[jimmy]

Ok - gameplay wise what would people like to see in:


Single player - offline. What sort of game style(s) would you like to see. If we aim for this to be mainly a multiplayer game then I think we still need single player mode. Quick jump in a game against AI? Race against the fastest times (laid down by us in testing) to get gold/silver/bronze or naff all on a particular track?


For multiplayer we thought the following:

Quick game - simple, go into a lobby and wait for X number of cars to enter - as soon as the minimum number are in someone could initiate the race or perhaps once people enter there's a 2 minute countdown to allow others to join? or....?

Achievement game - playing the game single player to put in fast times on a certain track would pit you against similarly fast people of your own level to battle it out for the win.
non-upgrade achievements and awards that show how damn fine you are could be awarded so anyone can see how many races you've won, milestones etc.

Car upgrades - no idea how to implement these. I mean you could win new cars / unlock them - but there wouldn't be any difference in handling or speed at all. Is this enough?

Starcraft - the best game out there ever - you play and you win consistently and you go up divisions such as diamond league. You never ever have an advantage - you have awards but in starcraft it's only ever skill that counts. You can drop divisions by either not playing for a while or doing badly / others doing better than you.


Classes - I think it's stupid to race different types of car against each other - saying that something akin to a Rough Rider would be the same pace as something super modern looking. But I mean - 2WD, 4WD, ep buggy - what other classes would people want. SC? 8th buggy?

Some racing games you don't have collision with other cars but i think this should - so you crash into someone there needs to be a penalty. It could be 50-50 both drivers mistake, or some other percent all the way to 100% one driver being a mentalist.
Perhaps it would be best to try keep collision detection to an unrealisticly small box so it's only when cars REALLY mix it up they pay the price. Either in lost momentum or lost time from marshalling.

Just so it's clear - we have 2 artists, 1 programmer and 1 more wanting to join plus a third wanting to help. We have a sound designer and 2 musicians to use. The most important thing for me is the feel of the car - I think it needs to be slower than realistic RC speed to be controlable but not too slow. It needs good physics and realistic air-time control. You should be able to drive into a corner hard and lock up the brakes for a tight line or throw it in sideways for a drift round - both need to feel right.

A game where you can drive an rc round just practicing the track and enjoying the feel of how it drives would be the ultimate goal. Then being able to race that car against others = winner of a game.


We discussed indoor/outdoor environments. I think something we don't want to do is have people in the game as it would be a much bigger job -I mean you get magic marshalled and there's no crowd round the edge of the track. But I'm sure our sound engineer can create some good mood cheering / ooohing & booing etc..... And then lastly there's commentary which would be nice to add - we'd need to do that last though - come up with every possible phrase or word that could possibly be used and get it recorded and edited by the sound designer.

Possibly in multiplayer each racer could hear their own commentary or the overall commentary about the leaders etc.

Track wise I think it best we make blank tracks and standard jumps that we can use to test layouts. I want a downslope to mean something - and a chassis-slapper to lose you a little drive.

More thoughts are welcome about oOple RC racing (no, we won't call it that haha)