Motor Racing's World Championship

Working title

Motor Racing’s World Championship

Interesting Concept statement

As a motor racing driver, there is an unspoken mentality that YOU are the best driver in the world! You must be able to achieve full control of the vehicle ultimately ‘become at one’ with the car. After you master the car’s strengths and weaknesses, you adjust your skills to advance your position into the coming race. Your competition believe they are World Championship material too. However, when it’s ‘lights out’ all skills and practice come down to the final race. It’s a matter of how badly you want it. The winner takes all.

Genre

Motor racing – as an interest of mine, motor racing is a fun and competitive game that can be played individually or as multiplayer. It is an easy to adapt concept that doesn’t need a detailed explanation. You can just start playing and pick up features as you go.  

Concept creation process

A simple racing game that takes an element of subtractive design to beat AI competitors. Although challenged by maintaining focus and refined motor skills, the player is often at an advantage. In terms of calculating the best ways to take on corners and overtaking (attacking) other competitors, a strategist mindset would be advantageous. To clarify the level of competitiveness, AI opponents will default to an increase of velocity however that will increase their chances of collision. Like real life instances, a motor vehicle collision will result in retiring the car. This will apply to all participants. Ultimately, races are fast paced, but to win, the less chance of errors, the better.  

It is well understood that my development skills are not capable to manage complex code and multiple features. I am currently engaging in basic C# syntax to strengthen foundations. Any coding beyond foundation work is currently a challenge and to work with my strengths, I will maintain simplicity in the development of my game. 

Motor Racing World Championship is inspired by world-renowned Formula 1. It depicts motor car racing in its peak competitiveness to achieve a high level of popularity. The view of the game would be from a birds-eye-view perspective. Using a similar concept to “Invaderoids,” the car will pivot around the course using keys ‘w’, ‘s’, ‘a’ and ‘d’.  The keys are to accelerate, break and pivot around the track. The aim is to beat the other competitors as well as avoiding obstacles that may put the player at risk of crashing. AI would be incorporated into the other competitors. The AI competitors will follow a tracking pathway.

Audience and competitive analysis

Who is the audience?

The audience this game is targeted to are gamers that are into motor racing. To compare, the association with Formula 1 opens fans to the opportunity to race their adored heroes and proposes a thrilling backstory for the player. There is no gender specific audience as motor racing has a female fan base of 40% collected in 2022 (Adgate, 2024).  In addition, it is aimed for beginner gamers as there is little technicality involved.

How is it similar/different to other titles?

Compared to other motor racing titles, Motor Racing’s World Championship has a minimalist concept so players can start and stop at their convenience. It is a fun and amateur way to race your favourite drivers. It is completely different to typical Formula 1 racing games with their high-quality game specifications and custom controls to feel like you’re really in a Formula 1 car. The twist, none of those would be available in this game which is appropriate for entry level skill and understanding. 

Game treatment

Ideally, the game would be set on a mock track. It would be scaled to a much smaller size not in proportion to the car. In this case, the Monaco track  the game will initate on. The background would ideally be a birds-eye-view of the Monaco track however after some research, a satelite bird’s-eye-view doesn’t appear to be visually enticing to play the game. There are a lot of dimensions going on and a mixture of of beige and black colours that aren’t  appealing to the glamour and luxury look that Monaco City entails. Alternatively, the use of multiple sprites to cultivate the Monaco tack would be used as a background.

Ideally, the track would be accessible to the player using a one-way system. The number of laps to complete would be dramatically shorter than real-life racing, down to 5 laps to maintain interest.

It would be interesting for future developments of the game to incorporate different elements that affect overall performance in a race. For example, as races are typically 2-4 weeks apart, the down time could activate a training function to improve “endurance” and a “party” function to improve sponsorship relations. Unfortunately, this is not my level of games development, and I will sure keep to my ability.

Race track

The race track itself would be outlined by rigidbody2d/box colliders/sprites to simulate damage to the walls if collided.

Scoreboards

There would be 2x scoreboards available. One for fastest lap and one for overall race. At this time, the scoreboards would only be cached for the current play. When exited, the scoreboards will be reset. If gaming development skills improve, then potentially saved scores can be set.

Menu

The menu scene will be simple and easy to navigate. In the early stages, there will only be 3x options to the menu – Play, High Scores and How to Play. ‘Play’ will simply initialise the game. ‘High Scores’ will offer a decscending order of highest score to lowest score based from the current game play. The ‘How to Play’ option of the menu will output a ‘How to’ guide on the practical procedures of the game. A ‘Back to Menu’ option will be available to return to the menu to explore other options.

Concept Art

Compiled by Canva, here is the concept art of Motor Racing’s World Championship. Ideally, a bright colour palette to induce the psyche of the player (Cieslak, 2022). “The use of colour is much more simpler and more effective because humans learn about the world much faster through color than other features of objects” (Cieslak, 2022). I have chosen to incorporate a light blue car to disassociate from brandings at the current time. Written in a Try Evidence article, Cieslak (2022) explains that between the opposing colours of red and blue, red is marginally more popular for it’s association with “attacking” and other stimulating properties. On the other hand, a blue player is typically sought for creative purposes such as puzzle game solutions. Ideally, red would be the preferred colour for the player however, a red motor car is also associated with the exisiting “Ferrari” brand. As previously mentioned, a side-step from brand association is preferred.

The faces of current drivers was aimed to create a mockery of low resolution GUI that would align to the simplicity of the game. In essence, it is just a basic 2D motor racing game however the popularity of Formula 1 drivers’ would entice a crowd to participate to compete against their heroes because each driver comes with a known set of skills and personalities.

The current background of crumpled paper is put simply, an edgy, blank vision. As mentioned earlier, multiple sprites are hoped to depict Monaco City from a bird’s-eye-view. The map of the track was found online and the number of turns with names are kept if needed for future reference.

The golden trophy simply is an addition to the goal of this game. If the player wins the race, the trophy would be rightfully celebrated by the player.

Race track

The race track will essentially be the background with assets layered over the top. Ideally a grey base colour to represent asphalt, pale yellow for land and blue for water. See below:

Scoreboards

Menu

How to Play