As this year's topic of the Computer Games Laboratory course is "Speed", we decided to make an unconventional racing game. At it's core it is an asymmetric multiplayer game where two parties compete against each other in real time. The first party consists of one or more drivers, that try to reach the end of a racing track, while the second party consists of one godlike player whose objective it is to stop the other players from reaching the end of the track.
The focus of our game is to create a fast-paced, competitive multiplayer experience, which will differ significantly depending on whether you take on the role of a driver or of the god-player. The god-player has a bird's eye view on the racing track and can use different abilities to prevent the drivers from reaching their goal. The drivers on the other hand have a first-person cockpit perspective from inside their cars and have to dodge anything that the god-player throws at them.
The game world solely consists of the race track. There won't be any additional environment. The track will be delimited on both sides by some kind of cliff, that the racers can fall off if they stray too far from the track. The overall artstyle of the game will be non-photorealistic, aiming for a more cartoony/toon-shaded style. Long term motivation and replayability are achieved by upgrades to vehicles and god-abilities.
The goal of the game obviously differs depending on which role you take on. The drivers will win the game if at least one of them makes it to the end of the track in one piece and on time. The god-player on the other hand will win if he can successfully prevent all drivers from reaching the goal.
Project Notebook (State: Final Release)
Link of the final version and source:
8 Kommentare
Unbekannter Benutzer (ga47xiy) sagt:
Both the assymetric gameplay and the construction kit are very strong aspects of the game. Most people will go for the first one, but i will go with the second because it happens that i also work on a mario kart clone and i am responsible for the levels . If you manage to achieve this you will have a very powerful tool in your hands that will allow you to create a variety of different tracks in an easy and fun way.
There is nothing i really dislike about this game, if you guys manage to achieve what you are set out to do i am sure this will turn into a great game. The only thing i would like to also see is split screen support, where "god" uses a mouse/keyboard and the player a controller. It just feels like thins kind of game.
I know there were only examples in the presentation, but i would like to see a larger amount of skills to make both the god's and player's experience more fun. Also when it comes to god, a small delay from casting the skill and it actually having an impact on the player would be suggested, so that there is some skill involved.
Unbekannter Benutzer (ga46yaj) sagt:
My favorite aspect of your game is the fact that there is one role (god player) that's only purpose is to mess with the other players. In a racing game it's always great fun for me to just annoy and try to run other people off the track (e.g Burnout or Flatout games) and getting a dedicated role for that with certain abilities will be great.
For this type of game (especially in a competitive sense) it will be very difficult to find a good balance between both roles. Even if there is only one ability of the god player that's "overpowered" it can destroy the fun for all the racing players.
I would also give the racing players some abilities and not only random pickups with small bonuses. These abilities could be "invisibility for x seconds", "can drive through one obstacle", "disable the god players abilities". This way they have more possibilities to counteract the actions of the god player. You could even give the racing players some abilities that mess with other racing players, since the goal of the game is not only to survive, but also to be the first to finish (e.g. Mario Kart).
Unbekannter Benutzer (ga67got) sagt:
I really like the strategic aspect of the god player. Since the driver(s) must react fast to their changing environment a good god player could anticipate the reaction and lay traps.
The game idea document describes drivers vs a god player. While I really like this idea, I think it only really works if the god player has to fight multiple drivers (comparison to tower defense). However, during your presentation I picked up that you only plan on implementing one driver vs one god. If this holds true, I dislike this limitation.
Which single change or addition would you suggest to most improve the game?
I think that adding even a really simple driver bot to game would be a great addition. I am aware that you already thought about that. However, my proposal is that you greatly increase its priority: start implementing during the Functional Minimum or Low Target (e.g. swap the priority of online multiplayer with the implementation of a bot).
Reason:
In my opinion, your unique idea is the god player. Without a bot driver testing, bug fixing and polishing the abilities of the god is impossible for one person. From my experience, this will hinder the production process greatly. Additionally, this enables multiple drivers without the need to implement an online mode.
Unbekannter Benutzer (ga42ley) sagt:
I liked the idea of having a god player (the concept of Asymmetric Multiplayer) because it make the game more interesting in terms of gameplay, now the game tackles two different skills one is strategic the other is motor reflexes and coordination. Which will lead to a bigger targeting population. in addition to that I liked the idea of dynamic track construction/destruction.
Maybe the split screen feature, I feel like it is very distracting especially that one of the screens is very dynamic and the other is a static map view. I know that this is the fastest way to test the idea.
Multiplayer over network. And in case if it is over network, make 2 God players: One is on the racing team and the other is original one introduced in the proposal. The gods are fighting each other, one is destroying the track and putting obstacles the other is trying to fix and make the racing cars arrive safely.
Unbekannter Benutzer (ga34rul) sagt:
I really like the idea of the God. Because it surely makes fun to have the point of view of a God and
be able to impede the player with several possibilities.
2. What is your least favorite aspect? Why?
It would be nice if one also be able to play alone, so I don't like the idea of a "forced" multiplayergame.
3. Which single change or addition would you suggest to most improve the game?
One improvement proposal would be to implement an AI to play with. Some other suggestions
would be to put as much distinguishable skills for the God as it's possible. The meaner the God can
be the more it gets exciting.
Perhaps the other direction could be interesting too, where the runway is broken at the beginning
and the God needs to help the player to get to the goal.
Unbekannter Benutzer (ga58xed) sagt:
I terribly like this idea, reminded me of the Mario Kart in Nintendo but with the addition of the God player. I am a huge fan of non photorealistic style so this already made me excited and cannot wait to see the final results. The assymetric style makes it special, the God against the player makes it interesting and the non-photorealistic design make it beautiful and creative! Go for it!
In the Game Proposal and after the question round, I cannot really say that I found flaws in the ideas presented. There is much work to be done so it will look as imagined but I think the results will be very good. The only thing I can mention is the use of the screen in the gameplay, it may be a bit annowing and I cannot imagine this along with the God player, I think this can be messy if not designed well. Also, depends on the initial design to define what the God can do and how it affects the game because the difficulty can increase a lot and distract the player or demotivate him. But the first thing with screen can be easily tested and configured and the second is up to how the game will be set up so with few good ideas it will be great!!!
Maybe difficulty levels that can increase the interest or motivate average players
Unbekannter Benutzer (ga42yek) sagt:
That one player gets to play a different role than all the others (god). On the other hand, there are driver players who will be motivated to outsmart the god player and reach the finish of the race safely. I have played Evolve, which has very similar core concept, and if the idea is implemented correctly, this will be a very entertaining game.
Single player should really be an option. Some simple AI for bot drivers maybe.
Finding the right balance will be hard. Tuning "god" player's capabilities (what powers/their cooldowns/restrictions) is crucial, so that that player is not overpowered and it doesn't become only fun for that player.
My suggestion would be to change "god" player's view from 2D bird's eye top-down view to 3D, like a floating camera over the map (like any RTS strategy?)
Unbekannter Benutzer (ga34mek) sagt:
What is your favorite aspect of the proposed game? Why?
I like the aspect of the god the most, because of the asymmetric gameplay you have interesting matchups. And also because you can play the game strategically or action-based, depending which side you are playing.
What is your least favorite aspect? Why?
I don´t like the forced cockpit view very much, because the player doesn´t have a good overview of the road. Also he can because of that maybe not see the attacks of the god in time to dogde it.
Which single change or addition would you suggest to most improve the game?
I think it´s really important to have a wide variety of skillsets/items for the god and the players, because if you only have destruction/damaging skills for the god and only protection items for the players then it could get boring very fast.