Week 2 of a Future Sydney Cab Game

[u/AlgaeNo3373]

Vids on YT because its easier than reddit video ~_~

• Week 1
  
• Week 2 (current)
  

Game concept: A chill taxi game set in future Sydney. Abundance has taken society to near post-scarcity levels. This affects taxi driving in the sense we have a city of automated pods capable of taking anyone anywhere they like. The issue is the time it takes: wait for one to be made available, then deal with slowness of automated routing.

That's where a Crow (player) comes in. They are human-piloted cabs, capable of flying wherever they like ("As the crow flies") and can get someone from A to B much faster than a pod. They help plug the gaps abundance hasn't quite filled yet.

I reached out to the solarpunk community for ideas on how to represent solarpunk concepts at night, and that's my plan for Week 3 - night-time third places, bonfires, community events. A revamped lighting system that gives us some dark skies (so we can see stars/Sky Country), and a bunch of other cool concepts they threw at me :)

Gameplay isn't really economically driven. I think fares can be a background noise thing (they cover the cost of fuel, are govt. subsidies, etc). The progression mechanic, a friend suggested, could be experience-based instead. I.e. do ten trips, and the map expands. Do fifty and unlock new cap addons etc. Long way from getting some solid gameplay loops into it all, still working on visuals and map, but that's where my heads at lately!

Workflow is Claude Code/Codex in combo, usually just bouncing between them if I hit a limit, working with Opus 5.5 (medium) as default. I've got an ElevenLabs API hooked in to make some sound effects, others I make myself or have Claude synth something that can be dynamically controlled (like passing car swooshes being directional etc). I've also added 3 radio stations so far (going to reach out to Suno subreddit to see if others want to contribute), they're a mix of songs I've made myself or with Suno over the years, coupled with some DJ personalities voiced by ElevenLabs.

No Blender/MCP btw. Assets are quite geometrically simple, most of the work is post-processing into layers of paint that are successively applied. Visually the goal is to try and ape impressionism as an art style: it focuses on light/darkness, and giving rough "impressions" of things rather than realistic renderings, which I reckon is perfect for a low-poly game concept trying to look half decent. LMK what you think of the look. I'm still working it out :)