Week 2
Monday, we proposed our idea of the Mario Kart theme which as quick as it was thought of, it got shot down just as fast. It lacked originality. As much as we were quite stumped now that our idea wasn't available it gave us the greatest insight and push into creating a game we would all be proud of (at this stage we didn't quite know that of course!).
After struggling with flu Monday I was bed ridden Tuesday. I had to be updated with the group’s progress through email. Unfortunately this meant I missed a lot of work and play-testing but was still up-to-date.
We were all still persistent on keeping the idea of the racing game. We considered other ideas but people still came back with a majority vote on a race! To make the game more original we decided to eliminate the use of dice. A lot of board games rely on movement around the board with a chance roll of a certain number from the die. We wanted our players to use a more tactical and skilful approach to the game. Then again, that is what racing is all about after all.
After some careful thought we came up with the idea of each player using three different attributes. Speed, Cornering and Damage. This is what the player would use to navigate the board but they would be given the allowance of adding a selected amount of points to whichever attributes they choose. That's where the tactical thinking comes into play.
The board itself we wanted to be completely original also, so we decided upon a board that wasn't already pre-set. It would allow each game you play to look different, turn out differently and require different skills.
During this time I and a couple of others were set the task of themes and characters. While a few focused on the technical mechanics, the others focused on the aesthetics. Epic brainstorming commenced. We wanted a racing game but we wanted it to have lots of things that made it stand out.
I went through a variety of themes that could be a possibility, for example;
The board itself we wanted to be completely original also, so we decided upon a board that wasn't already pre-set. It would allow each game you play to look different, turn out differently and require different skills.
During this time I and a couple of others were set the task of themes and characters. While a few focused on the technical mechanics, the others focused on the aesthetics. Epic brainstorming commenced. We wanted a racing game but we wanted it to have lots of things that made it stand out.
I went through a variety of themes that could be a possibility, for example;
· Rally - Gumball Rally/X-Country Rally Driving,
· Sport Racing - Oval Racing, Formula 1.
· Boy Racers,
· Bank robbery,
· Police chase.
After a discussion on the positive and negative points on each different theme, the boy racer idea came up trumps. This gave us the chance to create some mad looking characters and also allow the environment they race in to be, well anything we wanted. We did eventually decide on an urban theme from a majority vote where the racers would be racing through a city landscape. This is where the idea of an unpredictable track came into action, where as you progress the next bit of track you discover could be a corner, a straight or a part of road with damage on just like it would be if you were speeding through a major city you didn't know.
The following day we had created our first prototype that we could play-test and start picking and poking with the mechanics. Thankfully I was there for this. Four members of the group played the first prototype while the rest observed and took notes on what was going well and what needed to be adjusted or scrapped completely.
My immediate thought when I think racing and city environments was a couple of films; 'Death Race', 'Tokyo Drift' etc. Both filled with 'hot' girls, big cars and so on. 'Death Race' also tied in well with our later development idea of sabotage during the game. The board game 'Zombies' had event cards in which these were randomly picked by each player. These would aid them, stunt them, stunt someone else or affect all players in a positive or negative way.
My first character idea was a woman, sexy and sleek. She didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted her too first try but that’s the case in most scenarios.
This is the first iteration.
