JRIFT is a fantasy racing game built over approximately one year. The core concept asks what other racing games shy from, what if you could race through true fantasy environments?
My teammate handled all 3D modelling. I was responsible for everything else in engine. Texturing, lighting, all shader and material work, environment composition, gameplay code, and Steam integration.
Each track has its own complete visual identity, and through the use of VFX I attempted to truly bring them to life. From overgrown forests to harsh canyons, everything is brimming with character.
Every zone required its own lighting rig, post-processing volume, and atmosphere from scratch. Managing the visual transitions between them and keeping the circuit feeling cohesive while keeping every area distinct was a significant design challenge.
The game uses a custom Outline shader pipeline applied consistently across the entire scene - environment, characters, and UI. Getting the outline weight and shading steps to read well across such different lighting environments took considerable iteration.
On the systems side, I integrated Steamworks for online leaderboards and a full ghost replay system, recording player inputs and replaying them as AI-controlled ghost cars in subsequent runs. This required building a serialised input recording system and a deterministic playback controller.
A year on a single project teaches you things that jam games can't. Scope management, maintaining visual consistency across a long build, and the discipline of iterating on something rather than starting fresh.