The core objective was to develop a game that infused an RPG karma system into a racing game, thereby giving it a duality between straight-laced “pro” racing and destructive “street”-racing. Gameplay videos are below, followed by some screenshots and the game design specifications.
This game is obviously inspired by Burnout; the karma system is inspired by Fallout's system (described in detail in Chapter 5, page 96 of Miguel Sicart's "Beyond Choices"), and I've used the big-daddy-littler-sister system from BioShock - but applied it to cars.
The complete game and source files can be downloaded by cloning this repository.
Here's a description of the mechanics I implemented. An Excel file is embedded below that contains the various iterations of said mechanics.
Basic Mechanics:
a. Racing
b. Nitrous system – a standard system that increases speed when a button is held down. It includes an FOV effect intended to make the car seem like it is going incredibly fast.
c. Position system – a list that shows who is leading the race and who is falling behind. Unfortunately, this could not be implemented well enough; it is quite faulty at the moment.
d. Look behind – simple camera to see who is approaching
e. Two types of opponents – strong, slow destructors and weak, fast racers
f. Shortcuts – fake walls that the player can pass through to take a shorter route through the track
Karma Mechanic: The karma itself is represented by a numerical value at the bottom right of the screen. Below zero is regarded as negative karma and above as positive; karma decreases and increases based on player action.
a. Following the Racing Line: The racing line is essentially the optimum path around the track; it is also used to indicate to the player if they are going too fast to make a turn. If the player stays more or less on the racing line while driving through the track, their karma increases. The intention for this is to motivate the player to manoeuvre around the track in the best way possible, thereby creating an arcade racing playstyle. Here, the reward is racing on track and the “punishment” is the game not being as fun as when you are ramming into other cars; there are no camera slow-pans that result from racing properly on the track.
b. Ramming Other Players: There are, of course, opponents on the track; there are two types, which we will get into shortly. Ramming them results in a “takedown” or being “taken out”; if your car was faster than theirs, it’s a “takedown” but if theirs was quicker, then you get “taken out”. Either results in a straight deduction of 10 karma. However, either outcome is shown with a panning, slow-motion camera effect. This was created with the intention to motivate the player to ram other players – apart from the fact that the karma reduces. The punishment is the karma reduction and the reward the camera slow-pan alongside the ramming in itself.
c. Dynamics: Each karma mode has its own dynamic. For instance, once the negative karma mode kicks in, the destructors all automatically follow the player until they take them out. Once positive karma mode kicks in, nitrous recharges ten times as fast as in negative karma mode. However, in negative karma mode, the player gets a bonus full nitrous bar for taking out any opponents. Unfortunately, all destructors become invulnerable in negative karma mode so the player has to target the racers to get that full boost.
d. Shortcuts: The game has shortcuts which open only in certain karma modes. There are negative and positive shortcuts, each demarcated with their own colour. These open up only in the negative and positive karma modes respectively. They are quicker paths through the map and the opponents use them too. Racers can only take positive karma paths and destructors are restricted to negative karma paths.
The Daddy-Sister Mechanic: This is one of the mechanics that are a fallout of the actions of the player. Essentially, each racer (in green) has a “Big Daddy” destructor assigned (in red) that will “protect” the racer by “taking revenge” on the player. The mechanic works in this manner: if the player rams into a racer and takes them down, a corresponding destructor will “plot revenge” and come after the player. This happens in the form of a line trace that extends outwards from the destructor on either side; if it hits the player, the player is turned upside down. When a destructor is seeking revenge, it also follows the player until the revenge has been exacted; this is intended to lead to some tension/excitement in gameplay – especially since the strong destructors cannot be taken out in negative karma mode.
Dynamic Environment and Music: This is a rather simple one – there are two music tracks based off the same beat: one for positive and one for negative karma mode. The music changes instantaneously as and when the mode changes. Apart from that, the environment changes from day to night when going into negative karma mode and vice versa for positive karma mode. The walls also change between green and red for positive and negative karma modes respectively.
Accessibility: A purely primary-colour scheme was used to make the karma modes easy to differentiate between – the opponents, wall, shortcut and map indicators are all either green or red; alongside that, audio feedback was given so that there are multiple ways of understanding which karma mode the player is in. While this is nowhere close to the best possible accessibility features that could go with this game, I mentioned these as I had them in mind during development; the implementation could have been a lot better, however.