Overview

Racers will compete directly against each other to try and complete the race before the other racers. The racing aspect will play out similarly to a MarioKart or Crash Team Racing, cartoony-style game, however instead of picking up items to use on other racers, each racer will control in essence a mobile "factory" with the capability of building other, smaller cars that follow along with the racer. Each car will help give the racer an egde on his or her opponents in some fashion.

Control

Many of our gameplay ideas are currently based off the use of a racing wheel peripheral. The ideal wheel will have a set of pedals for gas and brake (optionally flippers on the back of the wheel), a directional pad on one side of the center console and a set of four buttons on the other side.

The D-pad will be used as four one-touch buttons for building specific units of whatever type is assigned to that direction. The other four buttons will select units of that type that have already been built and open up branching command trees for each of those unit types.

The Races

Each race will take place in an open field, with a set of checkpoints scattered about. The racers will all start at the first checkpoint and have to advance through the race by following the pre-determined (or possibly random in certain maps) path of checkpoint. Most paths will be circular, giving a sense of "laps" to the race.

We want the racers to come into contact with each other multiple times throughout the race, so many (if not all) of the maps will have checkpoint paths that overlap, or paths where the racer will have to traverse the checkpoint path in the reverse order after they reach the end.

Gameplay

Building Units

There will be four types of units available for the racer to build at any given time. The racer has the option of building that unit type by pressing the D-pad direction mapped to that unit type.

The types of units we've come up with so far are:

Attack - Simple units that attack other racers and their convoys. The racer can choose how they attack based on the context menu
Defense - Units that take the brunt force of another racer's attack. The racer can choose what formation these units follow, giving him or her the option of defending against specific racers' attacks, or they can deploy these units at arbitrary points in an effort to set up obstacles for other racers
Speed - Units that boost the racer's speed, until they run out of fuel and shut down. It is possible that the racer should be somehow limited on the number of these units he or she can build, but this is a balance issue we can resolve later.
Hover - Units that allow the player to traverse difficult terrain with ease, such as bodies of water. Players can use these to create shortcuts, but must be wary to have enough for their convoy members as well
Atomic - The uber-unit, very expensive, but useful for players that are farther back to be able to inflict massive damage on others way ahead.

For now, I think the types of units available to the player should be level-specific, but we should design the system to support a pre-race customization menu so experienced players can choose what units they want in a particular race.

Controlling Units

In the same way the D-pad is mapped to build units of a particular type, the four buttons on the other side of the wheel are mapped to select units of a particular type. Selecting a unit will bring up a context menu for that particular unit, such that each of the four buttons are now mapped to a different option for that particular unit. Context menus can be stacked as well, such that selecting an option will bring up another context menu.

For example, the racer can hit the "up" button of the group to select all of his or her attack units. Once selected, the player can now hit the "left", "right", and "down" buttons to pick an attack option (aggressive, conservative, break-off) or the "up" button again to cancel their choice. Say the player chooses the "break-off" attack option, now each of the buttons will map to another player in the race which those attack units will be sent off to attack.

Most of these context options are unit-specific, but each unit should have some sort of "break-off" option, where that unit is ejected from the convoy. In the attack unit's case, it can be to hunt down another player, or in the defense, it can be to set up a barricade.

Upgrading Units

Our game also has a simple tech-tree aspect. The build option for each unit starts and level 1, and the racer has the option at certain points of spending his or her resources to upgrade the production process of that unit, to a maximum of three, such that when he or she builds units of that type in the future, they are stronger/faster/better/etc.

Upgrading should lock the racer out of building units of that type until the upgrade completes, but only so much as to make the racer consider before upgrading.

The player will have the option to upgrade by driving through a pit stop and selecting that particular unit type on the D-pad, which will then initiate the upgrade process.

A Theme for the Game

The game should be cartoony in nature, with (hopefully) cel-shaded graphics. Each unit car should be colorful and have its own personality with it, and the game should play such that it feels very wacky.