For my final major project I intend to produce a proposal document defining my goals, outlining the user experience, project content, project structure, visual designs including sketches, screen mock-ups and a prototype.
The game I intend to design is of the racing genre with one of the key elements being an alternating vehicle structure based on the current geography and environmental influences of the race course.
To elaborate, the race course will not be comprised of only road circuits but will also include much more unusual terrain such as rugged mountainous areas, lakes, canyons and similar. The vehicle would be able to switch automatically or manually to a more suitable form upon reaching each of these unusual terrains.
All vehicle forms will be available to be upgraded and upon reaching certain levels a visual upgrade will also take place changing the appearance of that individual form. Upgrading one form of a vehicle does not improve the other forms so it is important to balance your vehicle.
An example of how a race could happen, the player may be driving a car along a road, but as the road terminates and meets a vast expanse of water it will transform into a boat during a cinematic scene. Once the transformation is complete the race continues with all the participants now in the form of various watercrafts.
During this phase the physics of the vehicle will be significantly changed as obviously a boat on water is not subject to the same laws of friction, air resistance and acceleration as a car on the road.
Upon reaching the edge of the lake and coming to a waterfall the waterborne vehicles will race straight over the edge and undertake another cinematic transformation as they become airborne.
Once the transformation is complete the race continues with all the participants now flying aircraft. Again a massive change in the physics will be needed at this point as the fundamental requirements of flight make it significantly different to either of the previous forms.
During the flying stage there will be a new dimension added to the race as players are now able to accelerate and decelerate as before, and turn to the right and left, however they are now also able to fly higher or lower, meaning that consideration must be given to how we can prevent players from cutting huge corners at these points.
The logical conclusion to this is the inclusion checkpoints, requiring the player to pass through a significant enough number of checkpoints to ensure that the full course is completed.
As the aircraft follow the river flowing from the waterfall they are forced to remain within the walls of the canyon that the river inhabits. As the river flows underground and the canyon comes to a swift end the aircraft are forced to undertake yet another transformation before they reach the end.
Instead of explosions and devastation a series of off-road vehicles land smoothly on the gravel at the base of the canyon and begin the rough ascent to the top. Once the top has been reached the vehicles return to their original form to complete the race.
This is only a very basic example of how a race may unfold; there are many more scenarios and other forms to be included. Additional forms will only be available in later races.
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