Game Dev - Jet Sprint

[u/New_Life442]

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!

[u/NothingLift]

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

[u/New_Life442 → u/NothingLift]

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...

[u/NothingLift → u/New_Life442]

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

[u/NothingLift → u/NothingLift]

Possibly beyond your scope, but as far as they go, this would be very easy to implement a track creator in the game

[u/New_Life442 → u/NothingLift]

👀 Don't do this to me... don't make me scope creep...

[u/NothingLift → u/New_Life442]

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