The group consisted of 2 programmers and 3 artists. The game that we made is as an vertical slice, as it was asked of us.

Our game was made in the unity engine 2021.2.14f1.

Itch link

Source code

What I worked on

- Car movement: The car movement was one of the main mechanics of the game but with the limited time, I Implemented an alternative car base unlike other cars in video games. But it still worked well and I made it so, that it can be well adjusted in detail. I learned a lot of the importance of the movement mechanics and how important it is to study about the main mechanic of a game before starting with the design and creation of it.

- Game physics: This was my most favorite part of developing this game, using a lot of math and logic to make the cars bounce and crash in an exciting way. Of course, the logic was based not on real life, but more in a cartoonish way. Along with the reference of other games like Smash Bros and Brawlhalla, the biggest difference was that the bouncing was on a different axis and with cars rather than characters. This is why I made a bounce point system whenever a car would hit another car. Depending on the speed, directions and placement of hitting, the interaction would be different and the points would be changed. This made it more logical, fun and fair whenever the cars would hit each other. Rewarding the player who was the highest velocity and the one who was crashing into the other one.

The only problems that I had was time management and play testing. I did not have a lot of time to make it perfect which caused some hastily code to be dropped in there. Which means that some parts of the physics would not be able to easily be fine tuned. A good example would be the up velocity suppression, it works but it is not easy changed due to the lack of time.

- All the power ups/items

- Game design

- Map design

- Game loop

- Keeping track of kills, collisions and velocity

Programming

Programming wise, first and foremost I learned a lot about the car movement and the physics. The car movement was more complex than I thought, but with some hard work, research and feedback I figured it out.

There are so many unique elements about the movement of the car, that it turned in to a process of adding features bit by bit. As a result, I learned that starting with a strong foundation and adding details later is definitely the best way to go about these things. It allowed me to keep adding features without needing to tear anything down.

What concerns the physics of the car I used a similar style of work, but here the biggest obstacle was recreating ‘realism’. I solved this problem by working step by step as well. I started by creating rules with functionality and fair gameplay in mind, for example: If a moving a car rams a parked car, the parked car should be the only one suffering from a penalty. Finally I also realised that I went above and beyond with my comments for the sake of my own comfort and that of my teammates.

Game design

During this endeavour I learned much about Unity and its features. I’m now more comfortable using this engine. In addition, while working on this project, I have learned that the best type of feedback comes from diverse sources.

I tried to get different people within our target audience (games, people who play racing games, people who don’t play games, the young and the old, …) to play our game and as a result I got a wide selection of feedback, which I would not have gotten if I have only focused on one specific group within our demographic.

Teamwork

I got acquainted with the blessings and the curses of working with a team.

I learned the importance of clear communication, making rules to avoid confusion and complications, and writing things down and always keeping back-ups in case of trouble. This was an approach that helped us out a great many times over the course of making Car Arena Rumble.