Features

• A system for steering cars in 3D space from a side-on perspective, allowing the player to veer off the main road and explore deeper in the environment. This is different from most 3D driving games, which either situate the camera behind the vehicle facing forward, or allow the player to manually control the camera view.
  
• Vehicle status overlays which display various information for each vehicle, and can be toggled on and off.
• Vehicle engine maintenance / boosting mechanics:
• A speed boost which consumes 'turbo fuel' and heats up the engine.
• A "water can" consumable item which immediately cools a heated engine.
• Motor oil consumable item which prevents the engine from heating for a limited time.
• Vehicle breaks down when "overheated" forcing the player to stop for a limited time. A minor annoyance on tour levels, but a potentially fatal situation in combat.
• Flying planes and docking with a refueling plane mid-flight.
  
• Tank-based combat, where the player drives a vehicle in 2D and can also operate variety of weapons including:
  
• A mortar launcher, which can be armed with exploding mortars, smoke bombs, flares, and practice mortars.
• A front machine gun, which can overheat if fired too frequently and has limited ammo.
• A grenadier riding atop the tank. The player can control the trajectory of the grenade by pressing and holding the grenade button.
• An animatronic rambo that allows precision shooting with a bow and arrow.
• The player can arm normal arrows, long-range arrows, multi-arrows (which split into 5 projectiles at the top of their trajectory), and the classic rambo exploding arrow.
• A battering ram that allows players to smash obstacles with the vehicle without sustaining damage. Many equippable rams were planned, but the only one we have kept in the game is a mounted deer head.
• A scope for sighting and estimating the distance of enemies and other points of interest.
• Boat-based combat, similar to the tank except the boat always drifts forward with the current of the river, and no battering ram is available.
  
• Various systems for tracking player's progression and achievements.
  
• Systems for synchronizing a player's inventory and achievements with their account on the Vietnam Romance website, so they can participate in leaderboards and show off their loot.
• Ebay: a satirical "computer-within-a-computer" interface for buying and selling items on a fictional ebay account, including a personal ebay page for selling goods, a vietrom store ebay page for buying goods, and an email inbox that displays messages from characters in-game.
  
• Voiceover and subtitles system that parses a text file with timestamps to match audio recordings.
  
• Helicopter combat, landing, and rescue missions:
• Controls for dropping a rope to rescue npcs.
• System for landing / damaging the vehicle if landing too hard.
• Machine gun and hellfire missiles.
• Formation flying (npc helicopters that fly in fixed formation near the player).
• Menu screens and animations including a modified UI text box that displays text in an intentionally illegible tight justified format. Background elements change based on the level just completed, and in post-game scenes, the vehicle and background elements change to match the level just completed.
  
• A "popup" system which
• Dynamically displays mission objectives, newly acquired items, notifications about phone messages, emails, depleted ammo, and other in-game events.
• Displays nearby points of interest, incoming projectiles, and nearby boss enemies with additional cameras and render textures.
• Sorts these various types of popups into four positions on screen according to a complex system that accounts for message priority and type.
• Level editing tools, including
  
• A "vietnamese countryside generator" that creates an endlessly driveable map of Vietnam.
• Modular building generator for city scenes.
• Spline-based traffic control systems that (mostly) spawn vehicles just off screen - including:
  
• A physics based system for cars that the player can collide with.
• A more deterministic / less computationally expensive version for background elements like distant traffic jams and scooter mobs.
• Honking your horn causes vehicles ahead of the player to briefly speed up.
• Ox-cart obstacle including ox animation.
• In-game projection mapping tools for exhibitions, including tools for reconfiguring most UI elements in-game, supporting multi-channel display. This includes things like migrating the 'hand of cards' interface to a separate monitor for projection mapping, and adjusting the size and position of most of the primary ui elements to account for "extreme-wide mode" projection.
  
• These tools had to be accessible from a build, so that we could modify how ui elements are projection mapped based on the sculptural objects we were projecting onto
• "Game master mode" in-engine theater tech tools for the live theater version, allowing me to intervene in the game in various ways with a wireless keyboard during a live show.
  
• NPC minesweepers that walk slowly in front of the tank to intercept / get blown up by mines including animations for various animals that can be used for sweeping mines including monkeys, tigers, and elephants
  
• Background NPCS: systems for spawning modular, generative tourists
  
• NPC Enemies a wide variety including:
  
• Stationary and mobile machine gunners.
• Grenadiers that hide in foxholes.
• Stationary and mobile rocket launcher (which fires a large, slow projectile in a straight line at the player).
• Stationary mortar launcher, which calculates a trajectory based on desired enemy accuracy and fires a slow projectile in a high arc.
• Magic evil parrots that fly in formation and dive-bomb the player.
• Deer that you can hunt with a bow and arrow.
• Small birds that can be shot for extra loot in hunting scenes.
• Destructible obstacles including bunkers and barricades.
  
• Tank-based karaoke level, where players shoot down floating text that is synchronized with music.
  
• Including a system to facilitate placing text in the level to correspond accurately with music.
• Systems for camera control, dynamically framing monuments and landmarks as the player drives through a level, framing the characters when using healing items, and more. We started production on this game well before cinemachine was released.
  
• "Male gaze" minigame where the player can direct the camera's gaze at Nancy Sinatra's body parts during a USO show.
  
• Tutorial modes which display gameplay instructions with a series of text boxes, and which can lock specific inputs depending on the demands of the tutorial.
  
• Self-playing "attract" modes of various levels for gallery installations.
  
• Input management systems wrapped around the old unity input manager and the incontrol asset from the asset store.
  
• Inventory management systems - I didn't develop the original version of our inventory system, but it has required extensive modification over the years to meet the project's changing needs, including animated cards such as an analogue watch that displays the in-game time of day, a system for managing a ‘stash’ of cards vs cards in hand, auto-sorting cards in hand by type, and more.
• Integration with the vietnam romance site, so players can participate in leaderboards, show off their stash of cards, and transfer save data between computers.

• Weather system for swapping out weather patterns mid level, including dramatic storm effects.
  
• Speech Bubble system for displaying minor / background dialogue.
  
• "Flashback" system, where the player can dynamically switch between a tour bus in modern day, and an armored personnel carrier mid-level.
• In-scene UI elements for shopping, opening gates, and other interactions.
  
• "Happy Funtimes" platform integration for local multiplayer with smartphones connected over wifi for a one-night-only event.