I've picked up some great tips and recommendations from folks over at makega.me, a new indie game development site. Turns out there are some other dieselpunk racing games out there I need to look at, and some very inspiring reference.
In game development news, I have very basic obstacle avoidance in- it's really more "obstacle awareness" than avoidance, but it has improved the enemy AI to the point where they get through the track most of the time, albeit lumbering like a drunken buffalo.
