Moving walls & platforms
WallStone moves across the route; platforms create timed crossings. The player has to read their motion and choose when to commit.
Personal project / Game design & 3D
Sunset VistaFrom a familiar world to a new racing experience.
A modding project for Crash Team Racing: a track inspired by the first Crash Bandicoot, Ziggy as a new animated racer, two items and dynamic hazards. From 3D creation to in-game testing and community feedback.
- My contribution
- Track design, visual direction & iteration
- Context
- Personal modding project
- Tools
- Blender · CrashTeamEditor · DuckStation
What the community is saying
More community feedback“HUGE advancements for CTR modding!”On the new racer, items and animated hazards.
“Love the big open landscape”On the landscape and attention to environmental detail.
“With actual functionality.”On platforms and bats becoming functional gameplay elements.
01 / The idea
Capture an atmosphere. Rethink the way through it.
What would Sunset Vista feel like as a kart track? I wanted to bring its temples, heights and sunset atmosphere into the pace of Crash Team Racing.
This meant designing a route that works from the driver’s point of view: where to accelerate, when to anticipate a hazard and which alternative route to take. The scenery becomes part of those choices.
02 / Gameplay
The circuit, behind the wheel.
03 / Inside the mod
An environment that changes how you race.
The track brings together moving scenery, new gameplay mechanics and native game systems. Each addition has to fit the pace, visual language and rules of CTR.
Fire jets & bats
Animated hazards bring the temples to life and create moments of anticipation. Their contact behaviour is integrated into the race.
Rain, water & atmosphere
Rain, animated surfaces, waterfalls and the sunset sky establish the identity of the circuit. Music by aRBee and a skybox by Siruka complete the atmosphere.
A complete racing route
Checkpoints, alternate routes, a minimap, item crates and recovery after a fall connect the 3D environment to the game’s racing systems.
Opponents & driving styles
Three bot routes, difficulty tuning and revised character stats explore different ways to race and compete.
Time Trial, Bots & Death Road
Three modes offer different contexts for playing the same circuit: finding a fast line, racing opponents and taking on the Death Road challenge.
04 / Ziggy
A new face on the starting grid.
Ziggy is an additional playable racer, with his own selection slot, animated model, portrait and voice lines. He brings the mod’s roster to 17 characters.
His animation follows the actions of the kart: steering, drifting, braking, jumping and reacting to impacts. The body, hands and gaze need to communicate the movement while remaining connected to the vehicle.
The work extends from the Blender model to the game’s animation format, character selection, race display and audio. A technical package documents the model, textures, animation export and integration for other modders.
- Playable roster
- 17
- Stored animation frames
- 54
- Voice lines
- 16
05 / New items
Two new ways to disrupt the race.
Ice Cube and Dingo Flames extend the mod’s item set. Their integration connects the visible effect with activation, contact and the game’s existing race logic.
Ice Cube
An ice effect integrated into interactions between racers.
Dingo Flames
A flame effect that adds a new threat on the track.
06 / Design decisions
Design, play, adjust.
Give the track a rhythm
A racing circuit needs landmarks, moments of anticipation and changes of pace.
I worked on the sequence of temples, turns, jumps and shortcuts, checking how these sections connect when driving through them.
Make the route readable
The scenery and hazards need to remain understandable at racing speed.
The minimap includes the main route and shortcuts. Visual cues and the placement of moving obstacles help shape the player’s decisions.
Design within the engine’s limits
Geometry, textures and animated objects all share a limited technical budget.
I move between the Blender scene, track export and in-game tests to assess visual choices alongside collisions, navigation and runtime behaviour.
Player feedback guides further iterations, including visual readability, collisions and recovery after a fall. In-game tests help check individual behaviours; the overall experience continues to evolve through play.
From the scene to a shareable mod
- Build and refine the track in Blender.
- Export geometry, textures and racing data through CrashTeamEditor.
- Integrate native code for the racer, items and moving hazards.
- Check the result in DuckStation, including targeted recovery, pause and retry tests.
- Package a patch and installer so the project can be shared and tested.
The integration targets an emulator setup with extended RAM. The recorded tests cover specific scenarios; they do not establish compatibility with original PlayStation hardware or every multiplayer mode.
07 / Community response
Shared, played and discussed.
Sharing the project made the work visible beyond my own playtests. Comments on the teaser highlight the atmosphere, animated racer and functional moving scenery.
35,382teaser views
917likes
117comments
YouTube figures observed on 19 September 2026. These describe the video’s reach, not the number of players. Source
A circuit other players want to try
The comments also ask about online play, split screen and local tournaments. They point to interest in playing together, without establishing that those modes are supported.
Watch Terry Games play the trackFeedback that feeds the next iteration
The discussion also raises expectations about the scenery and how the track can be played. Alongside the enthusiasm, these requests help identify which details matter to players and which ideas need further investigation.
08 / Further explorations
One project, several ways to create.
01
3D & environments
Modelling the track, working on textures, colour and the composition of the scenery.
02
Animation & interaction
Exploring animated characters, moving platforms and hazards within the mod.
03
Tools & experimentation
Connecting creation, export and testing, with scripts and tools to support iteration.
Also in my portfolio
Professional work
Let’s talk
Let’s design
what comes next.
A project, an opportunity, or a conversation about design.