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[I_smell]

Oh if you're looking for names, here are some ideas:

Rain-Slick
Drive
Skid Row
Wet Road
Slip Road
Don't Look Back
Brake Light
Snake Pass
Followers
Clutch
Downpour
Midnight
23:30

[quantumpotato]

I like Wheels of Darkness, Clutch, 23:30.
Proposed: Death Drive.

Don't look back is the name of http://terrycavanaghgames.com/dontlookback/. Not that I'm against naming collisions, but fyi.

[26PM]

Wow, this looks amazing. The atmosphere is really enticing, very film noir. 

[Eigen]

Love everything about this game. How about..

Dread Driver

or

The Bleak Peak (would work if you had a geographical peak you needed to reach)

[Soul Challenger]

Huge thanks for all the great feedback and title suggestions!

This is looking really good. I wish the Mad Max game took a few cues from you

Thank you. I wish the Mad Max game took a few cues from Mad Max 

Please, please don't skimp on SFX. The look and feel of this is incredibly strong- some equally powerful sound and music effects will really push this to 11. The sounds needs to be as menacing and aggressive (maybe even more so) than the rest.

Yeah, that's an upcoming challenge. Also needs better engine sounds.


A cool article has been published about this project which also sheds some light on my relationship with cars: https://killscreen.com/articles/driving-game-inspired-creators-real-life-escape-soviet-union/

Also started working on some in-engine concept art:

[GSGBen]

Thank you everybody, for the great feedback!  



I would like to take a moment to talk about the game's driving AI system. One of my priorities was to achieve a believable, human-like behavior of the NPC drivers. For me and other gamers with whom I've discussed this, one thing that is disappointing and immersion-braking in open-world driving games is bad AI. It's either too dumb or strongly cheating on the physics, or both.
Take Driver:SF or the GTA series for example. You can drive like a god but the cop cars chasing you will have extraterrestrial acceleration capabilities, coupled with a car mass of a locomotive and tires covered with suction cups. It just feels too unfair, and although a subjective notion: not fun.

Many popular games also tend to hide the flaws of their driving AI with a quantity over quality approach, by either spawning numerous vehicles coming from all directions or/and by introducing a gun-shooting response. Here, on the contrary, there is a strong emphasis on programming the NPC cars to be as skilled as possible and building favorable conditions to allow for a gradual building-up of the tension.

It has taken a considerable amount of development time to come up with a system which allows the NPC cars to drive in a way that is fully natural, with no "cheat" abilities, while still being good enough to keep up with a player. Hence the AI driving featured in the above gameplay video. While I am not entirely sure if, for whichever reasons, a majority of players are concerned by this, I would love to read what you think and feel about this subject.

Here's also another video, I have recorded yesterday, showcasing the driving where I'm racing against an AI-controlled car. Can you tell which car is player-controlled? Yellow or blue?  

I'm not a driving game fan by any means but i looooooove AI and this looks really good. What kind of AI system are you using?

[chriswearly]

Speaking of possible game titles, it looks like a lot of the driving is in wet conditions, or at the least it looks like you swerve a lot while driving.
So, the word "skid" came to mind.

And in czech that's "smyk." Though I'd stylize it in all caps- SMYK
Though the czech for drive sounds cool too: řídit

[Christian]

Speaking of possible game titles, it looks like a lot of the driving is in wet conditions, or at the least it looks like you swerve a lot while driving.
So, the word "skid" came to mind.

And in czech that's "smyk." Though I'd stylize it in all caps- SMYK
Though the czech for drive sounds cool too: řídit

Oh, I like that. It sounds cool while remaining relevant

[Soul Challenger]

I'm not a driving game fan by any means but i looooooove AI and this looks really good. What kind of AI system are you using?

Thank you! For the driving it's the classical equidistant waypoints along the roads approach, although through trial and error I came up with a system which mimics a more natural anticipation while driving. For the stopping maneuvers it's mostly about determining angle, distance and approaching speed and then enabling the necessary driving behavior. I had no prior programming knowledge so it's been quite an interesting journey... and some kind of intuition has been a great part of trying to figure out a system that would work consistently. I would have never expected it, but coding is really quite a creative endeavor!

If I may ask, since you wrote you're not a fan of driving games, is there a specific reason for that? And, do you enjoy driving in real life? If so, where do you think driving games fail at transmitting those feelings we feel while driving irl. I'd be super happy if anyone else would chime in too  

Speaking of possible game titles, it looks like a lot of the driving is in wet conditions, or at the least it looks like you swerve a lot while driving.
So, the word "skid" came to mind.

And in czech that's "smyk." Though I'd stylize it in all caps- SMYK
Though the czech for drive sounds cool too: řídit

It's difficult to find a fitting name because there are other themes in the game that in the end are more substantial than the car-chase driving elements. It's a dying world devoid of direct sunlight where our dependency on energy is strongly emphasized. I thought about "venor lux" which would be latin for "hunting light", but I can already hear the outrage about the game having a "pretentious" and "elitist" title... So sometimes, out of pure comical incentive, I wonder maybe something more simple and impactful like "Turbo"? Although the czech soft-metal band of the same name would object  :







made some more in-game concept art, still trying to find a stylistic (and technical) approach that will best convey the game's themes:

[Soul Challenger]

Started re-designing the cars so they have a unique look specific to this game. Although fans of the originals might be disappointed, so the new designs should look better. Back to drawing cars, after 24 years 

[I_smell]

Have you tried playing the game with a first-person camera? What did you think about that?

[Soul Challenger]

Have you tried playing the game with a first-person camera? What did you think about that?

Kind of like it - although it makes d-fens quite harder than in 3rd person view

[surt]

Looks awesomely immersive.

...although it makes d-fens quite harder than in 3rd person view

Add VR support so you can look over your shoulder as you're driving.

[Soul Challenger]

Looks awesomely immersive.

...although it makes d-fens quite harder than in 3rd person view

Add VR support so you can look over your shoulder as you're driving.

Thank you! We're thinking about VR support - let's hope the technology prevails during the coming years. Also, changing the way the rear-view mirrors behave could help.

[AlexVsCoding]

This game is staggeringly atmospheric - Your aesthetic for all your stuff reminds me of this music video from The Supermen Lovers:



I would strongly suggest putting something down for the name - I nearly missed this one because it's description on the forums was quite generic.

Random name to add to the hat (Because I love puns) Pain + Aquaplaning = Aquapain

[cloudgods]

Dang, really loving the atmosphere in that concept shot! The first person camera is also incredibly immersive and terrifying honestly. It feels like I'm watching a horror movie unfold. Very cool stuff! I'm morbidly curious to see how it'd feel in VR.

[Soul Challenger]

This game is staggeringly atmospheric - Your aesthetic for all your stuff reminds me of this music video from The Supermen Lovers:



I would strongly suggest putting something down for the name - I nearly missed this one because it's description on the forums was quite generic.

Random name to add to the hat (Because I love puns) Pain + Aquaplaning = Aquapain

Thank you, and thanks for the music-video. It reminded me of this one  :

 

You're right with the name. Still researching and thinking about it.

Dang, really loving the atmosphere in that concept shot! The first person camera is also incredibly immersive and terrifying honestly. It feels like I'm watching a horror movie unfold. Very cool stuff! I'm morbidly curious to see how it'd feel in VR.

Thanks, I'm happy you like it  . Went a bit further and made a short video of being chased under the interchange:

[Soul Challenger]

This time, there's a happy end 

[Juliano]

Lighting + Atmosphere looking awesome! The idea is great too, would be nice to have some roads closed and get the player to find new paths away from the road like on the middle of a corn field where you can't see a thing.

You really need to work on your sfx though. I was looking at the screenshots and the gifs, but when I played the video it kind of not sounded like the rest of the atmosphere. I think it would be cool to barely hear the player engine, make it sound really low and focus on the other entities like enemy cars and those people. Make the audio way subtle and focus on the sound to draw more suspense.

The project got me inspired haha really cool! 
Looks promising, following the post!

[Soul Challenger]

You really need to work on your sfx though. I was looking at the screenshots and the gifs, but when I played the video it kind of not sounded like the rest of the atmosphere. I think it would be cool to barely hear the player engine, make it sound really low and focus on the other entities like enemy cars and those people. Make the audio way subtle and focus on the sound to draw more suspense.

Definitely. Haven't touched sound for a while and there's still a lot to do. Concerning the volume levels, having a not-human main character would be additional justification for a different auditory perception. I've already played around with custom rolloff curves because logarithmic didn't really feel fitting. On the other side, the engine sound, at least in real life,  does help to convey the sense of speed. Another fine-balancing act ahead



Last part of the offroad trilogy: