iPhone Racer, Part 2

Let's flesh out the game design for the iPhone racing game a little bit more. In the previous post I mentioned the fundamentals. This time I will go into more detail.

Obstacles

The player has to avoid obstacles on the road. There are obstacles that move, in the form of other cars. Bumping into a moving car will slow the player's car down. There are also static obstacles, such as:

• Rocks
• Brick walls
• Trees
• Oil patches
• Water puddles
• Pot holes

Bumping into large static obstacles will stop the car completely for a brief period of time. Oil patches will temporarily make the player unable to control the car. Water puddles will slow the car down.

Some obstacles are not really obstacles however. If the player runs into e.g. a fallen tree trunk, the car will jump. This can be used to jump over certain obstacles.

Obstacles are spawned randomly, but under controlled circumstances, to ensure that the track is not the same every time.

Levels

Each level consists of a stretch of road of a certain distance. At the end of every level, there is a checkpoint marker. The player has to reach the checkpoint within a certain time limit, or the game is over. Once the checkpoint marker has been passed, the timer is reset.

The levels get progressively more difficult. There are mainly three parameters for controlling the difficulty:

1. The time limit.
2. The number of obstacles.
3. The speed of the car.

Different environments will provide visual variety. Colors of the scenery and objects at the side of the road will change depending on what type of environment a particular level represents. It could be a desert, a winter landscape, a forest, a tropical island, or just about any other kind of setting.

Score

The objective of the game is to maximize the player's score. The player gets points for picking up flags along the way. The player also gets points for the amount of time left on the clock when a checkpoint is reached.

An optional feature would be to implement an online global high score table. This would hopefully add competitive value to the game.

Controls

The control scheme is easy: the player can only move the car sideways. The speed of the car is determined by the game. The player will move the car laterally by moving a finger, left and right, across the screen.

Game Over

The game ends when the player does not make it to a checkpoint on time. There is no set number of levels, but at some point, the game will get so ridiculously hard that the player will run out of time, no matter how skilled he (or she) is.

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