CrazyRacing Kartrider: Trackpedia

Following the server shutdown of Crazyracing Kartrider in March 2023, Nexon presented a special exhibition at the Nexon Computer Museum. The exhibition reflected on the 19-year history of the game, which ran from 2004 to 2023, while highlighting the idea that its story does not simply end but continues into its successor, KartRider: Drift. The exhibition concept, titled “END가 아닌 AND” (“Not END, but AND”), visualised this transition and continuity within a dedicated exhibition space.

The exhibition was designed within a corridor-like space frequently used by visitors. By carefully considering circulation and spatial constraints, the design aimed to deliver a rich experience within a limited area. Media and interactive installations were actively incorporated to showcase the KartRider IP and encourage visitors to engage with the exhibition. The space also allowed long-time players, known as “Riders”, to revisit and share their personal memories of the game, encouraging further sharing through social media.

Among the various interactive installations in the exhibition, I was responsible for Trackpedia. In this kiosk experience, visitors draw the shape of a track they remember on a tablet interface. An AI system then suggests several tracks with similar shapes. After selecting one, the main display presents gameplay footage alongside detailed information about the track. Visitors can also explore all tracks through a conventional filtering search without drawing.

For this project, I archived information on more than 270 tracks and built a database to support the system. I also produced hand-drawn training data and trained an image classification model using TensorFlow to improve recognition accuracy. The machine learning model and database were integrated into a web-based application, resulting in a custom interactive “track encyclopaedia” that combines hand-drawn input with AI-driven search.