XF Racing Institute / XF DRIVE

XF is an experimental racing series of games 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.

There were 3 or more iterations of XF. Only 3 of the iterations are available publicly.

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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. 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. 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.

This cup involves anti-gravity
 * In the first cup titled Classic Cup. 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
 * 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.


 * 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.

There were many cups that were not present in the demo which were meant to be in the final version before the project was cancelled.​​
 * 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.

There was also planned to be the second solar system with new cups.
 * 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 colony that looks 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.
 * 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.


 * 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.


 * 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


 * 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.


 * Remix cup III. Takes place in an underwater facility and is quite similar to the Flip Cup in design but at the same time, quite different in tone. It was probably planned that the player's car can drive on the water just like how it can move on the grass and sand.

Later in the development, the first stage was redesigned and looks kinda like this: https://64.media.tumblr.com/67fc60d051ccf2222e062836df2d0e2f/tumblr_nm6f6swkoo1tsqqw0o2_1280.png
 * Platform Cup. The last cup of the third solar system meant to have four areas and looks similar to Sunset Heights just like that skyscraper section in the remix cup of the first solar system. It's probably possible that there is a section after this which is similar to Lightoria Bay in terms of visuals as shown in this image: https://i.imgur.com/Dem40DV.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 lead 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                                cancelled then reworked from scratch which will later become XF (2017).

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

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.

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 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. Few of the textures from this stage are reused for Spark the Electric Jester 3.


 * The third and final stage called Titan Is more reminiscent of Eggman Land from Sonic Unleashed.

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

Videos






XF DRIVE (2019)
Link to the demo: https://sites.google.com/view/xfdrive/home