P-Rai – Yay! I got the Chip Chup egg, Grandad will be so proud. It’s so shiny.
(P-Rai singing in the distance)
Elder Clan Member: Huh, what’s that astonishingly, bright glow; is that a little girl I hear in the distance? I told TOBIAS TO WATCH HIS POST!
(Elder Clan Member glares into the near distance to see P-Rai)
Elder Clan Member: Th… The… The Chip Chup egg! There’s no way, no one within 100 miles has a powerful enough Kemono to take on the Chip Chup bird. And a little girl of all people; oh this will be like stealing candy from a baby!
(Elder Clan Member rapidly approaches P-Rai and confronts her face on.)
P-Rai: Um..
Elder Clan Member: Gimme, gimme the egg.
(P-Rai shys away; holding the egg close to her)
P-Rai: Um… I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.
Elder Clan Member: Oh I don’t want you.
(Elder Clan Member chuckles, whilst slowly walking closer to P-Rai)
Elder Clan Member: May I please have the shiny egg. Not to keep! of course. I just want to touch it. Didn’t your parents teach you to share little girl?
(P-Rai adjusts to a defensive posture, extending her right hand out)
P-Rai: I don’t think you want to get any closer. Freak.
(Elder Clan Member swiftly moves in, breaking the barrier of personal space. He grabs P-Rai’s hand, gawking at the egg in her other hand.)
Elder Clan Member: Who do you think you’re talking to, show some respect to your elders!
(P-Rai frantically struggles)
P-Rai: Get off of me. Let go! It’s mine, not yours!
(In the wastelands the screams of P-Rai arguing with the Clan Member can be faintly heard)
P-Rai: Help! Sheeba where are you?!
(Sheeba springs up and raises her ear to the direction corresponding to the cries for help)
Sheeba: *Cries* *Growl*
(Sheeba makes a gigantic leap toward the scene of the commotion.)
In order to maximize my creative ability whilst creating the concept of let’s go battle racers, I researched two different racing games.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
The first game I have chosen to discuss is an iconic franchise to this day. In terms of story content this game is very linear as it really sells itself on the gameplay, however, the general consensus is that Mario and all his friends and foes from the many kingdoms of the Mario world have come together to participate in a racing tournament.
As I previously said the game does not focus heavily on story and instead sells due to the bright colour design; which compliments the co-op friendly, competitive gameplay. One of the things Mario Kart is infamous for is the items system and how you can be in 1st place and drop down to chasing the flock of racers down at 12th in a matter of seconds. Or how you can get lucky down in 10thwith a Bullet Bill and be right back in the game. Nintendo does an excellent job of balancing the game so that the gameplay does not seem unfair in any perspective and has a good enough learning curve for hardcore players to stand out from the more casual player.
I believe the art style compliments this game beautifully, you can see the art team has taken colour palette into consideration, selecting colours which compliment each other and envoke euphoric feelings within the player which can help to ignore a moment of getting hit with a shell which could have otherwise been infuriating if the colour palette would have been a lot muddier. The family-friendly look of the game sets the tone, allowing for the game to never be taken too seriously meaning it never goes beyond the friendly competitive nature you may have with a co-op partner. The characters of this game also flourish in the field of arts as they are all dynamic and unique in their own ways from the size of their kart to the taunt they pull of whilst performing a stunt of a ramp. This attention to detail in character design allows for players to gravitate toward a specific character, creating favourites similar to that of a competitive fighting game such as street fighter; this is very hard to pull off in this style of game but due to Nintendo having such a vast, unique range of original IP characters it is something they can do especially with their friendly art style reminiscent to the Pixar films .
Items
Items play a crucial role in Mario Kart whether that be in racing or battle mode, Nintendo has taken great thought into eachitem, making sure that everything is balanced so players cannot abuse a specific item for their own benefit. This is apparent in the product as the game takes your position into consideration when selecting your random item giving you boosts if you need that to get back in the race or a more defense item such as a banana when leading the line, being a main target at the front. Each item is very quickly recognizable to the player allowing for them to just take a split second to look keeping them in the game whilst knowing what items are at their disposable, this is due to great use of colour and unique silhouettes.
The environmental design is stunning, the user is given a range of environments from iconic Mario kingdom tracks to being in Hyrule which is straight from another successful Nintendo IP: The Legend of Zelda; helping to bring in fans from that franchise too. The huge range of tracks allows for the player to not get bored of the content quickly as all tracks are fun to play but hard to master.
Mario Kart has also now implemented a minor customization system allowing for the player to change the kart, wheels, and glider, these are mainly cosmetic with minor in-game effects.
The Crew
Throughout the game, you play as protagonist Alex Taylor traveling across America getting involved with the FBI infiltrating criminal organizations.
This is an online-only, racing open world game, the base aim of the game is to build your “crew” with friends and participate in a range of races and challenges, achieving new unlocks and vehicles to use throughout the immensely huge open world. The open world really sells this game as you can really get the feeling of an American road trip in the vehicle you desire. The map is split into five regions: The Midwest, East Coast, The South, Mountain States, and West Coast. Each region has its own unique geographical features. Six main cities (one in each region, two in the Midwest) are featured in the game: Detroit and Chicago in the Midwest, New York City on the East Coast, Miami in The South, Las Vegas in the Mountain States, and Los Angeles on the West Coast. Various other cities, namely St. Louis, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Santa Fe, San Francisco, and Seattle, are also featured in the game. Over thirty smaller cities and towns line the countryside, such as Nashville, Norfolk, and others. It takes approximately 45 minutes in real time to drive from coast to coast in-game.
Due to the vastness of this game as you could imagine the terrain is diverse and dynamic ranging from desert sand to torrential rain in the city. The weather also affects the way your vehicle performs meaning players choices in terms of customization have real-time in-game effects.
The developers understand that the size of the open world can seem intimidating or hard to understand in terms of where to go to some players. That is why they include a very simple to read HUD and mission log making a clear difference between main story missions and miscellaneous activities.
The art style of this game is aiming for photorealism, at the time of the games release the current gen consoles such as PS4 were new on the scene; this game along with its massive open world bought stunning graphics with it, the water effects and small details such as tire marks are taken in to consideration. This plays a greatly in the experience when the player is playing the game as the photo-realistic art style helps to sell the concept of being in this vast map across America.
The game also includes an integrated progression system, rewarding you after you complete activities across the map, this is a great feature as it gives the player a sense of being rewarded and encourages them to play more in order to achieve even more and perhaps get into besting their friends’ high score or rare customization pieces.
Comparing the two art styles we see that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe uses a cel-shading style which is complementary to 3D non-realistic rendered graphics. Cel shading is a shading technique in computer graphics, it describes a method to emulate a non-realistic aesthetic similar to hand-drawn flat shadowing. With cel shading, you can see hard shadows rather than a smooth gradient you would see in a more photo-realistic style. When compared with the crew you can see the advantages and disadvantages of both sides. Firstly I believe the crew is best suited for the photo-realistic style as the player is exploring the vast regions across America so for obvious reasons the developer wanted to immerse the players as great as they could by closely referencing the actually landmarks and locations across America. Mario Karts cel-shading style may not have the same level of detail however it still immerses the player due to the colours being selected to be complementary and the cel-shading hard shadow look is reminiscent to animation making it easy and fun for anyone to get into and easily be drawn to the characters.
In this video we can see the player driving within the game from LA to Las Vegas, you can see how the player interacts within the game selecting the map and the waypoint which then creates an in game GPS to direct the player where to go. We also see the player switch vehicles from an in-game menu instantly, although this takes away from the realistic tone from the game it makes sense as it is accessible to the player who may need that instant transition when switching to a more off-road terrain. If I could help to enhance this game I would add in dynamic side missions along sizeable journeys as seen in this gameplay to help the player to feel bored as at times the world can feel rather empty. To elaborate I would add in high-speed police chases going on where it is optional for the player to intervene and if they catch the criminal they will receive points for customization as well as EXP.
In this gameplay, we see the player participating in the mushroom cup; a Grand Prix in the game we see the player is given the option to chose a character and also a selection of different karts and wheels to customize. During the gameplay, we see the high intensity of the game with chaotic little tussles for the position of first place. The subtle details of complementary colours or the crowd cheering you on as you perform a stunt help to immerse you fully in the game. The transitions between matches are instant keeping the player in the game and the maps are all unique with different terrains visually giving the sense of this great adventure within the Grand Prix. I would add a doubles mode to this game to help enhance it, this has been a feature a long while ago in the series within Mario Kart double dash, however i feel as though having it in this Mario Kart will make this the ultimate experience as I believe teaming up with friends is even more so fun than battling against each other which can sometimes ruin a friendship.
Mario Kart has also now implemented a minor customization system allowing for the player to change the kart, wheels, and glider, these are mainly cosmetic with minor in-game effects.
Jonae Moore Digital Design Blog 