Rail Adventures 3D for the iPhone
After being in development for almost 6 months (as a secondary project), today we proudly released Rail Adventures 3D for the iPhone:
I always had a passion for trains,railroads, 3D graphics and few other assorted things. I added in some extra details (adventure, horror, etc), and decided to write a 3D game in which you hop in a mine cart and race your way through an abandoned mine (and other nice sceneries), shooting monsters, jumping over obstacles, picking up objects, etc. And yes, I enjoyed the Indiana Jones movies, and specially the race scene on the mine railway 
This project allowed me to explore the possibilities offered by the hardware OpenGL acceleration present in the iPhone. I programmed a lot of OpenGL and 3D graphics back when I was still in college. The iPhone has some amazing hardware capabilities, so expect more cool games from us.
There are a couple of cool concepts that were involved in the development of the 3D engine. It was also a research project, so I have taken the liberty to play around with some ideas. The whole 3D scene through which you race, is mostly generated mathematically on the fly. Basically, I have designed a cross section of a 3D mine (scene) model, and repeat/twisted it around a curved track. I had to go through some pen & paper moments to remember most of the math I have studied back in college, but it did work out eventually. You might think that the scenery becomes repetitive, but it doesn’t. There are a lot of other elements that change at each cross-section repetition (pillars, lights, etc). The cool thing with this model is that I can design new levels very quickly, meaning that you can expect a lot of new levels in future updates.
You will also notice something “new” in our games. A lot of 2D art graphics. That is thanks to my girlfriend and her talent in drawing things. I decided to spice up the game a bit with some nice art. Check out the splash image below, which is mostly hand drawn:
Head to the App Store and grab your copy of the game. It’s only $1.99 (as usual, we did our best to keep our prices as affordable as possible)
Here is the iTunes link:
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