Overscale RC case study - Cresponia Story Works

A yellow-and-black RC car boosting down a tree-lined track in Overscale RC.

Case study

One person, AI tools, a full game

In-game screenshot

At a glance

I designed Overscale RC and directed AI tools to build it. One person, one game, and about two weeks from the first build to a free public demo.

Role	Designer, director, songwriter, tester and publisher (solo)
Engine	Godot 4
AI tools	Claude (Anthropic) for code, levels and tools · ChatGPT for portraits, menu art and some 3D models · ChatGPT and Qwen-Image for logos · Suno for music performance
Size	25 tracks · 5 modes, including the Music Lounge · 12 drivers and cars · 1 to 4 players
Status	Free Windows demo out October 2026 · Steam Early Access planned by December 2026

The idea

Tiny RC cars racing through real Connecticut places, built huge at 1/18 scale. I’ve loved RC cars for years, and Connecticut has everything: beaches, ski hills, casinos, an airport, a dying mall. Each of the 25 tracks starts from a real place.

The 12 drivers come from my books, which I’ve worked on for years. I adapted their characters and art for the game. Each one has their own car. The music comes from the same stories: I wrote every song from chapters of my books. There’s even a Music Lounge mode: you hit buttons in time to my songs while replays of real races play behind the notes. Each song unlocks when you beat its level.

RC cars launching from the start line of Cheshire Cliffs, past houses and trees. — Cheshire Cliffs, one of the 25 tracks built from real Connecticut places.

How I work

I decide what the game is. The AI tools do the building. I play every build and send it back until it feels right.

I write the design. Track design documents for all 25 tracks, a design doc for each mode, the driver roster and their stats, and the concept art direction for every level (images made with ChatGPT).
Claude builds it. Code, levels, menus and tools, from my documents.
Automated tests run first. AI racers drive every track to check that everyone can finish before I ever pick up a controller.
I playtest with a controller and write notes: what feels wrong, what’s missing, what to cut.
Fix, rebuild, repeat. Each round ends with a new build I can play.

My part	The tools’ part
Game design, tracks, modes, drivers, cars	Programming and level building (Claude)
Concept art direction and approval	Logos (ChatGPT and Qwen-Image); portraits, menu art, some 3D models (ChatGPT)
Every song, lyrics and music	Song performance (Suno)
Engine sounds, recorded from local cars
Playtesting, final calls, publishing

An RC truck flipping through the air at sunset in Basher Park, with a trick combo on screen. — Basher Park, the stunt mode.

Decisions I made

Directing AI tools means saying no a lot. These are real calls from the build.

What happened	My call	Result
Jumping in the middle of a turn killed the turn.	Momentum is sacred: a jump or landing should never kill the speed you built.	The car now carries its turn through the air. It became a design rule for every mode.
Basher Park (the stunt mode) got a new control scheme built just for stunts.	I played it and rejected it. It felt worse.	Back to the racing controls, tuned for stunts. My note on the next build: “controls much better.”
The game dropped frames in the busiest levels with 12 cars.	Keep the levels busy and shrink the race field instead.	Grand Prix races went to 10 cars, plus speed fixes. The heaviest level went from 4.6 million triangles a frame to about 1.2 million.
The game started out with 28 early cars.	Replace them all with vehicles based on RC cars I own.	Each of the 12 drivers now has their own car. The old 28 are kept aside for bonus content.
Early tracks were gray blocks.	I directed concept art for all 25 levels, then had each track rebuilt to match it, one at a time.	Every track got its own look, and I playtested each one.
A few engine recordings were too noisy.	Use only the clean takes.	Three of six recordings made it in. The rest wait for a better recording.
The Music Lounge’s first note highway looked like a road. It was too busy to read.	It has to be easy on the eyes. No road look.	Redesigned as a calm, dark highway, with the race replays behind it.

RC cars trading toy-weapon fire in a Battlesville arena, with an explosion. — Battlesville, the toy-weapon car combat mode.

Where it stands

The free Windows demo has been out since October 2026, with all five modes, including the Music Lounge, 1 to 4 player split screen and LAN racing. Steam Early Access is planned by December 2026, at $9.99.

It’s early, so I don’t have player numbers to share yet. I’ll add them here once there are real ones.

Gameplay recorded from the game.

Get the free demo » Work with me »

Everything on this page comes from the real build. Overscale RC is still being made, so it will keep changing.