ZeroGear: A kart-racing game using Ogre

[marshmonkey]

it took a little monkeying but I was able to use an old school trick and do it without the use of shaders

[marshmonkey]

**EDIT**
Beta spots are full for the moment, we will open up more again in the near future

[calsmurf2904]

We have a build of the game that we are finally ready to let a limited number of people (around a hundred or so) put through it's paces. We are still working on many parts of it but there is enough in place that it will be useful to get some people playing it that can give us feedback as well as find bugs. If you are interested, here are the instructions:

First, make sure you meet the minimum requirements. To play Zero Gear, you will need:

Steam
Supported OS: Windows XP or Vista
Processor: 2.0 GHz CPU
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce 5200 or RADEON 9600 series or higher
Hard Drive: 300 MB free space
Network Connection: Broadband

if you meet these requirements, then:

1. Register an account on the Zero Gear forums: http://myzerogear.com/phpBB3/
2. Send an email with subject line "beta" to nimblebit@gmail.com with your exact Zero Gear forum name, as well as the website or community you are coming from (where you are reading this right now).

once I get the email with your Zero Gear forum user name, I will private message you through the forums with a beta key as well as some other information about how to best help us out.

done!.....does everyone that registers at time gets a beta key ?

[Kerion]

Woohooo, I've been hoping you guys would do a beta for a while, since I started really following the game. My e-mail's been sent!

[marshmonkey]

done!.....does everyone that registers at time gets a beta key ?

we have a limited number of keys, and we are giving them out in a number of places until we run out. Once we run out then we will just have to wait until we open up more keys to keep adding more people.

[Kaimaru]

Two days have passed, hopefully I'm not too late. Best of luck in the IGF!

[marshmonkey]

started working on another kart, just finished texturing it, now I have to do all the fun stuff to get it into the game.

[spacegaier]

I personally think the red thing at the back is too bright. But apart from this, another really great model!

[ajs15822]

I personally think the red thing at the back is too bright

I dunno, I think the brightness of the red goes well with the general palette of ZeroGear-- besides, remember that most of the major colors of karts are totally customizable in the Garage!

[calsmurf2904]

almost every color is customizable lol.

[romulo]

yeah its all customizable, and hell - it plays nicely! I just wish i were more close to the servers so LAG wouldnt bother me so much :/

[Murphy]

I am in the process of reworking the networked physics. Going from a simple guess on the client to a co-simulation with the server. So far the results are promising...

If it works, a lot of the problems associated with lag right now should be less noticeable or gone. Also, I know that a few people in Europe have put up small servers on their home connections. Try to connect to one of those servers for a better play experience.

[marshmonkey]

or you can run a local server to get a feel for the game.

[marshmonkey]

small update, things have been pretty quiet the last few weeks as we are doing some re-writing of the network system, keep an eye out on the blog for more on that soon. I took advantage of some of the down time to give the Zero Gear website a face lift: http://MyZeroGear.com

I think it better reflects the game and our style, let me know if you find any issues with it.

[marshmonkey]

just finished doing a new character. this one is a silly sally, he looks quite ridiculous in all our hats and accessories.

[marshmonkey]

I just finished editing a trailer for the game that will hopefully be posted on our IGF entry page, take a look.

[Halifax]

I just wanted to stop by and tell you how great of a trailer that is. I could definitely see myself watching that on TV as a XBox 360 game. Quite amazing, I must say, how polished this game is.

[Edman]

Yes, very professional, and that f-u-ntastic music I like every second of it.
Everythig about this game and the game itself is soooo splendid. Again - excellent job.

[marshmonkey]

made a new character over the last few days, say hello to Cacti the cactus



I am trying to get to 9 (stock) items in every custom item category (karts, characters, wheels, hats, accessories) and this makes 9 characters. I think I just need to make a few more accessories to fill everything out.

*edit* actually I can't count, this makes 11 characters

[marshmonkey]

I am trying to get a little more exposure for ZG before we come out with the next beta version, I submitted our trailer video to digg,

http://digg.com/pc_games/Trailer_releas ... _Zero_Gear

if you want to toss a digg our way.

[marshmonkey]

long time no updates, I am in the middle of making a map to test out a new gameplay mode that will basically just trying to be the first to get from start to end, with checkpoints along the way to save the progress you have made should you fall off.



In other happenings, I just moved into some new office space with my brother eeenmachine. I'm looking forward to having a nice quiet place to work on Zero Gear!

[Aiursrage2k]

Looking good, submit your trailer to gametrailers.com since that site is more in tune for that type of thing.

[marshmonkey]

I did a while ago, it is already up on there

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/44333.html

[trnrez]

This looks simply amazing! Great work!

[marshmonkey]

Here is some more progress on dressing up the space jump obstacle map - I added most of the space dressings and put some signs directing you in many parts.