Idea
The idea for this game came from a single Red Bull video. In it, they raced four completely different vehicles against each other to see which one was best, and that gave us the idea for “Fast & Foolish” — a game where you race wildly different cars that wouldn’t normally even fall in the same category.
Think a truck against an F1 car, or a tiny go-kart. It sounds silly (foolish), and it kind of is. But it also sounded like an interesting idea, so we went for it.
We started by building the normal racing mechanics first — from car physics to basic tracks. At that point it was still just an ordinary car game; we hadn’t added the touch of foolishness yet. So next we started adding the different cars.
Car AI
Beyond just having different cars, it’s important that those cars actually race properly. Building a good racing AI that can adapt to wildly different vehicle types wasn’t easy, so we researched how other games have approached it. One method we liked is Rubber-Band AI, used in plenty of games like Mario Kart, where rival cars always feel like they’re right on your tail but never pull too far ahead.
We implemented it with a bit of customization, and it worked well.
The AI still isn’t perfect, though — it needs to adapt to each new car’s version and size, which is more involved than just tweaking a few variables. But for now, it does the job.
Chill Mode
While building out the different tracks, we noticed that if you set up the sun, the lighting, and the music just right, you get a really relaxing environment that’s just nice to drive around in. That led us to a new Chill Mode — the same places, but without the race.
Here the player sets up the environment (sun position and lighting) and the music, then simply drives around the area. It’s a relaxing experience that a lot of people love. This mode wasn’t something we planned for, but it’s a great thing to have — so if someone’s tired of racing, they can cool their mind in Chill Mode.
Art, Music and Gameplay
The whole game uses a low-poly art style that gives it a slightly foolish vibe while also performing well, even in the web version. We also plan to add levels, where each one unlocks a new track and maybe a new car. As for the music, apart from Chill Mode, everything is energetic to hype the player up for the race. We plan to add more cars and tracks too, with the newer tracks bringing more twists and turns — and a pinch of foolishness. 😅
Further Development
The game’s prototype is ready — you can try it here — but it’ll still need a lot of updates before it’s ready to release. Down the line we might add a multiplayer option as well, though it all depends on the response we get from the prototype.
We’ve also been making dev-logs throughout the whole journey so far. You can watch the first one at the top of this post, or check out the full series here. See you in the next blog. 👋