Join us for an interview with Waffle, one of the IGDA x Core Summer Jam winners who placed 2nd with Coaster Creator, a roller coaster creator and simulator. This completely virtual game jam used Core to empower the participants to make amazing games over the span of just three weeks.

Core is the new free game creation platform that lets you build, publish, and play games. Core makes prototyping and iteration fast, so it’s a great platform for Game Jams, especially if you want to quickly set up a 3D multiplayer experience. You can get started making games right away using thousands of free, high quality music, sound, and art assets, with no coding required.

IGDA – What can you tell us about yourself? 

WAFFLE – Game development has been a hobby of mine since I was 10, which is when I started learning how to program in Lua on Roblox. Now it’s turned into a full-time job. Math and computer science are also a hobby, I just graduated last year with a computer science degree and a math minor.

IGDA – What inspired your game’s design?

WAFFLE – Coaster Creator is inspired by the roller coaster building aspect of the original Roller Coaster Tycoon games. I also like multiplayer games where you can make stuff and see what other people are making. When I read that the game jam is summer-themed, this was the most mathematically interesting concept I could come up with. I knew I would have to implement my own 3D building tools that work online, as well as the procedural generation and physics of the roller coaster itself. It might not be obvious that the tools you use to design the roller coasters were written completely from scratch given how much they resemble the tools in the editor. I’m definitely glad I was able to get all of that done in under 3 weeks.

IGDA – How was using Core for this project? Were there any challenges? 

WAFFLE – Using Core for this project was great, I had spent the previous couple of months learning the platform and pushing its boundaries and this was a good opportunity to push it further. Most of the challenges involved in the development of this were math-related and didn’t hinge so much on the platform itself, but a huge bonus was that Core already has a roller coaster chain lift sound and a metal rolling cart sound included in their sound library, that audio hugely improves the feel of the game.

IGDA – Are you working on any other projects that you would like to share?

WAFFLE – I do have some other projects on Core and will be working on more games in the future. My username on Core is Waffle.