This is mainly a test message to see how devlogs look on Itch, but I think it would be good to also go over what this is, and the progress so far.

What and why?

I'd like to consider myself a "creatively inept individual." Before starting this I didn't see myself as a writer, and to be honest, I still don't. I just had this thought that wouldn't leave my head, and I had to do something about it before it would wring me dry. There were multiple ways I could have approached my idea, but one of the core tenants of that idea was accuracy. Fidelity, realism, and especially immersion was something I was trying to target, as if you were actually teleported trackside, stressed about getting through your first test session. I've been in this fandom for around four years or so, but I haven't been too active on the creation side of things. I noticed that there's a rich car presence in this fandom which took me by surprise when I first joined, but I didn't see too much media outside of art and commissions related to this. I thought it would be cool to have a story related to cars, but stray away from the typical street racing or extremely energetic racing comic (not saying these are bad at all, but I just wanted to do something different). A story that talks about just how damn hard it is to actually get on track. There's definitely a lot of sourness in motorsports that isn't portrayed much: the constant off-track battle to essentially beg for sponsors, the almost hopelessness you feel as you see competitors with 10x your budget trouncing you, even though you know you're better, etc. Those are feelings that could make for an interesting narrative. That concept was one of the driving ideas during the writing process. Sprinkle in some different car selection, technical showcases, and some nice scenery, and that essentially would wrap up my vision. I only plan to release a single build, about an hour long, just as a proof of concept of the potential of this idea, but if people are extremely interested I might add mini extra stories later.  About that technical part..

Striking a Balance

I am not an engineer, but I wanted to incorporate some intricately detailed information about these cars, more as a show of respect to the incredible work of those who developed these cars in real life. With anything technical being inserted in media intended for a wide audience (I still consider racing enthusiasts a wide audience, some are barely getting into F1 from DTS, while some have memorized OEM alignment specs and roll gradients of Group B homologation specials), there comes a need for balance. 

Using racing games as an example, it would be pathetic if a "simulation game" essentially had sliders for power and handling, but it would also be ridiculously impractical to expect the average person to interact with an engine tuning window like it was a MoTeC M1 Tune package, or for them to know about different turbulence models for incompressible/compressible fluid flow.. 

In this story, I wanted the technicalities to carry weight, to have meaning and impact on the plot. This is so that this doesn't just become a bombardment of jargon that degrades the pacing and flow of the story. I feel like I struck a balance such that the typical car enthusiast should be able to understand everything, and those who are just dipping their toes in can understand it with some context clues. Even if you're not into cars even remotely, you should be able to just gloss over it without affecting the story too much (if I'm a good writer at least, which is far from a guarantee). I think if the aforementioned aspects' complexity were put on a scale from, "Fast-and-Furious complete nonsense" to "LMdH VD research," I think this would land slightly biased towards the latter. That is the goal at least, but the only way for me to know how far I missed is to wait and see.

Progress

Writing: 95% (Only need to review a couple sections before freezing)

Sprites: 100% (Original idea only used a sprite sheet for one character because poor 💀)

BG: 85% (Need to reshoot and edit a couple scenes, also optimizing file size)

SFX: 90% (Not much here, just need to add sounds)

Programming: 85% (A lot of this is related to inserting the above aspects)

I hope to release this before summer ends. That is the goal, and I'm optimistic about meeting it.