Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
DRIVING SIMS
Organized racing simulations, like sports games, take their gameplay from the real
thing. The challenge is primarily to win races without crashing. This may be just as
complicated as real racing, including such details as refueling, managing the tires,
and compensating for the weather. Some games also include an economic element:
The player wins prize money for doing well in a race, and the prize money enables
her to buy better equipment. This produces positive feedback that must be counter-
acted to balance the game; as the player improves, her artificial opponents must
also improve to offer her a worthy challenge.
In more arcadelike driving games, the games often include other challenges such as
running other drivers off the road, gathering up collectibles or power-ups, weaving
through hoops or cones, shooting at enemies or dropping devices to delay them,
and so on.
Designing a vehicle simulation is primarily a matter of research and compromise.
Unless your game is a just-for-fun simulation such as
Super Mario Kart
or
Beetle
Adventure Racing!
, vehicle simulation is the most technologically oriented of games,
so the core mechanics of the game are almost entirely about physics. Much of the
entertainment value of accurate simulation games comes from the feeling of con-
trolling a real machine instead of meeting strategic challenges or taking part in a
story. To provide that value, you will need to research your vehicles thoroughly. If
you're designing a military vehicle, you can probably find much of what you need
from Jane's Information Group, publishers of such volumes as
Jane's All the World's
Aircraft
, and of course, from the vehicle's manufacturer. For automobiles, the vari-
ous enthusiast magazines offer all the data you could want.
The compromises occur when you start trying to control a simulated vehicle with a
computer or console machine's I/O devices, especially a large, complicated vehicle
such as a B-52 bomber. The kinds of compromises you make and the places they
take you will depend mostly on whether your target audience is the purist or the
casual player.
Designing Opponents
The easiest way to design a variety of opponents in a vehicle simulation is simply to
provide different drivers' vehicles with different performance characteristics. One
plane climbs slightly faster than another; one can turn more sharply. The player
will experience different challenges in dealing with each opponent based on its
design parameters. However, once the player figures it out, the opponent is easily
beaten. As soon as the player discovers that a Supermarine Spitfire can consistently
outrun a Messerschmitt Bf 109 in level flight, the situation offers an obvious strat-
egy for Spitfire pilots:
boom and zoom
(hitting and running away).
