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[Juwdah]

This game looks dope!
Great atmosphere, well crafted. Hats off to you 

This in VR would indeed, be amazing.

[indominator]

is there a download link?

[GameLoop]

Great concept. Great look. Greatly interested.
I am also voicing pro vr support (psvr in my case). After playing the kitchen demo and driveclub vr it became very apparent to me that horror and driving games would become my go-to vr genres. This combines both so.. 
Also, wheel and clutch support to further up immersion and tension...
hectically glancing in the rear view mirror breaking around a tight corner and having to remember to shift down in time... 

I don't want to interfere with your own vision for the game so.. sorry if I seem overly suggestive.

[svecka]

+1 for VR support pls....this could bring horror experience in driving survival game to the whole new level!

[Rapster]

Really looking forward to your game, Ondřej. You have an interesting backstory, too, not too dissimilar to my own, just from a different part of the World.

I'll be keeping a close eye on your progress - take care and good luck!

[quantumpotato]

is there a download link?

Not yet

[chriswearly]

Fun fact: you were on the front page of reddit today in /r/gaming 
https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/5du2ll/driving_survival_game/

[FLP]

Wow nice game bro  , have support for G27 and G29? Force feedback ? Should have some difficulty mode where you would have to use clutch to change gear(H and sequential) and do not let the engine shut down.

on Comperative mode, People who would not be driving could throw things in the car !

I'd have a better idea if I played the game! I await a closed alpha beta ! F5 

FLP

[JFKSKks]

Just saw it on reddit, I would play the heck out of this. Just needs a plot, beyond the world you created in your video (the bodies getting sucked of life and thrown out).

[Rapster]

...the bodies getting sucked of life and thrown out...

Sounds like the experience I had just before I got divorced...  





 

[CYON4D]

This is absolutely fantastic.
The art, physics based (no cheating) driving mechanics for AI, car responsiveness and the creepy mood are all exceptionally executed.
I wish you the best of luck with your project.

[xzbobzx]

Holy hell, that's amazing. Very very very good work on the driving physics, most developers just cheat with that and hope nobody will notice. (Looking at you, Just Cause).

I do wonder how you make the AI. I'm working on my own driving game (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=I_7m13rDKMA), and while I have very rudimentary AI it's nowhere near shippable. If you don't mind I'd like to ask what method you used to make the AI follow the road properly.

Personally I've been thinking about making a sort of spline based system, and giving the car a maximum distance they can stray from the spline before following the road again. I'm not sure how well this would work though (one problem I can already imagine is determining WHERE on the spline the car should check the distance. I hope you could shed some light.

Again, great work, I can't wait to try this game out myself!

[quantumpotato]

Holy hell, that's amazing. Very very very good work on the driving physics, most developers just cheat with that and hope nobody will notice. (Looking at your, Just Cause).

Hey, not an AI programmer, but you may want to check out "flocking AI". Playing Devil Daggers https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=58818.0;topicseen recently I see the enemies will move towards you with a limited turning ratio -- but if they encounter another enemy they'll buddy up and move next to it. In other words they don't go in a straight line all the time.
This is Sunset Overdrive AI talk which covers similar flocking behavior albiet with more environmental cues

[xzbobzx]

Holy hell, that's amazing. Very very very good work on the driving physics, most developers just cheat with that and hope nobody will notice. (Looking at your, Just Cause).

Hey, not an AI programmer, but you may want to check out "flocking AI". Playing Devil Daggers https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=58818.0;topicseen recently I see the enemies will move towards you with a limited turning ratio -- but if they encounter another enemy they'll buddy up and move next to it. In other words they don't go in a straight line all the time.
This is Sunset Overdrive AI talk which covers similar flocking behavior albiet with more environmental cues.

Oooh that's some good food for thought. It makes me think the biggest thing about AI is making it seem realistic and very intelligent, rather than it actually being that. Almost as if when designing AI you're designing a challenge for the player to overcome, instead of a realistic simulation of real-world behavior.

[jctwood]

This is extremely interesting and beautifully gritty looking.

[quantumpotato]

Holy hell, that's amazing. Very very very good work on the driving physics, most developers just cheat with that and hope nobody will notice. (Looking at your, Just Cause).

Hey, not an AI programmer, but you may want to check out "flocking AI". Playing Devil Daggers https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=58818.0;topicseen recently I see the enemies will move towards you with a limited turning ratio -- but if they encounter another enemy they'll buddy up and move next to it. In other words they don't go in a straight line all the time.
This is Sunset Overdrive AI talk which covers similar flocking behavior albiet with more environmental cues.

Oooh that's some good food for thought. It makes me think the biggest thing about AI is making it seem realistic and very intelligent, rather than it actually being that. Almost as if when designing AI you're designing a challenge for the player to overcome, instead of a realistic simulation of real-world behavior.

Yeah. A great example of this is my interpretation of how enemy accuracy worked in Perfect Dark (N64). The game was about you being a spy. Enemies were shocked to see you (played an animation & voice over) then started shooting. Their first shot would miss. Then they would hit you a fraction of a second later and chip a bit of your health. If you stayed in their line of sight, they would get progressively more accurate (more shots hitting / more damage per shot). This had the effect of making you feel like you narrowly escaped when you ducked around a corner and just got grazed.. but if you stand in the open you get gunned down fast.
The mechanics shaped the challenge they wanted the player to do - move like a spy attacking from the shadows not terminator style.

That said I think the AI in Sunset Overdrive is somewhat realistic in that the enemies *do* spread out to surround you.. they actively attempt to cover your available options that you could escape to (like the Blinky(?) ghost in Pacman does), which is realistic + challenge.

Lots of racing games actually slow down the lead AI car & speed up the losers to make sure you are always near other cars. I'm curious how Driving Survival will handle this - if you crash an enemy, is there always another one soon after? If you don't crash an enemy, will you get overwhelmed with new enemies or do they only spawn after you dispose of one? If you make an AI veer off a cliff that takes minutes to get back, do they lose track of you? Will they think ahead and drive to where you could be?

[xzbobzx]

Lots of racing games actually slow down the lead AI car & speed up the losers to make sure you are always near other cars. I'm curious how Driving Survival will handle this - if you crash an enemy, is there always another one soon after? If you don't crash an enemy, will you get overwhelmed with new enemies or do they only spawn after you dispose of one? If you make an AI veer off a cliff that takes minutes to get back, do they lose track of you? Will they think ahead and drive to where you could be?

Those are the exact problems I've been tinkering with.

I'm thinking that a mix between Driver's mechanics, and realistic physics work best. Rubberband police cars that aren't disabled or too far away, and then turn them realistic when they get near you. Then for the amount of police cars you'd set a target value based on your wanted level. Police cars that get out of range (broken down or not) get de-spawned and a new one spawns nearby.

But that's just the spawning imagined, the real trick is making sure they know how to avoid trees and vehicles, and how to stay on the road at all in the first place.

From the videos posted here it seems that chase cars go where the player was, instead of where the player is, thus kind of following a correct path & staying on the road. I haven't seen any real obstacles yet (other cars and stuff like that), I wonder how they would cope with those.

[quantumpotato]

Lots of racing games actually slow down the lead AI car & speed up the losers to make sure you are always near other cars. I'm curious how Driving Survival will handle this - if you crash an enemy, is there always another one soon after? If you don't crash an enemy, will you get overwhelmed with new enemies or do they only spawn after you dispose of one? If you make an AI veer off a cliff that takes minutes to get back, do they lose track of you? Will they think ahead and drive to where you could be?

Those are the exact problems I've been tinkering with.

I'm thinking that a mix between Driver's mechanics, and realistic physics work best. Rubberband police cars that aren't disabled or too far away, and then turn them realistic when they get near you. Then for the amount of police cars you'd set a target value based on your wanted level. Police cars that get out of range (broken down or not) get de-spawned and a new one spawns nearby.

But that's just the spawning imagined, the real trick is making sure they know how to avoid trees and vehicles, and how to stay on the road at all in the first place.

From the videos posted here it seems that chase cars go where the player was, instead of where the player is, thus kind of following a correct path & staying on the road. I haven't seen any real obstacles yet (other cars and stuff like that), I wonder how they would cope with those.

Interesting, hopefully Soul Challenger would elaborate on their AI design? We are curious!

That's a neat trick though. The AIs in Driving Survival game do have each other as obstacles and IIRC they can come in from different angles, so they'll probably need some flocking behavior (or just continuously bump against each other).

I think an advanced AI would go where the player "will be" - but this is difficult to program, as the Sunset Overdrive talk illustrates. As long as the chase cars in DSg have a higher topspeed than the player, then the player will be required to make turns and zig zag to stay alive.

[Soul Challenger]

This looks beautiful.

Thanks! 

looks horrifying and fun. cannot wait to play.

Thank you! Next step is a tech demo - trial through fire 

The AI really seems to be nice. I guess this game couldn't live without good AI. Looks damn great by the way.

Thanks! Yeah, the AI has eaten-up most of my time. Was worth it though, I think.

Looks fantastic with a great mood. Good wheel support and head-tracking would make this super immersive.

Thank you! Wheel support would be cool but the version of car physics middleware we're using does not have FFB so that's still a problem to be solved. TrackIR should be doable - found a plug-in for Unity.

I'm smitten by the concept already.  I mean, I don't want to sound fawning, but I'm terribly smitten by it.

I absolutely love driving, especially at night, and over very long distances.  I'm also rather a fan of sim-racing, and I know that's not quite the angle you're using (since I imagine you'd like it more approachable to people less interested in that sort of driving) but I thought I'd offer a few suggestions to issues you were toying with, regarding the car chases.

It looks rainy and wet in this world, so it stands to reason, I think, that there should be more environmental hazards: water-filled ditches, muddy fields and so forth.  Getting shoved in to one of those and running the risk of getting mired up to the axles could result in some tense moments trying to work the car free while the bad guys stroll up to do their business.

I know adding car damage is going to add a lot of complexity to the code, but I think it could be used to good effect.  Most of it could be more-or-less cosmetic, with the back end of the car starting to get knocked in, the trunk lid might start flapping in the wind (obscuring the rear view mirror on occasion), or a bumper bolt might shear off and let part of the bumper drag on the road, throwing up sparks on the pavement.

I know you've covered this already, but I'm hoping for some VR support.  Unity does have a few libraries to support OpenVR so it may not be too difficult.  I was watching the first-person views and easily visualizing how I might look over my shoulder to see where the pursuit is, etc.

Great to read that, thanks! I've already implemented dynamic terrain deformation so getting stuck in the mud is in (although not yet in a satisfactory form). Concerning car damage, the ideal would be soft body deformation and there's a plug-in called "Truss Physics" which should be able to do the job. I've done a couple of preliminary tests and performance seems quite fine - but no promises. Cosmetic damage, if done right, would still be a viable alternative. For VR, we're considering that too, but it's not the main focus.

Can your car stall? Battling the car's engine ala many horror chases would add some spice.

This has been mentioned quite often and my concern is that it might feel annoying. Depends on the implementation though.

Just found this game and wanted to say that it looks amazing, graphics and physics wise. Looks pretty interesting and cannot wait to get a chance to play it. One thing is that you should definitely add is good car collision physics, maybe you can try doing something like beamng?
Other than that, can't wait to see what it'll come out as

Thank you! Yeah, good collision behavior is a must-have. I would really like to amplify the feeling of vulnerability through that (without striving for super-realism).

When you get ready for some testers I'd love to give it a run. It looks really interesting so far.

Thanks!

Yeah, it looks really good

Let's see if it plays good too   

@Author

I would really loved to see "chapter", where you have to escape the truck with a car.  I suggest, that you look upon the great movie "Duel" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067023/), where the atmosphere and being chased is presented spectacular. 

Just imagining you are driving normally, and then while you are driving there shows side by side another view of the truck whose he slowly starts to drive and you don't have a clue where it will show up until the last moment when his light turn on he is suddenly behind you. 

Also if there would be chapters, you could like in the movie stop and have a rest and another side by side camera (or even three of four as in some multicamera horror games). Shows the wheels of the truck as he drives, he stops, and someone walks out of it. IMHO never show their faces, until the end....or IMHO the crazy person who is chasing you should wear crazy scary killer mask, not the main average joe.

Love the game and i hope that chasing would bring more interesting scenes as closed bridge, road block, car accident, train passing and so on, which would bring obstacles to the player as he must try to avoid "obstacles" on the road and prevent to be stopped.

I understand what you mean and the landscape will be an obstacle itself - have many ideas going in that direction. I've re-watched Duel a couple days ago, and while I respect the films strength in it's historical context, I felt slightly annoyed by it's IMHO archaic cinematographic language. Still inclining towards the feelings I felt after watching Vanishing Point (1971 - not the horrible 1997 remake).

Wow, awesome concept for a game! I love the cars, because i've lived in the German Democratic Republic as a kid, so i'm used to Moskvich, Lada and so on. I've done a little article on the project, to spread the word: http://www.boobsandbullets.com/driving-survival-ein-surreales-horrorspiel-ueber-verfolgungsjagden. Totally hyped for the full release, keep on the good work!

Herzlichen dank fuer den Artikel! Ich weiss es zu schaetzten 

I absolutely love this, and I'm not a fan of driving games.

If I had one suggestion it'd be to make it first person only, it helps with the atmosphere and definitely makes it more scary

Thank you! We'd still like to keep third person as an option.

When do you plan to release this?

Plans are plans and I'd love to release the full game yesterday, but jokes apart, in 2-3 years would be a realistic goal.

With VR, this could potentially go from quite creepy to ultimately terrifying. Very impressive stuff here.

By the way. You know how there's the term "road rage"? How about the game be called something like Road Terror or something along those lines? That would be pretty nifty.

VR is being considered. I have yet to try the tech myself.

Can I use a Steering Wheel .... this so awesome

Thanks! Wheel, yes, though as I wrote further above, FFB is not solved yet.

I remember when I was kid playing Super Monaco GP on Megadrive (Genesis in some places) and there was a pilot impossible to beat in first season. Even if you passes him, he magically appears half lap ahead!

Really nice work. Congratulations.

There are plans to console release (xbox please) ?

Thank you From the info I have gathered, consoles are a pain in the ass to port to... I grew up with NES, gameboy, SNES and N64 before I switched to Macintosh and later PC, so I have nothing against consoles, on the contrary. Depends on the financial resources we'll have.

looks awesome. amazing how well you capture the wet, dark night feeling. I watched the video with 2 cars chasing each other hoping for the guys to get out and start beating on the car, but maybe that was an old video?

Thanks! If it was the "Ai vs Human" then yes, the goons geting out of the car was not yet in.

[Soul Challenger]

Hi i'm Fossil420 and i love this game!!!
Can i Make a Reactions Video for youtube? with trailers?

Hello, thanks! Sure feel free to do so.

This game looks dope!
Great atmosphere, well crafted. Hats off to you 

This in VR would indeed, be amazing.

Thank you

Great concept. Great look. Greatly interested.
I am also voicing pro vr support (psvr in my case). After playing the kitchen demo and driveclub vr it became very apparent to me that horror and driving games would become my go-to vr genres. This combines both so.. 
Also, wheel and clutch support to further up immersion and tension...
hectically glancing in the rear view mirror breaking around a tight corner and having to remember to shift down in time... 

I don't want to interfere with your own vision for the game so.. sorry if I seem overly suggestive.

Don't worry about it and yes, VR would certainly be a welcome enhancement to the 1st-person cam.

+1 for VR support pls....this could bring horror experience in driving survival game to the whole new level!

Noted

Really looking forward to your game, Ondřej. You have an interesting backstory, too, not too dissimilar to my own, just from a different part of the World.

I'll be keeping a close eye on your progress - take care and good luck!

Thank you! Which part of the world, and when, and how, if you don't mind me asking?

Fun fact: you were on the front page of reddit today in /r/gaming 
https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/5du2ll/driving_survival_game/

Yeah, unfortunately I was away from internet access when that happened. It's funny, a couple months back, I tried to post some info about the game on reddit and it was rejected as self-promotion... And because I didn't want to post some pictures of cats to conform to the reddiquette, I just reddit be, reddit beeeeee 

Wow nice game bro  , have support for G27 and G29? Force feedback ? Should have some difficulty mode where you would have to use clutch to change gear(H and sequential) and do not let the engine shut down.

on Comperative mode, People who would not be driving could throw things in the car !

I'd have a better idea if I played the game! I await a closed alpha beta ! F5 

FLP

Thank you!

...the bodies getting sucked of life and thrown out...

Sounds like the experience I had just before I got divorced...   

lol

This is absolutely fantastic.
The art, physics based (no cheating) driving mechanics for AI, car responsiveness and the creepy mood are all exceptionally executed.
I wish you the best of luck with your project.

Thank you very much!

Holy hell, that's amazing. Very very very good work on the driving physics, most developers just cheat with that and hope nobody will notice. (Looking at you, Just Cause).

I do wonder how you make the AI. I'm working on my own driving game (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=I_7m13rDKMA), and while I have very rudimentary AI it's nowhere near shippable. If you don't mind I'd like to ask what method you used to make the AI follow the road properly.

Personally I've been thinking about making a sort of spline based system, and giving the car a maximum distance they can stray from the spline before following the road again. I'm not sure how well this would work though (one problem I can already imagine is determining WHERE on the spline the car should check the distance. I hope you could shed some light.

Again, great work, I can't wait to try this game out myself!

Thanks, and looking at your project I feel it looks quite fine and natural already! For the AI staying on the road, I just use waypoints in the middle of the road and keep it as simple as possible (with some special sauce involved). You should try to figure out a way to anticipate where your target will be instead of where it is or was.

This is extremely interesting and beautifully gritty looking.

Great to hear that! Thanks