Devlog 3: Boost!

First iteration on boost is in the game and it's a pretty big game changer from the prototype version you've played (hopefully). The mechanic is pretty simple, on the left of the screen are 2 bars, the top is your boost charge and the one beneath you can think of like a tachometer. When it reaches the 4th stage, you start to build boost which you can unleash at any time. Now you really have a risk/reward scenario where you can strategically plan out when to boost to maximize your time. Do you feather it coming out of turns to regain lost speed, or save it up to get maximum length out of an upcoming jump, or possibly use that big jump to shortcut a portion of the track?

I'm planning that different vehicles will have varying boost stats, so maybe one will have a larger reserve but fills slowly, while another holds less of a charge but can reach higher max speeds. As I start to focus on diversifying the vehicles, I think boost is going to factor into that equation heavily.

I'm really just happy with how the effect came together, considering how many small parts are making up what you're seeing. The camera animates on ignition, the fov widens, everything rattles including the vehicle, and the addition of the colored trails and sparks help sell the feeling of increased speed. Speaking of sparks, you're seeing version 2 of the scrape fx I posted last time. Once I got boost in, like most things FX turns into an arms race and I had to double down on amount and behavior of the original scraping sparks. At some point I'll look into improving the ground effects too!