I’m doing ok, had two different ideas for rulesets and had to get other people’s opinions. I finally got it settled on one and i’ve been working on getting graphics and stuff squared away. They’re taking wayyy longer than I expected, but i hope to have something out soon ish. Be prepared for lots of 3D placement shenanigans( and hopefully not everything gets broken by 4.2 releasing).
6 Likes
Any updates?
still working on it, been tied up with some family stuff and depression.
3 Likes
Fall 2025
Technyan Games is working on putting together one of its first party launch titles for the upcoming Prostation 7, an action packed kart racer called Neko Nation: Furious Racing, and while they have the bustling world and tracks of the game fleshed out, they're in desperate need of help filling out the character roster for the game. They would have been fine to meet the holiday 2026 release deadline if they hadn't received so much positive feedback from certain communities when Marketing decided to say that the game would be PS-V compatible. However, due to how long the process of integrating PS-V functionality into the game took, TEGA is now in a bind and, unlike other less scrupulous companies (**cough cough** ActorVision **cough cough**), is actually hiring on new designers to get the roster filled out and the game out on time. This is where you come in for this challenge. You'll need to design both a Kart and a Character for your entry into the challenge while keeping mind the overall aesthetic of the game. The winning Kart and Character combo will be featured on the cover art of the game.
Game world and Lore:
The world of Neko Nation: Furious Racing is a vibrant reimagining of what earth would look like after the apocalypse happens and other species evolved to be bipedal and technologically advanced creatures. They've aped the technology of what they consider to be ancient peoples, i.e. humanity, and have created what to us would look like a mixture of retrofuturism and cyberpunk aesthetics. The species that have evolved into this bustling new world are primarily the domesticated ones from the old: Cats, Dogs, Birds, rabbits, but also some of the more intelligent wild animals like Foxes and Wolves have made themselves at home with their domesticated kin (Sergals and Protogens are also fair game for characters, since humanity did some pretty crazy experiments in the past). Sadly most rodents and amphibians didn't transition this way and are still the prey animals of this universe, as are most livestock. The impetus for racing to be part of this world's culture and the game is the vast road network that carpets the globe, primarily made to stand the test of time and to allow for the expansion and overpopulation issues of the ancient humans. That and the remnants of motorsport scattered around the world. This caused a craze for the adrenaline seekers of the new world with them building their own vehicles and racing them against each other and eventually these races were picked up on by the media and kart racing (though honestly the speeds at which the karts go are closer to racing modern lightweight sports coupes) became a worldwide phenomenon.
Line and Coda, the NN:FR race announcers
The aesthetics of the world and the characters for NN:FR draw heavily from games like Splatoon (which is mostly what the world is based off of), Jet Set Radio Future, and the Sonic Riders series, giving that kinda punk and edgy Y2K teen culture vibe. The characters wear heavily Harajuku J fashion and cyberpunk inspired clothing aesthetics.
Character References
Sample basic character design
Examples of the Type of fashion the characters wear
The karts should heavily pull from concept car art, but can also have a retro modern flair to them. Using kart designs from things like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Team Sonic Racing for inspiration is a good place to start. Pulling from modern stickerbombed tuner culture can also be a good way to get the aesthetic the design team is after (large amounts of camber is frowned upon however).
Kart References
Doing Liveries on your Karts is encouraged, as it fits in with the game theming.
A more retro future direction you could go and still be on theme
Examples from Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing
Detail is paramount in both the character and kart design. The aesthetic ideals of the game are hard to achieve without it and the nature of it being PS-V VR compatible demands it. This means interiors are pretty much expected, due to the karts being open topped, and well thought out engineering of how the karts go together should be shown in their design, i.e. having suspension geometry shown on open wheel designs, vents for engines and other things, etc.
Gameplay
NN:FR's gameplay is essentially the same as Mario kart but with a coating of universe specific paint slapped over the items. There are three different speed levels: 250cc, 500cc, and 1000cc. You'll be engineering your karts and characters for the 1000cc level, with the others just being extrapolated from there. There is a time attack mode, a seldom used battle mode, and the player centric story mode. In story mode, the player customizes their character, a rookie who's trying to take on the world gran prix, gaining xp to use on raising their stats (think player progression in the classic tony hawk games) and unlocking new and better kart parts from progressing through the game. There's also a standard single player grand prix mode that uses non-story mode characters to unlock better kart parts, alternate costumes, and show off side stories with the characters within the world of NN:FR
Rules
Low effort designs, shitposts, or a combination of the two will be binned.
Model/Trim year: 2020
Engine/variant year: 2020
CAR MODEL: AGC20 - (FORUM username)
CAR TRIM: Car brand and name (character name if you use the automation template for your character)
ENGINE FAMILY: AGC20 - (FORUM username)
ENGINE VARIANT: Engine name
Wheelbase 2.3m or less (no bikes, all karts must have 4 wheels minimum)
Max engine capacity: 1000cc(1 liter)
Max Budget: $80K
Maximum quality sliders: +/-10
The kart needs to be open topped due to the scale of the characters, even if you make your build look like a normal car (like the Mercedes karts in Mario kart 8).
Other than those rules and it fitting the aesthetic style of the game, it’s free reign. It’s highly suggested to use all your 3D building skills in this challenge, since the bodies in that wheelbase range are limited and the overall proportions and style of what you’d be building will probably rely heavily on that.
Priorities:
-Exterior & interior Design
-Coolness
-Adherence to game thematics
-Furry Character Design
-Kart engineering believability(stuff like suspension actually connecting to the wheels, no randomly floating bits that aren’t intentional, that sort of stuff)
-Presentation of advertisement/poster (i.e. your forum post)
-Kart & character lore
-automation engineering
Stats system:
The stats that automation spits out at the end of car creation will be used to determine the more simplified stats the the Karts will have in game. They will be broken down into Speed, Acceleration, Weight, Handling, Grip, and Boost (essentially the strength of the drift boost).
You are encouraged to give a suggestion of what weight class your Character would be (superlight, light, medium, Heavy), to give a modifier to all stats. Weight is inverse to acceleration and will increase overall top speed. (This basically follows Mario Kart logic) These will more be used for flavour in the reviews than determining finishing order.
It is also encouraged to use your own car brands for this (i.e. stuff like Comet Bar, Suisei, Kaizen, etc), as they can also add in fun Sponsor style assets into the final game as well as the basis for liveries.
Deliverables (I.e. what’s needed for your submission)
-your kart
-your character, either drawn yourself of built off of the template provided in automation
-character and kart descriptions(aka your forum post). Think of this like you’re writing the in-game descriptions for each on a character select screen. What’s their backstory? Why did they get into racing? Those sorts of things.
Here’s the automation version of the character template, which you will need to clone the entire family(refer to this tutorial for how to do so)
AGC_Character_template_-PLEASE_CLONE_THE_WHOLE_THING__.car|attachment (91.0 KB)
And here’s a blank character sheet for if you want to draw your character and aren’t confident in mimicking the game style.
Submissions open September 7 2021
Submissions close October 17 @ 11:59 pm EST(midnight)
Send both your kart and your character to me though dm’s and let me know what parts need to be hidden (most likely the body and chassis due to the highly 3d nature of this challenge).
If the 4.2 update drops sometime in the middle of the submission period, I’ll run a vote to see if we want to keep going as is or postpone until the modding community has enough mods out to support the challenge on the update.
16 Likes
can i submit a drawing of my character? it’d probably be better than anything i could make in automation
The rules claim that a drawing would be fine.
1 Like
A drawing of them is perfectly fine.
2 Likes
Changed maximum wheelbase to 2.3 m, just be careful about keeping the proportions in check without making things too long overall
Tobias “Divebomb” Red with his Moravia Jestrab AT buggy
Even as a child, little Tobias Red was always getting into situations that were a bit on the ambitious side. An adventure seeker at heart, he was often found climbing the tallest trees,exploring new places, and, more often than not, getting into trouble.
After a few too many run ins with the authorities, it was decided it would be best for him to join up with Nekoean Air Force Academy. He took to the skies quite naturally, frequently showing off his acrobatic skills (often to the disapproval of his commanding officers). It was do to these antics that he was given the nickname “Divebomb”.
After his stint with the military was through, Tobias was left with a craving for speed that he needed to satiate. And so, he picked up a battered Moravia Jestrab AT, souped up it’s atomic engines, gave it a flashy coat of paint, and entered the world of Neko Nation kart racing.
11 Likes
Americana, after America.
That’s the best way of describing this Kart, and it’s Driver:
Peppers, 31 years old, hauls from the North American Commonwealth, Land that was previously the USA. He wasn’t, and really isnt the most remarkable racer there is in terms of performance. His shine comes with his highly personal style.
He has a knack for the Analogue, Things carefully crafted to work without the necessity of a microchip controlling it. In fact, he finds the latter a bit… Soulless.
This influenced his pick of Machine, From the day he could drive one, He knew what he was looking for. A proper Muscle car of the end of the Analogue era.
The 1970 Rivera Dagger.
And so we’re back to the kart itself.
Now, of course, Due to the regulations of Neko Nation kart racing, The Kart itself isn’t necessarily a literal '70 Rivera Dagger. Come on, that thing had a 7 liter V8.
So, It’s the next best thing. A Kart, Built in the same spirit, Down to Steel construction, Pushrod valvetrain and a Solid rear axle.
A kart that Peppers worked, and works on to this day, Fine tuning it a bit more each day.
Those several years of work led to a quite interesting kart: a Quad Weber carb setup, Linked to twin turbos as big as the 1 liter Kart V8 would support.
All analogue, Just how he likes it.
This does make it one of the, if not the heaviest kart in the competition, Capable of shrugging off hits like little pebbles on the road.
10 Likes
An Advantage Like No Other
Project GNTH was devised by the Hylid Corporation (HQ: within the Bacalar Dominion) to compete in the Neko Nation Kart Racing Championship, as a means of advertising their brand to a wider audience. They developed the kart and driver over the past five years in tandem, through cutting-edge engineering and biological technology. The kart can take turns around 1-2G’s depending on speed, and bolts to 60 mph in under 3 seconds. The kart was originally devised as an i5 but was later switched to an i3 for optimal power:weight ratio within the 1L restriction. It’s incredibly stiff, and can take corners with ease without directly impacting straight-line performance. Experimental race technology like hybrid drivetrains, DRS/ERS, airless tires and active aerodynamics were considered but deemed too expensive and fragile to incorporate. One of the few weaknesses of the kart insofar is it’s fragility - it sadly doesn’t take many hits to potentially have your race ruined. Which is where the driver steps in…
GNTH-3 (a.k.a. Guntherie) was developed with cutting-edge and industry-leading biomechanical research. Her base gene structure is that of “dryophytes cinereus”, a frog naturally located within the Bacalar Dominion. Her species was chosen because current world humanity laws disallow genetic experimentation on beings that are genetically-majority neko/inu/etc. She stands at 6’ and weighs around 200 lbs., mostly in her legs for a low center of balance. While she’s technically only four biological years old, she has been “sprung-forward” with neural imaging and biological acceleration to be physically around 23. Her reflexes are immaculate (avg. 0.18 second reaction time in testing) and her racecraft is superb (average time deviation per hot lap on the Hylid Test Track: ±0.003 seconds; scored high marks on wet weather, traffic and mechanical fault tests), but the very nature of her existance as a living test subject has impaired her psyche. She has little regard for playing fair in races, outside of keeping her own kart pristine, and has acted with extreme cunning and tactics during a race. One test race had her getting so tactically aggressive with the AI drivers that she managed to demolish half the field with one well-placed shunt, and red-flagged the test.
14 Likes
I’m fairly certain my 3D-fixture abilities aren’t up to this competition, but in the spirit of Top Gear…
OVETURE
Featuring Corey the Cuttlefish
Backstory
Corey has always been a curious little lad. He was raised amongst a group of aquatic scientists and underwater intellectuals, but whereas his peers usually cared more for engineering and physics, Corey himself cared more for exploration; be it a place, like the surface, or a history, like that of the ancient peoples. With help from his engineering friends, Corey designed a suit that would allow him to walk along the surface as would any other land-animal, and he used it to travel the world and learn all he could.
That was many years ago. Today, he’s settled down, has friends above and below the water, and has engaged in a new kind of exploration: archeology. Due to his ability to examine ancient sites both on land and underwater,* he is afforded a broader perspective than most researchers, and has become one of the world’s most successful and famous archeologists. His most famous accomplishment was when he proved that the ancient peoples were actually related to mammals, rather than to amphibians as was widely believed.**
He’s always had a hobbyist interest in racing; even as a kid he wondered what it must be like to be in one of these cars, shooting around at speeds that would be unimaginable underwater. And this he remarked a few years ago at a birthday party; in front of a crowd of friends and family who are die-hard engineers, and who have always shared a similar fascination but who, unlike Corey, have no way of accessing the surface and participating in the sport. And so, under the excuse of a “birthday present,” they decided work together and build their own car.
They worked on it in Corey’s island,*** but needed a way to get it to the surface. So they made it float. And once it floated, they realized he could effectively use it as a personal transport, so they fitted it with creature comforts. To balance daily needs and racetrack wants, they fitted a plethora of computer controlled, adjustable components. To fit with Corey’s field of study, they visually modeled it to resemble the ones in surviving photos from what they think used to be a bar.
That car, named “Oveture” in reference to how often it pops and bangs, is now one of the racing series’ most iconic cars. Sure, its one of the heaviest cars on the field, and its cute, relatively crude-looking design causes many to underestimate it; but through the use of computer wizardry and a salvaged 1L boat engine (that’s been rebuilt beyond recognition), this car launches like a cheetah and dances like a bee.
Oveture isn’t especially fragile, but it holds a lot of sentimental value not just to Corey but to the Cuttlefish population. And that combined with Corey’s friendly “just-happy-to-be-here” attitude means that he’s usually one of the cleanest and most relaxed drivers on the field- to the point that other drivers tend to get annoyed with him for not taking the game “seriously enough.” In addition, he sometimes also joins the announcers as an expert, sharing summaries of the leading archeological theories**** on what these locations used to be.
*A large percentage of ancient ruins are found underwater, but right off the coast, suggesting that sea levels might have been somewhat lower during the time of the ancients.
**A common belief in the new world was that the ancients had evolved from amphibian creatures, owing to how surviving documents often showed them lacking fur and with moist skin.
***Corey’s house is a partially submerged ancient apartment building, in a now-partially-submerged ancient city that the ancient peoples knew as “Valencia.” The part of it that extends above the surface provided an excellent place to work on the car, and today functions as its garage.
****Archeological theories aren’t always perfectly accurate, and are limited by what information is available. Also, the areas the races take place in usually aren’t areas Corey himself has studied.
3 Likes
Happy birthday to Kureiji Ollie and @Portalkat42!!!
no matter what you do, this CSS on mobile completely fucking fucked mate
Get your electro-swing ready...
For the dead race among us.
「 ZOMBANWA！
SUPER KAWAII
RACECAR DRIVER
AND PART-TIME
ZOMBIE IDOL！
OLIVIA DESU～！」
SUPER KAWAII
RACECAR DRIVER
AND PART-TIME
ZOMBIE IDOL！
OLIVIA DESU～！」
"You look like a cut of EDIBLE meat! Are you?"
Olivia Mounson, a 21-year-old (At death) French-Indonesian rallycar driver who died a long time ago, has been brought back from the underworld after a young necromancer-in-training accidentally touched her gravestone.
Upon being revived, she was in for a definite surprise after finding out how many years had passed, and after relying on whatever memories she had left, and with the help of the young necromancer, she'd found out that her former rally team had been dissolved many years ago and the HQ was now an automobile dealership of a certain gigacorporation. Still, that didn't stop her, and after patching herself back together, she now races for an underfunded racing team of a certain gigacorp within the Golden Paw Empire, and also works as a part-time idol with goals to one day save-up and bring back her old rally team.
Olivia is said to be a rather smug girl that likes to tease others a lot, often making jokes about how she's a zombie and that if they took to her liking, she'd eat them on the spot. Her driving style is particularly noted as "aggressive", but not exactly a menace to the roads. She can certainly put a lot of other drivers on edge when needed. Off the track and during her idol duties, she can also be as rowdy as on the track, but is apparently described by her peers and her managers as being sweet, gentle, hard-working and kind, how much of that is just a facade that she puts up, the world may never know. She claims to be a bear, and her idol company also states her as such, but being a zombie, she can really just identify as whatever would be more convenient for her. And no, she does not burn in the sunlight.
「 HEY！ Let's Get
ク- ク- ク- KRAZY！ 」
ク- ク- ク- KRAZY！ 」
"It's not just any piece of junk! IT'S MINE!!!"
Cobbled together from a bunch of different parts that "worked", and painted in whatever pigments were laying about in the warehouse, this cobbled together mess of an engine and alloys is Olivia's prime-time speed demon racing weapon-machine! The kart originally was made out of an existing Sunrise Racing Kart chassis, but after she had found it insufficient, she demanded right in front of company executives to provide her the necessary parts and funding to make one that she could work with better. Some malicious compliance later from either sides, and she's ended up with this.
Packed with a mid-mounted twin-turbocharged V6 engine producing well over 300 horsepower to all four wheels, and a curb weight of under 650kg, this lightweight racing kart can propel itself and its driver to incredibly high speeds, if it were maintained properly prior to the race, anyway. High amounts of mechanical grip from advanced suspension geometry and good aerodynamic grip from the large rear wing and internal aerofoils mounted behind the rear bumper allow the kart to corner at incredibly high speeds. Fitted in the kart is also two Nitrous Oxide bottles housing high-powered shots that can boost the car up to unprecedented speeds that bring the engine to its near limits, this cannot be used for too long however, as it can bring a high level of danger to the engine manifold. Also fitted is a hydraulic e-brake, like what one would've seen on an older rally car from the ancient era, and when used in conjunction with the four-wheel-drive system, means that the driver can pull off some highly advantageous maneuvers that can give her a boost in cornering over other competitors.
You thought that was all?
From Sendo Atelier Speciales.
A 1:1 recreation of the proposed in-game vehicle with Sendo GT-Sport, by none other than our special works division.
An anti-thesis? Maybe. But we'd like to look at least styling whilst doing it.
Full debut 11.11.26 in true stylish desire fashion.
Sendo Royale Olivia GT-Sport
INTERMEDIA
GALERIE
Menacing, isn't-?
Extra character sketches
early design sketches
originally Olivia was going to have a kind of loose-ish ripped up racing jacket design as well as twin tails
later after doing some random sketches on my notebook out of boredom i’d eventually just decide to eliminate the twin tails and keep the short hair but enlargen the ears somewhat to make them a bit more visible.
other/miscellaneous
pretty much everything here by @variationofvariables out of sheer boredom
idol outfit
cope
cope pt 2
other specifications about the kart include:
1500 year old or whatever stopwatch timer thing because i need an ame reference in this sendo sendo will never become complete without amelia watson pLEASE I NEED HER
oh right i think this clock actually belongs to ourou kronii so you kronii paizuri cuck simps can go simp or something FUCK
killswitches like a proper racecar because fugg yue
the engine is one half of a Formula one V12(real)
what else should i write here
iamdond
i am literally the only one who worked on the kart’s aesthetics i failed in furry-fying the rest of Sendo
this will be sendo in 2049
yes the GT-Sport doesn’t change in 2026 this is toyota century (real) GT-R VR4
please someone get me out of math class i need help i am typing this on 100 dollar chromebook and being enslaved under the american public education system how did this happen can i just be transported to the world of NN:FR so i can marry my zombie bear idol waifu AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
imagine how musky the scent of dead bodies are
being locked in her undead thighs, the scent of decomposing flesh and fur just filling your nostrils as she locks her legs around you
now imagine her being able to detatch her head and- ok we’re not getting into that
i swear to fucking god someone behind me saw what the fuck i was writing when i accidentally alt+tab’ed instead of ctrl+tab this is going to be a disaster
cum
how do bear
selamat pegi
putangina
pisstalk: the return
cheap jokes more like no haha get nane naed chips man this car is the polar opposirte of sendo cry
aaaaaaeeeee
i should just become a bonafide watchmaker this shit is a hell
includes diamond stitch racing seat did i say that already guess what FUCK YOU diamondo iamdond stitch
revs to 12000RPM becauss fuggeue
Sendo Lane Keep Assist
Sendo Magic WAYS 4 wheel drive system
im gonna go back to the australian words but i tell you what this girl is a tomboy sheila but she’;s indonesiasn so she’s definitely toxic gamer APEX laegend
flat chest supremacy
imagine
not being able to run your rock solid cock over her rib cage like a xylophone that is the ultimatum this is why flat chested is the ideal form
why grab onto booba when you can be closde to the heart
comet is gonna scold me for this won’t he
i aM sOrRy wE WiLl dEAl wIth tRoUbLemAker In dA fUchOore sIncEirLy sEndO TeAM
no shut up i’ll cum in your nose harder than i cum to flat chested anime girls HHHGNGNNGNGNGNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGG BRRRRRRRMMMMMMM AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHH
i will NUT HARD AAAAAAAA KRAKATOAAAAAAAAA AAAA
sex
is this love
or am i just 
horny
amelia watson
kureiji ollie
this is a birthday tribute yet i’m here cumming my eyes out to sex sex flat chest short haired zombie bear waifu
imagine you’re just backstage, you greet her as she finishes her idol work and she just sits down on the bench next to you “anon~ i’m tired-desu” then she just leans over and rests her head on you and you two are just left there as the other staff members start packing up the stuff after the concert and then you princess carry her over to her break room AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAa
cope
cope
cope
cope
discourse 32000 charcter limit
cope
cope
cope
unbearable
i cannot bear the fact that amelia watson is not here in this timeline why can’t she be here what do i have to do to see her again
unless
she became
LETS GOOOOOOOOOOo
cry
SEEEEEEEEEEEEEXXXXXXX STOP IT YURI YOUR BODY CANNOT HANDLE ANY MORE OF THIS
NO I WILL HAVE SURELY BECOME SEEEEEEEEXXXXXXX
OHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEXXXXXXXXXXXXXX STOP IT YURI DO YOU REALLY WANT TO BE BANNED OFF OF DISCOURSE
NO BUT I HAVE ALMOST BECOME SEX JUST WATCH ME
IM ALMOST THERE
SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I WILL
HAVE
SURELY
ALMOST
BECOME SEEEEEEEEEEXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
sendo piss chart:
england: motor oil
comet: motor oil
speedyboi: motor oil
mazda: motor oil
aruna: motor oil
delta: motor oil
i have entered a room full of automobiles
sendo meeting more like cock rating competition
i am on thje edge
actually edging hard to flat chested girl ribcage ninomae inanis aaaaaaaa uruha rushia why why cope seethe
nanashi (nlo)
yuuy
irri
riir
uyyu
commoc
enggne
mazzam
speeps
delled
atllta
iobboi
speedyydeeps
falling cooc
help
sendo circlejerk
sendo
sendosendo
cumdo
sexdo
seeex
im supposed to do this during the seodno meeting but whatever we’ll reserve that for cock rating session
HEY KIDS
RESPECT THEHERO
HONPUR THE HERO
pee
zombie pee
zombie flat chest
imagine she slowly taking off her bandages revealing the ultimate valhalla of zombie flat tits
a
a
a
a
gawr gu
a
a
fuc
baha sa indonesia
im so sorry
not really
mfw no flat chested zombie idol waifu
final art by @Falling_Comet
final art by @Falling_Comet
ROYALE
26 Likes
???
[PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT] [PLACEHOLDER TEXT]
\\\Driver///
Kyumi ( 九美 )
Age: “19”
Fox
Kyumi is the alias of a certain natural nine-tailed fox hailing from the Golden Paw Empire, rumored to be a descendant of the Empire’s royal family. This is supported by her rather formal and proper demeanor, along with her clear wealth and backing power. Though polite, she is also known to be cunning and have a bit of a temper when situation gets tense - something that she often apologizes for after an outburst, once she composes herself. Despite being a pay-driver, she has a huge amount of talent behind the wheel, with clear racing experience and expertise seen when in a race or just while on a hotlap. Her driving style is precise, smooth and elegant, with a strong respect for honour amongst drivers.
\\\Kart///
Super Silhouette
Style mixed with purpose - The Super Silhouette is a custom carbon framed super kart with a body styled much like the racing cars which the name directly references. The bosozoku styling touches add a touch more extra flair to the kart, something that Kyumi herself insisted on. The 9 way split exhaust in particular is engineered to shoot out flames to mimc her own nine tails. Powering this machine is a 999cc turbocharged Inline-6 engine, producing over 300 HP driving just the rear wheels, mounted in front of the driver for higher front end grip. The turbocharger system is fitted with overboost functionality for an extra push of power when needed. The Kart's aerodynamic features are also not just for show, providing ample amounts of downforce at speed to compliment the already immensely high mechanical grip the kart has. Overall the Super Silhouette weights in just over 600 kilos.
\\\Gallery///
17 Likes
Submissions are fully closed!
(technically they closed last night at midnight, don’t shoot me. X3)
Regarding the reviews and results, I have plans to get them done over the next week. I had to wait untill all the submissions were in so I could figure out the in universe stats for the karts. I also have my entry for CSC to finish up and some irl projects that got foisted on me that have deadlines on this coming Saturday that weren’t on my plate at the beginning of this challenge. I want to make these reviews actually worth something, so the earliest I’ll be able to get them out is next Monday (though it’s more likely to be next Wednesday with how I write). I hope you all will understand and be ok with the slight delay.
TL:DR Stuff came up IRL and results will be out sometime early next week.
10 Likes
And so we have 6 contestants: A troublemaking ex-military bird, a retro-loving American dog(?), a genetically-engineered emotionless frog, a mech-piloting scientist cuttlefish, a zombie popstar bear, and a well-composed royal fox. Bless the sequence of events that allowed for such a combination.
In retrospect, I’m sure I won’t win the challenge, as I ended up writing what would make the perfect side character. But I learned a lot trying this challenge, including how to do CSS (by copying the post above me and playing with everything to see what it did), and I’m really exited to see where this goes. Good luck everyone!
3 Likes
Results!
The dev team at TEGA sat down to review the playtest mock ups of the kart and character designs they had received in response their call for design help on Neko Nation: Furious Racing. After playing a few gran prixs and getting to know each of the entries, they felt confident in their verdict on which ones would be in the final game and which would star on the cover art. Since there were only 6 entries, less than they had hoped for but still enough to help ease their work load, they fell into pairs of quality and relevance.
Offshore Outliers
When the dev team pulled up Tobias “Divebomb” and his Moravia Jestrab buggy, they were left scratching their heads. Here was a nice looking beach buggy build, with a decent bird racer, but they both felt like they were from a completely different game world than what was in NN:FR. They lacked the sort of kitsch and personality that the team was hoping for and were relatively lackluster in performance as well. They all agreed that while the character and kart were well made and cohesively designed, they just didn’t fit the thematics of NN:FR. The bird and the buggy won’t be making it into the final game.
(Patchnotes: While I commend you for going through with doing an automation render of your racer, the overall styling of both the buggy and the birb just don’t fit the aesthetic of NN:FR. They feel relatively generic don’t really have any of that stylish complexity of the reference images or the other entries. If Tobias had been put in a flight jumpsuit ala Top Gun with unique patches all over it and if the buggy had a bit more livery style detailing with sponsors or classic metal flake paint, they would’ve fit in much better. It is a nicely made build, but just doesn’t fit in with the aesthetics of this game.)
As the dev team pulled up the next entry, they were confronted with a cute looking tiffany blue retro convertible. It reminded a bunch of them of the classic Amphicar, with it’s plain front end and boat shaped rear end. The white wall tyres were also a nice touch and the overall vibe was just quirky enough to work. However when they saw the character that it was paired with, they were confused. They were staring at a black robot with what looked like a bubble tea cup for a body and a cuttlefish floating inside it. They looked at the character’s profile and apparently the actual character was the cuttlefish named Corey inside the robot. That was quite odd as is, but as they delved deeper into the character’s backstory, they understood a bit more where the entry was coming from and where it had missed the mark. However, the design was still decent and more detailed than some of the promo shots had shown. They knew they didn’t have the time to fully rework the character into something that would work in universe and make the Oveture into a finalized design, so they settled on possibly using Corey as a character to help flesh out the garage and customization aspect of the game’s story mode and making the Oveture a vehicle that is in the environment of the garage, with the possibility of being made playable in a later update.
(Patchnotes: The Oveture is quite a nice looking vehicle and was more detailed than I originally thought from the pictures in your forum post. I like how you took the more retro route with making essentially an Amphicar, which would fill the spot of a cute, lightweight character in the game. However, with Corey I think you got too caught up in the idea that the NN:FR universe was somehow the same as the splatoon universe, with the whole ancients being mammals bit in the lore and such. I had said in the lore of the game that the aesthetic of the world was inspired by splatoon heavily, but not that the worlds were the same. An aquatic based character was never going to fully make it into the game as a racer, since the game is very much based on furred and feathered characters being the dominant population. However, Corey would work well as a Codsworth style character that functions as the mechanic in story mode and the Oveture might become playable in a game update. Good job overall tho.)
Moderate Machines
The Devs moved on to the next entry, which was in the next tier of competitors. They found this one to be much more lore friendly than the last as a racer. Guntherie and her bright green F1 style kart fit in with the NN:FR’s style well and as a sort of lab experiment, emotionally damaged character that would provide a good foil for a lot of the other racers. The experiment angle also helped ease her into the lore, establishing her as an anomaly. The Devs would’ve liked to see a bit more of a livery on her kart, but that could be solved with alternate skins as unlockables. They decided to keep Project GNTH and Guntherie in the game as a bit of an antagonizing force, but decided she didn’t have the presence for the cover compared to the other entries.
(Patchnotes: Project GNTH and Guntherie are both really good designs. Everything fits pretty well and she has that sort of slight “minimalism evil entity” sort of vibe to her. She has plenty of sponsorship on her racing gear, I just would’ve liked to have seen some of that carried to the kart itself, especially since it’s F1 inspired and there’s a decent amount of flat space on the kart. They’re still going to be playable in game though, so good job.)
When the Devs opened up the next entry in this mid tier, they let out a collective sigh of relief. Here was a cool looking kart with a cool looking cat piloting it. It pushed the right buttons in terms of aesthetics with a tuner muscle car vibe with plenty of livery and style. The driver, Peppers, was the first one they had seen who got the J-fashion street style vibe they had been going for, mimicking their kart’s livery in its detailing. The only thing that bothered them was how underpowered the kart seemed to be, though they soon corrected that since the character was specified to be heavy class racer, which have the higher max speeds in the game. This post-American muscle kart team is a definite inclusion into the main roster of NN:FR.
(Patchnotes: I really, really like Peppers’ and the Riviera Dagger’s designs. They hit exactly the sorts of aesthetic notes that NN:FR is going for. Also the choice of purple/plum as the base color of the kart is quite good and your commitment to keeping things low tech is admirable. The amount of 3D shenanigans you did to get the kart to look like a '70s muscle car is crazy, considering what you used as a base. The commitment to analogue tech did hold the kart back a bit in acceleration and top speed, otherwise it would’ve been a much more meta kart in the final game. Also darker painted cars benefit more from pictures taken in lighter environments. I only noticed the paint being purple once I loaded it into the design room to look at. Working on your photography skills will definitely help you in future challenges.)
OP Please Nerf
@variationofvariables, @66mazda and @Falling_Comet
The Devs gleefully pulled up the first of the last duo of karts. There was a bit of a tussle over the controller as all of them wanted to be the first to take in every detail of the Royale Olivia. They had pretty much all their work done for them on this kart. Everything was impeccably textured and modeled, down to a diamond plate texture for the floor of the cockpit. It looked just as artfully cobbled together as its Zombear driver. Having her be able to connect the past of the ancients in the game world to the present where they’d be racing would do wonders to ease world building. They had only two concerns with implementing the kart into the game: how to balance the kart’s phenomenal stats with the rest of the roster and how to deal with the hitbox on the sword bits on the rear wing.
(Patchnotes: Another fabulous design from members of team sendo. Extravagantly detailed as always and the design of both kart and bear fit the world of NN:FR exactly, while still being quirky enough to not get lost in it. The only big critique I have with the kart though is the lack of variety in the paint texture. They’re all quite matte and if she was really painting it with paints she just found in a warehouse, there would probably be more variety in finish. It also causes elements like the bandages on the sides and the bows to lose some of their definition from the rest of the car as different materials. Also could’ve been fun to see a clear gloss done over the sticker panels with a clear glass piece to make them look as if they were clear-coated over for durability.)
After the Devs settled down a bit, they took a look at the final kart and racer pair. The Super Silhouette and its kitsune driver Kyumi were a bit more tame in overall design than the Royale Olivia was, but no less well detailed or built. The Silhouette had just about the same stats as the Royale did and piqued a different side of the aesthetic the dev team was going for. It had that raw power of the classic racers that had obviously inspired it and dramatic flares to match. They also liked the idea of having the headlights up or down based on the atmosphere of the track being raced on. They chuckled a bit at how Kyumi was presumed to be a member of the Golden Paw Empire’s ruling family. They hadn’t necessarily included that the rulers of the GPE were a long reigning empire of calico cats based off of the iconic maneki-nekos in their brief of the game world, but massaging Kyumi into being from a noble family within the empire versus being a member of the ruling family would be a trivial matter. Otherwise, including the pair in NN:FR would be quite simple.
But who will be on the front cover of Neko Nation: Furious Racing???
@Xepy’s Kyumi and Super Silhouette will be on the final cover of the game!
Honestly it was a super close running between the Silhouette and Royale Olivia for who would take the cover. Peppers was close but the other two were just on another level of detail. Ultimately it came down to graphic design and how to keep the cover immediately recognizable and visually distinct, things that are quite important if you want customers to pick your game up in stores. The Silhouette and Kyumi’s designs accomplish that goal slightly better than the Royale and honestly give off massive Mach 5 vibes which will make for an eye catching and clear cover star.
I hope everyone had a fun time building karts and designing characters for this challenge and sorry for taking so long to get the reviews out.
The final rankings are as follows.
1st @Xepy
2nd @variationofvariables, @66mazda and @Falling_Comet
3rd @TheLaptopX20
4th @Kaybee
5th @Edsel
6th @Maverick74
20 Likes
Ay nice, it was fun and first time I created a character that way, glad it turned out great.
So I have some ideas on a challenge, but the proximity to 4.2 is concerning (as it has been all year). I’ll give it the weekend to think about hosting.
7 Likes
The lore said “some of the more intelligent wild animals” had become members of the society, and Cuttlefish are some of the most intelligent non-hominoid creatures I know of, so I ran away with that, hoping Minion from Megamind was different enough to work. XD
Great challenge, mate! I loved the story you put together here!
2 Likes
Ah, now that was a fun challenge!
I can’t remember the last time i did get through one without either having a very mediocre car or ending up in the bin for setting the year wrong, If i ever did.
This probably also was the challenge i’ve put the most work in, The kart took me about a week of working on daily to achieve MAXIMUM BOMBASTICITY, along with also being my first major full 3d build ever.
Competition was Red-hot too, with what i can only describe as a little bit of everything; Something you don’t see too often.
Congrats to @Xepy on the Win!
3 Likes