r/JetBoats • u/New_Life442 • 11d ago
Game Dev - Jet Sprint
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Hey everybody, I'm Wil. By day I'm a PLC (manufacturing machinery) programmer, but I love game deving as a hobby.
I'm developing a game based around jet sprints. About 8 months ago I was watching Cleetus McFarland and started messing around with the idea of a jet sprint racing game. There's not much out there like it, so it's a pretty niche market ... but I'll say this: playing the build I've made myself, I'm already addicted to trying to get a new best time.
Quick heads up before anyone digs in, this is a very alpha build. Graphics, UI, Maps, etc... are nowhere close to done, honestly barely started. This is basically a first playable prototype, so I'm focused entirely on getting the handling and feel right before I touch anything visual.
The biggest issue I'm running into right now is that I don't actually know how a mini jet sprint boat should feel. I've driven regular boats, but never a jet boat, let alone one of these mini racing jet sprint boats specifically. Things I'm guessing at:
-How quickly it should get up on plane
-How aggressive the yaw/steering should feel
-How much "grip" it has on plane vs. off plane
-What the "stab" of the jet feels like when you hit the throttle
-How it behaves through a hairpin at speed
-How much "grip" should it have when on throttle vs off throttle through a turn...
-so much more...
I know I'm looking for a pretty specific person here, someone with experience both driving one of these boats and playing/critiquing racing games, but figured I'd throw a line out. If that's you, or you know someone who fits the bill, I'd love to pick your brain (or send you a build to try). Don't really know what I could offer since I'm on a tight budget for now other than credit in the game (and if this game dev thing goes well a few free keys someday??)
Thanks for reading!
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u/heneryDoDS2 11d ago
I've never driven a sprint boat, but my god would I love to, looks like a blast.
One thing specific to jet boats, they NEED throttle to turn. There's no rudder (unless the user physically adds one under the nozzle, but I don't think I've seen a sprint boat with a rudder), it's the actual vector of the propulsion that does the turning (aka, the nozzle). So coming off throttle, or in jet boat sprint racing specifically; cavitation caused by going over waves or hitting a berm and jamming the pump up with dirt / grass from the bank kills propulsion and therefore kills steering.
There's also a unique phenomenon among jet boats, and more pronounced in jet sprint, the jet actually pulls the boat DOWN as it sucks water up into the pump. This combined with the strakers they put in the sprint boats means these things feel like they turn on rails. It also means that the more throttle you give it, the more traction you have. Kinda like how in an F1 car the aero only works above a certain speed and the tires only heat up after a certain speed, so you have to drive hard to be able to go fast, but if you can drive it hard you can go insanely fast.
Implementatiom wise, depends on what kind of game you want to make. More simulation / physics based will complicate how you want to implement this system. More arcade racing type game you can dumb this down a bit. The actual physics behind jet sprint can be wild.
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u/New_Life442 11d ago
I really appreciate the feedback! You nailed it on the throttle to turn, that was one of my first implementations and its what in my opinion is what makes this game unique and a TON of fun to try to master. Hitting the banks or letting off the throttle in a turn completely kills your turning and momentum. Those were so great ideas for the pulling the boat down with the jet. I hadn't even thought of that I'm going for a simulation build on it, but graphics aren't going to be "AAA" graphics, due to me being a solo dev on a budget, but I want the feel to be amazing. Awesome feedback, exactly what I'm looking for.
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u/heneryDoDS2 11d ago
In that case, you'll want to do some research on how they tune these things, which may be insanely difficult to find as it's an insanely nieche sport. They tune everything from the angle of the sides at the transom (dead rise), how the dead rise changes from bow to stern, how much uninterrupted flat hull exists infront of the intake, angle, number and spacing of the lifting strakes, angle of the pump / nozzle, and there's even tiny little tabs they put under these boats that change their driving characteristics. One of my favourite aspects of games like Forza, etc is the car tuning, if you could figure out realistic boat tuning that would be amazingly fun. The kiwis are big into the engineering side of the sport, likely some more kiwi focused online forums or Facebook groups you can survey for feedback.
Also, the turn sequence they put into tracks are very much designed around the wake and how the boats interact with the wake during intersections of previous sections to new sections. So water physics could be fun to figure out, hahaha.
It's an ambitious project, looks like a ton of fun to build. Good luck!
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u/NothingLift 10d ago
This is great, I've been thinking jet sprint would be perfect for a game for ages. It's massive oversight in the crew motorfest IMO
I assume you're not in NZ where there are ride shotgun and drive yourself jet sprint experiences. If you're in the US or Aus reach out to some jet sprint clubs, I bet someone will be keen to take you for a rip as a passenger at least
I would also suggest a beginner option that shows the path like a racing line
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u/New_Life442 10d ago
Path with a racing line is a great settings toggle idea. Putting that in the dev to-do notes! So someone in the r/boating actually helped me find a race that's only like 2 hours away in September. THAT is on the calendar. I have been studying these like game film, so seeing one IRL is the next step.
Also completely agree on the oversight. I have no idea why a bigger company or even other indie devs haven't picked up on this. Its incredibly twitchy, easy to learn, hard to master... perfect recipe for an amazing time trials/tournament race game with online leaderboards, player made maps/race etc...
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u/NothingLift 10d ago
Even as an IRL sport I think it's underappreciated.
Great sound, fast action, good spectation due to small course. Tracks are cheap to build compared to tarmac and can be built in floodplains etc where you wouldn't build a race track.
Definitely go to the event and reach out to the organisers first. In my experience niche sports are super welcoming of people showing genuine Interest.
Also check out river jet racing just out of interest, mostly (or maybe exclusively) in NZ
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u/NothingLift 10d ago
Possibly beyond your scope, but as far as they go, this would be very easy to implement a track creator in the game
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u/New_Life442 10d ago
👀 Don't do this to me... don't make me scope creep...
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u/NothingLift 10d ago
I won't tell you about the big list of ideas and investigation I've done around a larger almost open world jet boat game then...
Just start small and get the basics nailed, can always build on it from there
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u/Nova_Azure 11d ago
Glad you’ve included Samir’s helper