XF Racing Institute / XF DRIVE

"Notice: This article is about a different video game series. Information in this article is about the certain aspects of the series and does not relate to the Spark the electric jester series other than cameos of it seen in the games."XF is an experimental racing series of games made in Unity which were meant to emulate the style and mechanics of old racing games such as Stunt Race FX, Top Gear 2 and 300, F-Zero, OutRun, Daytona USA and Virtua Racing.

Only 3 iterations of XF are publicly available, but there are potentially more made.

Development history
There was a period during Spark the Electric Jester's development where LakeFeperd started losing faith in the idea of Spark, this was before the Kickstarter. So, Lake decided to make a game on Unity which was this iteration of XF and it isn't very polished since Lake had limited knowledge of how Unity's C# code works. But for unknown reasons, this project was later canceled. It was probably because, at the time, Lake had problems with collision but it's not clear.

Gameplay
In this game instead of racing against the opponents like in typical racing games, the player races against the time. The player has to go through several sections of the cup and when beating each section without running out of the clock, the more star medals the player earns. There are checkpoints that extend your time for 20 seconds once you hit them. The player can choose to play either as X-Type, Kestrel, and Punisher.


 * X-Type is a standard car that is recommended for anyone due to how balanced it is.


 * Punisher is really fast and has great handling. But its acceleration is very low, making it hard to reach high speeds and recover from a crash. Only recommended for those who want a challenge.


 * Kestrel is really fast but has low handling past 300KPH. The player can also lose control after a crash. recommended for anyone despite its flaws.

Stages
In the demo, there were 4 cups available. There were more cups that were not present in the demo which were meant to be in the final version before the project was canceled.​​ Sky Ramp theme from Stunt Race FX was in files which alluded that Lake originally planned to play that song somewhere in some cups. Arguably the 0th level which takes place in the skies and serves as a tutorial level.


 * In the first cup titled Classic Cup A. The player starts out in a green hilly area then after going through a tunnel, the player is now in the Sea Track Then in the Sunset Canyon, then in the Night-time City. The songs that played in these sections are Easy Ride, Aqua Tunnel, Sunset Valley and Night Owl from Stunt Race FX.
 * In the second cup titled Future Cup. The player starts out in the futuristic night time City then goes to the odd-looking City section covered in red then goes to the Tube-like track which takes place in the ocean that looks similar to Network Coast (Harbor section) from Spark 1. This cup involves anti-gravity. The songs that played in these sections are ZEN (Aeropolis), DIZZY (Phantom Road), and Cover of Big Blue's theme from F-Zero GX.


 * In the third cup titled Open Cup. The player rides around an open world type of a cup where you go around to find each goal that offers a star medal. It takes 500 seconds to complete. The cup takes place in a snowy valley with roads and such, this stage also has a night and day system. The song that played in the background was "Main Theme 3" from Top Gear 3000


 * In the fourth and final section of the demo titled Remix Cup. You go through the beach then there are split paths. The first path leads to a skyscraper city similar to Sunset Heights from Spark 1, then to a space station section similar to Planetary Stripe from Spark 2 but it's not covered in green. The second path leads to a Rainy valley, then it leads to a gigantic rainy forest. The song that played in the cup is "Shiny World" from OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast.


 * Racing Cup takes place in a racing tournament track with green environments and such. Probably meant to be themed around racing with other cars like in typical racing games.


 * Hazard Cup takes place in a hellish realm with roads and visual design similar to Apocalypse Thruster in some way. It was probably meant to be a cup filled with hazards.
 * Jump Cup takes place in the snowy mountains covered in the clouds with a brown ship in the background. It was probably meant to be a stage themed around jumping.


 * Remix Cup II is the final stage of the second world. In this cup, X-type has a boost bar and lights that how in which gravity modifier you are in. It also has new wind particles for a better sense of speed. It takes place in a dark city covered in yellow and after that, there was probably meant to be a boss that looks like this: https://i.imgur.com/JZak5np.png
 * Flip Cup takes place on a rooftop-like area with ancient-looking architectures mixed with sci-fi elements. This whole stage is contained in a Mediterranean dome shaped like a blender attached to something, probably the moon but it's not confirmed. In this cup, the player will have a temporary power-up that will flip the car upside down and also reverse the gravity. This was meant to be one of the more trickier stages.


 * Water Cup is a stage meant to feature multiple paths/roads that lead to the same goal. It is a water level in a "racing game" that takes place in some green valley and also features a background/Skybox with the purple-pink Saturn. The player's car can drive on the water just like how it can move on the grass and sand in the later cups.


 * Platform Cup. The last cup of the third solar system meant to have four areas, the first 2 resemble Sunset Heights just like that skyscraper section in the remix cup of the first solar system. The last 2 resemble Lightoria Bay in terms of visuals as shown in this image: https://i.imgur.com/Dem40DV.png
 * Remix Cup III. Takes place in the place similar to Flip Cup but features a lot of water.

Later in the development, the first stage was redesigned and looks like this: https://64.media.tumblr.com/67fc60d051ccf2222e062836df2d0e2f/tumblr_nm6f6swkoo1tsqqw0o2_1280.png


 * There was a stage themed around PS1 style graphics which looked like this: https://64.media.tumblr.com/b6fe188674d8c4fda10bacc0cac27fe7/tumblr_nnm15lE19e1tsqqw0o1_1280.png

It was Lake's attempt at experimenting with a different style which led to the XF [Beta 3] and XF DRIVE having those PS1 aesthetics. Visually, it was quite dense and it was a fully finished cup but it's unknown if this was the last cup to be made before XF was canceled then reworked from scratch which will later become XF (2017).

There was a new car named "LIFO" which is quite similar to X-Type. It probably could've been a redesign of it but it's unknown.

Links
Link to the demo: http://www.mediafire.com/file/zxhkj1hhtkzq2b9/XF_Racing_Institute_Demo_00.rar/file===

Link to the Screenshots of Unused Stages from XF (2015): https://imgur.com/a/yJWiB

Link to the concept arts for XF (2015): https://imgur.com/a/iJBis

XF [Beta 3]
This was the third XFRI Beta, XF (2017) at the time when Lake made this, was in its 5th beta and looked very different from this.

Gameplay
This iteration featured the mechanics from the original but also had the boost and jumping. It didn't have the gravity switching, parrying and all directional charge that was seen in the later iteration of XF. If you hit a checkpoint, you get a life and a boost refill. There are sections with normal gravity and self gravity which are marked green for normal and red for self gravity.

Stage

 * This iteration had only one stage called Jupiter IV which was stated to be a test level, so it was basically unfinished. It takes place in a futuristic urban city protected by a barrier. The placeholder song is "I'm Not a Model" from Jet Set Radio Future.

Development history
This game started the development during the final days of Spark 1 's development and before Spark 2. This iteration is unfinished and released in that state because it was just like with the first iteration, canceled. Lake stated that this iteration was the foundation for Spark the Electric Jester 2's art style and some assets from this game were reused for Spark 2.

Gameplay
This game is the same as the previous iteration with some additions to the gameplay and changes. The additions are the boost, dodge mechanic which functions like Fark's Parry, Jumping, Gravity Switching, and directional charge that is quite similar to Jester Charge but it has multiple directions where the player can launch the car. The boost, jumping and gravity switching was planned for the first iteration of XF. but in the first iteration, jumping was meant to work with the jump pad, same for gravity switching with gravity pad. The Beta 3 iteration had the boost and jumping which functioned like in this iteration. The checkpoints that give you time once you hit them return but they give you 30 seconds. If the players keeps boosting and hits the boosters, it expands their points.

Instead of getting medals, beating a stage rewards the player with ranks that are barely functional. It goes from D to C to B to A. It's unknown if there is an E rank and S rank.

The playable car in this iteration is Kestrel but with a different design.





Stages
The demo only has 3 stages. Unlike the first iteration, it was canceled immediately after this demo for unknown reasons.


 * The first stage Mars Takes place In a nighttime valley that leads to a nighttime city where the last part of the city has cars going forward and backward.
 * The second stage called Mercury takes place in a town close to a beach which leads to a desert, then leads to a waterfall cliff, then to a forest filled with bottomless pits.  This stage introduces parry-able barriers. Few of the textures from this stage are reused for Spark the Electric Jester 3's Drinyon Desert.

In the files, there was the song that played in Reynol Complex from Spark 1 which alluded to a fact that the song was planned to be played in the game.
 * The third and final stage called Titan Is more reminiscent of [| Eggmanland] from Sonic Unleashed. It's the hardest stage in the game with the challenging loops and laser placement that required to be parried.

Trivia

 * In Spark 2, one of Technoria City's ad posters referenced this iteration of XF with the design of Kestrel and that unknown character (probably meant to be a driver of the vehicle but it's unknown).

Links
Link to the demo: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw7vgPrOLeTHRGtLQUtucU13c2M/view

Videos






Development historyXFDRIVELOGO.png
This game started the development right after Spark 2 and was released at SAGE 2019 as an experimental side project until Lake decided to work on Spark 3. It was probably always meant to be a side project and not the next big project that Spark 3 turned out as. It took the visual design inspired by PS1 graphics. The Career Mode was planned where the playable vehicle of the career mode would've been more like [| Blue Falcon] from F-Zero series but colored in purple, as shown on this image. How would've Career mode played out is unknown.

Gameplay
This game is the same as the previous iteration but a bit more refined with the gravity switching, parrying, and all directional charge being removed completely. Instead, there's a Drift mechanic in which the stages are built around and the physics is a lot heavier.

This iteration has 2 modes: Adventure Mode and Carrer Mode, with Adventure mode being the only one available in the demo.

The playable Car in this iteration is called X-Force which looks similar to Punisher from the first iteration but different.

This iteration also has the difficulty options from Spark 2 minus Casual'. '

Easy mode has the lowest damage input and Normal is a bit more challenging take on the easy mode but both of the modes don't have a time limit. Hard mode increases the damage input and brings back the time limit which when crossing the checkpoint, you get 35 minutes, and Very Hard is a bit more challenging take on the hard mode. Challenge Mode is where the damage input is the highest and the acceleration is a lot higher but has very low handling.

This iteration doesn't have medals nor ranks.

Stages
The demo has only 4 stages, plus the tutorial.
 * Tutorial 

it's a tutorial stage like Fark School from Spark 2 but dedicated to XF DRIVE's mechanics. It takes place in the sky but the tone is much more blue-ish with few yellow and red details thrown in.

The first tutorial tells you to drive and not hit the walls.

The second tutorial tells you to drift and not hit the walls like with the first, red walls mean it's a good idea to drift.

The third and last tutorial is a much more challenging take on Drift. Telling you to extreme drift break and drift at the same time for a sharper drift.

The song that plays here is Fark School from Spark 2


 * Route: 01 The first stage of the game. It takes place next to the mountains with a city close to it. The song that plays here is Network coast from Spark 1
 * Route: 02 Same visuals as the first stage but it takes place in a more valley-like area with Military architectures covered in green thrown in, featuring cannons and giant green robots that slightly resemble the [| Egg Gunners] from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) in terms of design. The song that plays here is the same as from the first route.


 * Route: 03 Takes place on the highway up from the ocean with skyscrapers in ruins and construction cranes. Alluding to the fact that there was a disaster that flooded the entire city and it's under reconstruction. The song that plays here is Floria Highway from Spark 2


 * Route: 04 Takes place in a military base with a lot of hazards to avoid and at the end, there's a boss of the stage which is a giant green tank that attacks with engines that produce fire and launches missiles up from above. The song that plays here is Final Boss from Spark 1

Links
Link to the demo: https://sites.google.com/view/xfdrive/home