Hey there!

It's been a while since I've done anything game development-related. I spent these past few months working on websites and delving into machine learning. However, it's time to jump back in! I like every large-scale game of mine to start off with a "pre-development log" to give an outline of what the game should be like. It helps with keeping the focus on the original mission of my project.

Without further ado, let's get started!

The Ideas

During my time with machine learning, I thought to myself: "Why not put this into a game?"

That's what I'm doing! As soon as I thought of this, I knew I wanted to make a racing game. The idea of driving with an advanced AI was something that appealed to me quite a bit.

The hard part was figuring out what to make around this concept. Initially, I thought of a game where players had to complete a course in a set amount of time while an AI tried to lay traps to stop racers. This was intriguing, but not quite complex enough to make for a fun algorithm or gameplay experience.

Then, it came to me: Why not use the idea of steampunk racing from Rotor Shift (Check it out, it's a decent little jam game) and use machine learning to create a racing sim with sUUUUper advanced AI? It really is a surprise I didn't think of this before.

Basic Game Setup

And just like that, I started up a fresh new Unity project and got started programming. I knew that the hovercrafts from my previous endeavor would need to go, as they would not make for a great or realistic AI, so I followed several tutorials to implement not only machine learning but also car physics.

Aaand Voila! That's how you lay the foundation for Rotor Drift. I've posted a good amount of content detailing my machine learning endeavors on my YouTube Channel. Also, I will be posting a lot of devlogs in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

See you.