Racing Development Post - Outlaws Racer
Week 8: Outlaw Racer Development Progress
Development Progress of Outlaw Racer
This week, I focused on the development of the arcade racing game "Outlaw Racer." Below is a summary of the key progress and challenges encountered at this stage.
Implemented the function of vehicle control using arrow keys. Players can now smoothly drive the vehicle with the arrow keys.
The health system is operational, showing dynamic changes in the health bar without revealing specific values, adding to the game's tension.
Integration of Obstacles and Challenges:
Set up traffic cones and oil slicks as obstacles. Colliding with traffic cones slows down the vehicle and pushes it back, while driving over oil slicks causes the vehicle to spin, increasing the game's difficulty and fun.
Visual and Audio Enhancements:
Added sound effects and visual feedback for collecting coins and medical kits, enhancing player interaction. The instant feedback mechanism makes the game more enjoyable and satisfying.
Encountered an issue with incorrect vehicle rotation angles when replacing tutorial assets.
Solution: Resolved the issue by limiting the angle deviation, ensuring the vehicle rotates correctly.
Damage Calculation Issue:
Found that consecutive collisions within a short time only deducted health once, instead of multiple times.
Solution: Realized the issue was due to misunderstanding the "damage cooldown" setting, initially thinking it was for setting health deduction for each collision. Adjusted the settings, and now the damage value is calculated correctly.
During development, I referred to the importance of goal setting in game design discussed by Tracy Fullerton on page 68 of "Game Design Workshop," and the key factors designers need to consider when testing and tuning game systems on page 159. Reflecting on the challenge section of the elevator pitch, I felt the challenges were insufficient, so I made some improvements. According to Tracy Fullerton, "Goals provide direction and purpose for players. They define what players are trying to achieve within the rules of the game. Ideally, goals should be challenging yet achievable for players," and "When the system is internally complete and fair to all players, the designer must test if the game is fun and challenging." Therefore, I made the following improvements:
Collision Penalty Mechanism: If players collide with NPC vehicles, not only will they lose health, but they will also lose 1 point.
Increased Coin Rewards: The points for picking up a coin have been increased from 1 to 3.
The reason for these improvements is to prevent players from avoiding challenges in pursuit of high scores. Previously, I tried a conservative strategy in the game, avoiding risky coins to ensure survival time, but this made the game less challenging. After the improvements, since collisions result in a small point deduction while picking up coins offers higher rewards, players are driven to take risks for high rewards within limited health. This aligns with Fullerton's discussion on how goals affect the tone of the game because the core of this game is to get the highest score possible in a tense and exciting atmosphere.
With all core functions in place, the next step is to conduct game testing. I plan to invite some players for testing and provide feedback on game mechanics, difficulty balance, and overall experience. This feedback is crucial for identifying remaining issues and further improving the game.
Reference:
Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop : A playcentric approach to creating innovative games, fourth edition. CRC Press LLC.
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/reader.action?docID=5477698
