I would like to use this blog post to explore something that is slightly different to fantasy map creation, but still blends in nicely with the theme of this blog by providing a review of wellness-related products in the virtual gaming world.
For those who are unfamiliar with the site, Slowroads.io is a web-based driving simulator made by Anslo that aims to provide a relaxing driving experience, and it uses some interesting software engineering quirks, such as using AI to generate a continuous set of landscapes.
Slowroads offers two maps, the "Hills" map (which is fictional, but takes inspiration from the landscapes seen in the north of England) and the "Off World" map (based on Mars), however, for the purposes of this post, I will be using the "Hills" map to review the simulator since the user experience with both maps is fairly similar.
Upon accessing the landing page for the simulator, the one thing that I was fascinated about with respect to the look of the page was the design of the topographical features, by illustrating the different contour lines in a similar fashion to what you find in real-life maps such as the Ordnance Survey. Looking at a first glance, it certainly gives the impression that the driving experience is going to be good.
Design of the Slowroads homepage
Once I launched the simulator, I was absolutely amazed by the amount of work that has been put in by the author in terms of the amount of realism that you can find - the level of detail on the trees, the amount of vegetation and the hillside terrain clearly resembles something that you would find in an open-world racing game that you can purchase off of Steam.
The Slowroads landscape... and some bends in the road
In terms of the physics, I also find the handling to be very responsive when going around tight bends, and I always find taking the corners at high speed on this simulator to be a lot of fun and adding to the thrill aspect - you can compare it to taking a corner on a racetrack in a game such as Project CARS.
I also decided to experiment with some straight line driving, to put some pedal to the metal with the vehicle - if you drive for several miles, you can reach some high speeds in a car - I managed to top out at 117 miles per hour (195km/h) after only two miles of driving, and I was able to reach even higher speeds riding a bike.
And I must say that even when driving in straight line mode, I really appreciate the effort that has been put in to keep the user engaged by creating many steep, rolling hills along the way and forested landscapes, so that the straight line driving experience does not become boring and monotonous.
If you are not a speed freak however, you can set the game to autopilot mode and just let the game do the work for you. And in the meantime, there are many ingenious ways that you can still engage with the simulator without having to do all the work yourself, such as using the wind sounds to take your time to meditate or as a background noise to get ready for bedtime.
Seasonal options
Slowroads also has a wide range of seasonal options to experiment with. Seeing the weather and seasonal options has honestly surprised me the first time round, as I have never seen the amount of effort that has been put into seasons and climate on a web-based driving simulator before.
Climate options in Slowroads.io
I must say that I am very impressed with the attention to detail that has been put into each of the seasons. For instance, setting the simulator to "spring" mode shows some of the trees blossoming out.
Likewise, the level of detail put into the autumn foliage absolutely blew my mind, particularly when driving over the bridges over the lakes.
However, I do believe that the winter physics on this simulator could be improved - when I tried driving a car at high speeds around tight bends, I noticed that the grip on the roads was too firm for the icy conditions.
Exploring the daylight options, I find the most amount of zen driving in the sunset, as the level of light in the sky is perfect enough to the point that driving around in the sunset is such a relaxing experience.
Conclusions
Overall, I think that Slowroads.io provides a very good driving simulation experience for people who cannot afford to buy expensive games on the games marketplaces or someone who just wants to spend some time taking time to relax in just a few clicks. It is fascinating to see online game development being pushed to its outermost limits and to see creators using intricate and sophisticated software engineering and programming techniques to stay one step ahead of current trends surrounding online games, and to see that there is a possibility for game designers to break in to the wellness markets by creating mindfulness and meditation experiences in video games.
Looking ahead, the author is planning on making further improvements to make Slowroads even better and I am definitely looking forward to seeing what the project has in store in a couple of months time. I also plan to create a Slowroads zen driving playlist on my YouTube channel at some point in the close future.
In the meantime, if you want some straight line zen (and some pixelation fun driving through the forests), check out this 30 minute video of mine where I take a car to top speeds, and navigate some steep hills along the way as well:
Until next time,
Jakub
Copyright note: Slowroads is licensed by Anslo under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, however all my opinions in this post are my own.
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