Imposter Racer is an unofficial parody game featuring characters from the game 'Among Us'. A friend gave me the idea for this game, and within the week, I had a working prototype that I slowly built throughout the rest of the month. I have always loved kart racers like Crash Team Racing and Mario Kart, so it was a lot of fun creating something so similar to what I grew up loving!

Imposter Racer was mostly a solo project. I was the sole developer, programmer, game designer, and even 3D model artist, which is not something I frequently do. However, I did get help from my girlfriend with the 2D weapon icons that appear on the top once you possess the weapon! I created the driving mechanics and worked hard to ensure it was both fun and rewarding. I created an AI opponent system where one racer would be your "rival" and tend to be in the front of the pack, and I also had a few "bad racers" in the back. The color assigned to the good and bad racers was generated at random. I also created a four-player split-screen game mode that was a lot of fun to test with friends and family! I designed all the items, including explosive obstacles, missiles, and even a UFO that targets the racer in first place. The 2D map was also something I created using another camera. This was a fun project for me, and I'm happy with how it turned out.

While working on this project, I learned a lot about 3D game development that I previously overlooked. The first big thing that comes to mind is lighting. Lighting was a huge obstacle to overcome, as too many lights would hurt performance, and too few lights would hurt the visuals. I learned how to bake lights and combine them with real lights to create better shadows and an overall more visually pleasing scene. Another obstacle was coding AI opponents. I created a system where AI would drive from checkpoint to checkpoint, but they also have a bit of randomness in how tight their turns are and how close to the center of the checkpoint they reach. This led to the AI opponents feeling more like players rather than lifeless robots. Working on driving physics taught me a lot as well. I used a sphere collider that rolls to mimic a car driving, and I think it turned out great!