Shift Master

Context

A racer where you overtake by changing what you are. A car for open road, a runner for stairs, a boat for water, a helicopter for a climb — pick wrong and the obstacle stops you.

The designer had to reshape the rivals without touching code

Rivals

The rivals were the difficult part, because the game designer had to be able to shape them without touching code.

They expose reaction time, delay, and how they speed up or slow down relative to how far ahead or behind the player is.

Their competence moves with that distance too. Pull far ahead and they get smarter and faster; fall behind and they get slower and make worse decisions. The point is not fairness, it is that the race always feels close.

Alongside that, each vehicle needed its own movement logic — a boat in a pool does not behave like a car on tarmac.

Worth calling out

I built this one end to end — gameplay, menus, progression, shop, skins, tutorial, ads and store builds. These are the parts worth naming.

The race

• Movement logic for every vehicle in the roster.
• Rival behaviour exposed to the game designer as parameters, including distance-driven difficulty.

The world

• Procedural environment generation on top of the level editor.
• Car tuning systems.

More from the game

Project facts

Year

2024

Role

Unity Developer

Team

Three-person pod — game designer, artist, me

Scope

Solo developer, concept to release

Studio

Vira Games

Engine

Unity, C#

Platform

Android · Google Play and Amazon Appstore

Target device

Amazon Fire 7 · 1 GB RAM

Origin

A reskin of Shape Transform Race

Forms

More than half a dozen — hang glider, motorcycle, bicycle, drill car and racing car among them

Rival tuning

Reaction, delay and distance-driven pace, plus three to five smaller knobs, all in the designer hands

Generation

The road and the environment around it are built on the same procedural principle

Where to see it

Amazon Appstore ↗ · listed as Shift Master: Shape Transform

Tools & techniques