For my Racing game idea, I first sought ideas from the vehicle i was designing for 3-D class, my Cavalry Hell Camino.
I began to search for concepts on the internet and these were good refrences to the theme i had in mind:
Exposition:
My narrative takes place a few years after a modern day Hell-pacalypse. The world has fallen into pits of fire and ruins as corruption and greed fueled the return of the damned to the physical world. There is still hope in the human race, as we have sought shelter away from urban centers and found comfort in small refuges spread throughout the surviving forests and lakes. Even with peace, there is still an ever present need for supplies and the hell risers are the ones who seek to savor that need. They race and dodge through the shattered remains of our old cities in hopes of finding much needed supplies, and the hope to end this apocalypse once and for all.
Level Design:
After creating the narrative and playing with ideas and spending some
time researching playing racing games, i settled on this path:
The level follows an odd contorted path. It begins above ground on a broken highway cluttered with debris. After the race begins and the players learn movement control the world shakes and the highway collapses into a shattered pit of hell where they first run into challenging obstacles. The ground instability has fueled other parts of the roadway to give and in doing so, caused the burned out hulls of old cars to come crashing onto the winding road path. Racers will have to navigate around these obstacles and come across the first loop. The roadway shifts 45 degrees vertically as the road curves in a circular shape around a central fire and loops under the previous bridge. Players must watch out for larger falling debris as they make their way to a broken crossroads, where a larger section of road has collapsed into the depths. Only issue is the roadway is not supported and may give way under players!
As players pass around this challenge they encounter the pit, a large
downward spiraling track that has a ball of hell fire shooting flames
onto various parts of the track. Clever players can block these or take
damage. Also while avoiding cars that have crashed onto the track. once
players have passed through they encounter a large gap in the roadway
and must boost in order to pass through. on the other side of this the
roadway stretches back up to the surface where they encounter the first
gas station. The gas stations have rusted fuel pumps that once
triggered, will detonate on impact. Players that survive this are
rewarded with a boost. They soon encounter the blocked Highway 45, where
there are several cars creating blockages and barriers that players
will have to navigate in order to pass through. About halfway through
the player encounters a fuel truck on the verge of a melt down: it spews
flames from its damaged tank and players unfortunate enough to get to
close will feel heavy fire damage. The last part of the track features
another gas station, but one riddled with weak track, a spewing fuel
truck, and cars creating odd ramps and obstacles. Once through here they
pass by the start and move on to the next lap. As the laps pass, the
map becomes more sickly yellow as the region becomes more corrupted. On
top of this more fires will begin to spread and burst from the earth,
with the end of the game finish line bursting into a large flame at the
end of the game.
Here is the color scheme:
My Color Palette!
I chose reds and yellows to extenuate the feeling of hellfire and a cool purple to create a feeling of darkness. The cave section will be lit in the bright hues of reds and oranges, while the surface will feel a darker blend sickly yellow and intense reds. It would be portrayed at midday, to create a sense of lightness of the surface with the darkness of the pits. As the level progresses, the pits will become brighter and more intensely red as the shades on the surface become desaturated.
The level is designed to flow evenly so that players can experience the events that appear. With this said, there are a few hidden shortcuts to allow players to bypass parts of the level and gain a small advantage over other players. It will be a typically wide track with pinch-points created by obstacles on track combined with falling debris and collapsing track.
