Obstacle Design

Track obstacles

Today I designed some obstacles for my track, considering the early mind map to inspire me.

Column: The design didn’t really fit the colour scheme of the track too well, but then again this is what I had planned as the game is very fast paced so the obstacles need to stand out from the rest of the track, else the player will feel aggrieved if they do not notice it. Many games make use of using bright but out of place colours in map or track design, EA’s Mirrors Edge being the most obvious example.

As for the columns actual value and placement within the game, I would say that it is likely to be the most common form of barrier or pitfall the player could face in a track.

Hole: Designing the Hole was difficult and definitely had to be tailored purely for that track. This was because just a simple black square wouldn’t have sufficed as in other track designs it might look out of place. I was impressed with the final look of the hole, but again another issue had arisen, not from lack of specialisation to the track, but from it. I designed the hole from a certain perspective. As the cylinder is moved as are the track obstacles and there lies the problem. Should the cylinder move then surely the perspective is changed. This would be something that would have to be addressed in the design of the game (Solution: multiple ‘Hole’ designs varying on placement on the track. Or if the game is run using 3D graphics then perspective will undoubtedly fit as the 3D cylindrical model is moved).

Nevertheless the Hole demonstrated the game pitfall well enough for the concept and clearly conveys how it would look in game.

Energy Ball: The energy ball oddly enough was born through my design document construction. At the time I was constructing my ‘mind map’ page and was reading through all of the areas again. Then the item Tennis Ball was mentioned in Character design. This made me think about the attributes of the ball (first my idea was to have it as a bouncing object) but the  I considered how fast one can move when hit and combined that with my futuristic theme. From that the energy ball was born.

I was both happy with how the Energy ball looked and how it would potentially run in the game. As an object it is the easiest to see. But as it moves towards the player by itself on top of the players own movement it then poses both an obvious but quick threat to the player. It could be common or rare, likely depending on the track or story stage. Nevertheless even now I can see it tripping up many a player of the app (especially overconfident Shedders).

Propeller: the propeller would be the only game asset to potentially ‘hang’ on screen. When a player encounters it they first have to avoid its initial approach and then the subsequent cycle (s). This would add extra difficulty as if would force players onto a particular segment of track. While I wasn’t entirely happy with how the end result looked, it demonstrated the point well, and if I have time this is another game asset of which I would like to have a chance to create a second concept of.

Pipes: The pipes are yet another simple and common pitfall the player may face. There is one twist to them – in that they are not directly horizontal across screen but are more diagonal. This means that it forces the player not to move back to that same spot and can act as a measure to prevent ‘camping’ on one area of the track for too long.

In addition to the pitfalls, I also designed two positive track assets, Time trial clocks and Speed Pads. Both of these assets were born to add yet another possible level to the Time Trial mode. The clocks have three variants – gold, red and blue. The gold clocks are the rarest, and offer a large deduction from the players overall time. They will be placed in ‘difficult’ spots for players to get to, so there will be a risk’ reward element to play. The orange clocks are the opposite (easy to get to, common). By doing this more experienced players will push themselves to the limits to reach top times.

The reason I included speed pads was as oddly both a positive and a negative asset. Players who are moving slowly will welcome the boost in speed (and will likely improve their score). Players who are moving at insane speeds will hit the speed pads and reach the speed of their next ‘shed’ for a few moments. Players already fully shed can hit even higher speeds but this is at a great risk. I think it adds this nice level of almost oxymoronic value to the speed pads. On one hand, increased speed = great, on the other increased speed = objects come quicker at player. It was this kind of methodology that made the miscalculation cards in the board game project