27 replies to this topic

[JaguarGod]

For more information please go to the Official Site of the Auto Sport Driving game here!

Just to let any Mac racers out there know, I am finishing up work on the first game in my Auto Precision Driving Series. The game is called simply enough..... "Auto Sport Driving". It is the first in a new series of Mac racing games (hey, the Windows side has enough of them to choose from    ) that will eventually include this sports car racing title along with stock car and truck, Open Wheel, Cart and Rally games. I will make a formal announcement once the game has been sent to Apple for approval into the Mac App Store.

This first title will be available soon on the Mac App Store for Snow Leopard and Lion. It is a small title due to the fact that my development studio consists of me and...well...me. Paolo Cattani was prime consultant during the development of the game and will continue to do so for the next games in the series. But remember, this is a small title. I want to bring a really nice driving and racing experience to the Mac that is a little more realistic, but not impossible. Also, the AI is smart, smooth and tough to beat on higher levels.

Here are some features of Auto Sport Driving
Realistic Physics Engine
Stereoscopic 3D Technology (Anaglyph/Anachrome Tested)(Shutter tech is actually implemented, but will not run on any Mac gfx cards yet)
Wheel and Gamepad Support with FFB* (Logitech and Macally tested)
Online Racing with Lobby Support
Scalable graphics options to accommodate all Intel Macs
Cockpit Views to heighten the immersion
Pick-up-and-play (most tuning options have been removed in this version to appeal to the casual gaming crowd also. Hardcore versions will come later)

*FFB has been disabled (actually left out) in Lion, but can be easily put back in. I will post the fix on the site when the game goes live. FFB works with Logitech wheels only on Lion right now. Thrustmaster wheels have been tested and work, but with no FFB effects. The game works really well with the MacAlly iShockX too.

Here are a few pics...

[Marathon4ever]

Looks pretty schweeeeet!

Can't wait!

[mattw]

Marathon4ever, on 31 July 2011 - 09:02 PM, said:

Looks pretty schweeeeet!

Can't wait!

I'm sure you will have done a great job as usual Jason - looking forward to getting this

[JaguarGod]

mattw, on 01 August 2011 - 02:13 PM, said:

I'm sure you will have done a great job as usual Jason - looking forward to getting this

It is a small game, but it is growing and I think with some time and criticism after it's release, I can create a really good series of racing games for the Mac. I am a little disappointed in the time I had to put it together, but even in that small amount of time, it turned out pretty well. I am awaiting word from the publisher about getting it into the Mac App Store. It may still be a few weeks before release. But I am already starting on the next game in the series (A NASCAR style game with stock cars and trucks) as well as working on the additional car series and track for this first game. I am seriously considering bringing an employee on to help get this going. It would be great to have someone else to help with this.

I will let you know that the idea here is to create 3 or 4 separate games in the series. Sports/GT cars, Stock cars and trucks, Open Wheel cars and finally rally cars. I am also developing another idea for a game that is a racing game, but a little different.

I am going to be having a contest when the game is released. It will be a hotlap based contest in which the winner can win an accessory set for Auto Sport Driving or even some PS3 racing games! I know, it sounds weird to give away PS3 games, but it may draw a little more interest. And even if the people do not have a PS3, they can always trade them in! I will formally announce this when the game is released.

[pschorr]

Any updates?

Looking forward to it.

[JaguarGod]

pschorr, on 12 September 2011 - 01:06 PM, said:

Any updates?

Looking forward to it.

Sorry for the lack of updates. We found a few bugs that had to be fixed. The game is now under heavy testing and I am creating the new track and car series for the update. I would put the release around the beginning of October. But that is speculative. Thanks for the question. I am really hoping in time to create a series of games that all Mac racers can be proud of. But it is a bit hard to be such a small developer.

I am hoping that I can create a team in the coming weeks to start getting these games done quicker and making them better so that every Mac Racer has a more sim-like experience on the Mac that is a bit different.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Impressive work if you did it by yourself.. O_o

[JaguarGod]

Thain Esh Kelch, on 13 September 2011 - 04:39 AM, said:

Impressive work if you did it by yourself.. O_o

The engine was originally created by Paolo Cattani and I have been working with him since 2007. But I am the only developer on the game. I hope to change this soon. I have added a track layout designer for the update track and for the next game in the series and I am trying to add another artist to help make the games of a higher quality and to add more content to the titles quickly and to make those who purchase the titles satisfied with their decision to do so. It is not exactly what I had envisioned, but I think in the future all of the titles in the series will be great games for the Mac. I am also considering fleshing the titles out to be "true" sims alongside the more casual feel (e.g. Auto Sport Driving HARDCORE). Right now I am trying to get everyone to be able to pick-up-and-play the game. But I would really like to create sim versions of each game for hardcore racers to play with options to setup every aspect of the car. It is definitely possible and would be easy to add in as the original games already had these options but they were removed as testing showed the games were too hard for most people to race and only about 5% of them even played with the settings and even less knew what the settings did.

[Smoke_Tetsu]

Question, for the analgyph support does it only support cyan and red or does it also support other colors like magenta and green?

[JaguarGod]

Smoke_Tetsu, on 13 September 2011 - 07:27 AM, said:

Question, for the analgyph support does it only support cyan and red or does it also support other colors like magenta and green?

Unfortunately, it only supports cyan and red anag/anac at this time. Maybe in the future this can be added.

Here are a few updated screenshots...

[JaguarGod]

And here is a 3d screenshot from the game...

[JaguarGod]

With the release of the game drawing near, I wanted to let you guys see a preview of the addon track that will be part of the first update to the game after its release. Welcome to..... Millstowe Speedway

[mattw]

JaguarGod, on 03 October 2011 - 10:29 PM, said:

With the release of the game drawing near, I wanted to let you guys see a preview of the addon track that will be part of the first update to the game after its release. Welcome to..... Millstowe Speedway

Nice! Looking forward to the release

[pschorr]

Are you comfortable announcing system requirements or pricing yet?

[JaguarGod]

pschorr, on 04 October 2011 - 06:19 PM, said:

Are you comfortable announcing system requirements or pricing yet?

Well, the final release version will require Snow Leopard 10.6.6 and higher or Lion. It will run on any intel based Mac, but some of the options may be limited on older machines. I will say that the game was actually produced on my PPC G5 Quad and it runs on that! But has been compiled and optimized for intel and Snow Leopard. Maybe someday down the line I can release a stripped version for those few PPC Mac racers who still use their G5's!

I think it would be recommended to use a core2duo cpu with 256MB VRAM (it can be shared) if you want a really nice experience. But minimum specs will be lower than that. There are a lot of options to accommodate all intel Macs. I can run the game on higher options on my 2010 MacBook and 2010 MacBook Air and it looks very good. Of course it runs superb on my Mac Pro even when in 3D mode.

3D is going to slow the game down a bit if you want to use it. So you may have to trim a few options to get it to run well on older machines in 3D mode.

As far as pricing, I am not exactly sure yet. I will have full information in a few days.

THANKS for your interest in the game!

[JaguarGod]

Update as of October 12, 2011

I have posted 4 gameplay videos, if anyone is interested, at the official website in the media section.

The game has been rejected twice now! The first fix was simple and just an oversight. But the major problem now is the online multiplayer. The game includes lobby server support, but the App reviewers are having a hard time understanding how to set up an online race. There needs to be a host computer for the race and the lobby server will show it and anyone can join. But they are not getting it. I may have to rework it! But meanwhile, it will probably be taken out of the game for now until we can get this sorted out.

[pschorr]

JaguarGod, on 12 October 2011 - 09:51 PM, said:

Update as of October 12, 2011

I have posted 4 gameplay videos, if anyone is interested, at the official website in the media section.

The game has been rejected twice now! The first fix was simple and just an oversight. But the major problem now is the online multiplayer. The game includes lobby server support, but the App reviewers are having a hard time understanding how to set up an online race. There needs to be a host computer for the race and the lobby server will show it and anyone can join. But they are not getting it. I may have to rework it! But meanwhile, it will probably be taken out of the game for now until we can get this sorted out.

Gameplay looks great.

Shame about the approvals.

[JaguarGod]

pschorr, on 13 October 2011 - 09:46 AM, said:

Gameplay looks great.

Shame about the approvals.

Thank you for the kind words! I know the game is not perfect, but I am truly proud of it and the next 4 games in the series are going to just get better with each release.

Another update about the approval, we fixed the first set of "issues" now we have another issue that needs to be addressed. Hopefully we will be able to get these worked out too. I am quite happy that we can keep the online netcode intact. The latest issue deals with the fact that ASD uses a "Race Monitor" sim-type setup when using the escape button as opposed to what normally people see when they press the Escape button during a racing game. ASD works more like the SimBin PC racing sim titles where the escape button brings up a racing monitor setup where you can watch the race live in a smaller window while the options are also available in realtime. This is apparently confusing to the reviewers as they have probably never come into contact with it before, but I truly believe that players will be able to figure it out. It really is not that hard. But we will have to see.

[mattw]

JaguarGod, on 13 October 2011 - 09:39 PM, said:

Thank you for the kind words! I know the game is not perfect, but I am truly proud of it and the next 4 games in the series are going to just get better with each release.

Another update about the approval, we fixed the first set of "issues" now we have another issue that needs to be addressed. Hopefully we will be able to get these worked out too. I am quite happy that we can keep the online netcode intact. The latest issue deals with the fact that ASD uses a "Race Monitor" sim-type setup when using the escape button as opposed to what normally people see when they press the Escape button during a racing game. ASD works more like the SimBin PC racing sim titles where the escape button brings up a racing monitor setup where you can watch the race live in a smaller window while the options are also available in realtime. This is apparently confusing to the reviewers as they have probably never come into contact with it before, but I truly believe that players will be able to figure it out. It really is not that hard. But we will have to see.

So looking forward to this - videos look great!

[JaguarGod]

OK, the game has been approved and will be up on the store shortly! Just wanted to let everyone know that the update will be available sometime in November which will add the Millstowe Speedway and the 357 car racing series.

Also, I will be announcing a great contest shortly! The contest will consist of a weekend of races to get down to a field of 8 racers for an online race for it all. I CAN announce the final preliminary prizes for the contest....


1st Place - Logitech Driving Force GT (Worth App. $150.00USD)
2nd Place - Macally iShock X and a $20.00 iTunes Gift Certificate (Worth App. $50.00USD)
3rd Place - $20.00 iTunes Gift Certificate (Worth App. $20.00USD)