I can't finish my dream game

[@Marcis.]

Poll: kzbin.infoUgkxUfKvl9BEcdFg4uBXwTxq7ZtntJKuYPpJ

[@robotinfluence]

I admire how you mention struggles with scope, it's something I would say all devs struggle with.

[@PixogenPixels]

Smugglers run is a great game to get ideas from too. I used to play the hellout of those and driver.

[@DerAua]

@@PixogenPixels I never heard of it - now I'll have to check it out. Thanks🙂

[@TWoods_93]

Sounds like you could have a lot more varied gameplay with the driving. You said it yourself, FPS is oversatured. I can't think of many Driver-likes, and you've done a lot of great stuff with the car deformation.

[@Mr.RicardoDev]

It already looks like the original PS1's Driver. I think still could have shooting, but be a small and secondary part of the game.

[@LT_Creations06]

You should definitely focus on the driving, because it’s the more interesting part of this game and also what got me interested in this channel. Also I didn’t even know there were FPS sections😅

[@arthurhark1954]

As a game developer, I respect you for being honest about what you are realistically capable of achieving on your own. I would suggest taking inspiration from NFS MW 2006 police chases. Good luck on your project whatever you choose.

[@Marcis.]

Police AI in NFS MW is excellent. I've been thinking a lot about how it all works.

[@feitoza.system]

Well... That's idea of just being the driver is amazing... And that's remember a lot about the Drive movie

[@mahmodaltmimy256]

Wow umm idk you or your game and youtube decided that this video would be good to put in my recommendation.....and i agree! From the video i just saw your game looks really fun, and it would be sad if part of it was removed. I know that it's easier said than done, but if i was in this type of situation i would focus on the essential, stuff that it seems like you already got (movement, driving, shooting) i would try to make them feel good and then switch to the story? Or whatever gameplay it's. As others have said make a single level or part of the city and move from there, maybe you will get the support from the fans if you did it right! It's hard to stand out from the crowd and i know how difficult it's to make a game, but keep in mind that it's possible and people have done it before, keep up the good work buddy, i know you can do it. Good luck with your journey and have a wonderful day!

[@MilkIsYum]

I reckon you should go for the getaway driver idea, evading cops while your car takes on damage sounds like an amazing idea. it is a shame you don't have enough time to complete all your ideas though

[@clopixelgamers]

This is Great Work!

[@Visuwyg]

Making a driver homage is a no-brainer. There is a hungry fanbase waiting for a game like that. You could make the menu a safe house & garage that you navigate in 1st person if you reslly miss the 1st person mode.

[@Marcis.]

It's not like there are zero Driver type games. The Driver Syndicate is one example?

[@shadows4086]

The game is epic, continue please.

[@Shuabvv]

I'd personally like a dark mood for the driving game, kinda like hotline miami maybe

[@daanisch]

the game that you are trying to make is the 1999 game Driver but not exactly, even the youtube algorithm thinks so, if it fails to match up with driver because you invested more energy in the FPS aspect then the whole concept falls below expectation, maybe watch more crime films for inspo, honestly you can break it down to a heist + getaway formula and complete the getaway element first and the heist element last, but if I had to guess in any case if the driving mechanics fall short of the game driver then everything falls apart maybe that should be your prototype before your try anything else

[@Loop-18]

حتى انا أحاول اطور لعبة بهذا الأسلوب ولكن أتوقع ان أفضل خدمة تسديها لنفسك كمطور مستقل انك تحاول تحصل فريق ولو كان مكون من اثنين راح يكون الشغل ممتع واسرع

[@Chareidos]

I am sorry for your struggle, but what you got looks like playable content already. I do not know what kind of game you were aiming for, but if multiplayer and netcode is not a thing you shy off from, you could do a game that is pretty much similar to Sub Rosa! If you don't know that game, you might watch some gameplay footage. General Sam has also played it. It might inspire you. Otherwise, why do not consider different Projects with your features and assets to explore those in a smaller scope. You could make a rally game where the player just drives in the dessert along a desinted path, having to beat their score. Or a Racing game with other players. Hell, if you feel confident to make it a ambitious project, make a Car Driving game with different game modes to choose from. Racing, Derby, Rally. If you keep those projects or tech demos small, you can produce stuff, get feedback and maybe you find yourself comfortable to start new little projects with others, where you have less fear of giving away your assets, but can build up on your skills and contribute to teams, which could put their man power into creating stuff that you do not have to worry about as much.

[@KryyssTV]

A word of advice to ANY solo dev; keep in mind that the more mobility your player has the more time you have to invest into adding content and assets. Furthermore, as player speed increases the value of the content you add, relative to everything in the game, decreases as players are experiencing your game at an accelerated rate. A month off work could amount to 30s of gameplay. As such, it is a very, very bad idea for any solo dev to tackle any game with vehicles or mounts unless you just have the player looping around a small track over and over. There are just genres and mechanics where you need to accept that the time investment doesn't justify the end result. Think smaller and be humble in your ambitions.

[@shroomcraftgames]

i would recommend you go with the driving game, we have enough retro fps games in the market

[@AlfredBaudischCreations]

Driving game.

[@zloboslav_]

People are dying for new twisted metal for PC and your game has the potential to become the best twisted metal game with that damage model, if you decide to lean in that direction. Also rogue-like games with random level generation are getting very popular these days. It would be a shame to have this amazing badass retro damage model and not add rockets, mines and other weapons to the cars. That will make the AI more complex maybe... I think you can consider to outsource some less important parts like the building designs and then assemble the city yourself. I don't think your FPS idea is compelling enough for me to play it instead of other games. Sorry if this sounded harsh, I do not mean to offend you, I'm just being honest with myself.

[@InkRibbon]

Hey man don't give up, the work you put into this has been amazing. I almost gave up on mine but I pushed through and now it's just about actually designing and assembling the levels, then adding the cutscenes. Boring and tedious, but it can be done. I think since this is so far along it's probably best for you to finish it on your own, so don't worry about teaming up with anyone at the moment. My advice personally as a designer is that while I see really fun gameplay mechanics and features, I see no story, direction or setting. Think of how Driver levels have different aesthetics based on where you are or even GTA games. Maybe make a short demo (literally just something that could be beaten in 5 minutes) and see what player feedback is? I'm not trying to preach or anything just want to help! Been following your work for a long time and I'm using your particles in my game haha

[@GonziHere]

Getaway is inherently both simpler and more attractive.

[@supatsano6990]

agreed

[@kaykay08]

Would hate to see the hard work put into the cars go to waste and I agree the driving makes for a much more unique game.

[@josiahweaver8895]

As a solo developer I have shifted my way of making games to be more early access oriented, so small chunks can be taken out of a large game and released over time. If I want to make a large open world game, I segment it into multiple unique zones that can be finished individually and released every month or two. It would be awesome to keep both parts of your game, but maybe release one large mission in one zone at first, later releasing other missions and zones. The cool thing about early access with releasing on steam is that your game gets two front page releases, and update exposure.

[@assemblyrtsdev]

Very interesting 👍

[@PixogenPixels]

This is the way. One of the pitfalls of early devs is not realizing how much work the final project is. Most likely 2-4 times what you thought at least. This also comes with other challenges. (and really burnout.) I'd try to focus on similar areas. Then move on to something more fresh like another are of the game that feel different or mechanics that are different ect.

[@tymondabrowski12]

But Steam doesn't give you any extra visibility though, dies it? You gotta ask for one of the five visibility rounds. Only the Early Access launch is picked up by Steam to see how you do. I think that's what I've read from Chris Zukowski.

[@PixogenPixels]

I think they do. You get 5 visibility rounds to use. Also events throughout the year. But You really want to start off strong and people don't like EA for EA. They want it like 70%+ there. Idk if they actually say what they do. But if you drop EA it dies off and then you put a patch out no vis round but it draws traffic it will put you out there more. I may be wrong tho. At the end of the day just build WL like a mad man and don't drop EA until its nearly done. (Shoot for 10s of thousands of WL.)@@tymondabrowski12

[@VladislavZharkov]

I'd say fork the project, focus on driving, put the FPS idea in the freezer for when you'll master the wheels, and scale down the city a little bit. You don't need a humongous map for this type of game, especially for your first project. A small yet detailed and well thought-out city would be a lot better than half-empty urban jungle. Driving AI is definitely pain, speaking out of my own very limited experience, so you'll have to focus on that the most, as that would be a key component to the gameplay, and solo development is no joke. It's good to have ambitions, but you also need to have a very solid scope if you wish to continue working on this project alone and deliver it within the next few years. Otherwise I really can't propose anything other than seeking additional helping hands. By the way, I've always wanted to score a Driver-like game, something along the lines of Driv3r's original soundtrack though, so if you'll ever need music close to that moody style, feel free to reach out!

[@pisquickgta]

Gateway, the city can be small, like two or just one island of gta 3, but if it is well designed and has terrain variety it will feel a lot bigger if you just do the fps part you will have a generic game, if you master the driving part (that looks really nice btw) you maybe will have a fun and special experience on a niche that will apreciate it :) greetings from Argentina

[@gibleyman]

You can have a small map and still make it fun. GTA Vice City is an example, despite its outdated graphics, the city is densely packed and every street feels unique. And that map is smaller than GTA3, yet still feels big and extremely fun. Another factor that comes to mind when talking about the map GTA3 or GTAVC is the idea of being able to know the map like the back of your head, there's a certain fun factor when you're able to plan out your routes or quickly improvise your route through map knowledge, something the older NFS games, especially Most Wanted nailed perfectly. This is one thing bigger and larger maps can usually deliver, at least not to the extent of these older games.

[@pisquickgta]

@@gibleyman Yeah i was trying to say that haha, just one third of the map of gta 3 could do an amazing game and let the dev explore a lot of possibilities , the thing i preffer about 3 than vice city is the variety, 3 has metro, subway, tunnels, bascule bridge, green terrain and height diferences etc, gta vc map is a lot simple but adds variety to he options of the sandbox (motorcycle, helicopters, crouching, properties, outfits, etc, making a more simple map (the game was made in less than 2 years) a lot more funny to explore because of the different options the player has but yeah i agree, a smaller map makes everything of it more iconic and familiar and thats something today games dont always understand sorry for my english

[@cooler1]

the car damage system is super cool

[@cyber_robot889]

I can help with 3d and textures. I have ability to work with this full-time without paycheck, because I have passive income and lots of free time for creativity ❤ Please, don't cut your game❤

[@3Diana]

i vote for driving, and this comes from someone that cannot drive so much i even suck in driving games. but it's simply a more attractive concept, the vehicle damage you created is the most impressive part of this project. and vs a simpler shooter game, allthough in your style wouldn't be bad, it just doesn't stand out as much, especially since it will also compete with all the retro boomer shooters out there.

[@JuanGamer0202]

Funnly enough I've asked myself a few days ago "what happened to that 'fps driver' game", searched for your channel and found it inactive, I imediatly thought something about development hell just like you describled. Its sad to know you want to scrap one of the two main aspects of the game, in my opinion you could keep it all but try and not exagerate and take your time, heists could be simplified by making it just npc combat with maze like mevhanics such as needing key cards to progress in a building, as for the getway driving aspect you already have a really solid gameplay, you just need to work on AI and world building. I'm not a professional game dev but one thing I can surely say is take your time boss, better a slow peaced development cicle than to rush it all and lose yourself on the point of it all

[@InvasionAnimation]

I think you should keep the police chase and just be a getaway driver.

[@rubixcube6]

Maybe you could work on making just the driving game now, then if you decided to do a sequel, it could be a heist game.

[@macepunky6406]

here's a solodev suggestion: keep the shooting for like indoor maps, so you can keep it simple and maybe make enemies spawn dynamically inside of it to make it replayable. and for outdoors driving, make just a few different buildings, with a set of textures and make them randomize through code (this will even keep the driving scenes different each playthrough). you can even go beyond and make each building dynamically place some distinctive like a sign, ACs or stairs outside. and it would be a thing of just modelling 3 or 4 things once to make your system stand out :)

[@shotgun1995hot]

If you want, we i.e me and my team can help you in finishing your game especially your driving version of the game

[@Yeij]

i think the getaway game sounds more appealing not just because of the cool deformation but also because the premise is interesting from being somewhat unique. also just wanted to add that if you wish to make both parts of the game, the one you dont choose could always be made after the other (if that's still desirable!) and the getaway driver game or fps game can be little tests/prototypes for your bigger dream game!

[@fiets38]

I'm having deja vu, I was in the exact same situation ~8 years ago. I was working on a driver-inspired game and realized the whole thing was extremely overscoped, so decided to shelve it and think of a new concept which eventually turned into a soapbox racing game. Anyway I've been working on my DOWNSCOPED game for the past FIVE YEARS now and it's still not finished :D Honestly my best piece of advice I can give is downscope and then downscope more and then downscope even more, especially as a solo developer! Find your core nugget of mind-blowing gameplay (in this case probably car chase + cool damage) and then come up with a least-effort way to make a game with that. Maybe a modular proc-gen city? Maybe skip a story? Whatever you can think of to get a first game out the door sooner. You can ALWAYS expand on the game later through updates or sequels, so you're not really throwing anything away. You're just condensing whatever you're doing into a feasible first commercial product.

[@sw97058]

I think you're leaning toward the driving game, and if you had to do one I'd choose that, but I think you're gonna lose out a lot with no shooting aspect at all. I'm not convinced that the only way to scope down is to choose one or the other. If you do choose just the driving, I hope you can get a bit silly with it, go a little James Bond or Twisted Metal and incorporate combat into the driving.

[@GrindedGears]

Gateaway would be more fun in my opinion. The heist part can be maybe a mini-task in some levels/missions just to bring some variety to the gameplay loop, though not to the extend you wanted to. Maybe some backup fire or shooting while driving in some missions would be a cool way to make the player prioritise looking at the road and/or shooting at the cops. Though even without the shooting, we really need a good chasing car game since the only thing close to that we ever got was need for speed's wanted series. And you having the freedom of creativity compared to that dead on the inside corpo bs i bet you can make a 10x more enjoyable and fun to play gameplay loop. Either way whatever direction you go i wish you good luck on your project!

[@dandi8]

The driving is what attracted my attention to your project! Although it would be cool if you could find a way to keep the walking / shooting mechanics around in some form. Perhaps do it more like Driver 2, where you can walk around and steal other cars? I could imagine even shooting working in a way where there would be no interiors, only outdoor shootouts - e.g. missions where you have to drive up to some alleyway and shoot some perps, then escape - think GTA 3. That way you would only have to model the city, but you wouldn't have to completely ditch your shooting mechanics. If all else fails, a spiritual successor to the first Driver will always be welcome in my book.

[@sicololuigi]

What if you swap the roles (just to keep both driving and shooting) For Example, the player is actually the Cop, recieves call of on going heists and other types of felonies, needs to get there by car then pew pew with gun. Also would be helpful if it is a game based on missions rather than having a whole city to explore so during chases etc. you just create paths (literally like racing tracks), you can have a more "scripted traffic" and focus on 1 AI only (the thief) Keep it up and don't give up

[@billmore6486]

I liked your car videos. There's a million unreal fps games in my opinion . I'd go with that. Hood on you to realize your going overscoped. Death of so many games. I'd focus on getting (minimum valianle product) mvp, a demo first. Get it in hands of players so you can get feedback on what's good or not. Wish you success

[@a.thiago3842]

It's a very interesting idea! And it's of course inspired in Driver 1, which is also a great ideia. When i played Driver 1 and 2 back then, the graphics looked just like that for me as a kid, lol! If you don't try, you'll never know what's going to happen. It's like a movie review on internet: if you base your ideias just on what people already made, maybe you'll never finish up a game, cause you will always find things that will make you give up. Having a lot of ''GTA like'' games on internet won't make your game be just one more. You have to implement things that the other don't have. Most of them just have one side of the story; or it's a shooter or a driving game. You're already doing it right by showing your project to the public. We're suffering with the ''remake, reboot and scam game sickness'', where people will sell you an ideia, get your money and never come back to finish the game. If that's not the case, the companies will try to remake a very old game instead of creating something new, never giving you a complete project. So that's the right time for you to come with a good ideia and the real intention to finish a game for real, without creating dlc's or things that don't matter. Just make a complete game, that's what we are hungry for unfortunatelly. You won't need to spend all your money on advertising, as you have the whole internet ''for free'' for it, just like you're doing here. If know how to do it, the most complicated thing here is dominated. At least in my opinion, a good game is a game where you can do unuseful things like opening a drawer, interacting with a lof of things, doing things on your own way and so on. Driver 1 didn't have a lot of things, but it was fun, misterious and interesting. How do you do about the vehicle AI? I'm using Unity and the streets have AI navmesh, so the car can navigate through it while chasing the target. That's the only way the car will avoid other vehicles most of the time. Is there a better way? Tx

[@mrpuma141]

honestly, gonna go a bit against everyone else and say the heist game seems like the more attractive option. the scope in my eyes seems way better and i think you’ll have more opportunities/ options to spice up the different levels. i know you’ve spent alot of time and effort on the driving side of things but you can always use those assets for cutscene’s. you could always have maybe a one off segment/ level that requires you to drive? I am not a game developer at all, i just like watching your dev logs, so id take my comment with a grain of salt.

[@Carkoon]

As someone who spent a significant time of their childhood gaming days just driving around in various games (GTA, Midtown Madness, Driver) I am very much leaning towards the driving part. I didn't even do many missions or races :D. There was something fascinating about getting to know the environments and finding little secrets or unexpected paths. Man, now I'm getting really hyped for this game. Of course I'm still looking forward to it, if you decide to go with the FPS part. ;)

[@THmusic420]

Do the drivning part first, then do like smaler fps parts. Dont need to be the focus just like a side think to brake up the gameplay. But the drivning could be the focus. But pleas dont throw away the fps parts, just make them smaler in scope

[@bahshas]

honestly man you should make the scope bigger. youre not seeing the writing on the wall. were entering the age of the one dev fully 3d fully voiced daggerfall clone with even more mechanics and bigger worlds. not even exaggerating btw. look up palworld.

[@Szabbyhun]

So you just made 2 games. If you finished with one, then you can make the other. And then maybe after you done with the 2, and if you still want, you can "put together" the two, and modify it a little or something.

[@shotgun_daddy-1089]

I personally think u should keep the driving maybe u could just have the vehicles in some parts of the map kinda like halo, your vehicles look very fun I think it’s a waste to just get rid of it all together I think u should just keep both. But just do what u think is best

[@rogerleiton9838]

Friend, your game idea has actually good potential, maybe there is a way to keep both. It seems the shooting part is polished and the problem with the driving part is the scope, so what about creating missions inside the buildings where the heists take place, and have different escape routes, and these escape routes will have different cars to be used as escape, and then once player has chosen, you can treat the driving section like a ps1 race, like ridge racer type 4, something constrained where streets are blocked by police and you can have different challenges, like getting to the finish line under time runs out, or staying alive before car explodes, and these challenges will be determined by the escape route chosen by player during the heist, aka player freedom and also you will be reducing the scope of the driving section by not making an open world map but rather an exhilirating race againts the police

[@BadTunes.]

What I think is you should make a smaller game and chosse either fps or car gane and stick to it and after you publish your first game and experience you can patner with you someone or make the game you wanted by yourself ❤So choose carefully

[@minyaminilla]

if we have to pick definitely driving, however i think having both elements would be awesome even if it means cutting corners

[@Chromixxxx]

Im a solo developer and i felt that with my last project... i worked on it everyday for a year and i felt the scope of the project grew way to out of what i can realistically do in a time frame of actually releasing a game sometimes bringing it back is what is key.

[@zentoa]

I am personally in favour of the driving version, due to the oversaturated fps genre. And we need a new getaway driver game

[@DigitalGreenTea]

I would also vote for driving. However, I wouldn't take on the huge task of creating an entire city. Your game doesn't need to be an open space. Look at how old racing games and rally games made their race tracks procedurally (basically tiles, or sections if you will, attached together at runtime). They can be linear, just like that, maybe with a branch or two. This will make designing levels easier for you, help the player understand where to go, and let you add lots of fun things inside those limited race tracks. These can include jumps, police barriers to avoid, spike strips, and maybe even stopping to pick up a few people who join your car. You could also include avoiding helicopter attacks by reaching a tunnel. Think about adding weather conditions; for example, heavy rain makes it hard to dodge obstacles. You could also add destructible objects on those linear tracks. Consider adding time trials where you have to outrun pursuers or escape a natural disaster. I believe by keeping the driving, which looks unique because of its retro style, and making the levels linear instead of a big city, you could do a lot while also being digestable in development.

[@Sarotsi_Z]

I think nowadays marketing play 90% role in a game success

[@АндрейЕрохин-ю5г]

i think with properly balanced arcade elements and level disign driving mechanic can glow up

[@ksenolog]

Driving is definitely more interesting than another fps,at least personally.

[@blxxdbvrn]

Oh man, I never seen a video so relatable as an amateur gamedev.

[@chaver28]

i think you should do what you enjoy more out of the 2, so you could finish the driving game then make the heist as a separate game afterwards but it takes place at the same time as the driving game did... driving is more fun than shooting too

[@Sadtape]

its interesting to imagine choosing where to park, or how to leave the zone being puzzles of their own. More about just not crashing or dying on your way our, rather than navigating a whole city. Considering the effort you've put into destruction, i can imagine a very breakable and difficult to handle vehicle being a fun challenge for a much smaller scale. Anyhow best of luck, and your assets are oustanding, its great that youre sharing them. You're just gonna keep getting better at this.

[@Visceral3D]

Im a 3D artst with at least a short time in the industry. Right now im teaching 3D art in Blender or CAD. I might not be the best programmer, but I have alot of experience in Unreal and been working with it since UDK. Feel free to reach out if you just want assets done mate.

[@voodoolew]

Keep the driving game. I loved that look and it's more fun and I think a scoring/ranking system could be amazing. Then make an FPS game using the work you've done on the Fps mechanics

[@sneakynova]

You should maybe reduce driving time (if you want to still have driving elements), which will in return need a shorter/smaller city map. you can cut corners too, since people won't stop to look for mistakes in the map when they are getting chased by cops. just don't give up. we need more retro style games on steam as there aren't many good ones. yours is simple yet really unique.

[@LaceEditing]

Seems pretty obvious that the driving game is the one to pick

[@jaysondawn6854]

Sounds like you have two games going - so whatever you shelve - save it for later - it can save you the first 3 months of prepro (even though it likely means you'll have to redo all the outdated aspects) Id say do the car game. You seem more excited by that project as you haven't even spoken about the first person fps in the last several logs

[@arrozesss]

maybe the problem is the open world part. i think its possible to maintain the FPS with the driving. the driving can be a small 1 lap race against the cops for every heist, on every "race" you can have multiple simple scripted events like: police cars blocks a fake path, police car crashes, etc

[@WhoKnowsZombie]

You could always make it a driving game but have some fps but like a super small amount . Like maybe have it random where each time you play it starts at the point where the heist is finished and now you gotta shoot your way out and leave and depending on how much money you have it makes you slower or faster. Idk just throwing ideas out at a wall here

[@oo0speed0oo]

it would be cool if you do the driving. you finish that up and that would be part 1. then a few months later work on the first person shooter would be part 2. kind of like same story but told two different perspectives in two separate parts. you can do both and finish both.

[@StudioTatsu]

Game development is a challenge. But if I was to choose, driving would be best choice.

[@dilligaf4209]

If the fps-part don´t take much time to finish, the should probably atleast include it, but the driver-part if very important, if you leave it out(as you said yourself) it will overshadowed by much other games in FPS-genre. I think of 2 things you could do: Make only the drivingpart with shortcuts, people in my age(37) who growned up with Driver and loved it, will be intressed in your game and compare it to Driver. 2nd idea: Make it like driver2, or gta3 with fps/3rdperson on the streets. A citymap with all assets will go quick to make if you keep it primitive as Driver1 (on ps1), only square streets, basically flat, and all building be like cubes with 4 textures sides with lowres buildingstextures taken from Google. AI is okey to be primitive and dump, just let trafic go simples routes, like around a block, and if you hit them they just stop. Police would be possible to use some pathfinding-tool, or they follow some roadpath, so they dont go off road, but then they close enough your car, they go offrails on ur direction. I think I would handle that logic in playmaker / Unity, dunno UE much than I used to design Pavlov-maps in it Go with the driverpart, make it primitive and simple to save time, set the bar how low you need it to complete the game.

[@MightyEFX]

i think it you decide to get rid of the driving aspect, you should take a look at reservoir dogs (1992) BUT HERES THE THING the way i see it, you should first make a shooter game, then a driving game about racing or whatever and then make your dream game!

[@0lionheart]

In the immortal words of Ron Swanson: "Never half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing." IMO the getaway driver angle has the most potential, especially if you really build it around stylish and creative driving. If you want to evoke the heist aspect, you could have the player start parked off nearby, starting a mission with the alarm going, police flooding in, but ignoring the player. You drive in to pick up the people, and _now_ the police notice you. It doesn't have to be dynamic, could just be a cutscene. You park up, black bars top and bottom, dudes rush to the car, once the scene ends the police kick into gear and start pursuing. It would definitely make it feel like you're whisking a bunch of criminals away from the scene of a crime. Have lots of nooks and crannies, jumps, alternate escape methods etc to make it feel like you're making on-the-fly decisions. Can't remember which film it is but there's one where they drive into the back of a lorry and wait, losing the tail as they seemingly vanish. You could do all sorts like that, make the player feel smart for finding these creative solutions. Driving onto a moving train, jumping onto a ferry, idk just riffing but there's lots you could do and that discovery would be addictive. Every time you found a new way to escape, it'd be a rush. I think that would make the game feel really engaging, if it evoked that sense of wonder. "Can I do this?" followed by "no way that actually works!"

[@MajatekYT]

Combine driving with FPS! World's Scariest Police Chases for the PS1 has a partner leaning out of the window. You could make WASD control the car, and the mouse control the crosshair to aim with.

[@ADASADALOL32]

Please don't abandon the idea of combining driving and shooting elements. As a player from the PS1 era, this kind of game has always been a dream for me. Sure, there are many driving and shooting games out there, but it's not just about what the player is doing. It's about the style, the story, and the unique feeling the game world. This project has a truly special vibe that I haven't found anything like on Steam. I am just a beginner with Unreal Engine, but my suggestion is to consider teaming up with other developers or outsourcing some work to freelancers. I believe this could pay off in terms of sales. Perhaps you could consider a smaller scope for the project initially, but in my opinion, it's important to keep both the driving and shooting elements for the best experience.

[@DrFudge-ky5ub]

No idea how much effort this would take, but why don’t you combine the two? Make the car be more of a fast tank, perhaps one that can be upgraded, similar to the Batmobile in Batman: Arkham Knight (which had a very fun and fluid switch between driving and combat mode). Perhaps it can have a nice skill ceiling, having to shoot different cop cars, helicopters, and perhaps other vehicles whilst you are trying to drive and not crash.

[@Marcis.]

I read your comments! Great suggestions!

[@Da_maul]

The vehicle deformation/damage system seems like something you could expand on and make into the prime feature of the game, it seems like you're currently at an impasse as to where the project is going, which is both a hard decision, but also an opportunity. Personally what instantly comes to mind is making the game more into a vehicle combat game, kind of like the Mad Max game, you could add different weapons and rams, and turn it more into trying to damage enemy vehicles as much as possible while staying in a drivable condition yourself. Making an open world for that is also "easier" because it would be more just terrain deformations and rocks, as opposed to an entirely 'constructed' environment. Maybe you could even repurpose the FPS systems for on-foot combat if you get knocked out of your car, ETC. This is just one idea of many, but I think you should be thinking about how you can spin what's there into something more interesting than your original idea.

[@Uhfgood]

Abandon neither, but instead use a top down perspective for both parts. Edit: You can reduce the complexity of your graphics and textures can be smaller. Just don't use the 'open world' mindset but instead limit your "cities" to smaller finite areas. Edit 2: You can remove the tops of the buildings when your character moves into the building. This will be less third person shooter, and more about planning your exit strategy.

[@JoeyBonzo]

It could be a cool idea to work on the two games, but keep the story the same. In the FPS version you collect certain items during the heists that will impact the difficulty and the story/ending for your character. In the driving version those items that you selected in the FPS version could impact again impact the difficulty/story. Could be a cool way to segment the ideas but keep them connected still. I think focussing on the driving game second also gives you the chance to focus on what works in the FPS version and the polishing that's required for the driving which may be more difficult.

[@RetroDesignHive]

Since "Keep Driving" has won in the poll, sell the FPS mechanic on UE marketplace, but too bad I don't use UE5 :/

[@Zictor]

Honestly, if I were you I'd go with the Driving thing. You've got a bit of a following on here, and the FPS Genre is really over-saturated as you said. Your car damage system is awesome too, and I think that you could really lean into the getaway driver thing quite a bit.

[@skornie123]

Maybe the Bank Heist segments could be like the game "I AM ALIVE", which is less about the shooting itself, but about aiming and intimidating enemies and to avoid an all out confrontation. Maybe if a civilian or security guard is getting aimed at, their arms stand straight up, if you aim away they will slowly try to escape or attack. You have to get close to them to restrain them. Those segments could have like a rating system, the more violence you use, the higher the "wanted level" in the driving section will be.

[@olzhas1one755]

You took quite a drastic scopedown. I think instead of a large open world you should make smaller city hub maps. They're much easier to handle and you wouldn't have to cut an entire gameplay element. The problem with cutting out the shooting elements is that you might end up with your game being perceived as "an indie driver clone" instead of something more unique.

[@aleksandrrush4076]

Why your game looks like a location form my dream...

[@TamzidFarhanMogno]

Best solution is to add more complications to the project so that the current situation looks easier after a while. I suggest making it a Wreckfest like online multiplayer vehicle demolition derby game with modding support for adding custom vehicles & gamemodes.

[@RedTail1-1]

You don't make any sense. There is no reason you can't make the game exactly how you want it. You don't need to cut out either part of the gameplay. You never even gave a reason why either. I think you're just being too ambitious for your first game, wanting to publish something yesterday instead of take your time. I also think your main motivation is making money instead of making a dream game.

[@denny7477]

I see bigger potential in driving game similar to Driver. As you said yourself, FPS genre is oversaturated and from what I have seen so far, your shooting part is very basic (no offense) but your driving part looks incredible.. I would NOT get rid of that ! I definitely suggest fully embracing the driving part and adding shooting from car (look at car shooting in Mafia 1 from 2002). There is so much you can do with that. And if you are worried about city size, you can always just make couple of streets and then add more over time with future updates. Cities from games like GTA3, Vice City or Driver are pretty small but we never really considered them small.

[@minilabyrinth]

I really think you should keep both driving and shooting and reduce the size of the game idea so you can finish it all. I would definitely play a solo shooter simply because it's retro. I would not play a pure driving game though

[@KvltKommando]

What do you mean not the most original? There's no dedicated single player heist game that features driving outside of GTA V and maybe 80-90% of the gameplay in that doesn't involve heists. Payday has no driving. And that is pretty much all of the heist games made in the past 10 years. The only ones I don't mention are the Kane & Lynch games both because theyre older and because theyre universally regarded as 5 or 6/10 games at best. If I was you, I'd focus on either just the shooting portion first, or just the driving part. You can make a smaller game out of it, like once your driving is feeling good, you can make all kinds of mini games like taxi/pizza delivery/getaway driver. Then you have a simple replayable driving game and you are able to build up the city map and figure out the vehicle physics. For the FPS portion to sell as a game it would need to have the complex heist gameplay figured out to make it not just a generic shooter and it would need to be developed to have a relative level of depth so it would have to include many of the systems like detection / intimidation / drilling / hostage taking, as well as enemy types like cops, swat, and police snipers. etc for it to not just feel like a generic fps in a bank setting. Alternatively, make the first iteration take place within a small American town. You wouldn't need highly complex buildings or a huge city as there are almost never any buildings higher than 2 stories. 90% of the buildings will be homes with variations in color, variations in lawn ornaments/bushes/trees. You could make a generic store front model and swap textures out for different stores, maybe make neon signs for some select buildings like bars and pizza parlors. You'd need to make a water tower, maybe a city hall building, a gas station, maybe an old school movie theater, a bowling alley, and some churches and the bank itself but only the bank would have an interior. Everything else will pretty much fall into texture swaps on those previous assets to make things like grocery stores. Just had a thought, the driving game, could be the prologue, where the main character is a young man fresh out of high school and learns how to drive cleanly and quickly without being caught by (and sometimes outrunning) the police while performing his job as a pizza delivery/amazon courier/taxi driver/uber eats driver. Think a mix between Initial D, Dukes of Hazzard, and Driver.

[@thehumbleonion5280]

this randomly came into my algorithm, you will get views on this video. Maybe you could have your new fanbase help with the project.

[@M1ha_12]

I think you could take ideas from "The Getaway" and the "Crash time" series (mostly 3,4,5)

[@zevac]

Don't ever lose hope man. I have a dream game of my own as well. I'm not leaving this earth until its done and set in history. I know that it's impossible to do everything on your own in a certain amount of time, but I think that if you build a solid portfolio and enough of an audience, one day we'll get the financial and physical help we need to fulfill our dream videogame

[@C_CREATURE_]

I am currently dealing with the same exact problem, I was working constantly by myself and loved the work but now it feels my love for developing has slowed down. It's SUMMER, I honestly think that is the problem, were humans and we need sunlight, we need to touch grass. I know it sound counter-intuitive, there are self proclaimed deadlines, we need to grind hard everyday and crunch the project, but I think if you take a break for a while, you'll fall right back in love with development with a clear and re-energized mind.

[@henriquedelnero452]

I totally get it! Creating the Driving Game is a lot more work, but everything related to the vehicles, including their damage system, shouldn’t be overlooked just to churn out another FPS. It’s way more worthwhile to go for something Driver-like. Plus, there’s a much better chance of getting organic marketing for the project this way, especially with so many FPS games in the bodycam style being released lately

[@BigSaur]

I felt this video. I know the feeling... Does Carmageddon or Interstate `76 inspire your descope searching? They would both make good use of the damage system and still have shooting. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gojZf4iwYs-lrtk kzbin.info/www/bejne/aoaXZX-KrNiKe6c

[@DerAua]

Oh man, good luck to you. Looking forward to whatever your decision is. But even though your FPS part is "mostly done" it doesn't look like it can compete with almost anything out there. No offense. The driving and damage system however look and feel unique enough to be fun. Just ensure a split screen option and reconfigurable keys...

[@carlvonberg2848]

Hard decision indeed. I also threw away so many ideas I had for my game so I'll actually be able to finish it in a sane amount of time. I would prefer you take the driving-route, since not selling your game due to oversaturation is harder to handle than selling your game because of a smaller target audience. Regarding the driving AI, don't think about it too much. AI is always connected with some degree of smoke & mirrors, so don't be afraid to at least take some shortcuts and to embrace the emerging chaos! Assets can always feel intimidating, especially if you try to build a whole city. Cutting corners here by reusing is totally fine (even AAA does it, so why shouldn't you?), but I'd also advise looking into tools a bit. I know there are multiple city and building generator plugins for blender which you can feed with map data and buildings parts to create whole cities/city blocks for you. Those also work fine with odd-shaped buildings iirc. You could then also go ahead and iterate on the results. Nothing has to be perfect on the first iteration :) Also, thank you! Your videos are very inspirational and have pushed be back into developing my own game more than once!

[@developerdeveloper67]

Bite the bullet and do both. Maybe it won't be perfect, but it's better do both and fail at polishing it than making an average game that doesn't even try. Also, I don't like heist thing, maybe make a psychodelic cryptic story story. Think hotline miami. Like something that let's the player understand the story however he feels like. That I feel would be a more original game. Anyway. Good luck!

[@MrBlueBonez]

I have a general question, u said that vehicle ai is difficult in ue, could u use ai for characters and change the mesh to just be a car? I have like 12 total hours of ue experience so I'm just curious as to why that wouldnt work. also, could you expedite the process of making buildings by acquiring free assets that vaguely fit your style architecturally and then quantize and dither the materials, or use something like dreamai textures to change them? maybe its a bit faster than building a whole city while retaining the same look. I really love the driving idea personally. its a unique concept and personally I love driving games and by that I mean mario kart double dash. its retro-ish, and has perfect driving mechanics. I always thought itd be really cool to have MKDD as a standalone driving game without items. having a game where I'm encouraged to drive fast, precisely and explore routes would be really cool (toads turnpike on MKDD has a fork in the road and takes place in a city). if ur gonna make a driving game (which i think u should, but im just some guy) i think the driving has to feel great. predictable with good handling. i think KZ in counterstrike is a good analog. its easy to understand, the movement is solid, not floaty, and you can produce beautiful fluid motions that make it look like youre flying. i can complete the levels, but it feels better to do it again slightly better and more optimized. the game encourages me to try again a little better because its easy to understand, and being better is more fun. like with anything I guess lol. like skateboarding. apologies for belaboring this point. anyway, love ur videos man. ive been wanting to buy ur asssets but I'm really stubborn and want to try to create everything by myself so i can understand it (also im broke i would love to support your work financially). im in my last semester at school and im making low-poly animations for my thesis project and your videos have been a gold mine. best of luck!

[@SHAKIROVICH-DEV]

Hi, I was watching you from the beginning, and the fact that you had both fps heist and driving sequence interested me the most, I think maybe you could have focus on the driving, and shooting be like a fun fast paste part, to diversify the game loop, plus if you’re planning for story, FPS part will have more impact.

[@zekenebel]

I feel this has everything to do with planning. I am currently working on a very large project and the team consists of me and another dev. But one thing we have that a lot of people dont going into this project is an actual plan. A 500 - 1000 word GDD , let alone even having one is not going to cut it when planning any game that isnt just a fun side project. The planning of this project took me around 2 months. This involved research into the various systems needed from both the art and mechanical perspective alongside detailed breakdowns of each inch of development. Not to mention this game is multiplayer with a dedicated server setup. 4 months into development and we have blocked out nearly every system we need and have began to scale the systems into a full game. If it wasnt for the plan I can promise you this 4 months of work would have taken us 2-3 years. All assets for the game are being hand crafted. So to anyone about to jump into a large project... Plan the plan, then plan planning the plan :).

[@maxi_anims]

I think the vehicle game would be more appealing. It's a bit old school, but grinding down the shooting mechanics to a auto-lock-on vehicle shooter may be more appealing to the retro style. You still get the satisfaction of shooting, but through the vehicle. This could bring different strategies/ mission types during a pursuit. Use your driving skills to navigate traffic and avoid police patrols/ searches, or full on highspeed getaway while shooting out tires.

[@KvltKommando]

The problem with Driv3r's shooting segments isn't that the idea is bad, it's that the implementation was shitty which made it not fun. From the camera/crosshair placement, to the wonky movement, to crappy sounds, it all came across like ps1 era jank. last question, why does this video have an annoying high pitched flute kind of sound in the right audio channel, it's driving me nuts