NeoCab: Vehicles and Props

Capra Car Designs

Most residents of Los Ojos choose to be driven around in the self driving Capra Cars. These cars drive around in a flock throughout the city and needed to be compact so they could allow for nonstop movement. It isn’t a subtle metaphor but I thought they should look like a flock of sheep.

The sweeping shape of the back lights was inspired by goats horns, a nod to the inspiration for the company name, Capricorn. The windows are always blacked out allowing for total privacy, this also helped differentiate them from Lina’s car. A self driving car has no real reason for windows.

The car is a little cradle that safely carries passengers from place to place. It’s design is economical and inoffensive, but intended to be ominous to the player.

Lina’s Car

We wanted Lina’s car to have more personality. However we also wanted it to look like a car a person with ride share job could afford.

We chose a nice mid-size car shape, something similar to a Prius but with LED panels to replace the grid and rear panel. I gave the back end of the car a little up-swoosh to push its sense of aerodynamics and to further distinguish it from Capra Cars.

We wanted a nice blend of sporty personality and sensibility. Lina wasn’t going to be speeding down the raceway, she would need a car that would make passengers feel comfortable. By not going super wild and futuristic with the design it also emphasizes how she herself, as a human driver, was a bit behind the times.

Lina’s Phone

Lina uses a holographic phone. As I mentioned before, I imagined this would be the early days of this sort of tech. So I drew inspiration from 80s and 90s tech devices which had an analog look compared than today’s smartphones. I felt like the technology would step back first before jumping ahead to streamlined designs.

To further emphasize this being the early days of handheld technology I wanted all the in world graphics to be vector based. You can see this in the HUD displays some characters some characters wear as well as Savy’s computer.

The Phone as it appears in the game. After each ride Lina picks up the phone and activates the Holo UI which transitions seamlessly to our menus.

In between rides the player can navigate the game’s menu through Lina’s phone.