RACER 101: Inside My Pseudo-3D Passion Project

I’ve been making small games as an indie developer for the past couple of decades. My goal has always been to recreate the feel of 80s and 90s arcade games, but with modern features added in wherever they make sense. Retro arcade racers have been on my must-make list for a long time. I love modern 3D games, but there’s something about pseudo-3D racers like OutRun, Pole Position, and countless NES, SNES, Genesis, and arcade classics that keeps me coming back to them again and again.

As a GameMaker enthusiast, I’ve learned the ins and outs of the engine and have created prototypes of several different genres—a couple of which you can play on my Itch.io page. But the pseudo-3D racer was always the one I couldn’t figure out.

For a long time, I failed repeatedly at building a working racer prototype. I nearly gave up! But eventually it occurred to me how I could pull it off. I think, as developers, we really need to experiment with lots of different prototypes—each one teaches you new tricks and helps you understand what your engine can really do. Ultimately, I realized I could use GameMaker’s draw_sprite_pos() function to connect road segments and allow them to flex and bend. Coming from a professional 3D art background, this approach felt more like adjusting a 3D scene than working in pure 2D. Once I figured that part out, the rest of the pieces started falling into place.

RACER 101 is a passion project, and I hope to continue improving it and building more content. The current version includes a free race mode on a playable track, but it definitely needs additional content to keep players coming back.

Right now, there’s a local top-10 leaderboard, which appears after time runs out. As far as I know, Itch.io doesn’t support server-based save data, so your scores stay local to your session. I’m using Blender to model the cars (including the new opponent vehicles). I’ve worked in both 2D and 3D art for years, and it’s been really fun to create all the visual elements for the game.

Hopefully you’ll take a moment to try RACER 101—and I hope you enjoy at least some part of what I’m building.