Critical Analysis: Pirate Racing

Pirate Racing

Our proof of concept is a pirate racing game. The player is in control of the their prate ship racing against opposing player which are AI controlled. They have to manuever through the map dodging hazards and obstacles that stand in their way. To make things more interesting, the player has to be aware of the wind. The wind plays a key factor in our game. The winds blow from the north and from the south. So we have mechanic where you as the player control your sails. Using UI and particle effects to indicate the change in direction the player must drop their sails if the wind is coming at them and put them up if the wind is coming from behind. If the player does't put down the sails there will be a speed penalty allowing other player to surpass them. During the race they will come across cannon pickups which will give them projectiles to shoot at opposing players. The projectiles do not harm or kill the opposing players, they slow the opposing player(s) to slow down allowing the player to pull ahead. At the end of the of the map they will reach the finish line and will placed accordingly. 

I think the strong points of this game were the wind/sails mechanic as well fluidity of the boat in the water. 

The wind and the sails mechanic was a really innovative idea that our group came up with. because its a very realistic aspect of sailing that determines your speed and direction. I think we tweaked it so that it was fun and brought a timing aspect into our game to keep players engaged so that they do not fall behind. I think its also another take on racing games which is a breath of fresh air because I find racing games to be repetitive and boring because of just holding down one button. Now with this timing aspect of putting up and down the sails to maximise speed keeps players engaged and wanting to make sure they are hit every wind change to give them the edge on the other player. 

The other strong point of our game is fluidity of the water and how the boat moves within the water. Vivek did a helluva job on the water and the boat movement. He used some really complex coding that involved the meshes of the objects to simulate the water and how objects interact with the water. It really sets the feel of the game and makes you feel like you are controlling a boat in a sense. The motion of the water and the boat is very pleasing to the eye. Very well done.  

So our original idea for our racing game was to create a maze racing game. It required the player to race to the end of the maze before the "beast" could catch up with you and kill you. With a lot of talk and brainstorming we put this idea aside because although it seemed like fun the team felt like it was lacking in mechanic and novelty. We then eventually came up with the idea of a boat racing game that used real physics such as wind, water current, sails, rudder, etc. This seemed like a sound idea because it incorporated all different mechanics that we thought would be cool to explore and utilise.

As we began to talk more and more we realised that we biting off more than we could chew. So we decided to only incorporate the wind, water, and sails. From there we wanted to make it so that it was a multiplayer game. We were all for our game being multiplayer. Then we got onto the the pirate subject and then a whole lot of what if's started to come about. So from this we wanted to incorporate cannons into our game to get the pirate aesthetic. 

From there we divided up the the roles and went our own ways. The next meeting we completely revised our idea from using real physics to a user friendly game that only required the player to change their sails from up and down when the wind changed. The reason why we did this was it was way too janky and realistic which made the game not at all. We were all for this because it made for a better racing game. So we focused on the the main movement of the player and the how we would incorporate the camera to fit for the multiplayer gameplay. 

This also was changed. We found it too complicated to do split-screen and change the camera at the same time for 2 players. So we then decided to just use basic AI for our proof of concept and to focus on just one player. 

So we ended up with a single player pirate racing game which proved to be a lot of fun and balanced. 

I'm very happy with how our final proof of concept turned out. It is a lot of fun and i feel like its a novel racing game which incorporates a type of timing mini game within the racing aspect. This in turn forces the player to focus on the gameplay so that they perfectly time the sail switch so they can get the edge on their opponents. Like I stated before, I also think the fluidity of the water and the boat really gives the game a great feel which immerses the player further giving the game a better feel and gives the player a better playing experience. 

I think our game was a success. We do what we initially set out to do accomplish. Which in hind sight was a rally good thing because we kept revising our initial idea and questioning it and we were able to come up with this great racing game.