Hello!

Welcome to the first-ever dev diary for Zoomies Cat Racing! This will be a monthly update consisting of mainly technical development stuff that I've been doing. This is to keep me active as I've been a little distant lately (will get to that later) as well as to keep you informed.

But before we get into all of that - let's talk about you. How are you doing? Have you been busy lately? I'd love to hear about what you've been up to! Please let me know in the comments :D

Anyways, let's get on with it!

Multiplayer Demo

This is the big question - what is going on with the multiplayer demo? It was announced back in December and meant to release in January. But it's now February, so what gives??

Turns out it's kinda hard to integrate a multiplayer system into a game as simple as Zoomies! Even though I've had experience creating multiplayer games in the past, it's still not an easy feat for one person alone. As we entered the new year, I almost got the demo into a playable state, showcasing a random matchmaking system that supported different cats for each player. But I just wasn't happy with it.

I know that it was just meant to be a demo and obviously not a finished, polished product. But I just couldn't release it in its current state. It needed a full UI redesign (which is one of my weak points), lighting build (again another weak point) and the content felt quite empty. It included the original three cats from the game jam demo and a new track, but I wanted there to be more. So that's half the reason why I wanted to not release the demo.

Outlook Change

The other half is because I was burned out, man. I worked so hard preparing the demo that I lost the spark I had when I was making the game for Whisker Jam. As time went on, my personal life also changed; I'm currently in the process of moving jobs and my next job is going to be a lot more involved than my current one, which will probably mean I'll have less time for game development. I took this as an opportunity to reflect on my goals and priorities. I thought about whether I should continue trying to gain recognition for my games and attempt to earn a living from them, or whether I should focus on enjoying game development as a hobby without any deadlines or expectations. After much consideration, I decided to choose the latter path.

There's nothing inherently wrong with pursuing game development as a career, but for me, it is becoming more of a burden than a passion. I believe shifting my focus to treating game development as a hobby, I can return to the joy of creating something purely for the fun of it. And that, ultimately, is what game development should be about: finding joy and fulfilment in the creative process.

Anyways, they are the reasons why there's no demo just yet. There will be one but in the future.

So what's in the works?

Enough serious talk! Let's have some fun by diving into what I'm working on right now.

Track Previews

Here are some previews on the tracks I'm currently working on for Zoomies!

Suburbs

This is the track that was meant to be included in the multiplayer demo. A simple-ish track with some 90-degree turns, chicanes and a few ramps to make things interesting. This is going to be one of the easier tracks in the game.
This track is more or less done so I can start creating new ones!

Pirate... Town?

I'm not sure what to call this one. If you have any ideas, let me know.
This is probably the most technical/difficult track so far! It includes three different areas:

- Pirate town
- Cuba-esque town
- Fort

Currently, the track needs a bit of work as the cats don't handle big jumps very well. If anyone knows of an "anti-roll" solution, please let me know! I'll talk more about this one in the next dev diary.

Art Redirection

I have a few ideas on how to improve the art direction for the game. There are some better cat models that I want to try out as well as some cool shaders that add stuff like cel-shading, toony colours, etc. But since this is only in the idea stage, I'll leave the details for next month's dev diary :)

New Cat!

Introducing the Persian Longhair (or just Persian). Persians bring a touch of glamour to the racing world. And while they may not be known for their speed, their exceptional turning skills and stability more than make up for it. As you navigate technical sections and uneven terrain, you'll find that the Persian's natural agility and balance are a true advantage. And with slower acceleration, you'll have to work just a bit harder to keep up the momentum in the corners.

The Persian model is from a new asset library so I had to try hard to make it work with the existing animations, but I think I did a pretty good job and now I'm able to add many more breeds to the game so stay tuned!

FAQs

When will the full game of Zoomies be released?

I really can't say for sure. As I mentioned before I don't want to put too much pressure on myself. I'm aiming for a release this year but don't quote me on that. You'll just have to stick around to find out ;)

Will we get a demo at all?

Yes! Again, I can't say when but Zoomies will come with a free demo so you can try it before you buy. Once the right amount of content has been developed, I'll make a demo available.

--

That's everything for now. It's been great to talk about what I've been doing. Please let me know how you feel about Zoomies in the comments.

Take care of yourself <3