Through the Lens: Video Games - Game Design Theory - page 112

series). Considering perspective should be a fundamental thing, and not
an afterthought. Nothing should be taken for granted in game design.

Racing Games

Examples: Gran Turismo , Super Mario Kart , F-Zero , Excitebike

So-called racing games are in large part contests. For the most part, all
players are making exactly the same decisions in each part of a course,
and those who excel do so largely because of memorization and execu-
tion. The more these games are purely about racing, the closer they are to
contests. Even in pure racing games, however, there are definitely some
ambiguous decisions to make in terms of what the other racers are going
to do. Since you and other racers cannot occupy the same space at the
same time, you'll sometimes have to fake out other racers or try to pre-
dict what they'll do in order to get ahead of them (or to stop them from
getting ahead of you). Other than that, there's not much room in pure
racers for ambiguous decision making, which is why they fall largely into
the category of contests.
As with some other genres, we have a primary spectrum in rac-
ing games between the literal, simulation-like racing systems like Gran
Turismo and more abstract systems like R. C. Pro-Am . Many games
fall somewhere in between, such as F-Zero or Excitebike . Much of my
criticism of racers is similar to what I said earlier in this chapter about
sports games, and anyone designing a racing game should review that
section.

A Course with Choices?
Many racing titles have shortcuts—secret, hidden, or simply hard-to-
get-to routes—which are usually the best way to go. The only reason
players would not take them is if they felt they might mess it up, so it's
too much of a risk. You might think that choosing between the longer
route and the shortcut is an ambiguous decision, but it isn't. The opti-
mal move is taking the shortcut. There may be some ambiguity about
whether to try it at the beginning of the race, but the decision is fairly
cut-and-dried, and before long, you'll be trying to take the shortcut
every time.
Instead, consider having different routes with distinct advantages
and disadvantages in your design. Maybe one is longer, but gives the
player an item. Maybe one is much shorter, but causes damage to your
vehicle. Those kinds of choices make racing a lot more interesting.