Sun Chaser
A synthwave arcade racer with Out Run's branching roads, Mario Kart's drifting, SSX's tricks, and 16 stackable modifiers to unlock.
Active Side Project
Sun Chaser is a synthwave arcade racer that combines concepts from classic games while adding its own spin. It takes the rough structure of Out Run, the drifting of Mario Kart, and the trick system of SSX, then adds stackable modifiers to the gameplay for every unique path that's taken.
Drifting into a rogue wave, then a triple barrel roll off the top
Routes are randomly generated on each run, and just like Out Run there's a left/right branching decision to make after each stage. The right path is always the harder option, so all right-side stages come with their own unique challenge (on top of being a more difficult course to race). There are 15 themed sections in total, from the palm trees and beaches of Shoreline to the cacti and pyramids of Endless Desert.
Endless Desert, one of 15 themed sections
Finishing the game reveals its twist: the first letters of the stages you drive through spell out a unique 5-letter word, and there are 16 possible words to create. As your car drives into the sunset after the finish line, the game shows your path-word, a quick definition of it, and then a related cinematic that demonstrates the new modifier you just unlocked. For example, SHORE shows a cinematic of a giant rogue wave rolling in and freezing in place beside the road, where the player's car then drives up it like a halfpipe to do a trick. That wave is then unlocked as an in-game modifier for future runs.
The route map at the end of a run. Shoreline, Highlands, Oblivion Canyon, Ramparts, and Echo Hills spell SHORE
Coming up with 16 unique modifiers that were related to each possible path-word was one of the bigger challenges in making this game, especially since my goal was making them all stackable. I didn't want all the modifiers to be punishments, so in the end I settled on 7 negative modifiers, 7 positive modifiers, and 2 that were a blend of both. There was a lot of tuning in the process, but I think the end result is both fun and challenging.
Another nod to Out Run: every run starts by picking one of 8 synthwave-themed radio stations
Behind the scenes, this is easily the most ambitious project I've vibe-coded. It's built in Unreal Engine 5, with all of the gameplay written in C++ and all of the assets and levels generated by scripts instead of placed by hand. All of the cars are Creative Commons models licensed for commercial use. Hundreds of commits later, it's playable from start to finish, with all 16 endings.
Oblivion Canyon with all 16 modifiers switched on, including a ghost wingman you need to protect from hitting traffic
It's still a work in progress, but it's getting close. Playtesting showed that some people struggled with the steering, so I've retuned the controls and widened the road from 3 lanes to 4 to give everyone a bit more breathing room. Finishing the game with all 16 modifiers enabled unlocks a New Game+ mode, which drops down to 3 lanes, reduces the available time on the clock, and resets the modifier unlocks. Next up: more polish, adding controls and performance scaling for iOS and Apple TV devices, and getting it running on as many platforms as possible.