not very demanding on desktop. Here's an open-source one to try out: https://github.com/SlightlyMad/VolumetricLights and there's a paid one called "Hx Volumetric" which should be more optimized. As you wrote, definitely worth it 

I watched one of the videos and I remembered that one person said that while the visuals are perfect, the audio isn't quite there yet.

I think I know what would help, a lot - the music should be coming from the car radios, and should be interrupted by static sometimes. And if you ever exit the car, the music should stop when you stray far enough from it. Having the music be completely outside of the scene doesn't quite fit in a game with an atmosphere like this.

Absolutely agree! Been working by myself on the audio but it's time to get my composer/audio guy involved so that the sounds match the setting.

That would be cool!

SoulChallenger, I think your game is going to win awards. Looking fantastic.

Thank you 

I am liking this. Your videos/gifs look great. Only hearing about it right now! I'm in!

I'm happy you like it, thanks 


****

Here's a longer video showcasing the volumetric lighting - really adds to the atmosphere and tension:

[Pineapple]

Here's a longer video showcasing the volumetric lighting - really adds to the atmosphere and tension:

It's absurd how good that looks

[utkiupe]

Hi Soul challenger
- and hello everyone, this is my first post there although I have been seeking around for a few years now. It's time to stop stalking anonymously

I'dl like to tell you how excited by the game you are building.
And all the untold little details, such as these... dead bodies/spooky sleeping guys on the car on this last video.

So my feeling is that you don't need to get out of the car. You might step into something really too big to handle by yourself... Maybe some clever UI for managing, I don't know, gas stations, buying food or whatever you need for your journey/survival.  It depends on what your intentions are but as far as I see what you already shared on this project you really are into this creepy car chasing with strange unknown people. Even the narrative can be hazy, so players can put there what they want, their own anxiety, own story. I guess everyone has been on car, driving or not, in some strange dark road, wondering if something scary would jump out from behind a bush.

I can't wait to see more.

[kinnas]

That is sickly good. The sound is really missing out on pebbles hitting the bottom of the car though!

If the pursuers lose sight of you, can you park your car on a side road behind some trees, kill the lights and have them lose you?

[Soul Challenger]

Hi Soul challenger
- and hello everyone, this is my first post there although I have been seeking around for a few years now. It's time to stop stalking anonymously

I'dl like to tell you how excited by the game you are building.
And all the untold little details, such as these... dead bodies/spooky sleeping guys on the car on this last video.

So my feeling is that you don't need to get out of the car. You might step into something really too big to handle by yourself... Maybe some clever UI for managing, I don't know, gas stations, buying food or whatever you need for your journey/survival.  It depends on what your intentions are but as far as I see what you already shared on this project you really are into this creepy car chasing with strange unknown people. Even the narrative can be hazy, so players can put there what they want, their own anxiety, own story. I guess everyone has been on car, driving or not, in some strange dark road, wondering if something scary would jump out from behind a bush.

I can't wait to see more.

Hello Utkiupe, thanks a lot for your feedback! The possibility of getting out of the car is something lots of people have been asking about. In my opinion, the best way to avoid this would be to make it clear to the player that exiting = death! The cars are supposed to feel like an extension of the player character: a protective shell on wheels. One consideration is to have limited safe-zones, hidden barns for example, where the player could get out and repair/modify the car or let's say an abandoned supermarket which you could explore in search of food. I'm just afraid that once you allow the player to exit the car at specific locations, they'll want to be able to do that everywhere.

That is sickly good. The sound is really missing out on pebbles hitting the bottom of the car though!

If the pursuers lose sight of you, can you park your car on a side road behind some trees, kill the lights and have them lose you?

Sound of pebbles hitting the bottom of the car is planned. I remember driving through the desert in Morocco and the loud bangs of rocks hitting the chassis.

The hide and seek system is yet to be implemented. I'm assuming that will be a challenge of it's own since a simple raycastHit detection won't be a viable approach. Simulating the goons actually looking around for you and making things like car color count as a factor influencing detection while keeping it simple in code. Lights on/off, maybe a kill switch for brake lights, matte car paint and other aspects helping with camouflage would make sense. And then there's detection based on audio (though that might feel just too annoying and kill the fun).

[Greipur]

Regarding getting outside of the car or not, I guess it depends on when you want the game to be done, because I assume this is a solo project from start to finish?

Though, I think contrasting driving with walking is a good tool for creating an oppressive environment. I would recommend to take a look at The Following expansion for Dying Light where the main means of transportation is a buggy (instead of parkouring as in the main game). The tone is wildly different from your game of course, but the core loop of when to get in and out of the vehicle works very well. RPS did a good write-up about it.

[quantumpotato]

Regarding getting outside of the car or not, I guess it depends on when you want the game to be done, because I assume this is a solo project from start to finish?

Though, I think contrasting driving with walking is a good tool for creating an oppressive environment. I would recommend to take a look at The Following expansion for Dying Light where the main means of transportation is a buggy (instead of parkouring as in the main game). The tone is wildly different from your game of course, but the core loop of when to get in and out of the vehicle works very well. RPS did a good write-up about it.

So far I like the feeling of being totally trapped in the car in this game! From the looks of it, the attackers want to drag you out of the car anyway..

[Soul Challenger]

Regarding getting outside of the car or not, I guess it depends on when you want the game to be done, because I assume this is a solo project from start to finish?

Though, I think contrasting driving with walking is a good tool for creating an oppressive environment. I would recommend to take a look at The Following expansion for Dying Light where the main means of transportation is a buggy (instead of parkouring as in the main game). The tone is wildly different from your game of course, but the core loop of when to get in and out of the vehicle works very well. RPS did a good write-up about it.

Thanks a lot for the link to the RPS article - interesting read. Yes, this is a solo project although I'm currently looking into ways to bring more people aboard. If successful, we might have a small team (3-4 people), so nothing comparable to Techland's team. I'd rather invest time and energy into creating more content explorable by driving only (vast stretches of land are necessary for allowing tension to build up) than investing considerable resources that additional on-foot gameplay would require.

[Greipur]

Regarding getting outside of the car or not, I guess it depends on when you want the game to be done, because I assume this is a solo project from start to finish?

Though, I think contrasting driving with walking is a good tool for creating an oppressive environment. I would recommend to take a look at The Following expansion for Dying Light where the main means of transportation is a buggy (instead of parkouring as in the main game). The tone is wildly different from your game of course, but the core loop of when to get in and out of the vehicle works very well. RPS did a good write-up about it.

Thanks a lot for the link to the RPS article - interesting read. Yes, this is a solo project although I'm currently looking into ways to bring more people aboard. If successful, we might have a small team (3-4 people), so nothing comparable to Techland's team. I'd rather invest time and energy into creating more content explorable by driving only (vast stretches of land are necessary for allowing tension to build up) than investing considerable resources that additional on-foot gameplay would require.

Glad you enjoyed it! Agreed, keeping the scope narrow is always a good idea with indie projects. I think it's also a part that makes them so precious - the minimalism.

Interesting to see how it develops when the project grows from a singular vision to a group effort, I think it will only benefit from this. Creating a semi-open world (?) game would probably be very demanding to complete on your own.

[BlaCGaming]

Regarding getting outside of the car or not, I guess it depends on when you want the game to be done, because I assume this is a solo project from start to finish?

Though, I think contrasting driving with walking is a good tool for creating an oppressive environment. I would recommend to take a look at The Following expansion for Dying Light where the main means of transportation is a buggy (instead of parkouring as in the main game). The tone is wildly different from your game of course, but the core loop of when to get in and out of the vehicle works very well. RPS did a good write-up about it.

Thanks a lot for the link to the RPS article - interesting read. Yes, this is a solo project although I'm currently looking into ways to bring more people aboard. If successful, we might have a small team (3-4 people), so nothing comparable to Techland's team. I'd rather invest time and energy into creating more content explorable by driving only (vast stretches of land are necessary for allowing tension to build up) than investing considerable resources that additional on-foot gameplay would require.

I think its a good idea, especially since you still have options once you have a successful release to followup with updates and/or DLCs, although I assume you´ll go the road of Early Access which is a good thing in my opinion