Want to know more about the design process for each track?

Just like many Grand Prix tracks, the track ends with a long main straight. It’s important for the player to have some amount of time for a “mental reset” between laps, as often racing games are very mentally taxing.

I began the design for the second track in a similar way to the first. I drew its layout on paper and began to consider what types of scenic compositions I wanted the player to experience. As I was drawing this track out on paper, I was acutely aware of how the design of the course would translate to difficulty. The corners on this course would frequently be squared off as opposed to being gently rounded like in the forest track. Being a street circuit set in a beach town, I really wanted to sell the idea that the player was driving around the actual streets of a neighborhood near a sandy coastline. This means I would need to create intersections and decide on the path that the actual racecourse takes through them. 

It was important to me that, for this relatively easy track, the player would be able to drive at full speed for considerably long periods of time throughout the track and limit the number of critical braking points the player needs to hit precisely. 

1. A long right turn up a gentle incline, which comes to its apex before a downhill run into turn 2. 

2. A near-180-degree right turn in front of a small pond surrounded by trees; the player needs to brake going into this turn. 

3. At the top of a gradual incline, this left turn is banked inwards and reveals the rest of the landscape. 

4. The turn maintains its radius into a downhill slope towards a tighter section enclosed by cliffs and steep slopes right before turn 5. 

5. A slight right the player needs to be aligned correctly for to drive straight through, with room for forgiveness. 

6. A more substantial left turn set just before a tight U-turn, where the player needs to hold the brake to slow down enough. 

7. A right U-turn surrounded by tight scenery, where the player must be aware of their braking and acceleration points before and after the turn. 

8. A long sweeping right hand turn, allowing the player again to drive flat-out for a substantial length of time. 

9. A banked left turn at the top of an incline. The radius of the turn is kept constant, but the slope makes it challenging to hold the optimal line. 

10. A continuation of the banked left turn 9, eventually levelling out into a short straight before another right turn. 

11. A medium radius corner where the player needs to be aware of speed control. The first turn in a series of corners where speed control is important. 

12. Another medium radius corner to the left, but now the player is already at a much slower speed. The player approaches this corner differently than turn 11. 

13. The beginning of a changing-radius corner to round out the lap. At this point, the player can begin driving flat out again. 

14. A banked right turn back to the main straight. As this is the last corner, the player ideally wants to accelerate as early as possible here. 

The first area I focused on was the glade that contained turn 2. After a gradual downhill slope at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour, the player enters a somewhat circular area filled with trees and a lake in the middle. To truly sell the player on the idea that they were cutting through the forest, I brought the trees close to the track both where the player enters the glade, and where they exit it. This also helps the reveal of the clearing at turn 3, where the scenery opens to the right of the track alongside a tall cliff on the left. 

The second area I focused on was the tight U-turn at turn 7. For any spots on the track where the player must brake considerably, I consciously bring the scenery close to the player. It’s subtle, but this shift in how much space exists around the player subconsciously triggers them to be more alert and aware. For turn 7, the scenery comes in tight once again like it does for turn 2 and opens once the player is free to accelerate as fast as they want. 

Turns 9 and 10 slowly meshed into becoming one long tilted turn of a uniform radius, and it was a pain point in the design process. I was trying to make this turn fun to drive around as the player sped down a straightaway directly towards the cliff, only to find traction in their brakes and complete the turn to the left just before reaching the rock wall. Creating a uniform radius corner that started at an incline, became level, and eventually came back down was a challenge. It was a matter of carefully changing the position and rotation of the spline control points, testing it, and repeating that process until it felt smooth. 

Finally, as a small addition to this track, I added a shortcut. This is a risk-reward decision the player has to make. The shortcut can save time if done correctly, but not very much, and if it goes poorly, it results in a huge time loss.

This track would demand much more attention to acceleration and braking zones from the player and would also change elevation more frequently. 

1. A tight left turn at the base of a considerably steep incline. This long uphill straight is inspired by rollercoasters that have a long, suspenseful chain lift to bring the coaster up to its highest point. 

2. A slight left veering at an intersection. The track levels out here, so the player needs to be aware of traction as they try to adjust. If they’re not careful, the player may catch some air and lose grip while trying to realign for the next corner. 

3. A left turn after a slight downhill slope. It’s easy to misjudge the braking point for this turn due to the slightly sloped nature of the runup. 

4. A 90-degree left turn after a bit of a straight driving. This corner is practically symmetrical about its apex, so the player can take it cleanly if they’re focused. 

5. This turn was originally going to be a roundabout, but I instead made turn 5 a simpler left turn at a basic intersection. The reason I made this change was because a simple left turn flowed nicely out of turn 4 and allowed the player to potentially tackle both corners with one continuous turn if driven properly. 

6. The infamous downhill turn 6 was a pain point in the design process for a while and took a lot of time to properly smooth out. This 180-degree downhill right turn requires extreme caution from the player, as travelling even slightly too fast at any point can cause the car to fly right off. 

7. Turn 7 is the first part of a small uphill chicane. 

8. Turn 8 rounds out this short chicane with a quick kick left. The player can drive through these corners straight without turning but must then be aware that if they drive like this, they will have much more speed entering turn 9, which could be problematic if they don’t account for the braking distance they need. 

9. A right turn before a straightaway. Turn 10 later got smoothed out so as to be basically non-existent, creating a straightaway between turns 9 and 11. The most important part of turn 9 is that the player comes out of it with as much speed as possible. This is done by holding accelerate as soon as the player can clear the corner with their current speed, which is constantly decreasing from braking into the corner. 

10. Effectively straightaway toward turn 11, allowing the player to build speed again. Speed control is a consistent theme throughout the course. 

11. A left turn just before a gentle downhill section. The player is aided with brake markers on this corner, so over the course of several laps, the player can find a braking point that works best for them. 

12. Turns 12, 13, and 14 did not end up being if they seem in the image. Even still, these three turns take place on a gentle downhill slope, which makes it quite challenging how much space the player needs to make the turn. Slowing down too much wastes time but going too fast may have the player hit a wall or fly off course. This is the ultimate test of the player’s speed control. 

13. This right turn is only about a 60-degree right turn in actuality. After coming out of turn 12 slow, the player has some room to accelerate, but only a small amount before having to control the right turn. 

    A left turn is similar in nature to turn 12, after which the track finally levels out. This is where the player needs to begin accelerating as early as possible to scream down the main straight and minimize time lost. 

14. Basically, it is a non-existent turn. The player can drive through here flat-out and generate speed down the straight. 

15. This is barely even a turn as it got smoothed into the straightaway. 

16. This is also barely even a turn. Turns 15, 16, and 17 effectively got smoothed into a massive straightaway that helps the course flow smoother between laps. The turn 12-14 section already felt quite climactic in terms of difficulty, so having more difficult turns after that before the end of the lap felt out of place. 

My approach to creating this track was quite different from the forest track. With the forest track, I was primarily concerned with creating a track that all flowed nicely and then built the environment around it. For the beach track, my process was somewhat the reverse, where I started by building the town and then turned it into a racetrack by adding everything a racetrack would need.

I was very conscious of what the players see as they pass through this section of the course (turns 4 and 5). Moving quickly down the straightaway between the buildings, the player can start to see the left turn, then they need to break. Down the next straight, they have a row of houses to their right backed by tall trees, and a clearing to the left. This subtlety indicates that another left turn is coming, which it does; the player dives into a left turn. The buildings on the next straight now populate the left side of the track, and the player subconsciously knows to turn right next.

Turns 12, 13, and 14 are different from how I initially drew them out, but they are still substantially challenging corners to drive. Also, the player drives under a rock formation that suddenly reveals the first part of the chicane as they pass through.

While creating this track, I also had a focus on creating shortcuts. This track contains three shortcuts, up to two of which can be taken per lap. This is because two of the three shortcuts cut off the same turn, so the player must choose to take the main route, or one of two shortcuts.

At the big, long downhill turn 6, the player can jump off the road and wallride the inside of the slope. This is risky but it is faster than staying on the road when done correctly.