A proof of concept project for an open world driving game.
8 years ago, the Cruze game was conceived. It started as an extremely unstable and underdeveloped game made on nothing more than an iPod by an 8 year old. Being given the ability to create "games" for the first time allowed me to start messing around with programming. While the apps and games I created were just mock ups using Apple UI libraries, and didn't include any code, it still gave me the ability to create very very basic interfaces, and get introduced to basic app development. After 5 iterations of unreleased Cruze "games", I bought my first full computer capable of 3D development. I learned the basics of software development, and started developing Cruze in Unity. Cruze evolved as I did, and improved as I learned more about software development. It ended up as a bloated, but functional, mess. While preformance was, and still mostly is, terrible, it was by far the most complex and involved game I'd ever produced. After a few years, I tried to restart with everything I had learned and develop Cruze 7. However, I ran into the same road blocks as I did with Cruze 6, and was bottle necked by the Unity game engine. I mostly dropped development on Cruze in its entirety for a few years as I focused more on school. The computer that I used for development was also beginning to degrade, and was getting to the point of unusability. I decided to transition towards open source, both in the software I produce, and the software I use. I switched to using Linux over macOS, and using Godot over Unity. This opened up a lot more options for development, but also meant that I'd have to re-learn everything I'd spent the past 8 years learning. However, I believe that this will all benefit in the long run, and will help make Cruze much more polished. With Cruze 8, I plan to work slower, and work on it more as if it's a prototype than a full fledged game, and publish all the code as open source so the community can contribute.
Unlike Cruze 6, Cruze 8 tries to do one thing, and do it well. Instead of being completely open world, Cruze 8 is slightly more closed down. In Cruze 8, you're given a starting point, an ending point, and the goal of getting there as fast as possible. However, thats where the structure ends. Its up to you to determine the best possible route. Some routes may be easier to find, but less safe to drive. Others may be safer, but with more turns and delays. As you begin to develop a better sense of the map and of the cars, you'll be able to move faster and more efficiently through the world.
Cruze 8 will be open source, so anyone who wants to contribute, or wants to learn game development can disect it and learn how it works!
Cruze 8 is written in the Godot game engine, which means it has lower overhead than games written in more bloated engines.
Photorealistic games look great, but take an immense amount of resources both to run and develop. That's why Cruze 8 is made in a low poly, cartoony style, allowing it to be visually appealing and well designed without the resources required by photo realistic games
Driving Physics in Cruze 8 are designed to be fun, but with an emphasis on realism. Typically, cars in racing games feel glued to the ground, and extremely stable. Of course, this is nothing like real life, and is simply done to improve the player's experience. However, cars in Cruze 8 have weight, and will semi-realistically over or under steer depending on conditions.