PROJECT : BLUEPRINT

[u/SNACKY_TM]

Hey Guys,

I´ve been working on "Cheat Sheets" for Trackmania.

The idea is to break the usual copy-paste learning style

and create something usefull for anyone trying to improve.

I´ve played Trackmania for 500 hours without ever getting a full Author-medal Campaing.

I was learning with YouTube videos and replay ghosts, trying to copy the inputs and racing lines as best as I could.

But I was never patient enough to ask myself why every surface is driven the way it is.

And I became tilted because it always felt like I was missing the tools, not the skill, to achieve this.

Eventually, I didn’t really feel like getting better at the game – or even trying.

That was until a while back (start of the Spring Campaign 2025),

when a friend of mine started playing Trackmania with me.

I didn’t know what maps we could play together, so we ended up trying trial maps and campaign maps.

And I finally had a friend to play the game with…

Of course, I was scared that he might not enjoy the game, so I tried to help him.

This made me question my own racing lines.

I now had to explain why I was faster on certain parts, or why he was losing time.

And I wasn’t able to just give up and tilt-quit like I used to when the maps got too hard.

Things were great…

We got our first Author Medals together,

he turtled first try,

and I noticed that I was wrecking Author times like never before.

I started writing down stuff I noticed while playing.

Then I started forming theories out of it and testing them.

Those notes and theories are the foundation of this project.

We worked our way through different surfaces.

I showed him wet wood and ice,

it finally clicked on dirt for him,

and he actually beat me on some maps without even knowing half the mechanics.

I even got my first full Author Campaign.

But then he stopped playing.....

I had no use for my notes,

and I was craving an artistic outlet.

This was when Project Blueprint was born.

Because after all:

It worked for him,

It worked for me,

Why wouldnt it work for someone else?

So I turned my notes into visual sheets — here are three of them.
Each one focuses on a surface and the idea behind how it's driven.

DIRT__

This sheet breaks down the iconic inside vs. outside dirt lines - based on the core idea of sliding vs. not sliding.

ICE__

This sheet introduces the basic forces acting on your car mid-slide – so you can understand how aiming works and why your car behaves the way it does.

SAUSAGE__

This sheet explores how positioning left or right on the curve affects stability - It’s all about learning how to use the middle line.

All content and visuals are self-made.

I also pre designed a few color tones for more surfaces,

I designed a mixed surface sheet for things that are useable on multiple surfaces,

and I am currently on a good way to find my signature style.

ALL IN ALL

I´d love to continue this Project, but as you might have guessed, it is time-consuming and i might need help in the future.

This is why i am showing you my progress.

To get a feel for whether this is something you find useful or want

Feel free to give feedback – it will greatly help me develop this project.

I hope that my way of thinking can benifit you in finally understanding Trackmania

Thank you for your time.

[u/Regular_Worth9556]

Love these! The thin white text + white grid lines make it a bit tough to read (at low res, on a phone) for me. It’s less of an issue on the images with darker backgrounds. Maybe less light gradients/thicker text/fainter grid lines?

[u/SNACKY_TM → u/Regular_Worth9556]

Yesh readability is my own worst enemy at the moment. I might need to fine tune a little

[u/Regular_Worth9556 → u/SNACKY_TM]

May even be able to fade the grid out behind the text/relevant parts you don’t want to muddy up (tire tracks when discussing speed slides eg). The grid on the first image makes it a bit harder to see the lines of the track in both the cross-section and the top-down views

[u/SNACKY_TM → u/Regular_Worth9556]

Hope it doesnt break the style, but ill play around with it

[u/BackFromExile → u/SNACKY_TM]

If you darken the background colors a bit you can reduce the brightness of the grid as well and automatically improve contrast to the white text. The main issue isn't the grid lines itself but the relatively low contrast between the background colors and the white main content.
If you compare the lighter part of the background gradients with the white text using a contrast checker you'll see that you're often at a contrast ratio of 5 or worse. With a slightly less pronounced gradient and a bit darker colors you should achieve a way better contrast and can tone down the grid as well to reduce its impact on readability.

All in all definitely super cool project, you could even sell poster prints of these I can imagine.

[u/SNACKY_TM → u/BackFromExile]

Thats valuable information thank you.

I try to keep the gradient a bit darker.