Nomad Z — 2018 Game Jam Submission
A racing game built in Unity3D for the 2018 “Finally Finish Something Game Jam”
Deadline and Scope
The original vision was to have a longer race from an interior level, to a more open-world area, and maybe even down to a planet. The deadline for the game jam was two months away when these extra ideas were removed in favor of spending more time on what was already established, working, and fun.
Design Elements
The pause men was added and allows for speed control, and AI difficulty change. After some testing, the yellow colored line was added to visually guide the player around the confusing geometry. This video details how Naughty Dog uses of subliminal imagery, light, and color to guide the player. This project was just starting to incorporate these things.
Game Title
The title “Nomad Z” was a direct callback to the title of a video made Kristian Andrews, “Nomad X” in which a fictional player flies around in a spaceship, playing a fictional game.
Video Creator
The creator of the video that inspired the game responded to me on Twitter voicing support and wanted to play the game for himself!
Mobile Version
Mobile optimization started shortly after release as the 3D models used in the game were very low-poly. Replacing the extra geometry with normal maps enabled the game to render an extremely large distance in space. A demo was released, stress-testing different mobile devices.
3D Modelling
MagicaVoxel was used for some of the different 3D models that are or were planning on being in the game. Most of the models had morse code embedded into the design for future easter egg hunting. The pink radio actually uses base 4 for the lengths of the blue audio-looking bars, and then if you convert them from base 4 to base 10, it spells out a word. Try it yourself!
