Personal Project
Research for the kart game – Jay C.
Project description: Create a cart racer game using a new tool or programme you haven’t used before to help design the track or level and explain how you’ve changed the design of the track through multiple play tests.
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What is a “Kart-Game” ?
Kart games are a sub-genre of racing video games that feature mini-vehicles similar to cars, but with
uncovered frames and simplified driving mechanics. Kart games often have fictional characters as drivers, unusual
racetrack designs, obstacles, and vehicular combat. The Mario Kart series is the
most notable and popular example of kart games.
Where did kart racers originate?
The first kart racer was "Power Drift" which was a game made by SAGA in 1988 in which the player raced AI in karts in a 2.5D world. Mario Kart came after, boosting the genre of kart racers. Due to hardware issues, they stuck to using a Go-Karts theme and making the game much slower. Other games soon got their own versions of a Kart-Racing game such as: Crash Team Racing, Toy Story Racer and many TV Shows (Nicktooons, South Park, etc).
What is it that makes a kart-racer different to other games?
I had recently watched a video showing off the elements of karting games and what makes them so engaging - https://youtu.be/P8S176RmRJg?si=sSRRNJ0U9Ur9CUl2
This helps us get the understanding as to how many companies used different tools to create unique games for all audiences from kids to adults.
How are their levels crafted?
Another video I watched in which goes into detail about how levels have changed with each Mario game, from remakes to adding new obstacles, shortcuts and features such as upside-down track - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOeKp-FzlO8
Examples of Kart
Games:
The Mario Kart series is the most
notable and popular example of kart games. Some examples of kart games made for consoles include: Toy Story Racer, Diddy Kong Racing, Crash Team Racing, Team Sonic Racing and Mod Nation Racers. Some online examples includes: Bomb It
Kart Racer, Super Sprint Karts, Kart Racing, and Monkey Kart.
What makes these fun?
All of these games are simplified in both design and gameplay. All have easy mechanics, colourful characters and levels. This is made mainly for children, as shown by the light-hearted gameplay and props. They are also fun because they are made to be easy to pick up and play with no real issue.
What makes them different?
Each game has their own unique characters/themes.
Mario kart now features things such
as inverted tracks, remade maps and collaborations with other games and brands.
Monkey Kart was a
2D side-scroller featuring unique levels with a different twist.
Bomb It Kart Racer
is made to run on most browsers making it easy to access without needing to
download or own any other device.
Toy Story Racers features
a game mode called: Reverse Race in which you have to complete the race
backwards.
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What will my
game be about?
My game will be set in a supermarket, you
are a tiny toy shopping cart racing around aisles, groceries and items on the
floor. Your goal is to beat the other player in a simple lap-based race. My game
will take inspiration from games such as Mario-Kart WII’s coconut mall level
and games such as Toy Story Racers' theme. The main art style will be more on
the realistic level, but keeping to a somewhat stylised feel such as the
characters, props etc.
The things I am hoping will be added to my game include Items, LAN CO-OP, and customisation. These may be higher milestones, but I believe if I had the patience, I could make it happen.
How can I make
this happen?
I will dedicate a few days-week doing one thing and getting the main idea sorted. This will most likely start with the programming.
Prop ideas:
Sponsors (normally seen in racing) will be boxes on the floor. The crowd will sit upon the shelves and on the floor. The levels will include shortcuts, jumps and obstacles.
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Level sketches:
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| The original track sketch. |
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| Editing by adding obstacles and shortcuts. |
Play Board:
Theme Guide:
The colours must
be somewhat vibrant to keep with the style. So, I have chosen these to keep in
theme with the props.
Mood Boards:
This includes
things such as, level design, UI design, car design obstacles and characters.
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GDD:
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What still needs to be added to the game?Boosting/NITRO, Item Boxes, UI, SFX, Customisation system and Time Trial mode.
What do I need to add to levels?Decals, Niagra effects, Quixel components and polishing.
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Level - Test stage
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| Here is the test circuit I created to test blueprints out. |
It was created using a simple box and a spline track big enough to test what I need.
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| Testing the circuit out. -------------------------------- |
Level 1 - supermarket
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| Greyboxing to plan out the sizes. |
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| The sizes are set to be 50x bigger than the player to give the look of being small. |
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| Adding the shelves and beginning obstacles. |
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| A top view. |
Adding Lighting:
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Testing the flow of the level.
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| An updated aerial shot. |
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| Setting up railings. |
https://microstudio.io/gilles/racingtrackmaker/
Track Splines
I used track splines for the first to make the AI go around the track, this changed a few times due to setting up a system that would allow them to over take.
Also the track would often cause the player and AI to get stuck, I had t change the way it flowed, and how long the track was.
Hazards
This was the first project I used a physics material to cause the player to skid when driving over a puddle.
Also changed it to the player could crash into items to create shortcuts.
NOS was an issue when it came to the track design as not many paths were straight, I had to change the track layout slightly to allow players to boost properly.
Ramps
Ramps were an issue that was changed many times. If you see my original sketch compared to the final track layout, I had to change certain locations as the way I had it planned wouldn't have allowed players to properly cross the line.
Extra levels
I added extra levels for the planned time trial mode which I did not have time to finish. This along with the creation room was where the feel of the game broke for me as I had made the levels normal size. So to counter this, tracks like that were excluded from the main stage game: Supermarket.
After this, I kept to only making large scale levels for the player to fit the theme.
Tutorial level:
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Made this version night time and added props.
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Blueprints:
THIS WAS THE OLD CAMERA SETUP.
The second blueprint comment sets up the starting screen and its animations.
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Gamemode - Defining the rules set for the game.
Trackspline - Used for showing your progress on the map.
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| The image shown is the simple slider that was used. |
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| The top line of blueprint sets an image based upon the inputted picture and then sets it as the slider controller. The second line of blueprint gets and updates the position of the slider based on where the player is on the map. |
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| This shows us the setting up of the widget that will display the track progress bar. |
Here is a video of the slider updating as we move around the spline.
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The HUD will show the player the current number of needed checkpoints, the current lap time and your previous lap time and the number of laps completed and how many is left.  --------------------------------  --------------------------------   --------------------------------   Lap counter UI Here is a video of the timers working. -------------------------------- Colour Wheel for changing car colour  I began working on this colour wheel texture as I needed a way for the player to chose a custom colour to modify their vehicle. The way this is done is by get radial values and doing a bunch of maths to create 3 colour points and then merging them to create a full colour spectrum. Here is the colourwheel and slider UI. (Replaced later on) This is the code for the setting of the colour - outdated.  Again, more maths for setting up the sliders and setting their colour to match the wheel.  This function sets the saturation slider sing the current colour from the wheel.  And this code updates the wheels cursor location to match the sliders colour/saturation.  This code creates an radian to set the angle of the colour.  Here is the texture I created for the slider.  This is how I created the texture, using a lerp to get a gradient.   An outdated video of the colourwheel in action. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mission Blueprints Checkpoints - Captures the place of the player to keep them on track and from cutting corners.     The first line of blueprint casts the checkpoints to the player and UI and creates the events used to make the checkpoint work. The second line of blueprint checks if all checkpoints have been hit and if its less than of equal to the number required, it will not reset the checkpoints until you cross the start line again. The third blueprint checks if the lap has been complete and will make all checkpoint visible again and able to be hit. This will also reset the number required back to the needed amount. Here is a video of the checkpoint system working. (See bugglist for extra info). -------------------------------- Start line - Used for setting the game off. The lap timer and checkpoints will be reset once all requirements are hit and the player hits the finish line.   -------------------------------- Here is the UI for if you win   --------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The AI cars - Bots the player will be racing against in either a time trial, head to head of lap based race.  This is an image of the AI car.    The second line of blueprint is the speed limiter set up for the bot making it so it cant go over a certain speed along the spline. The third line of blueprint is the events for the collision boxes on the front of the car. One is to slow it down if it comes too close to another vehicle and the other is to tell it when to break if it is about to hit something.  The second line of blueprint is for if the vehicle flips onto its roof (same as the players, but doesn't have a manual input).           Here is a video of the AI auto flipping over. (disabled movement to show it clearly) Here is a video of the AI overtaking the player/AI.Here is a video of the AI breaking/reversing if it crashes. -------------------------------- Race Manager for AI  This branch checks if movement is enabled. If it is, they will move, if not then they will remain stationary until a countdown has ended.  This whole blueprint is to firstly create the widget and set the movement to disabled, once the countdown has ended (after 4 seconds), the movement will be re-enabled.  This function adds a dropper so you can select which cars are in the race and will add them to the event. -------------------------------- Flickering Light  -------------------------------- Adding headlights  I did this by adding 2 rect lights and changing a few settings.  -------------------------------- Setting up of the handbrake skid marks   I added the particles to the vehicles rear tyres.   Here is a video showing how it will display the effect only if the vehicle is over 20KPH -------------------------------- NOS System for the cars     Here is a video showing how the player will boost and gain speed if "Left Shift" is pressed.  The first comment is for toggling the NOS boost. This is done by simplify making sure the player has atleast 20 NOS left before they can use it again (to prevent spamming). This is sets up the niagra particle effect for the boost by activating and deactivating base on if the NOS has been pressed. This also plays the audio when you press down the key. The second comment is for the toggling of the NOS by getting the key input. The third comment is for the maths of the removing and adding the NOS to the NOS level which will update the bar.      Here is a video of the NOS bar filling and depleting. -------------------------------- Item Boxes    Here is the UI that will display your items.  Here are the 3 choices I set up for items in the mystery box. Item 1 will set your NOS to max Item 2 will make you rainbow coloured and then reset you after. Item 3 currently does nothing. The instance material can be edited to help with the rainbow effect. Changed the code so the player will return to a normal colour after 10 seconds.   Here is the colour in effect.  Here is the box spinning in game. Bugtests and issues resolved: An issue I found was when the player pressed F to flip their vehicle, you could spam it and use it to possibly cheat. I fixed this by adding a delay so it couldn't be spammed as fast. |
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Gameplay:
A final gameplay clip.
Final logging time ^
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