CI / quality (push) Successful in 56s
SoundController (client): - Looping engine sound on the car body: pitch 0.7->1.9 tracks speed (curved so low speed feels torquey), volume swells with throttle - Tyre squeal loop faded by lateral slip (velocity along body RightVector) and hard braking from speed; always playing at 0 volume to avoid pops - 3D sounds with rolloff so other players hear cars pass - Asset IDs from safe sources (Roblox Resources engine loop, ProSoundEffects squeal); swap in SOUNDS table after audition Ambience (server): - Atmosphere (purple-grey haze, glare) so neon reads in the air - BloomEffect for neon pop + subtle cool ColorCorrection - Slow ClockTime ping-pong 22:00->03:00 over 10 min: always night, but the sky breathes
3.9 KiB
3.9 KiB
Roadmap — realistic solo-dev plan
Assumes one part-time developer learning as they go. The MVP is intentionally tiny — just driving — so there's a fun, testable thing FAST. Everything else is layered on only after the driving feels good.
Expect months, not weeks to a polished full game. That's normal. This order guarantees you always have something that runs.
✅ M0 — Drive-only MVP (DONE — this repo)
Spawn on the neon expressway, drive a car, switch cars, respawn. RX-7 demo-locked to owner + son. Cars persist between sessions. CI green on a self-hosted runner.
M1 — Make driving feel GOOD (the real work, do this next)
- Adopt a constraint chassis for real suspension/grip instead of the raw
VehicleSeat: springs + prismatic suspension, servo steering (speed-sensitive
lock), motor-driven wheels, engine braking, ballast anti-roll. Shared tuning
in
src/shared/Chassis.luau; client-sideChassisControllerdrives it (driver owns network physics). Needs a Studio playtest to tune feel. - Import the real RX-7 mesh; weld the shell onto the chassis
Body. Seedocs/MESH_SWAP.mdfor the exact steps (needs Studio for asset upload). - Tune acceleration curve and grip (after first playtest).
- Chase camera: scriptable follow cam while seated — damped chase with
look-ahead, flat horizon (ignores car pitch/roll), speed-based FOV kick.
src/client/CameraController.luau. Tune constants after playtest. - Sound: engine loop (pitch tracks speed, volume swells with throttle) +
tyre squeal on lateral slip / hard braking.
src/client/SoundController.luau. Asset IDs are placeholders from safe sources (Roblox Resources engine loop, ProSoundEffects squeal) — audition in Studio and swap in the SOUNDS table if they don't fit. Boost sound deferred until boost exists. Exit test: the RX-7 is genuinely fun to just drive around. Ship nothing else until this is true.
M2 — More cars + polish (still no racing)
- Import a few more real car meshes.
- Better map v2: 3200-stud expressway with gantry arches, a neon-lit tunnel, jump ramps (right lane; left stays flat), end wall, and a procedural neon skyline flanking the route.
- Day/night, weather mood:
src/server/Ambience.luau— Atmosphere haze catching the neon, bloom + cool color-correction post effects, and a slow 22:00→03:00 clock drift (10-min ping-pong) so the night sky breathes.
M3 — Racing (the first "game" layer)
- Checkpoints + timing (a new RaceManager — the old one was removed in M0).
- Personal best times.
- Simple point-to-point and drag modes.
M4 — Progression & economy (only once racing is fun)
- Money from races, a garage, buying/unlocking cars, upgrades, reputation. (These systems existed as scaffolding and were cut for the MVP; reintroduce them deliberately when they have a purpose.)
M5 — Systems hardening & monetization
- Leaderboards, anti-cheat pass 2, DataStore backup drill.
- Performance pass (StreamingEnabled, part budget, mobile).
- Fair gamepasses/products — never pay-to-win.
M6 — Traffic AI (deferred hardest system)
- Spline-following dummy cars first (cheap). True AI only if perf allows.
Standing engineering rules
- Every change must pass
stylua --check,selene, androjo build— CI on the self-hosted Gitea runner enforces all three on every push. - Keep the client dumb: it requests, the server decides. The RX-7 allowlist and anti-cheat live server-side.
- Add tunables to
GameConfig, not scattered magic numbers. - Add a save key by adding it to
ProfileTemplate(auto-reconciles); never remove a key without a migration (bumpProfileStoreName_vNin dev to wipe). - Test in Studio after every server change (ProfileStore uses a mock store there).