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[jddg5wa]

Pocket Rockets is a soon to be top down racing game featuring mini hovercrafts set in real life environments. These environments could be anything from kitchen counters, dodging food and dishes while racing to the finish, or trying to stay alive racing around a backyard with water from sprinkles splashing around and bugs getting in your way.

The gameplay will feature a single and multiplayer mode. Within these modes there will be a variety of maps with items scattered throughout that you can use on your friends and enemies. All in jest of course. The art style will be fun and quirky while sticking to a bit of realism. Although there will always be plenty of possibility to explore worlds that can only exist in our fantasies.





While the project is ambitious I do not plan to do this on my own forever. I am currently working towards creating a single player, one track, 2D prototype to show functionality of items, the vehicle, interactive objects, and environment possibilities. Afterwards I will be looking into raising funds, through kickstarter or indiegogo, to hire others who are more skilled programmers and someone to help with the design workload. Raising funds would also help with sound design, buying rights to game engines, and an assortment of other game development related tasks.

Once the prototype is created and the fund raising campaign is planned new goals will be set for the creation of the final game. The overall end goal is a successful launch of the finished game.





You can download a first prototype of a drive-able vehicle and boost pads



A little preview GIF (resolution is not accurate)


So now my question is: What do you think?

[Green Gospod]

At first I thought the idea is to take a photo of a room and then race all over it, or something in those lines.

What are some of the interesting features of the game?
Are you aiming for a simple yet addictive game?
Why does such a game need funding like Kickstarter?

[manabreak]

One of my main concerns would be the control scheme. Do you plan on using

• "Up" is acceleration, "left" and "right" rotate, or
• "Up" is up, "left" is left, "right" is right, "down" is down?

I myself prefer the first one, but as I've seen (based on my LD26 entry feedback), many find it rather unpleasant and difficult to control. I got used to such a control scheme playing old top-down racing games, but I can see how it feels odd to people who haven't got used to it.

[Konidias]

You might want to look up what a pocket rocket is... and then probably consider changing the name of your game.

[jddg5wa]

At first I thought the idea is to take a photo of a room and then race all over it, or something in those lines.

What are some of the interesting features of the game?

You are the second person to think the racing will involved augmented reality. As interesting as that would be there will be no augmented reality  



Right now the interesting features are unique items, the settings of the maps, and environmental interactions. If you are in the backyard map environmental interactions may consist of dodging water droplets from a sprinkler or little mud slides caused by over watering. You may have to watch out for bugs that could chase you throughout sections of the map and other similar things.

Also the combination of these features with top down racing may be an interesting feature. I have never seen a top down racer have such features before. Although if anyone has seen a top down racer with these features, do tell!

Are you aiming for a simple yet addictive game?

For the most part, yes. Imagine Mario Kart style simplicity and addictiveness.

Why does such a game need funding like Kickstarter?

I've mostly outlined the reasons in the goals section of the first post: "to hire others who are more skilled in programming and maybe someone to help with the design workload. Raising funds would also help with sound design, buying rights to game engines, and an assortment of other game development related tasks."

Right now this game has no funds and I am lacking the skills to do everything on my own so I am limited on what features can be added. Raising funds through an internet campaign would allow the game to come to a polished and completed state.

One of my main concerns would be the control scheme. Do you plan on using

• "Up" is acceleration, "left" and "right" rotate, or
• "Up" is up, "left" is left, "right" is right, "down" is down?

Honest question, did you try out the prototype demo? The controls as of right now and likely to stay that way are "UP" as acceleration with "left" and "right" rotating the vehicle. This is more like how you actually drive a vehicle and allows for slight a slight drifting in the corners. The controls will likely stay this way.

You might want to look up what a pocket rocket is... and then probably consider changing the name of your game.

Hmm, yea I had found that out, was after I came up with the name. I thought the name similarity wouldn't be a problem but seems like there may be issue. Problem is, if I change the name, I have no idea what else to change the name to. 

Thanks for all of the questions and concerns everyone, very appreciated.

[Konidias]

"Pocketships" could be nice

[jddg5wa]

"Pocketships" could be nice

I very much like your suggestion. Did you purposefully play off of the word "rocketship", ingenious? I now do need to change names, found out "Pocket Rocket" is a trademarked brand. If I do end up using your suggestion, which I am likely to, I will very much credit you and link to your game. Thanks!


A LITTLE UPDATE
Instead of spending time creating the prototype in Gamemaker I decided I would switch gears and start working in Unity. The plan is for the final game environment to be in 3D and so starting in Unity, instead of switching later, will make the whole development process easier.

The map for the prototype will be "The Backyard". I have a 3D grass I created a while ago that will fit perfectly in the environment. The grass needs to be tweaked to work as a game asset but will mostly appear the same.