I worked for Chris Jennings, co-founder of Sentry (application monitoring software used by 4 million developers) on a physics based cart-racing/beat-em-up prototype inspired by Mario Kart and Road Rash tentatively titled “Death Dash” (unreleased).

Using the PhysX Vehicle technology from UE4, I was able to create a working prototype utilizing the physics concepts in an academic talk provided by the client. Using forward force, downward force, and side forces at exact locations, I was able to implement some very fun cart racing physics.

I added the ability for the vehicle to perform a brief hop, which also turns the vehicle and allows a “drift” where the vehicle gains speed and moves at a different angle.

The vehicle could auto-adjust whenever nearing tipping point, to always remain upright while allowing for “wobble” in mid-air. Upside-down carts would automatically flip over with a short hop.

Several road surfaces were tested including asphalt, gravel, and ice, with varying friction levels.

I created a looping spline-based road that could twist left/right and dip up/down, using asphalt with yellow stripes as the model. When the player falls off the course, they are automatically respawned at the furthest achieved distance along the spline.

I added particle effects to add tire-marks left on the road, smoke coming out of the exhaust, and “drift mode” blue particles for gameplay feel.

NPCs could pilot the cart, and would automatically steer along the spline, aiming toward center with adjustable degree of success.

The NPCs would turn their head to look at the player or other NPCs whenever close enough, with a limited rotation so that they couldn’t turn their heads backwards or upside down.

The player could punch left/right, swinging their fist and knocking other carts away with physics.

We researched multiplayer gameplay, and adjusting the physics rate to compensate for lag, and we settled on a single-player, couch-co-op prototype to wrap up the project.

I remain connected with the client through LinkedIn.