Skiiz Nuts is a 2.5D racing game project inspired by Mario Kart and crazy squirrels. My goal was to make a simple 2D racing game with multiplayer, but I wanted more features and mechanics. The features below are implemented, but the game itself is far from completion.
- Character Controller
- Camera/Sprite Adjustments
- Drift Mechanics
- Character Animations
Role: Solo Developer
Platform: Unity 3D
Work Time: 5 weeks
FEATURES
Character Controller
The character controller lets the player accelerate, decelerate, turn, drift. These are some of the standard controls, heavily influenced by mario kart.
Considering skiing is all about going downhill, I also implemented a feature that allows greater acceleration downhill, and less acceleration uphill.
Camera/Sprite Adjustments
Hills are typically uneven, so the camera will adjust/rotate to match with the normal of the ground surface. Additionally, the character sprite does the same, improving consistency and game feel.
The camera also has its own speed when following the player. If the player is moving extremely fast, the player will appear farther from the camera, and when the player is moving slowly, the player will appear closer.
Drift Mechanics
The player can drift, allowing the player to make sharper turns at high speeds. Depending on the directional keys pressed while drifting, the player can instead make wider turns.
The longer a player drifts, the greater speed boost they will receive when releasing the drift button. There are three stages of drifting speed boost with a corresponding particle color to match.
Character Animations
Character animations were done by me, using Aseprite. The animations implemented includes 3 directional skiing, 2 directional drifting, as well as the loading screen animation at the top right of the website.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
The game is very much a work in progress, but has been paused for quite some time as I have moved on to other games. I'd like to revisit Skiiz Nuts and add more features and make improvements.
For instance, implementing snowy hills, adding different animations depending on the directions pressed while drifting, sound effects & music, adding netcode and the ability to join and host games, as well as a start and finish to evaluate score/placement in a race. These are all features I'd like to have, but haven't gone around to implementing.