Streets of Rogue 2 | Dev Blog 1: Vehicles
Antishyr here, the game's community manager. Now, you might be wondering: "Where's the next devlog?" Well, I agree it's about time we released one, so Matt Dabrowski, the game's dev, and I decided to bring you a behind-the-scenes in the form of this dev blog.
This article will focus on motor vehicles—one of the main open-world features of Streets of Rogue 2. We sat down with Matt to outline the main aspects of motor driving we wanted to highlight for you guys, and here's the result. Hope you enjoy it!
DEVBLOG 1: VEHICLES
[h3]DESIGNING CHAOS ON FOUR WHEELS[/h3]
Since the early days of the GTA series, it's been hard to imagine open-world games without cruising the streets in a cool-looking whip. Streets of Rogue 2 is no different, allowing you to explore the procedurally generated island nation on four wheels—or on the waves, for that matter. Just like any video game mechanic, allowing the player to drive vehicles comes with its fair share of challenges. Let's dive into some of them.
[h3]🧭 NAVIGATION[/h3]In an open world, getting from point A to point B has to be practical, prompt, and, most of all, entertaining. Introducing vehicles was a no-brainer at the concept stage—I mean, it's a modern-day city, and the days of using horses are kinda behind us (though the game does have rideable horses!) Overall, you'll be doing a lot of driving in SoR 2.
In addition to that, phone booths
[h3]🎮 CONTROLS & PHYSICS[/h3]It takes Matt a lot of messing around with different values to nail the feel of a car. "If I make things 10 times more slippery, how will it feel?"; "What is the right amount of bounciness?" The answers to these questions lie in spending time in the engine and adjusting the physics. Check out this short video that demonstrates that process:
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[h3]⛐ DRIVER AI[/h3]Perhaps more than any other system in the game, AI is a constant, never-ending work-in-progress. Driver AI is particularly tricky, largely due to the fact that vehicles are essentially giant hitboxes-of-death that move quickly and aren't capable of turning on a dime.
As you may have noticed, there are no traffic lights in the game. To (partially) avoid complete chaos on those rogue streets, cars obey a "first-come, first-served" law at intersections. According to this internal queue system, autos drive through one at a time to avoid collisions.
While NPCs typically stick to fixed paths and simple driving rules, Matt has set up special behaviors for things like turning onto other roads, so that drivers don’t crash into each other or stop unnecessarily when there’s no real danger. If something unusual happens—like, say, the player is standing in the middle of the road—a car switches to a more flexible driving mode that allows it to deviate from its normal road behavior, reach its intended destination, and ultimately, get back to the standard path. During these periods, the car may "cheat" a little, perhaps turning a bit more quickly than the player would be able to if they were driving the vehicle, or coming to a stop more quickly when need be. This is all in the service of avoiding too many collisions and, of course, ridiculous traffic jams.
[h3]🚗 DESIGN[/h3]Most automobile designs are based on real-life car types, such as minivans, sports cars, trucks, and some decrepit rides. A basic 3D car model usually takes around 3-5 hours to create, and then the model is saved at 24 different angles. Next, pixel artists essentially "paint over" each of these angles, to bring model into line with the game's aesthetic. Finally, subtle 8-frame animations are created for each angle to express motion -- wheels turning, the car bobbing slightly up and down, etc.
The chassis created for each vehicle are stored as separate art assets, allowing us to enhance visual variety by re-coloring different pieces of the car.
Cheap Sedan (Damaged): Final 3D Model ↑The headlight sprites are also stored separately so that they can appear bright at night while the rest of the car does not. Water overlays are necessary to keep the car looking correct at all angles when submerged in water.
[h3]🚤 BOATS[/h3]Navigating the waters is also a part of Streets of Rogue 2. Boats are primarily useful for reaching islands that would be otherwise inaccessible to the player. In future development, boats may also become useful as a means of traversing rivers to reach locations that would be dangerous to attempt by land. On top of that, Matt is thinking of implementing an "underwater dungeon" and incorporating cargo transport sometime after the early access launch. This stuff is, according to him, inspired by Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004). Believe it or not, the creator of SoR 2 has an idea of a mutator for a water-based world, composed primarily of islands, for greater use of boats. If you've been to/lived in the Philippines or watched Waterworld, you'll understand.
Military boats? Perhaps. Kind of early to talk about it. Police boats will be there, though, rest assured.👮
[h3]🗺️ FUTURE PLANS FOR VEHICLES[/h3]
- 💨 More variation in turning, speed, and acceleration for different types of vehicles. Making some vehicles go faster (e.g., sports cars) is in the plans.
- 🚧 If you remember a viral video about destructible environments that we posted on social media the other day, you might be wondering if you'll be allowed to crash through buildings like a madman. This will depend on factors such as the type of vehicle, the strength of the wall, and modifications added to the vehicle. Most cars will make short work of a small wooden fence or even the walls of makeshift housing found in shanty towns. However, modifications to the strength of a car's exterior might be necessary to bust down a brick wall. Besides that, a "destruction" mutator is set to be added at some point, modifying the overall fragility of environments. For those not in the know, "mutators" are game modifiers that can change the gameplay conditions of a run.
- 🎨 An option to respray cars for cosmetic purposes. (Of course, that's in addition to all of the other gameplay-oriented car modifications!)
- ⚖️ Bug fixing & balancing. For instance, car health and how much damage a vehicle takes when you bump it into objects. The end goal is to allow players to drive with a healthy dose of carelessness while still ensuring you face consequences if you act like a headless chicken on wheels.
QUICK NOTE: To be upfront about the plans above: while we have a roadmap, not everything you see there is guaranteed or meant to arrive all at once. Think of it as a peek at what we want to do.
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Just as usual, let me say a huge "Thank you" for the support you provide. Share your feedback on how intuitive you find the car controls to be, offer any suggestions you see fit, and comment away about what you think of this devblog, and, of course, wishlist & follow Streets of Rogue 2 to stay up to date on the game:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2165810/Streets_of_Rogue_2/Watch video devlogs: Devlog 1: How I Approach World-Building? 🌎 Devlog 2: Creating an Open World Solo 🗺️ Devlog 3: Games That Inspired SoR 2 💡 Devlog 4: New Release ETA, Roadmap 🗺️
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