I’m here to pitch my game proposal; this is for anyone that interested on making a game with me, gamers and people who can help. Criticism is welcomed.
The Immortal Racers (Still working on the Name) Proposal
Synopsis
A racing action game that is inspired by super meet boy, Powerstone, Mario kart, Naruto, prince of Persia, Jet set radio, sonic and road rash.
The Immortal Racers is a third person view fantasy racing action game, where racers from all around the world are competing to become the next immortal being. A racing game that combines both platforming skills and strategy.
Game play:
The player will have a variety of racers to choose from, the racers themselves will have different type of skills and spells, ranging from defensive skills, to offensive skills, and support skills.
There are three rules, 1. there are no large vehicles allow, such as cars, buses, tanks, and etc, only small ones like skateboards, roller skates, jet packs and etc are allowed. 2. Racers are able do whatever it takes to win. This includes, attacking, destroying the environment, setting traps and etc and 3. racers aren’t allowed to teleport or use teleporting devices. Two ways to win, defeating all your opponents or being first to cross the finish line. If it’s a time limit race, then the one that’s closes to the finish line wins.
Gems: Throughout the race tracks, racers can pick up gems, gems have a wide variety of uses, they can be use to heal the racer, to activate skills, and increase stats. Racers will need a certain amount of gems to activate skills and spells, gems can also be used to buy and upgrade equipment.
All racers have a heath bar, mana or rage or stamina bar (depending on the type), and at least 3 skills or spells.
Racer Skills:
All racers have jump, dash (ground and air), slide, basic attack, basic defend and use special skills and spells. All racers will have equipment according to their type.
There are six types of racers, offensive, Defensive, Speed, Technique, Special and all rounders.
Offensive(rage bar): Offensive racers are runners who specializing on attacking their opponents and knocking them off the race tracks, the only type that can do normal ranged attacks. Their weaknesses are Technique type racers. This type is designed more for people who like action games.
Technique (stamina bar): Technique racers are able to dodge, wall run/jump, slide, double dash, grind, and double jump, to reach the finish line, they also can dodge all basic attacks. Their weaknesses are defensive type racers. This type is designed for people who enjoy platforming.
Defensive (rage bar): Defensive racers are able to take on a lot of damage, can’t be thrown off race tracks by others, and can set traps . Their weakness is special type racers. This type is designed for people who like to use strategy.
Special(Mana bar): Special racers have twice the amount of special skills of other racers, hold the most gems and have all types of skills, a glass cannon. Their weaknesses are speed types. This type is designed for people who enjoy playing mages in RPGs.
Speed (Stamina bar): Speed racers are the fastest racers, but are easily knocked off race tracks and bumping into objects can dramatically slow them down, their weakness is offensive type racers. This type is designed for people who like racing games.
All rounders (1/3 of all bars): All rounders racers are the jack of all trades, they have no strengths or weaknesses, and this type is designed for beginners
Offense types will have weapons.
Defensive type will have armor or shields and traps.
Speed types will have small vehicles such as roller-blades, skateboards and etc.
Technique types will have gadgets that will enhance their skills.
Special types will have magical orbs that will enhance their spells and skills.
All rounders will be able to have all equipment but will be basic.
Race Tracks:
The race track will be balanced for all types of racers, each track will have multiple routes to pick, the player must choose wisely on which route to pick and picking the wrong route can make it harder for the player, the player can force other racers into the wrong route too. Some tracks will have a Hungry monster chasing after all the racers, and who ever is caught is eaten and will lose the race. Tracks will be filled with monsters, obstacles and traps. The track will be filled with gems, which also makes the players aggressively fight for the gems. The tracks will also have hidden items that can help the racer.
Strategy:
The player will have many choices while racing, for example, will you try catch up to first by running, or stop and collect gems to use a special skill to catch up. If your heath is low, will you use your gems to heal, or risk it and save up to buy upgrades? Should you save up gems to use your best skill, or use a bunch of low level skills? Can your racer take their opponent head on, or should you avoid the confrontation? And with different types comes with different strategies, for example, if you’re a defensive type, you will have to carefully set your traps, and which traps to pick and etc.
Art direction:
The style will be stylized and wacky, and rages from unrealistic to realistic characters and even parodies of famous character, for example, a racer who is a hopeless lover whose special skills are based on love, one of its skill will be falling in love with whoever is in first place, allowing it to catch up to him or her, or blowing a kiss as a ranged attack.
Racers will range from samurais, ninja, zombies, clowns, mutant boogers and etc anything is possible.
Tracks can be mundane or the racers can be swallowed by a giant monster, and race inside the monster and the racers must escape by exiting the anus.
So yeah that’s basically it, if this proposal gets enough interests, I will do a more detail proposal, adding game modes, single player modes, and multiplayer mode, and the story. Also here is some of my latest artwork; something to show you guys what I am cable of.
Artworks:(yeah I don’t do much illustration I been practicing more)
Thanks for Reading.
Thanks, that's some great
Thanks, that's some great advice, do you think it could work as a 2d sidescroller, also I don't know what I would cut, I like all the the features.
At the high level, the
At the high level, the concept is pretty sound - there's plenty you could do with a racing game with combat elements where the players aren't confined to vehicles. Making it a 2d sidescroller would reduce some of the complexity making it quite suitable for a little indi project too.
I think the abilities aspect is what needs the most refinement at this point. I think you'd be best to give each player a "ability" bar and then limit each class to a couple of abilities. Giving them too many options is likely to make it overly complicated when they're needing to negotiate the environment at high speed and watch out for other players trying to attack them too. If you still wanted to have a wide array of different abilities, perhaps players could make a selection before the beginning of a race.
Your art direction is something that really needs some development at this point. I think your concept art is quite good and shows a clearer direction than the "anything and everything" direction (or lack thereof) mentioned in the document. A tight, focused art direction will give you a much, much better result than picking bits and pieces from all over the place.
Looking at your concept art, you've got what appears to be a tengu - a demon who appears in the Japanese religion Shintoism. Now couple this with your race goal - that of attaining immortality and you have a potentially interesting direction. Maybe you've got an Asian inspired direction, or potentially more interesting, maybe you've got characters from different ancient mythologies - Shinto, Egyptian, Greek, Norse or whatever else all vying for the prize of becoming an immortal god. Now that's not necessarily in keeping with other aspects of your document - kitsune on skateboards and frost giants with jetpacks might be a bit of a clash (although it is kind of an amusing concept), but it's an example of a more focused direction. Think about what you really want your game to be about and go from there.
Hey some really good tips
Hey some really good tips there, and i really like the idea of players being able to select what abilities they want before racing, it adds a lot more strategy, and yes I will consider the art direction more, using mythological creatures would be cool.
Wow, that's a lot of info! I find that the best games keep a focus on 1 or 2 core features. We used to call them the 'pillars of gameplay'. These are the things that your game is going to do better than anyone else. It might be something like 'co-operative gameplay' or 'exploration' or anything really. When you are evaluating a potential feature for your game you should see if it is supported by one of your pillars. if it isn't, then it should be cut (or at least prioritised very low).
With your design above I can see that there are many ideas. It mixes a lot of styles and has an overwhelming number of options to the player. Racing games are often about precision, speed and control (forcing the player into making split second decisions), but you reference mario kart which is a lot more forgiving and is focused less on memorising the racing line and more on fun interactions and power ups.
Blending different styles can work, but it can be tough. Having many different features is also a sure-fire way to development hell. As a rule of thumb, always take your initial game design and cut it in half. After you have done that, cut it in half again. Even then you will probably have something that is too optimistic. By focusing on 1 or 2 core features and removing all else you will not only have a design that is achievable, but the game will be better for it.