Racing Level HUD Preview

A preview of my HUD for the racing level! This one is the more recent version of it due to certain changes I had to make.

Racing Level HUD

We're now in the process of coming up with and creating a HUD(aka Heads Up Display) for out levels. Here's a ton of reference I ended up finding for inspiration.

First up, some speedometers! I looked at a few scifi/furture looking speedometers since my level is Scifi based in appearance. I also checked out my vehicle's speedometer design as well.

My vehicle is a '66 Chevy Impala SS so I'm probably going to design my eventual speedometer to look similar in layout appearance.

Now, for some awesome racing HUDs!

Here's the mock-up for my level's HUD! 

Basic Scifi looking theme with the speedometer in the middle, the boost circle in the far right, and the lap meter and timer in the top left. The speedometer is based off of my vehicle's speedometer while the boost circle is a little robot face similar to the many aesthetics in my level with display faces and emoticons. The lap meter is supposed to look like a holograph projection on a metal board.

When the player comes toward a boost the boost circle turns orange and the robot's face changes expression to signal the player that they can now boost their way to glory!!!

Programming: Exploding "Barrel"

Here's my exploding barrel project preview! Exploding robot drones, whoohoo! Anyhow, I still need to fix some issues with the smoke emitters but the explosions are bombastic at least.

Racing Level Intro Sequence

Lots of racing games have level intros that pump up a player for the inevitable race or exist to give you a mere glimpse at what your player is in for. Sometimes they're awesome, or they fall flat. Continuing with my racing level I have to look towards creating an interesting level sequence for a player. I looked for any and every type of racing game that could offer proper inspiration for this task, and believe me it's harder to one that actually has what I was looking for, and I ended up with Twisted Metal.

As far as level intros go this game has got some pretty good ones. Not only does the intro display the whole level the player will be racing in against others, but it also does a show-and-tell of what the player needs to accomplish for said level they're playing in. In my opinion it's a pretty cool way to do a level introduction sequence.

Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed also offers some cool level intros as well. They each display the "tracks" the player will race on. This is a good detail to show the player so they're better prepared for the obstacles they may face while racing and it also gives them a sense of the scale and appearance of the track which may help in their racing performance.

Racing Level: "Barrel"

We have to design an explosive object for our levels, something akin to a barrel. Since my level is based around a city being attacked by robots I thought it would be cool to create mini-robot drones that explode when the player drives near them.

The drone has a basic neutral state until the player runs into it. From there it should enter a damage state where it starts to spark and smoke. After taking enough damage the drone will explode and break into pieces.

Racing Level-Beat Sheet

Racing Level- PrePro/Research

For this semester's Game Design class we're moving onto developing an actual playable racing level based off of the theme most voted for by each of our classes, which we will then also have to develop and program live stunts into them. In my case, the class I'm in chose "Pinball" as our theme and I am excited!

The Research: Here are some videos I looked to for some inspiration in designing the initial stunts.

• Grand Theft Auto V, Car Stunt Montage
• Hot Wheels World Record Stunt Jump
• Gone In 60 Seconds End Jump (6:36-7:12)

The Level Theme: Scifi/Robots.

• The level will initially look like a pinball machine, just with a lot of retro robots and the occasional science fiction piece here and there.

• The level will be lit by various neon lights produced by the pinball level's constructs.

Look at those lights!

• The color scheme will be as basic as can be since I'm going retro.
• I feel going with CS 2 here would be more preferable. Bright reds, oranges, blues and purples are major in scifi.

CS1

CS2

Concept Statement and Story: "Race or be Replaced!"

• The story of my level is of course going to be loony being that it revolves around retro scifi and pinball.
• "Mankind has been taken over by evil robots! Having defeated the human race the new robot overlords have decided to use humans as guinea pigs by shrinking them down and forcing them to race in absurd pinball styled tracks set up in their labs. Will some human rise to the challenge and beat their games? Or is humanity doomed?!....DUN DUN DUN"

Inspirations:

Retro Robots

They look cute now....

Cylons from Battlestar. They still have that old scifi look about them that's so great.

Robot Pinball anyone?

More simple yet stylish robots. I feel designing the level to look retro scifi will make the time to to the 3D assets easier since it would be possible to make a lot of simple, low poly models. The textures are what will make the models really stand out!

Another pinball inspiration.

The Stunts:

• "Don't Miss" Long Ramp Jump

      Players will come to a ramp they must jump across to get to the other side of the track. In order to do so the player will activate a boost pad which will increase their vehicle's speed to jump to the other ramp. However, the ramp the player must land on does not stay stationary. It periodically moves up and down so if the jump doesn't have enough of a boost kick then the player may not make the jump.

• "Pyro Bumpers"

      The players will face numerous giant robot bumpers when they reach the last area in the track. These bumpers may range in size but are identical. Watch out though as they will open their mouths and shoot the player with a horrendous burst of fire if triggered.

The player activates a hidden trigger near the bumper if they get close enough.

When the trigger is activated the bumper opens its "mouth" and lets loose a torrent of flame.

• "Slammer!"

      Besides also acting as a landmark, this colossal robot is a major obstacle which the player must pass to get to the ramp jump and bumper area to finish the race.

The player will activate a hidden trigger which will start the robots "SLAMMING" mechanism. Once this begins the player must time their run accordingly.

If the player is hit then it's GAME OVER MAN!

The Initial Map:

• Here you can see the various obstacles and appearance of the track. 
• The major landmarks for this level will be the two titanic Robots.
• Very blocky, simple, and glowy.
• Curvy with a wide track space for the vehicle to move through.