In this devlog I will be detailing the implementation of new item assets as well as the design of new prefabs. Additionally, the UI has been updated to blend better with the aesthetic of the game resembling a cartoonish street vibe.

Firstly, is the speed boost item. After conducting numerous playtests with people outside of the development team we found that the speed boost was often seen as a hazard than a power up. Players would actively avoid the item in fear of the idea of stacking their speed uncontrollably or boosting directly into a corner. To combat this, the duration of the boost to the player has been reduced from 10 seconds to a much more manageable 4 seconds, with consideration to track and direction. The location of each boost has also been adjusted in each individual track prefab to be evenly spaced apart from each item with a transition of approximately 5 seconds. With this update, players can accelerate through the tracks without losing control while also keeping the momentum of racing to the border. The design of the item has been changed to a fuel tank with a green boost icon. This was done to make it immediately clear to players the effect of the item. The fuel tank model was acquired through the unity asset store available at fuel can was modified to fit the standards of the item design.

Other item updates include the design of the end game tokens which the player is required to collect 10 of in order to complete the game and access the endgame area. The visuals of the endgame tokens were changed to a coin which was sourced from coin link. 

The game’s UI has undergone multiple changes to appropriately fit the vibe of the game. I chose to make assets with a spray paint look to them as they would fit well in the street racing theme we went with, grounding the game to a more realistic feeling. The UI assets were changed to resemble the assets in the live game to clearly display items in the simplest way so players can focus on driving rather than attempting to decipher resource management.

The overworld of the game was fitted with a tooltip for jumping sprayed on the side of a building in order to teach the player the keybinds of the game without forcing pop-up tips. We chose to work with this in-game tip to better immerse the player as they race through the game.

  Finally, additional prefabs were created to account for various turns in the track generation. These prefabs include the inner city prefab which was created and dressed to diversify the player’s generated track without feeling repetitive and the outer city prefab which it a less industrial feeling track to diversify the track even further. While some of these prefabs introduce a more challenging aspect of gameplay, we prefer to induce some sense of tension with tight gaps and sudden turns.