Indie developers have some of the best backgrounds when it comes to the story of how a game goes from concept to consumable. One such story I came across on my daily scroll was a one-person team that was able to release a new top-down time trial racer with influences from Formula 1 and Trackmania.
For that tiny team at Eponymouse, Twilight Drive looks like something that might come out of a professional studio. Neil Brown is that single entity, and after reading up on the press kit, this developer made their own physics and rendering engines, which can’t be an easy task to do in spare time while working another full-time job.
Looking at the gameplay, it’s one of those hook and drift type games where the car makes a tight turn in the most efficient way possible. Oh yeah, there are turbo sections to hit as well, so don’t miss out on those. It looks like the different terrains will react in different ways, but I’m not entirely positive. That would be cool if so, but it could just be textures.
The angle of the corner matters for exit speed, the music will play dynamically in the background based on the progress of the level, there are tons of accessibility options to accommodate all sorts of players, and did I already mention just one person did all of this in their free time?
It took Brown / Eponymouse 15 months to fully develop and release the game. Twilight Drive is on Steam as of Wednesday (16th June) for Windows users and can be purchased for a fair price of £7.99, $9.99, or €7.99. That cost will get users 40 different tracks to play on with a medal earning system. On top of that, racing the ghosts of your friends to see whose got the best line is also on the table.
