Touhou Kart!

[Hoeloe]

If possible and within the range of your abilities, Would you ever consider custom special unlockable Karts as well? Instead of just the standard kart, there could be other choices with stats that could be different, or they could just be Kart Skins.  For example you could Have Genjii as a Kart or Marisa's Broomstick, or Komachi's Boat.

I did consider this, and decided that, this being an indie project, there was too much work that needed to go into that. I may make an unlockable "special" kart for each character, that would be something like Marisa's Broom, etc., but it vastly depends on how progress is made.

[Graph]

Yeah, I tracked down ZUNs policies, and I'm trying my best to make sure all resources are original. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about sound effects (since it would be awesome to have a few recognisable ones in places)

My route for that was to use royalty-free sound effects.  I'd like to give special mention to freesound.org, which is where about 90% of the sounds in Touhou Mecha came from because of the great selection compared to other free sound sites I'm aware of.  If you can't find something usable straight out of the box, use a program like Audacity to edit and combine sounds.  Most users submit sounds with the condition that you give them credit, but if you create an account, the site keeps track of which sounds you downloaded, so you only have to copypaste that list and you'll have given credit where it's due.

E.g. ... I made something that somewhat resembles Master Spark by combining the latter half of this http://www.freesound.org/people/LegoLunatic/sounds/151243/, with this http://www.freesound.org/people/a.e/sounds/104832/ (Though since I'm an amateur, I settled for a much lower tone since I didn't know how to make the higher-pitched electric buzz without making the sound too fast)

I'm afraid I don't have any skills on the 3d modeling front, but if you need 2d art for this project for whatever reason, feel free to discuss it with me if you feel that my style is an okay fit.  Some of my own projects are linked in my sig.  So long as you're not needing art for like half the Windows cast!  Don't let feature bloat kill off a project with such promise.

Best of luck with this project!

[Hoeloe]

Yeah, I probably will use mostly royalty free sounds. I do have a little experience as a foley artist, though, so I can hopefully fill in a few gaps with that. I know of freesound.org, and it does have a great selection. Thanks!

Awesome. I'm not sure yet whether I'll need much 2D art. It really depends on how I want to do conversation cutscenes. I can do them 3D animated, or 3D visual novel style, or 2D visual novel style, but I'm really not decided which would be best. It's a decision to be made later in any case, but thanks for the offer, if it turns out I need help, I'll be sure to look you up!

[FamilyTeam]

Well, if you want to make some circuit in something like a city (like the Human Village) and you want to style it like Mario Kart or even Gran Turismo with Tokyo R246 to some extent you could maybe put fake advertisements in those temporary walls they put on racing tracks that are set in public highways IRL, like in Circuit de Monaco, with things like "Meiling's and Komachi's beds for slackers! Excellent for people that sleep on their job! or "Grand Theft Nitori! Wrecked your car? Leave it to me and I'll help you!
Well if you want, there is an example of an advertisement you can use in the attachments and you obviously aren't going to this exact one in game because not only it's crap because it's just an example, I used Zun's art in it. But hey, It's an example/reference.

[Hoeloe]

Well, if you want to make some circuit in something like a city (like the Human Village) and you want to style it like Mario Kart or even Gran Turismo with Tokyo R246 to some extent you could maybe put fake advertisements in those temporary walls

I always like things like this. I don't have plans for anything set in a human village, but there may be space for things like this somewhere, we'll see. Thanks for the suggestion.

[FamilyTeam]

Something we would all agree that would be REALLY cool for you to sneak in the game would be an option to enable rain and/or nightime on the courses. I absolutely love courses set at night and I have a weird fetish regarding racing on rain. It would be really nice to if you coull somehow fit it into the game.

[Hoeloe]

Something we would all agree that would be REALLY cool for you to sneak in the game would be an option to enable rain and/or nightime on the courses. I absolutely love courses set at night and I have a weird fetish regarding racing on rain. It would be really nice to if you coull somehow fit it into the game.

I have a variety of courses planned, some of which are set at night, and at least one of which is set in the rain.

[FamilyTeam]

Well i can't wait for it ,if you want you could contact me if you want some ideas for a few courses even if almost all of them are styled like Forza/Gran Turismo Courses... Still, I can't wait to play a game with Touhou gals driving karts on a highway while it rains at night :3
EDIT: Maybe you could have one like Nurburgring, A really long (21KM) and accident happy course. (Image also helps, tough when you think about, a really long  and accident happy track can also be done to the likes of rainbow road.)

[Hoeloe]

Well i can't wait for it ,if you want you could contact me if you want some ideas for a few courses even if almost all of them are styled like Forza/Gran Turismo Courses... Still, I can't wait to play a game with Touhou gals driving karts on a highway while it rains at night :3
EDIT: Maybe you could have one like Nurburgring, A really long (21KM) and accident happy course. (Image also helps, tough when you think about, a really long  and accident happy track can also be done to the likes of rainbow road.)

The plan is to have them based more on Touhou locations than just racetracks, so there will be driving around indoors and such, I know of the Nurburgring, and I do have two "Rainbow Road" style tracks planned, and could easily take some ideas from there...

[FamilyTeam]

Oh, okay then.
How far in the development are you? (In %?) I really can't wait to play it. Also, i'm sorry if sometimes I end up asking for too much courses that resemble racign tracks, it's mainly because, while I did play kart racers growing up, when it comes to racing games in general, I tend to realte more to games like Gran Turismo, Sega GT/Rally, and Daytona, so that's why often my suggestion have a little bit of a groove from these games.
Also, please try to balance the powerups. You don't know how much I hate Mario Kart Wii just because of them. no seriously, only my friends IRL know how much I dread MKWii just because of that

[Hoeloe]

Oh, okay then.
How far in the development are you? (In %?) I really can't wait to play it. Also, i'm sorry if sometimes I end up asking for too much courses that resemble racign tracks, it's mainly because, while I did play kart racers growing up, when it comes to racing games in general, I tend to realte more to games like Gran Turismo, Sega GT/Rally, and Daytona, so that's why often my suggestion have a little bit of a groove from these games.
Also, please try to balance the powerups. You don't know how much I hate Mario Kart Wii just because of them. no seriously, only my friends IRL know how much I dread MKWii just because of that

I honestly have no idea. It's probably in the 1 or 2% margin - I don't really have a game yet, as I'm building up most of the engine first, so it's hard to judge. That's fair enough. My childhood consisted of Crash Team Racing, and later MK:DD, so I'm using those for inspiration.
I'm planning to try and balance the powerups. Obviously some will be better than others, but I'm hoping to balance them by rarity and skill (e.g., it might be possible to dodge a really powerful item if you time things correctly, or it might be difficult to aim, etc. ). Balance is key to any game, and I like to try and make my games as balanced as possible.

[Lavalake]

Maybe you can add an option that disables items. Some people love to race without items, leaving it more towards skills and dedication to playing the game.
Also, Yukari's track seems Rainbow Road-ish. Also, how long are the tracks supposed to be? How many laps?

[SatorKoi57]

If you are basing if off CTR, why not make boss races in the adventure/story mode? They don't have to be 100% the same as CTR, but it maybe could work.

[FamilyTeam]

Maybe you can add an option that disables items. Some people love to race without items, leaving it more towards skills and dedication to playing the game.
Also, Yukari's track seems Rainbow Road-ish. Also, how long are the tracks supposed to be? How many laps?

This person. I agree with this person. I hate items soemtimes.
And about laps, AGAIN, I know I maybe taking too much inspiration from Simulation racing genres, but maybe there could be begginner leagues, where races are 3 laps on average, (1 on the Nurburgring/Rainbow Road-Like track) on Amateur Leagues there is an average of 4 laps, and still 1 on the Raibow Gring (My new nickname for Rainbow Road+Nurburgring), an professional league, where the races are 6 laps on average and 2 on the Rainbow Gring, and maybe Endurance Races, generaly with 30 laps plus.
Again, maybe I'm sympathizing too much with Sega GT/Gran Turismo/Forza, but hey, they're still cool ideas.

[Hoeloe]

Maybe you can add an option that disables items. Some people love to race without items, leaving it more towards skills and dedication to playing the game.
Also, Yukari's track seems Rainbow Road-ish. Also, how long are the tracks supposed to be? How many laps?

That's something I hadn't considered. It sounds like a great idea. I'm not sure how long the tracks will be, it will depend on the physical length of the track.

If you are basing if off CTR, why not make boss races in the adventure/story mode? They don't have to be 100% the same as CTR, but it maybe could work.

I was planning to do just this. 4 of the unlockable characters will be bosses in the adventure mode.

[FamilyTeam]

Hey Hoeloe! You have a weird name that can be easily be taken the wrong way! I finnaly had an Idea for a track that ISN'T INSPIRED BY SIMULATION RACING GAMES! I know, SHOCKING!
Maybe for some sort of "Ultimate end Race" you could have a special track where you race on the entirety of Gensokyo. So, for example, you start at the Forest of Magic, you proceed to the Human Village,  you go back to the Forest, then to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, then IN the Scarlet Devil Mansion, then after that you go up the Youkai Mountain BTW, an Idea for an Youkai Mountain Track, make it like Yoshi's Valley then down into the Hakurei Shrine, then into a gap that leads to the final stretch of the course.
Would be pretty good for some sort of ultimate race. Also, I'm basing my geography on Touhoumon Another World.

[Hoeloe]

Hey Hoeloe! You have a weird name that can be easily be taken the wrong way! I finnaly had an Idea for a track that ISN'T INSPIRED BY SIMULATION RACING GAMES! I know, SHOCKING!
Maybe for some sort of "Ultimate end Race" you could have a special track where you race on the entirety of Gensokyo. So, for example, you start at the Forest of Magic, you proceed to the Human Village,  you go back to the Forest, then to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, then IN the Scarlet Devil Mansion, then after that you go up the Youkai Mountain BTW, an Idea for an Youkai Mountain Track, make it like Yoshi's Valley then down into the Hakurei Shrine, then into a gap that leads to the final stretch of the course.
Would be pretty good for some sort of ultimate race. Also, I'm basing my geography on Touhoumon Another World.

I think a course that large would have quite a few issues, not only with continuity (in that most of those courses are already in the game, but as separate courses), but also in memory storage. I'd either have to make alternative, miniature versions of the courses, which is a bit lame, or link the existing courses together into one huge course, which could seriously impact performance, especially since I'm aiming for this to be able to run on the average PC, and not just powerful gaming ones. Thanks for the suggestion, though. I like the style of the Yoshi Valley track, so I may well consider something like that. Thanks!

[FamilyTeam]

Well, I was thinking that if it were for you to put it you would do it the second way you described

...or link the existing courses together into one huge course,...

But hey, you said it CAN (but not that it would) hurt performance. I'm not a programmer, so I don't know of the limitations of your project.
But still, you maybe could use a trick the Grand Theft Auto series has been using since GTA3, which is to use low polygon models for distant objects to save memory, instead of having the course materialize itself in front of you like an oldschool racing game or having to use fog. So maybe if you were to put an 40KM+ track on teh agme you would need to use these tricks extensively.
But then again, I don't know if it is possible to do this, or if it is possible, if it is actually practical. Have fun making the game, don't overdo yourself and do it your, way, everything we say here are just suggestions.
Also, after you realese some kind of demo, maybe we could use this thread to give the game reviews.

[KLH]

I think a course that large would have quite a few issues, not only with continuity (in that most of those courses are already in the game, but as separate courses), but also in memory storage. I'd either have to make alternative, miniature versions of the courses, which is a bit lame, or link the existing courses together into one huge course, which could seriously impact performance, especially since I'm aiming for this to be able to run on the average PC, and not just powerful gaming ones. Thanks for the suggestion, though. I like the style of the Yoshi Valley track, so I may well consider something like that. Thanks!

FamilyTeam's suggestion of LODs should enable large courses to run adequately on mainstream computers. Memory is almost of no object anymore, given that such mainstream computers are often built with at least 8 GiB of RAM and hundreds of gigabytes of hard drive space (though I'm thinking of desktops here, rather than small portable devices like laptops or tablets. Laptops are still pretty close, though). Loading higher LODs from secondary storage into RAM as the player approaches and discarding them from RAM upon the player leaving can further help those systems that have limited main memory.

I do think there should be high-detail accommodations for high-end PCs, though :V
although I'm guessing that would take quite a bit of extra work, depending on the rendering systems used

[UnendingEmpire]

A Touhou racing game?  With karts?  In the rain?
You have my unconditional support, good sir, and as a composer I'm on standby if you ever need one ^_^

[Hoeloe]

I do think there should be high-detail accommodations for high-end PCs, though :V
although I'm guessing that would take quite a bit of extra work, depending on the rendering systems used

LODs are certainly one way of doing it. It is somewhat awkward with the engine I'm using, however, as I would have to manually construct each LOD for each model, and then program my own system for loading in said LODs. For now, I think I'll focus on just making the individual tracks, but we'll see how it goes.

A Touhou racing game?  With karts?  In the rain?
You have my unconditional support, good sir, and as a composer I'm on standby if you ever need one ^_^

Thank you! I'm sure I will need a composer at some point. I usually tackle music myself for projects such as this, but I'm not quite sure how to go about making some of the songs for this one...

[Monkeypro257]

The game looks cool, and I hope the completion of it goes well. 

[UnendingEmpire]

Thank you! I'm sure I will need a composer at some point. I usually tackle music myself for projects such as this, but I'm not quite sure how to go about making some of the songs for this one...

I could pretty easily give you a 1 or 2-minute remix for the character select theme from PoDD (since I did a very short one for my own RPG, lol) and maybe a title theme too.
If you named off a few locations, I could work on tracks for those ahead of time as well I have way too much spare time on my hands ^_^;

[Hoeloe]

I'm preparing a new video! Hopefully it will be ready today!

[Hoeloe]

NEW VIDEO GET!

[Imosa]

I'm surprised how far it looks like you've gotten. Good job. Of course that may just be textures.

How does the AI in a game like this even work?

[zferolie]

I love Kart games, and I love touhou. This seems like a great combination.

For working on your own for 2-3 months, this is an excellent job. I have some game programming knowledge, but I never got to the 3D game programming, only 2D ones.

I never knew ZUN had policies... I guess the Touhou Pong game I made would get me in trouble. I had to make it in a month(I actually had a month and a half though because I got swim flu and had to take off that semester. My school had 1 month semesters) And I had no time to make my own assets, so I kinda ripped everything from 12.3 I had a lot of plans for that game that I wasn't able to get into it though. Maybe one day...

Anyway, your game. Looks really fun. You have a lot of really cool details, like the Sakuya tree's swaying in the wind and stuff. It seems drift boosting gives a really long boost though.

Question, not sure how much help I could be, but if I wanted to try and make music(which I really haven't done much of, only slight work in college), what would be a good program to use? And what Program are you using? What Coding Language?

Also, you have Tewi, my favorite touhou, in this game. You are awesome.

[FamilyTeam]

From the video, I wil say that it looks quite good so far! I like the kart sounds and I like the track you have shown in the video (The map kinda reminds me of Trial Mountain for whatever reason)
So yeah. I can't wait.

[Helepolis]

I am glad to see the gameplay it self being developed. Always a pleasure to see people focussing on the core of a project instead of the "nice looks". Though this looks very promising so far.

I noticed though one thing, not sure if you did it intentional or is under development: You seem to have weird control over your kart. Sometimes perfect controlling with instant-grip in cornering?

[UnendingEmpire]

Looking forward to...everything!  My offer still stands when/if you're ready to put me to work.

also, zferolie, the program I recommend most is FL Studio, from one musician to another.  Takes a bit of learning, but pretty simple when you figure it out.  Hope that helps