Pseudo 3d racing?

[FezMonki]

Hi there,
I would like to find someone to code a pseudo 3d racing game prototype for me, but I have some questions first, about feasability and technology.
Basically it would plug into a bigger car game I have been orchestrating for years, with hit and miss coder success (this is what happens when the artists manage the game instead of the coders I guess). So while the rest of the game handles car acquisitions, modifications and stuff like that, the pseudo 3d racing script would handle the race alone, once fed all the relevant race info.

I'm wondering if one of the various engines or something coded from scratch can:
- Support multiplayer, at least 8 players.
- Handle a heavier amount of sprites/level detail than usual "made for fun" indie games of the sort. Like for example the faux 3d, and tunnels on the sides of Racin' Force:  YouTube Link
- Without aiming at simulator realism, do a bit of a better job at real world handling physics than the aforementioned games.

Basically I would like to know if I can expect an Html5/js game to be able to get real polished with enough time and effort. I know the answer is yes, but I'd like to hear someone say i

[FezMonki]

Any suggestion on which engine would be best suited and I should look a developer for would also be appreciated (would be happier if Phaser could handle it though).

[Milton]

Phaser could handle it, no problem.

But unless someone is willing to sell existing code cheap, this will cost you. I would ask at least 50K...

[FezMonki]

For the whole bells and whistles I assume, but what price range are we talking for a raw 8 shaped track, no scenery sprites, just a simple road, horizontal scrolling background, four multiplayer capability and guesswork physics?

I'm mostly looking for a convincing prototype at this stage, and as there are tutorials and open source "infinite runner" games based on outrun which already did the trigonometry math for everyone, I thought someone might manage to repackage that into a circuit racer, with socket.io multiplayer and some added tricks.

I'm not downplaying effort or underestimating the amount of work needed of course, just trying to establish if I can afford a prototype on a budget, that can then be built upon in the near future.

[Milton]

Maybe you could contact Ansdor, who just finished Slipstream. I don't think you'll get much  cheaper than my estimate, even for a prototype...

[FezMonki]

Alright, thank you. I guess this is probably not the route I should be pursuing.

[Antriel]

Why the fake 3d instead of normal 3d?

Just the rendering itself isn't very difficult. Physics a bit more work depending on realism required. Multiplayer a lot more work depending on other factors like the physics.

I can see doing it for much less than 50k, depending on the scope.

[FezMonki]

Well, because all our assets are 16bit style pixel art, and I really wanted to go with that outrun look.
If faux 2.5 can be achieved easier/quicker/cheaper with 3d fixed camera angles and stuff I don't care, this just seemed like a quicker and lighter solution to me.

Physics for now need to be guessworkish, it just needs to be a playable demo we can all have two laughs on with mates. They will need to get better if we decide to proceed this way (probably yes).

If you are actually interested (or anyone else), drop me a message with what you estimate you would make pay for this simple, 8 shaped track demo, with just the horizontal scrolling background and multiplayer. Because 50k is magnitudes out of my budget for now.

Thanks.

[Antriel]

Well, you can have pixelart in 3d games, that's not an issue. It's more about that old-school feel which would be difficult to simulate in 3d environment.
That youtube video you shared doesn't look like pseudo 3d, more like actual 3d with 2d cars/items. At least judging by the intro before race start.

I never did pseudo 3d,  but from what I googled it doesn't seem too difficult. That said, if 50k is "magnitudes" and not just one order of magnitude away, I fear it is indeed too little. Especially with any kind of usable multiplayer. Two orders of magnitude away would barely get you basic pseudo 3d driving without texturing and with one simple road.

[Milton]

If it's just for laughs with some mates, put it up on GitHub. I don't think it's commercially viable anyway. You would likely get some people (even me) contributing exactly what you want for free

[b10b]

@FezMonki I have some experience at pseudo-3d racing games and made at least a dozen commercial titles using that tech over the decades (including multiplayer).  I found the approach and visual effect fascinating and agree - with the right time and attention - HTML5 results can capture the pre-3D early 90s arcade quality.  But I'd echo what @Antriel says, unless there is a particular technical reason to limit the engine to 2D blitting then a "true" 3D engine (emulating the retro 2.5D effect) will typically be more performant and easier to extend and maintain (especially in terms of mods and customs which is where the life of a game exists).

Happy to answer specific questions about the techniques involved (many are visual tricks rather than technical tricks) or quote for upscale commercial projects (multiplayer or otherwise).  I have existing engines (some simple, some advanced), if you have existing assets, or captive audience, then a partnership might be viable.

[vornay]

On 5/21/2018 at 1:49 PM, b10b said:

@FezMonki I have some experience at pseudo-3d racing games and made at least a dozen commercial titles using that tech over the decades (including multiplayer).  I found the approach and visual effect fascinating and agree - with the right time and attention - HTML5 results can capture the pre-3D early 90s arcade quality.  But I'd echo what @Antriel says, unless there is a particular technical reason to limit the engine to 2D blitting then a "true" 3D engine (emulating the retro 2.5D effect) will typically be more performant and easier to extend and maintain (especially in terms of mods and customs which is where the life of a game exists).

Happy to answer specific questions about the techniques involved (many are visual tricks rather than technical tricks) or quote for upscale commercial projects (multiplayer or otherwise).  I have existing engines (some simple, some advanced), if you have existing assets, or captive audience, then a partnership might be viable.

What game engine did you make your Grand Prix game in? That game looked amazing.

[Azerion]

Hi!,

We've made Kizi Kart, a pseudo 3D racing game using Phaser & Typescript.

It was quite a challenge, but we are very happy with how it turned out.

http://www.gamedistribution.com/games/kizi-kart

[b10b]

10 hours ago, vornay said:

What game engine did you make your Grand Prix game in? That game looked amazing.

http://b10b.com/grandprixhero

Thanks - all our games are built using Haxe + awe6 + ( createjs || pixijs ), but that's maybe misleading for the 2.5D?  The 2.5D in GRAND PRIX HERO (and SLALOM HERO) is a proprietary software renderer (using canvas.context2d.drawImage).  For a psuedo-3D primer a great tutorial can be found here:

http://www.extentofthejam.com/pseudo/