Racer Postmortem
The game design readings we went through—especially Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design—really shaped how I thought about Racing. Schell’s idea that "a game is a problem-solving experience" made me focus on making the racing mechanics satisfying but not too easy. I added rubberbanding (so no one gets too far ahead) and risky shortcuts to keep things tense. The concept of flow from class also stuck with me—I tried to design the track so players learn the basics early, then face tougher turns later.
Looking back, I should’ve playtested way sooner. I tweaked the controls and track layout based on my own gut feeling, but when friends finally played it, some things felt off, like the drifting being unclear or certain turns being unfairly hard. Schell’s advice—"your game isn’t for you"—hit hard here. If I’d tested earlier, I could’ve fixed those issues before sinking time into polishing stuff that didn’t work.
The biggest miss? The drift mechanic needed better feedback. Right now, it’s hard to tell if I'm doing it right. A simple fix would’ve been adding screen shakes, tire smoke, or even a Mario Kart-style boost spark to show when you nail a perfect drift. The readings stressed that good games communicate their rules, and I dropped the ball there.
Making Racing taught me that theory only gets you so far—playtesting is everything. Next time, I’ll test early, listen to feedback, and make sure the game feels as good as it looks on paper.