Re: [TuxKart-devel] Game design: list of possible game modes besides racing

[Steve B. <sjb...@ai...>]

Willian Padovani Germano wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> As I told you, Steve, here is a first draft of possible game modes for Tux
> Kart, besides the racing one(s).

Thanks - some of these sound like good candidates for 'bonus games' between
difficult races - or perhaps as part of a 'DiddyKong Racing' type of
adventure game that ties everything together.

> 1) Collecting an item:

This seems simple enought to implement.  Since you can now call for the
'butterfly tux' to come and rescue you, we don't have to worry so much
about there being places in the 'level where you can get stuck.

The AI doesn't sound too hard either.

> 2) Variation on #1:

> An item (a big bouncing red ball, maybe) appears somewhere -- you find it
> first, you win.

Again - very easy to code - AI should be identical to #1.

> 3) Chase and bump:

There is a proper name for this kind of race - but I don't recollect what
it is.  Some English colleges race rowboats like this when they don't have
access to a river that's wide enough to race conventionally.

Again, shouldn't be too hard to do with the existing tracks.

> 4) The reunion:
> 
> Join #2 and #3, changing #3 a little: instead of leaving the match, a kart
> touched on its back freezes for T seconds.

Yep - that's not too bad.

> 5) Suggested by Steve: hide and seek -- one player seeks and the other(s)
> hide. Score based on time. Maybe like the kid's play, hidden karts have to
> reach some place before the seeker does (the seeker can only do that after
> finding a hidden kart) to be safe and not become the seeker next time. This
> way "finding" the others has to be coded properly, maybe it has to bump on
> them to "find" them.

I think this one would be no fun unless there is network play.  For a single
person, seeking a hidden kart isn't really different from seeking a coin or
your big red ball.  Hiding is even more boring.  Two player networked modes
are what make this fun.
 
> 6) Tag: one player is "it" and has to touch some other, who will then become
> "it".

Also pretty easy to do.

> 7) Normal battle mode like in Mario Kart, using the powerups.

Yes - I think this mode is essential - since without it, people will
inevitably wonder why it's not there when practically all comparable
kart games have it.  Dunno how hard the AI is - judging from MarioKart,
it's not that hard since the player can be sneakily outnumbered if the
AI players fire preferentially at human players to even out their
inferior tactical skills.

> Note: an important aspect to make these modes come "alive" is making events
> fun to watch, specially when something goes wrong for a player (he/she
> becomes "it", gets bumped, etc.). This surely stimulates players.

Yes - they need to carry flags and stuff like that.
 
> Suggestions, criticism, comments... welcomed.

Another one that occured to me was the game they added to PilotWings on N64.
That was a flight sim type of game - but with autogyro's, hang gliders,
cannons, people wearing wings (!), etc.  One sub-game that I liked was one
where a huge red bouncy ball had to be hit into a goal by driving (flying)
into it at speed.  The really rough terrain - with canyons and such
made this quite a challenge against the clock.

As a single player activity, no AI is needed.

-- 
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