City Drift

Cinevva's analyzer read this game's design doc and its source, then wrote the brief below. "Make your own" hands it to the game creator as your opening message, so you start from a real spec rather than a one-line idea.

Create a 3D low-poly arcade drift racing game set in a compact city grid, viewed from a third-person behind-the-car camera that smoothly follows the player with speed-based lag and dynamic positioning (camera pulls back and rises as speed increases).

**Player Vehicle:** A low-poly sports sedan (small coupe-like car) with a bright cyan/blue nose marker showing the forward direction. The car tilts subtly during turns. When nitro is active, two bright blue cone-shaped exhaust flames appear at the rear (one on each side).

**City Layout:** A small open city with a 4×4 grid of roads running north-south and east-west, separated by 24-unit blocks. Roads are dark gray asphalt with yellow dashed lane markings. White/light gray curbs line all roads. The ground is bright green grass. Low-poly buildings fill the blocks between roads (mix of rectangular commercial buildings in various sizes). Orange traffic cones scattered at some intersections. The entire city is bounded by tall gray boundary walls that prevent the player from leaving.

**Visual Style:** Clean low-poly 3D with flat-shaded geometry. Bright daylight scene with a pale blue sky (color #8fc7ee), atmospheric fog starting at medium distance. Warm directional sunlight casting soft shadows. Simple solid colors: green grass, dark gray roads, yellow lane lines, gray buildings with blue-tinted windows, white curbs.

**Core Mechanic:** Arcade car physics with momentum-based driving. The car accelerates forward, builds lateral slip during turns, and can drift by using the handbrake to reduce grip. Drifting at high speed while turning increases the drift score. The car responds to steering with speed-dependent turn rates (faster = wider turns). Velocity-based handling means the car slides and requires controlled inputs.

**Drift System:** When the handbrake (Space) is held or when lateral slip is high, and the player is steering at speed (above 10 speed units), the drift score increases continuously. Dark semi-transparent skid marks spawn behind the car during drifts. The drift score accumulates throughout the race.

**Nitro Boost:** Hold Shift or N to activate nitro boost (drains from 100% to 0%). While active: blue exhaust flames appear, acceleration increases dramatically, top speed rises from ~37 to ~51 units, and the engine sound pitch increases. Nitro regenerates slowly when not in use. Visual meter shows current nitro percentage with a cyan-to-white gradient fill bar.

**Race Structure:** Three-lap checkpoint race through six glowing cyan checkpoint rings placed at key intersections. Each checkpoint is a vertical cylinder of translucent cyan material with a glowing torus ring floating above the ground. Only the next checkpoint in sequence is visible. Checkpoints rotate slowly and pulse in scale. The sequence forms a circuit around the city. After collecting all 6 checkpoints, the lap increments and checkpoints reset. Race ends after 3 complete laps.

**Obstacles & Traffic:** Static obstacles include buildings (impassable rectangular collision boxes), traffic cones, and boundary walls. Simple AI-controlled yellow taxis drive back and forth along predetermined roads at steady speeds, turning around at road ends. Colliding with taxis pushes the player car away. Hitting buildings or walls stops the car and bounces it back with velocity reversal.

**Controls:** 
- W/Up Arrow: accelerate forward
- S/Down Arrow: brake (or reverse at low speed)
- A/D or Left/Right Arrows: steer
- Space: handbrake (enables tight drifts)
- Shift or N: nitro boost
- On mobile/touch: directional buttons (▲▼◀▶) in bottom-left, NITRO/HAND BRAKE/BRAKE buttons in bottom-right

**Camera:** Third-person chase camera positioned behind and above the car. Smoothly interpolates toward a target position that moves further back as speed increases (10-14 units behind, 5.8-8.6 units high). Camera looks at a point ahead of the car based on forward velocity. No fixed camera angle—follows car rotation naturally.

**On-Screen HUD (top-left panel):**
Dark semi-transparent panel with white/cyan text showing:
- Speed (km/h, calculated as velocity × 3.6)
- Race status ("Running" or "Complete")
- Time (MM:SS.S format, running timer)
- Lap (current lap / 3)
- Lap Time (time since current lap started)
- Best Lap (fastest lap time)
- Checkpoint (next checkpoint number / 6, shows "Finish" when complete)
- Nitro (percentage with visual meter bar below showing cyan-to-white gradient)
- Drift (accumulated drift score)
- Yellow "Restart run" button at bottom of panel

**Top-right message box:** Semi-transparent dark panel with white text explaining: "Three-lap city race: hit all six glowing checkpoints in order. Hold Shift or N for nitro, Space for handbrake drifting." (Hidden on mobile/touch devices)

**Finish Banner:** When race completes after 3 laps, a large centered modal appears with dark blue/black gradient background, yellow border, and glowing shadow. Shows:
- "FINISH!" heading in bright yellow
- "Three laps complete" subtitle
- Total Time, Best Lap, and Drift Score in rows
- Yellow "Race again" button

**Starting Position:** Player spawns on the west side of the city facing east toward the first checkpoint, positioned on a road so they can immediately accelerate forward into the city.

**Audio:** Procedural sawtooth-wave engine sound that increases pitch with speed, acceleration input, and nitro boost. Low-pass filtered for realism. Sound starts on first input.

**Scoring:** Drift score accumulates from drifting. Lap completion awards 1000 points plus a time bonus (up to ~1050 additional points for laps under 55 seconds). Final score shown on finish banner.

**Physics Details:** Forward acceleration, brake deceleration, drag (higher when handbraking), lateral grip that opposes sideways velocity (reduced by handbrake), speed-dependent steering rates, maximum speed caps, collision with bounce-back on buildings/walls, traffic push-back forces. The car rotates like a vehicle steering into velocity, not like a rotating tank.