Retro Drive 2 (Alpha)

I joined the indie team Retro Drive studios in January 2023 for 8 months as a Lead Game Designer and Game Developer creating all content using Unreal Engine 5's Blueprints.
The team size at the time of joining was four, however, as the project developed we recruited narrative designers and mentors.
Retro Drive 2 is an open world driving game influenced by classic PS2 driving games 'Need for Speed Most Wanted' and the 'Burnout' series.

My primary responsibility was to design and develop the game's initial Alpha Demo. This included the car's behaviour, mission structure and progression, AI and more.
Throughout the experience I was in charge of balancing and altering properties through the team's playtesting, discussing features to include and how it would benefit the player.
I also had to explain my blueprints and teach other members of the team Unreal Engine 5, including senior members.

The Car

The main problem was how to adapt Unreal Engine 5's Chaos vehicle system designed for realistic cars to create an arcade car.
The team wanted to craft an open world driving experience similar to the games 'Need for Speed Most Wanted' and 'Burnout'.
Researching and playing these games, I decided on some mechanics to utilise and tweaked the cars parameters to get it closer to the team's goal.
The car needed to have abilities or function as player's of racing/driving games have come to expect, such as a boost and a drift.
This led to the next issue, how should the player get access to these mechanics by default or are they unlockable?
The team wanted to include a narrative that the car had an AI inside it. I questioned how I could utilise this idea into being both enjoyable and helpful for the player.
I created two UI elements, one for the number plate and another emoticon which appears on the back of the car. Both of these will display different properties based on the player's actions.
I added additional sounds and effects to help give the AI personality.
The sense of speed was another issue that needed to be addressed in conjunction with the AI. I decided on having a spoiler animate when the player reaches a certain speed. This allowed the player to have a visual cue on their actions.

Story and Level Structure

The team also wanted to embed a story that when the player cleared certain missions and objectives the world would change.
I had to create a scenario that would fit the intended goals of the team and be engaging for the player.
In addition, create an experience where the player would immediately be driving and have something to accomplish and whilst giving them enough space and environmental set pieces to gaze upon as they made their way to the city.
The next problem was getting something to occur in the main world after doing something inside another level.
This led to new sections of the world map unlocking, by completing other objectives such as races. The primary target for the demo was to have a bridge appear after winning a race in the past.

Engine and Optimisations

The demo needed to run smoothly at 60fps in HD. To optimise this I looked into material draw calls and optimisation, VFX and lighting optimisation, Nanite and data layers sectioning segments to load and unload when required.

In this build the player has to navigate the mountain into the main city, collecting the blue beacons/waypoints as a guide.
After this a set of red beacons will appear, adopting the same principle. Once the player collects the final one, they are ambushed by the police.
Once they escape they are tasked with locating the green beacon within the allotted time. If the player achieves this they will get a different line of dialogue.
If not then the player will be given additional beacons to help guide them to the end of the level (This acts as a soft win, lose condition).
After this the player is then teleported to the past, where the player must complete the race. Doing so will cause a change in the main city of the distant future, allowing the player to proceed.

Simple Dialogue system. (This user is very active on Discord and helped immensely, highly recommend): Simple Dialogue System Unreal Engine marketplace link

Snappy roads: Snappy Roads Unreal Engine marketplace link

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