Overview

The Amazing Drive is a small open world driving simulator. Take in different landscapes throughout the drive. From rural to urban take in the emissive world. The task is to showcase my modeling skills with my knowledge of mechanics.

Project proposal

Let’s start with the project proposal. The idea is very simple as it will have 2 main cars which the player can drive. Each one will be tuned and will allow a different experience in each car.

Time management

Before we jump into the project let’s talk time management. This is an area in past assignments I struggled to stick to, therefore, I am trying something new. I will be using an app called Notion. Notion has brilliant functionality for time management. I have created 3 different views of the same data. It has very good date bases which will further strengthen me managing my project.

First is my Trello board. This board will help me filter through task priority and as well as contains start and end dates. This will help me the most if time was to run quickly. As high priority is the tasks which I will want to showcase the most.

Next we a calendar. This helps a lot in the planning stage as I can see start and end dates in a node system. Making it easier to understand stand in the long view of things but, this approach will make me struggle on the short term goal as a calendar is overwhelming. I can easily manage my long term goals with this however, when managing short term it was hard to mange.

Last is my gnat chart. This is very similar to the calendar with the only difference being the layout feeling less overwhelming and will help keep track of milestone goals.

There will also be milestones which I will be certified after tasks have been complete for example completing a singular car model will be a huge milestone.

I can also store data within these nodes which will further strengthen my time management. As well as go into more depth into what I need to do and notes to myself.

Risk Assessment

Risk	Likelihood	Impact	Control measures
Weather	Likely	Medium	No one can control the weather however, I can check the weather before going to locations to make sure it meets the requirements of being sunny. The impact of the weather can determin how well the video comes out and can effect the road surface.
Getting distracted from camera	Unlikely	High	I will allow my father to drive who has more experience than I do so the risk of getting distracted is lower. As if I was to drive I could get distracted as I have less expirence.
Photography restrictions	High	Low	Although taking photos of cars is not illegal people can have privacy concerns and therefore, things such as number plates will have to be censored.

For me to get better results on how I want my game to function I decided that I wanted to go out and do some recording of how my car interacts with the road surface and to get an overall scale of the length and width.

Contingency Plans

Software: Blender, Unreal Engine 5, or Adobe Premiere Pro could crash at anytime meaning I could lose hours of work. In worst case scenario I might even have to restart my work. In order to avoid this I will create regular backups both on internal and external storage so I will always have a copy with me at all times.

Time Management: I am trying something new for my time management which I haven’t done before this could cause issues as I am not use to it. Some tasks my take longer than expected or shorter. I will priorities the writing first then focus on the functionality of the trailer I plan on creating such as camera movement. There is always a risk of being ill which could have set me back a few weeks.

Scalability: I have been known to over scope my projects in the past leaving last minuet changes in order to get the project done. If this does become a issue then yes I will be having to change things such as making the car even more low poly or making the animation in blender itself.

Photography restrictions: I decided instead of taking pictures of other peoples cars I decided that I wanted to instead use google images as that has a lower risk of privacy breach. It also contains a lot more pictures that what I could ever get myself.

Vehicles

Making cars is a dangerous game when it comes to law. However, throughout my research I have found ways of which the law doesn’t effect this project. Things which most commonly cause issues is:  

A 100% copy: Creating a 100% copy is infringement on their IP and therefore, could cause issues in the future. To avoid this I will be Suttle difference to the model picking things from maybe 1 – 2 different cars and basing it of that. Which makes it legally distinct.

Badges: This is trademarked material. As that will be using their name without permissions. However, removing this will lower the chances of being copyrighted.

Ford Mustang GT 1968

I decided to pick the Mustang GT however, due to the issues above I will also be using Ford Mustang 429 which are both within the same era of car releases making it easier to combine. The old fashioned Mustangs 1960s – 1980s are some of my favorite cars. It is also one of the most aggressive looking cars. Mustang can be eye catchy to my audience due to their look. The Boss 429 is also a limited edition Mustang which exited car ethuest for the Muscle cars. The Mustang 429 was released in 1969 which will give it Nostalgia feel. The Mustang 429 featured in John Wick giving it a history in film. It also featured in some of the Forza games. The Mustang GT is also one of the most commonly known Mustangs due to its starring role in the 1968 film Bullitt.

Mazda MX5 Miata

The Mazda MX5 Miata is my friend Josh’s favorite car and has helped me throughout college therefore, I thought it would be a nice easter egg to add. The MX5 is much more common than the 429 and GT allowing it to be more relatable. The MX5 has a more fun looking design as it looks more like a person which gives it a cool look. It is also one of Mazda’s most popular cars.

Plot

The plot of the game is that you are a low life racer who wants to climb to the top. Starting from a banger car. This is a run down car which the player starts with and has to grind to get points to choose their next car. In order to become the racing champion.

Locations

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Before, I start making my map I wanted to create some inspiration for my map which could give me that Scalextric feel. I decided to look at some race tracks from different type of racing like Nassar and F1 mixed in with some Hot Wheels and Scalextric tracks.

This was the final result I could come up with for the game and I think it would be very good as it also has elevations which will add more depth into a 3D world rather than feeling flat 2D.

UI

My UI design is going to stay simplistic this is because it isn’t an area of my within my knowledge. Though I know how to use Figma which is an industry standard software tool my UI concept will still remain simplistic. Why? Well this is because I want to mostly focus on the mechanics and style of the game rather than the UI. The UI is an extra task which for now I am planning to just use some simple text which will display a lap counter and speed you are doing for the players knowledge. However, if I have extra time left then I will be open to do a full speedometer for the UI.

Above is an image for Forza Horizon 6 which will if I have time will be a huge inspiration to the project this is because I like their speedometer as well as position this will help the player track more of their progress than just a simple text which displays speed and laps.

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Inter?query=Inter

For UI I noticed that text can actually be trade marked and often can be paid for by the weight of the font. So if I want different weights I have to pay per weight. However, due to this being an educational project I do want to spend money on it and therefore, I managed to find a none copyright font. Which I could use.

I plan on having the UI spread in the corners. In the bottom right corner will be the same as the forza layout in regards to speed. Then in the top left corner will be the lap counter.

Is this possible?

I have a strong understanding of Blender fundamentals such as topology and the basic keyboard shortcuts. I also understand how to use the fundamental skills of Unreal Engine. I have pass experience with both software and have worked on project like this in the past creating cel shaders using Post processing.