Need some help in creating a new rally experience

[MartinWhite]

Hi,

I’m Martin White and I’m from a team of game developers. We are creating a new rally game and would like to know what are the things that disturb you the most in nowadays racing games and what kind of games would you like to see in the future.
We could then take that information under consideration and use it to create something, people actually want and like.

I can say that the game will be online and we are also trying to make it as social as possible.

I hope you have some thoughts to share

Martin

[Flexibase]

Thanks, Martin - I am pleased that you asked. I expect, and hope, that you will receive many similar replies from this forum, but here are some of my views.

My views may be better understood from my background as a retired police officer with experience on traffic patrol dealing with many serious and fatal road collisions. I have been giving advanced driving guidance and instruction both as a volunteer for 20 years, and as a professional for 16 years.

My very limited experience of driving games has left me horrified at the ease with which crashes occur with no realistic penalty, i.e driving can be continued, without at least starting again.

Here are some suggestions. I will be pleased to hear if they are already in use, and I am sure there will be many others.
Aim to keep driving games fun to play, but with a realistic road safety outcome and therefore message.
Make acceleration, steering, stopping and following distances more realistic.
Make excess speed and lack of balance (i.e. steady power) on bends have skid or road leaving consequences.
Include hazards from other people - pedestrians, cyclists, motoryclists and drivers - to give sense of avoidable crashes.
Minor crash: delay when exchanging details
Moderate crash: longer delay whilst giving statement to police and attending garage for repair requiring payment and insurance increase. Game penalties and start again
Serious crash: Car write-off - delay whilst in hospital, statement to police, cost of new car, summons to Court, penalties etc. More game penalties and start again
Fatal Crash: as at serious above, plus imprisonment if found guilty. More game penalties and only able to start again - after at least 24 hours!

[MartinWhite]

Thanks for these great ideas. I wrote all of them up and are now considering them along with all the other ideas. We are trying to find a niche for our game that no other games have and realistic driving and dying when you drive too recklessly could be one of those niches. It also makes players understand the real risks about traffic in real world.

Again thanks and if you or some other forum members have some other thoughts or ideas then please do share.

Martin

[ScoobyChris]

I quite enjoy gaming (although I'm not especially good at them) and quite like the "escapism" they offer and so for me, having realistic punishments for "driving dangerously" would be a turn off. Perhaps I am in the minority in being able to distinguish between fantasy and reality

Some ideas from me....

a) ability to pick it up and play it without having to master lots of controls (arcade mode?)
b) a game that immerses you in the action but also gives you a realistic prospect of making up time after a small off, especially for longer races/stages, perhaps with different levels of difficulty
c) decent car dynamics so that the car behaves as you'd expect and also damage so that you can't just bounce off the scenery to get a good time
d) realistic changes in surfaces
e) other vehicles on the stage (slower and faster)
f) championship-style mode where you can progress from a rookie up through the ranks
g) a good selection of "ordinary" cars available in addition to the usual rally ones. It's always fun to drive your own car in a game

Chris

[MartinWhite]

Hi

Sorry I couldn't write you sooner, we've been really busy.

We run into some problems turning our originally planned game into a fully 3D simulatior and also did a fair bit of market research to find what works most at nowadays racing games.

I can't thank you enough for all the information you have given me. All of it is in our database and we are going to use it in the future to update our game to full 3D.

At this point our game will be partly 3D and partly "GTA style". And it will be a street rally game at first. We will also concentrate on the social factor hoping that it will be one of the nieches. I'll soon be able to show you the beta testing version.

I hope that you're not dissapointed by these news and I hope that I am still connected to this community when we start modifiying it further to realize all of the suggestions given by you.

We have opened the beta testing of our current game... if you have time then feel free to try it out and I'd be really greateful for any kind of feedback.

Game itself is here: http://apps.facebook.com/streetdev/

Cheers,

Martin White

[daz6215]

(1) put speed cameras on the roadside that catch speeding cars, then show the picture, 2 strikes and your out! you drive with L plates on
(2) have an off road training area (skid pan etc) that if completed gives the driver more skill
(3) Above all, dont make it too realistic, the best one's ive played are not GT 5 etc, they are the fun games you can pick up and play straight away!