The Idea

The level design in Fasteroid is built entirely around the anti-gravity vehicle. The handling and speed of the vehicle would heavily determine the size of different areas of the map and how well the player could race along each track. As I mainly developed the anti-gravity vehicle, I worked closely with the 3D modelers to nail down drops, tight corner, and long straight aways, to give the players an enjoyable gaming experience. Each iteration of the map was play-tested continuously to find the sweet spot for every inch of the maps where I would give detailed feedback to 3D modelers who would iterate on the tracks and repeat the process resulting in the most optimized tracks.

Design Goals

• 4 Unique Levels
• Progressive difficulty
• Anti-gravity tailored maps
• FAST, FASTER, FASTEROID!

Scripting Goals

• Anti-gravity vehicle
• Skill-based boost mechanic
• Cooldown microgame
• AI/COM Racer
• Overheat system

Anti-gravity vehicle

Anti-gravity racers are no new thing, but creating the vehicle in unreal blueprints proved to be a difficult yet rewarding challenge. With the goal of creating an anti-gravity vehicle similar to ones found in F-Zero, the vehicle went through many iterations and even an entire rework to get to the vehicle that it is now. Through intense research and help from blueprints found in the unreal store, we were able to create a working anti-gravity vehicle that was capable of hovering above the ground, handle movement and turning at high speeds, and riding on walls among other things. Through extensive testing and iterating we were able to fine-tune the controls of the vehicle to get the feel just right for the player to have a smooth and enjoyable gameplay experience.

Unique boost mechanic

So many arcade racers these days rely heavily on RNG and complete randomness to give players an advantage (talking about you blue shell). Which is why we wanted to create a mechanic that rewarded skill over luck, and tested players dexterity and timing to gain an advantage over their opponents. This lead us to creating the unique boost mechanic that allows players to manage their boost in order to strategically risk their health for an edge over their opponents.

Here’s how it works:

• Boosting heats up the cars engine
• Enter overheat stage after boosting long enough
• Overheating causes damage over time, but greatly increases vehicle speed
• Ending boost in overheat stage triggers microgame
• Skillful timing rewards player

AI/COM racer

With the various constraints of the project included huge time constraints, I was challenged to create an enemy vehicle that would be able to race the player and give them a fair challenge. My initial idea for the racer was a for the COM to be a true AI racer that raced differently each time. After much research, testing, and thought, I made the decision to go a different route based on the constraints and was able to create an AI/COM racer that would follow the most optimal path of the track each race and be highlighted for the player to easily see their movements.

Difficulties

An ambitious idea with a limited amount of time. Through great efforts and time we were able to execute on our goals and make a fun game, but it came with many challenges. The anti-gravity vehicle was one of the crucial aspects of Fasteroid that needed to be completed for work to move forward, and perfected for a enjoyable experience. We found out early on that our initial development and concept for the vehicle was one that functioned similar to a hover vehicle (a physics-based hovering like the ghost in Halo) and not an anti-gravity vehicle. We had to make the bold decision to completely rework the vehicle, losing tons of time along the way. We devoted considerable effort and time to address the challenge, striving to achieve the intended anti-gravity racing experience. This decision lead to a breakthrough in the game’s mechanics and would eventually pay off as the reworked vehicle paved the way for a much more satisfying experience.

With the limited time, we were challenged to achieve the goals we had set in the most efficient way possible while collaborating with each other every step of the way. In the end we were able to create an extremely fun and challenging game with skill-based mechanics, anti-gravity racing, and a synthwave/realistic aesthetic that we were proud of.