Changes

After recapping over my previous post about the animals I want to include and their weapon systems I've decided to let the player chose which animal they want to play as. That means there will no main character and each car can be exactly same in performance, avoiding any unfair issues when racing other opponents.

I do think it'll be good to create a levelling system or some for of points system to unlock new parts to add to your car. Since I removed the car building feature, I'll at least let the player select a pre-built car or just custom build a couple of little features (dinosaur horns on Paddys Dinomobile, armour plating on Chucks Eggycart).

Just the little things will make it appealing to a young audience. If there was too much detail in every aspect of the game, they will loose interest because the attention span of a young child is lower than that of an older person.

Tech Specs

iPad

Size and weight¹

Height:

9.56 inches (242.8 mm)

Width:

7.47 inches (189.7 mm)

Depth:

0.5 inch (13.4 mm)

Weight:

1.5 pounds (0.68 kg) Wi-Fi model;

1.6 pounds (0.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G model

Display

• 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
• 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
• Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
• Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Wireless and cellular

Wi-Fi model

• Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Wi-Fi + 3G model

• UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
• GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
• Data only²
• Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Location

• Wi-Fi
• Digital compass
• Assisted GPS (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
• Cellular (Wi-Fi + 3G model)

Capacity³

• 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive

Processor

• 1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip

Sensors

• Accelerometer
• Ambient light sensor

Audio playback

• Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
• Audio formats supported: HE-AAC (V1), AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
• User-configurable maximum volume limit

TV and video

• Support for 1024 by 768 pixels with Dock Connector to VGA Adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite AV Cable
• H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

Accessibility

• Support for playback of closed-captioned content
• VoiceOver screen reader
• Full-screen zoom magnification
• White on black display
• Mono audio

Battery and power⁴

• Built-in 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
• Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
• Up to 9 hours of surfing the web using 3G data network
• Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system

iPod Touch/IPhone

ize and weight

• Height: 4.5 inches (115 mm)
• Width: 2.4 inches (61 mm)
• Depth: 0.46 inch (11.6 mm)
• Weight: 4.8 ounces (135 grams)

Capacity

• 8GB or 16GB flash drive¹

Display

• 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
• 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 ppi
• Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Operating system

• OS X

GSM

• Quad-band (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)

Wireless data

• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
• EDGE
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR

Camera

• 2.0 megapixels

Audio

• Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
• Audio formats supported: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 1, 2, and 3), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV

Video

• Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 768 Kbps, 320 by 240 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

Headphones

• Stereo earphones with built-in microphone
• Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
• Impedance: 32 ohms

Input and output

• iPhone
  • 30-pin dock connector
  • 3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack
• iPhone Dock
  • Dock connector

Power and battery

• Built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery
• Talk time: Up to 8 hours²
• Standby time: Up to 250 hours³
• Internet use: Up to 6 hours⁴
• Video playback: Up to 7 hours⁵
• Audio playback: Up to 24 hours⁶

The iPhone and iPod touch basically have the same technical specifications aside from the iPhone has the phone function and is slightly heavier.

I also thought to make my game available on the iPhone and iPod touch because I have simplified the in game layout, so I believe that the smaller screen will have enough space.

New Ideas

I have been drawing all the different themed cars, depending on the animal character driving them. Each car has its own unique feature. Speed, durability, handling etc. Each car can be performance tuned to adapt to different racing environments. 

I came up with the idea inspired from Lego Racers about allowing the player to build their own car piece by piece. However, I've decided to scrap this idea and let the player select preset cars. This is because I feel that the construction mechanics are too complex and detailed for a child to handle.

Although the option to build a car in detail is removed the player can select a preset car design, custom tune its performance and change its colour and logo to their liking.

My current car designs and unique weapons are:

Dinosaur: Main Character (Bite)

Chicken: Egg Catapult (fires eggs, which can make the road slippery or damage other cars)

Rhino: Ram (knock and damage other cars)

Lion: ferocious rawr (stuns and throws cars off the track)

Dog: Slobber Slip (Slobbers on the road to make it slippery)

Cat: Shoots balls of yarn (shoots yarn as rocks or can grapple on to other cars)

Concept Art

Been doodling road icons and car weapon systems. Since the game is targeting children, real guns is a bad influence, so I'm using food as ammunition. To fire the food I'm using catapults and oversized cannons.

Artwork will be posted in this entry soon !

Receiving Feedback

In one of my lectures I had to produce a small Powerpoint presentation, pitching my game idea to my peers and lecturers. It was great receiving  some proper feedback.

I talked about how my game is targeting families, and explained how it appeals to children. However I feel that some of the features I want to include in my game maybe too complex or unsuitable for a child. I want to allow the cars to fire objects at other cars as weapons. But the lecturers suggested that if that was the case, the objectives fired have to be clumsy, as not to be unsuitable. In this case I feel that I have to increase the age of my target audience, just so I have more flexibility with my options. I was aiming at children between the ages of 8 and 14. But now I think I'll aim at post teens at the age of 12-16. The game  itself can appeal to people older. Anyone can really play it, but I still want to keep it as simple as possible.

Ideas for weapons:

-Oil (makes cars slip off the track)

-Frying pan (flattens opponents)

-Giant pie (slows down opponent)

-Boost (Brief increase in speed)

Still in development. I got a couple of these weapon systems from an old N64 Snowboarding game called 'Snowboard Kids'. In the game they use a lot of obscure weapons to attack each other. But the idea is that its targeting children, so its necessary. But even at the age of 20 I still find it good fun to play.