Development Diary

Sorry, but perhaps you know that we're only two persons developing this game. So we're going to finish it next year
It's not much, but that fact won't kill the fun of the game we think.

More cars will come in updates!

Robert
Moon Byte

Was wondering if your familiar with a game called sanfransico Rush racing, and if so, how do the vehicle physics compare.

I had always thought that the ultimate game that would hook me would be that game on the PC with the ability to make my own tracks.

One other question, I realize gameplay will basically be crashes and stunts and I guess taking your opponent out, but will there be checkpoint races also?

I know a host of people that I know would buy the game if it has similar physics to rush and checkpoint racing.

RE: Vehicle physics, 25.Aug.2001 13:59

Well, we didn't play that game yet, so we can't answer your question
Seems to be a great game we missed to play.
I think our vehicle physics will be quite good in the end, but right now
it's still not perfect.

You'll find several game modes including crash race (kick opps out),
stunt race (cause nice stunts in a certain time), checkpoint time race,
deathmatch (only in network) and a cool unknown mode, that will be an exciting
and fast thing

Hope this answered your questions
Ciao!

Robert
Moon Byte

A few more questions (do they ever end?), 1.Sept.2001 17:40

I'm back again with a few more questions for ya Rob!
1) How will the level boundaries be set? Will it just be an invisable wall or a steep mountain-like incline that you cant get over?
2) Will afterburners work like they did in Carmageddon 3? Ex. If you go up a ramp your car would start to fly in the air and go vertical; allowing you to "fly" around the level for 5-10 seconds.
3)Will we be able to play our own music cds during the game or possibly even mp3s from the hard-drive?
4) Will damage affect handling/top speed/ acceleration in the car?Will you be able to lose any car parts like in Carmageddon?
5)For advanced track editors out there, will it be possible to skin the actual level pieces and save them as different "themes" so they dont have to overwrite the original textures and can possibly be picked from the level editor screen? Ex. Candyland, Space, Desert, ect..
Ok, those should hold me over for a few more weeks (must..have......demooooo).

Hi!

You're keeping our forum activity alive


1. We decided for an invisible wall that causes neither crashes nor sound. First we had a
concrete wall set there, but later we realised that for a real atmosphere something like a far horizon of mountains must exist. Level boundaries are always annoying but however they must be.

2. We've different types of afterburners. Some of them will accelerate in the air but it won't be sufficient to fly like a plane.

3. You can play CDs but no mp3s.

4. Damage will affect the car physically, probably in acceleration issues and "wheel wobbling" effects. This is not totally clear yet. You can't repair the car within the
race, so we cannot exaggerate the physical damage effects.

5. Tracks cannot be associated with different themes. However, like you probably know,
you can create additional ingame ambiences like day, night etc. by yourself.
Of course you can change all textures if you want (and you know our picture format )


Ok, we're awaiting you next questions
Ciao!

Robert
Moon Byte

The Neverending Questions Saga: Part I, 10.Oct.2001 01:45

Heh, i've decided to oh-so-cleverly start titling my ongoing quest of squeezing info out ^_^. So here they are!

1) In the nightime settings, or in tunnels during the day. Will there be any kind of real-time lighting from the headlights or tailights? If not, will there at least be "faked" sprites on the ground to create the effect. Also, will you be able to turn the headlights (if they are even in the game) on and off whenever you please (this would most likely be used for surprise attacks in the night).
2) What will happen when your car is flipped over on its back or side and you are unable to move?
3) Do the burning-fire effects you had shown earlier give off their own light?
4) Will the reflection maps on the cars change with the image being used for the sky?
5) Will the track editor allow to make tunnels of other objects below the terrain level? Will you be able to place objects in the air?
6) Are you going to implement a stunt point system based on flips, spins, air time, air height, distance, combos, ect...?
7) Will any of the weapons have auto-aim or "heat seeking" ability to follow other cars?
8) Are you going to have any objects that will break or bend-with-resistance like the streetlights in carmageddon?
9) Will burning out or going over grass/sand/dirt/ect.. produce smoke or a dust cloud effect?

Ok, I think thats enough for now

Oh yes, a lot of questions!
But no matter, of course we'll answer every single of them

1. It's still not clear how the headlights shall light the environment but probably there will only be light map fakes (if at all).
Right now we've implented coronas and lens flares, so wait for the next screens
Of course lights can be turned off for nice attacks, moreover they will get broken after a lot of crashes.

2. If cars are unable to move they will be recoverable similar to Carmageddon.

3. Unfortunately fire effects don't give their own light. In all we're very sparingly using real time lighting since our engine isn't perfect for those "problems".

4. Yes, the reflection maps will be adjusted to the sky.

5. Hey, nice idea! Tunnels below terrain level, never thought of it
But would be hard to implent now.

6. The stunts system is currently in work. You'll get points for object-based and motion-based stunts (only in stunt mode), i.e. if you pass a looping it's object based and if you're flipping around your axes it's motion-based.
Also if you create your own track objects you'll also be able to include stunt mode specs.

7. Missiles won't be auto-aiming and the minigun will at most have some aiming that the projectiles don't fly above other cars.
That means YOU will have to aim

8. The only objects that will deform are dynamic ones, that means cars, benches, phoneboothes or garbage containers. Static objects like houses or loops cannot be damaged.

9. Yes, smoke effects will be included in the game. On grass there will be green/brown smoke and if your car's tires are starting to screech there will be white(blue) smoke.


Ok, hope this answered your saga part I

Ciao!
Moon Byte Studios

8.Jan.2002 06:21

More questions to be asked.

What is your reason for creating this game/project, is it just for fun, is it something to occupy your free time, is it a school project?

Is there going to be a campaign? And if there is, is there going to be characters? is there going to be a plot, is there going to be voice acting? Or if no Campaign, is it going to be just something like Need For Speed Series? Where you just race or drive at your own free will, do what ever you want in the menu? How will the game style be set up?

About the cars, the cars look great, and with a project this big, I bet you guys will implement car damage. But all to geather, how long does it take to create of your vehicles Approximately? and how many vehicles do you plan on making?

One last group of questions, Do you ever plan on modifiying your game engine, to bring it more up-to-date? Is your game engine limited, or does it have Multiple uses, What I mean by this, is it like an Unreal engine, where the engine is set to do only one type of specific task, or like the Max Payne Engine, where you could create a Race game, First person shooter game, or many other tasks with just the one engine, Just how limited is your engine?

Sorry for all the long questions, its just something to keep me Occupied, and something to look forward to, to have you answere all these questions. Once again thanks for your time.
ZirakZigle

RE: Reason? (English), 12.Jan.2002 11:31

Hey Zirak!

Oh wow what a huge list of questions:), but it's no problem. That's what the forum is for.

About 2 years ago we created the game really just for fun, because we wanted to create a game which combines all of our favorite features in a stuntracing game. But then it becomes more better and we thougt about a real game development project.

Crashday consist's of various game modes and of course a campaign. That means that when you want you could also cruise around the track just for fun. The campaign with an own story is a kind of a mixture of all the game modes, but there are more stunt and wrecking races than other modes like checkpoint race. There is a number of charecters e.g. the shop owner "Gerd", and of course the player and his opponents. The voice idea is a nice thing, we'll think about this:).

The car's project is nearly finished, only the damage maps are missing yet. But in the end there will nice car damages as you also can see in some screenshots. We build our cars with an own vertex and polygon based editor. This takes a lot of time but the results are very real (of course 3d scanner is better:). Building a complete vehicle takes about a week I think.
In the finished game you can drive 10 cars, but you can built own cars as you know it from NFS.

In the next game project we want to use the crashday engine (PropsFX) but of course we'll modify it for further project. The PropsFX engine could be used in other games as good as it is used in crashday. We are planning to make a first person shooter with our engine in the future, and I am sure it will work.

Ok that's it. I hope I could help you, and keep waiting for the next demo!

Jan
Moon Byte

RE: Retail?, 7.May.2002 22:13
u said in one of the chats that it now there is a big chance of it being freee

No, Crashday will be a full commercial game. The price for the game isn't known yet. Anyway, there'll be many free updates (cars, track etc.) we think.

Ciao!
Robert

About The Maps, 5.Feb.2002 01:18

Something that has caught my attention all of the sudden is the maps them selves. Are your maps going to be full of objects, like things to hit, run over and break, are they all going to have a bunch of stunts, like loops, jumps, cork-screws, is there going to be bullet marks, and explosion craters, or colors, when a missle hits the ground or an object? How big are the maps going to be?, I saw in the self playing demo, there were houses, are you going to add more detail to them? I don't have to ask anything about the cars, a picture is worth a 1000 words, and you got plenty of pictures of cars. But are you going to have like real time reflections on the cars, of the surrounding enviornment?

What type of a veriety of maps are there going to be? Are there going to be, demolition durby, stunt, racing, and I think something like tag would be cool.
Anyway
ZirakZigle

Hi!

As you maybe you know, Crashday's tracks are tile based, i.e. in general YOU
decide what you want to build in your track. We from Moon Byte will probably create
12-24 tracks as basic tracks included in the full version, then its up to you
to create more of them. The size is limited to a maximum grid size of about 50x50 tiles
which means about 1000m x 1000m. Of course the ratio of width/height of the grid can be
changed e.g. to a 4x48 grid.
Each objects like you said loops, jumps, cork-screws,highways, streets, tunnels, checkpoints etc. can be built all over the track in any combinations. Of course every stunt object
contains information about a specific stunt that is associated with the object. For example
the game recognizes if you pass a loop or jump sidewards through it and gives points for
those actions in stunt mode.
Stunt mode is one of the modes you can play tracks in - there's also the checkpoint race,
wrecking mode and the new secret mode. As a track designer you can specify for which
mode your track shall be allowed to play in. If you for example build a racing track with nearly no "stunt objects" you can simply switch of the stunt mode because trying to make stunts wouldn't make much sense.

Concerning graphics issues:
There will probably be no craters or bullet marks because our engine isnt not capable
of doing decals yet. Maybe we'll add this later but this is not sure.
There are also no real environment reflections on the cars but we spend hours in
the creation of realistic ambience settings and environment maps.
Probably there will be some more improvements until the demo is out.

Ok, I think that's it

Ciao!
Robert

License's for cars, 20.Jul.2002 00:28

I love the cars you choose for the game,,, this is the only game I've seen where a Bugatti EB110 is in a game. But sence the cars your using are real cars, are you going to get license agreements for the rights to use these cars in your product, the last thing you want is to be sewed by General Motors, considering how rich and powerful they really are. But I'm just trying to make sure nothing could be forgotten, especialy something so serious. Well yet again another question to be answered, and by the way, nice screen shots, the game is looking extremly profecinal.
ZirakZigle

Hi!

As automobile licenses are really expensive you can only drive in fantasy cars like in the Carmageddon series. They may look a little similar to other real cars, but believe me, you'll never have heard of cars like Apachee, Cycore or BornBad...

ciao
Robert

Fox mode, 3.Oct.2002 02:58

Will u include a fox'n hounds mode like in carmageddon ?
It's the best mode in my opinion

Hi!

Currently the multiplayer-modes include all single player modes (stunt mode, wrecking mode, checkpoint mode, speed bomb mode) and the traditional deathmatch mode.
Maybe we'll add some more modes in the future, somewhat like Fox'n'Hounds, to add more variety to multiplayer matches.

ciao
Robert

what is the speed bomb mode?`

GM

The 'speed bomb mode' is the secret mode and won't be explained here, sorry....

sounds good!!!, 14.Oct.2002 19:42
Trance track that you have implemented in the trailer is awesome!!!I want to know who wrote this and I hope that you are going to put more of his/her great music stuff into the final version.

Hi!

I noticed you guys from Poland seem to love trance music. We've received some other mails where other people from Poland said that they liked the soundtrack of the trailer

Anyway .... the track has been especially produced for the trailer by us and we're probably going to include it in a longer version in the final game too. There will be some more techno and hip hop tracks in the game soundtrack.

ciao
Robert

thesong of crashday movie, 16.Jan.2003 15:48

Does anybody knows the name and the title of the song from the ingame movie?

i think the song was created by moonbyte especially for the game / trailer

Yes, the trailer was created for the movie by our team and will probably appear in the final game too.

Robert

Vehicle Modifications?, 8.Jan.2003 00:39

Are you going to be able to modify your vehicle, or do you only get to play them as they come?
not that its a bad thing to play the vehicles with a perminite setting, but its also fun to be able to control your gear ratio's, tire and shock stiffness etc.

another type of modification to vehicles that I think would be cool, but I can't judge from the screen shots if you guys have already implimented it. Can boost the hoursepower and such in the vehicle, like replae a V6 engine with a V8, and put a supercharger in it, and can you put new fenders, side pannels, put a large spoiler on it?
I ask this cause I played a game that remined me of your CrashDay, called Street Legal, by Invictus based out of Hungary.

Well if you could fill me in on this matter, your answere will probably be "no" on the matter of modifying the outer frame, but it would be pretty cool though.

ZirakZigle

As Crashday doesn't intend to be a simulation there are only few things you can modify on your car.
Every vehicle has one own "tuning" kit that you can installed additionally. It it very different from car to car and affects parameters such as crashpower, horse powers, tires, suspensions, spoilers etc.

So you can for instance "tune-up" a street racing car for offroad or fix some "problems" in driving behaviour.

Robert

Online features between platforms, 12.Feb.2003 15:12
If the german - english translator worked correctly, it sounds like you will be making crashday for Xbox and PS2?
If this is correct, are there plans to make the PC, Xbox and PS2 versions compatible online so they could all race together?

Yes, we're trying to make an XBox and PS2 version of Crashday. Currently there aren't any details about online features.

RE: Question about game.., 18.Feb.2003 16:37

o ok.. How would you be able to get the money to buy the cars?

You will earn "money" (points) for nice stunts, for hits on opponents, or for fast laps in checkpoint mode. That depends on your race mode.

some about the cars, 17.Apr.2003 19:17
hi there i wanted to ask for a list of the cars ???
are all te cars finished yet ???
or are they stil not done ???

and 1 more , is it that there are only cars or are there goint to make some van's and trucks to ????

yo Peace Out !!!!!!!!
this waz Appie-G

(this game rocks and if its done its going to rock more 8D )

Hi!

The majority of the cars is nearly finished. Currently they are are all reworked.
In the final version you can expect about 20 cars.

The car list will consist of normal urban cars, sports cars, vans and offroad vehicles.

Jan

Will it include a BoostKey?

A "boost key" is included and the strength of the boost is determined by the type of afterburner you installed (NOS...)

AnD ThE MuSiC???, 20.Jun.2003 04:29

i was thinking.
what kind of music will have in the game?

The music style will vary from techno and groovy breakbeat pieces to Hip Hop and guitar-leaded tracks.

Regards,
Robert