New MARCHintosh project underway

MARCHintosh 2025 is almost over, and I've been pretty quiet, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working on something! I do feel however that time is running out and I'd like to share what I've been working on before it is done, and I won't be able to release the game for a while.

I'm reusing the code from Blokz RAVE to make a new game, with the working title Viper Race. It's a 3D space flight racing game, where you fly a "Viper", a small spaceship through rings in space. The idea is that you will compete against 3 other identical vipers (but different colors), but I haven't started on AI yet.

(Early screenshot, final game will have more advanced graphics)

If this idea sounds familiar, then maybe you have played one of my favorite games of my childhood: EV Nova by ATMOS and Ambrosia Software. The idea for my game is taken from EV Nova's gambling minigame, where you bet on one of 4 Vipers and you get to see a pre-rendered cutscene of the final seconds of the race. My game is a playable version of that cutscene, targeting the same hardware as EV Nova did back in 2002!

(Screenshot of EV Nova)

Progress so far has been towards reaching a visual target, and getting a feel for the flight controls and flight model. I've found and fixed a few bugs in the Blokz RAVE engine, some of which may or may not increase performance in Blokz as well (We'll have to do some testing!).

I am currently hitting 32 FPS on a PowerBook Pismo 400MHz, but I haven't even gotten started on optimization for the new content and features, so the final framerates will likely be significantly higher.

New features in the engine have been implemented, and more are coming:

• Skyboxes (I can generate them with Bryce on a Macintosh G4)
• Billboarded objects (The fire behind the thruster always faces the camera)
• More types of material shading
• Additive blending and sorting of transparent objects
• Cameras with tweening when you switch between them
• Point rendering (not sure how useful this is, currently drawing debris with it, for visual feedback for how fast the ship goes)
• Animated sprites in 3D

Planned features:

• Engine noise like in X-Wing
• Collision system
• Mouse controls
• Various UI improvements and features
• OpenGL and Carbon or Cocoa if there is enough interest

Let me know if you find this interesting and you want to hear about this game!