Over the past week I have been making random improvements to Scrapyard Racing!  First I started with some user interface / heads up display stuff, but have yet to finish.  My lack of artistic value is draining me.  I then started playing with the best lap times database, and in-game display/interface.  First I started with populating the database with a bunch of generated users with random personal best times.  Now I have used those records to test the in-game display.  Which I must say is coming along nicely, even if it isn’t yet complete.

In-game Best Laps / Records Display

I need to add some navigation buttons, but I assure you I’ve tested it with a few hotkeys at this time.  There are three major additions until I can say the records are complete.  First I need to actually add records from game when the player makes a new personal best.  I also would like to see the ability to search for a friend by their user name to see their time / how much bragging rights you have over them…  The final one is going to remain undisclosed, as I haven’t had a chance to make sure I can pull it off; but it would be a nice feature.

Besides the timing charts, I’ve been working on moving my website around to this new place, of awesome.   I would like to make a video of me editing a track, as well as making a few tracks since I’ve only been testing on the one.  I haven’t done much gameplay wise.  The car is still a tad sluggish, and you still don’t need to use the brakes, but it is easier to drive compared to previous versions, and I think that is a pretty important part.

I may have failed to make my October Alpha goal, but I doubt I’ll fail to release this; the better question is when?  I would love to see it released within 2010, likely near December.  But I assure you, I have a long ways to go, and that is my dream time frame.  I have extremely high doubts on hitting the target.  Enjoy.

Okay, so I did not quite get where I wanted to this October, but it would have been a challenge even if my free time would have been higher.  Work related stuff ended up taking a lot of my time, for almost 10 days in a row I was unable to make much progress at all, then work started slowing down, but I had an opportunity for a programming test; which ultimately failed as I found out last night.

These are not excuses, as much as the truth of why I didn’t get where I wanted.  I am actually quite far behind schedule now, although I am still holding high hopes that I can sell a copy by December 31st.  I see more and more people are starting to become interested, as I released a video of the game in replay mode last week, and have had a few instant messages with congratulations and stuff.

Overall I still feel positive about the project, and even after a few weeks of “here and there” development I think things are coming together nicely.  I still need to edit the physics of the car/world, and need work on the user interface of the game.  One small piece of the gameplay portion exists before I start adding all the dressing and polish that will turn it from a ‘game’ into something playable.

Tonight I added a config file, so the player can change settings and they will remain stored for the next time they play.  As soon as I finish writing this I will start working on resources for the car, so that tires can be depleted, fuel runs out over time and brakes heat up, performing worse under heavy use, although quickly cooling back off.  Once I get that working I will need to add some more things to the track editor, and start making some tracks and content…  We will see.

In other news I added music, for now it is just temporary although I am going to be getting in contact with a musician sometime (I hope).

Have a good time, and congratulations to all those in the community that finished their games in October!!!