PLEASE START US OFF BY INTRODUCING YOURSELF:
Hello world! I am Antti Mannisto, the maker of Turbo Sliders Unlimited, a driving game with Unlimited possibilities!
I'm from Finland and I have worked in various technical roles in game companies like Ubisoft RedLynx and Remedy Entertainment.
TELL US ABOUT TURBO SLIDERS UNLIMITED
The original Turbo Sliders was released already over 20 years ago. The idea was to make an online game that would be much like the 90s top-down racing game Slicks 'n' Slide I used to play with my friends. It was very moddable, and I occasionally made updates to it for over 10 years. Players kept asking for updates, so one day, I wanted to prototype how that kind of game would work in 3D. Things escalated quickly, and at some point I realized the game needs to be finished.
There is an insane amount of features: dozens of game modes (racing, sumo, capture-the-flag, soccer, battle, collector etc.), all playable online, and editors for levels, vehicles, AI and campaigns.
Longer version of the origin story here: https://turbosliders.com/press-kit/origin
HOW HAS THE DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY BEEN
This project has above all been my passion/hobby project. It's my way to do stuff I wouldn't usually get to do in "real" game projects. I could go crazy with features and maybe cut corners on some places no real game designers would allow.
WHICH GAME ENGINE DID YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?
My options for the engine were Unity and Unreal. I had much more experience with Unity and I felt it was easier for me to use that, especially as I wanted to implement all those editors and game modes and make everything as moddable as possible.
WHAT'S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST DEVELOPMENT HURDLE SO FAR?
I'm using several third party code libraries in the project. Very often, I have needed to fix them or alter them in other ways. The hardest thing is when certain libraries are closed source and you can't just fix its bugs by yourself. You have to beg the makers to do that and sometimes, some issues just won't get fixed and you have to make ugly workarounds.
ADVICE FOR FELLOW DEVS?
Try to have fun and learn new things! And don't bet your house!
ANY FINAL THOUGHTS?
Hopefully, I have still some years left and it's not time for those yet! :)
-Antti
❤️
