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Offroad Racing Game Template


Josh

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I'm putting together ideas for a racing game template to add to Leadwerks. We already support vehicles. The challenge is to put together that looks and feels slick and professional, like a real game people want to play. The finished demo will be submitted to Greenlight, GameJolt, IndieDB, itch.io, etc.

 

Gameplay

First, I wanted to think about what style of racing I want this to be. I don't want street racing because it's kind of boring, and the level design is more involved. I don't want spintires-style technical offroading because it's too specialized. I want some fun medium-paced 4x4 racing like in

, but modern.

 

 

This single-player game will pit you against seven computer-controlled components. You win by coming in the top three places. A time-trial option will allow you to compare your scores to other players via Steam leaderboards.

 

The HUD will display a speedometer, your place in the race, current lap, and total and current lap time.

 

Cars will be 4x4 trucks, identical except with a different texture.

 

The player can turn headlights on and off, honk their horn, and drive. The transmission will always be automatic.

 

Pressing the C key will alternate between views, including 3rd person, 3rd person further away, first-person (in-car), and a free third person camera that doesn't rotate with the car.

 

Checkpoints will be placed throughout the level, with a sound when you pass through.

 

After the race is complete, a replay will be performed from data recorded during the race, and scores will be shown on the screen.

 

Environment

I want the environment to be scrubby arid desert with big dramatic crags in the background.

 

blogentry-1-0-45081600-1481656131_thumb.jpg

 

Roads will be painted on with a dirt texture, and decals will be used to add tire tracks sporadically. Decals will fade out at a fairly close distance, as I plan on having lots of them in the map.

 

The game will allow you to set the time of day and weather. I have not decided if the weather and time of day will change as the race progresses. Time of day includes night, morning, afternoon, and evening.

 

Weather can also be set, with options for sunny, rainy, and snowy. Snow will use a post-processing effect to add snow on all upwards-facing surfaces. Tire grip will be reduced in snowy and rainy conditions.

 

The vehicles will throw up a cloud of dirt, mud, water, or other material, based on the primary texture of the terrain where they are contacting. Dirt, water, raindrops, ice, snow, and other effects will hit the camera and remain for a moment before fading.

 

Screen-space reflection will be showcased heavily on the vehicle bodies.

 

One song will play for the menu and one for the race. The song will sound something like this at 0:44 because it sounds modern:

 

Or maybe this:

 

Scope Limits

  • The game is single-player only.
  • I'm not going to bother with changes to the terrain or vehicles leaving tread marks.
  • There will be no arms visible when the camera is inside the car.
  • The environment will be static. There will be no destruction of the environment, and no moving objects or physically interactive items except for the cars.
  • I am not going to implement an overhead map.
  • I am not going to implement vehicle damage.
  • Other than finishing the game GUI, I do not want to implement any new features in Leadwerks to complete this.
  • The game will not attempt to be realistic or follow any real-world racing events.
  • The race will not portray an audience or people standing around.
  • No weapons.

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Why not do something like making it so the default Leadwerks templates are open source so the community can contribute to them? Of course, changes would still require your approval.

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Why not do something like making it so the default Leadwerks templates are open source so the community can contribute to them? Of course, changes would still require your approval.

 

 

I assume since this is a template it'll show up like the fps template when we make a new project so we can modify all we want. If someone wants to make it a more formal community project they can do that then.

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This is a great idea! Other contemporary game engines boast their vehicle implementation and I'm glad to see Leadwerks will too. I think it'd be great to have a vehicle construction tutorial tie in for this as well.

 

As for the music I'd recommend the Dubstep or Rock since that's more inline with the chaos of off-road racing. Trancey-shmancy music is more street racer IMO.

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I think people are expressing an interest in participating because I just put out a complete and precise description of a game. When you write your ideas down it will bring issues to the forefront that you had not thought of. It is okay to make changes, but if you actually write things down it forces you to make decisions. I had not thought of the time trial option until I wrote this blog. I did not think about whether headlights should start turned on during the night until I wrote this all down.

 

This is why a game design document is good, not because it is a final unalterable specification, but because it organizes your ideas and draws a limit on what you're not going to bother with.

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Quote

 

This single-player game will pit you against seven computer-controlled components. You win by coming in the top three places.

 

 

 

That's interesting, Josh did you think at that time about how to build the car AI opponents ?

There are so much games having a great car AI. With the Spline tools it is possible to simulate something but without ??? 

How to make a computer-controlled car follow a road ?

 

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