I've developed some ideas for my game!
Although I haven't spent much time on it yet, the extra delay to think about the game plan should help the game turn out a little better.
BTW, phycowelder, try
http://freefile.kristopherw.us/ and let me know if it works well.
Unnamed Race GamePlans:
- Menu / Main Game PlayThere will be single player and multiplayer options.
In multiplayer mode, any unlocked track can be played, and a number of human and AI cars can be selected.
This mode only offers single races (no career play).
Players must choose a car from the same class as the track (no Porsche racing on the Go Kart track).
The single player mode will offer career play, although it will be lighter than Need for Speed.
He will start with a cheap car, and upgrade with his earnings throughout his career.
Depending on the car class / rank, he will enter a certain level of competition and rewards.
For example, when he has a Go Kart, he will race against other Go Karts, driven by inferior AI (kid AI), for little reward money.
He gets prizes for finishing a race in the top three positions, and occasionally will receive a bet offer from an opponent, for extra wages.
The player can select one of three tracks to race on, or trade in his vehicle to enter the next class.
Each race will have 6 - 10 cars.
- Classes (Ranks)There will be a total of seven classes throughout the player's career.
The player can enter any of these classes by trading in his car for the appropriate type,
but he will need to win many races to have enough money to buy a car for the upper classes.
For each class, there will be 4 - 8 different cars, 6 - 10 unique AI players (with certain names and AI types), and 2 - 6 tracks.
A track will be unlocked for multiplayer mode when the player joins this class.
Class title: prices of qualified vehicles
*Wagon Class: $100 - $500
(Will feature wagons, bikes, and snow mobiles)
*Go Kart Class: $1K - $3K
*Budget Class: $2K - $30K
*Luxury Class: $30K - $100K
(Expensive cars, but made for looks more than racing)
*Race Class: $50K - $200K
*Hover Class: $300K - $700K
(These cars go so fast they will need much larger tracks)
- TracksIn general, there will be both open and crowded tracks, with more open tracks for the upper classes.
For example, the Go Karts might race in the city where they have to make many sharp right-angle turns.
I will have tracks for at least these places, but need more:
*Beach
*City
*Country
*Desert
*Forest
*Golf Course
*Highway
*Mars (for the hover class
)
*Official Race Track (at least 2 or 3 of these)
- BonusesSince this game is more light / cartoon-like than Need for Speed, there will be bonuses.
Bonuses will remain on the map after being collected, so if a map has a land mine bonus, several cars will get it throughout the race.
Since the track data files will say exactly which bonuses are on the map, instead of just positioning boxes with random bonuses, there will be more diverse game play.
*Energy
(Fuels the cars; needed for some larger cars / tracks)
*Land Mine
(Explodes when run over; causes more damage than missiles)
*Missile
(Will damage and temporarily stall another car; some race and hover class cars can produce these automatically)
*Off road Speed
(Allows cars to move off road as fast as they could
*Oil Spill
(Nothing new here
)
*Speed Boost
(temporary extra acceleration)
- ControlsControls will be customizable, but these are the defaults.
Space and up controls may seem switched, but this seems more ergonomic.
I might add a mouse mode, where moving the mouse would steer, and the two buttons would accelerate and launch bonuses.
*Space: accelerate
*Left and right: steer
*Up: launch / use bonus
*Down: brake
- Track ObjectThe road will be defined by a set of points, as the corners of a polygon.
All points will be defined as decimal values on a scale of zero to one.
These values will be multiplied by the scale of the track, so it will be easy to resize the whole track.
The exact file format is not decided yet, but they will be produced by a level editor, as opposed to being hand-typed in ASCII.
Each track data file will have:
*Road
*Checkpoints
*Bonuses
*Obstacles (graphics, which the car may or may not be able to drive over)
*A slippery factor
- Car ObjectEach car will have:
*Acceleration
*Energy usage factor
(Multiplied by total acceleration to calculate lost fuel)
*Inertia / handling
(For adjusting the velocity, it will use the formula xv = xv * inertia + xacceleration)
*Internal missiles
(Specifies how often the car can launch a missile it generated; is infinity for most cars since they can't produce missiles)
*Hit points
(The amount of damage a car can take before it stops running)
*Max Speed
(This is actually not a unique value, but a result of the acceleration and inertia values)
*Price
- Player ObjectEach player (either a human or AI) will have:
*Bonus
(specifies the bonus if the player has collected one)
*Car Object
*Damage
(Stores how damaged that player's car is)
*Energy
(The amount of energy in the player's car)
*AI value
(false for human players, otherwise a value specifying the AI type)
*Name
(string)
- AI variancesThe simplest AI would go from one corner of the track to the next at full speed, but that would be boring.
These things can be varied, depending on the AI type:
*Speed
(In early rounds, some newbie AI players may go slowly on purpose)
*Odds of AI going out of his way to collect a bonus
*Odds of accurately aiming the missiles
Topic: Seeking to Conglomerate Forces for Game Competition (Inquire Within...) (Read 13054 times)