New concept: Hamlington Underground Racing Association (H.U.R.A.)

Concept:

The game is based in a small fictional countryside village called Hamlington, in the 1950s. The general theme revolves around an underground, possibly illegal, racing scene in which the village residents race against each other on the backs of farmyard animals (not horses). The tracks run through the village, farmyards, meadows, manor estates and the surrounding countryside. The game will be designed for the Nintendo Wii console.

Gameplay:

When playing the game in single-player mode the player controls both the rider and steed as they race through predetermined environments. They have the ability to accelerate and decelerate, turn left and right, brake, jump and perform actions left and right (punching/hitting).

The game will have the option to play the game with more players (up to four) as well. The players can choose to race head-to-head with each controlling an individual rider and steed or choose to divide into two teams. When dividing into two teams one player controls the rider and the other controls the steed. This adds a new gameplay element that sees the two players from each team working together to beat the other individuals to the finish line. Hopefully this will create fast and furious fun!

As well as racing to try and beat others to the finish line, the player must avoid a variety of obstacles. If the player does hit an obstacle (e.g. a lamppost) they must perform a certain action with the Wiimote to get back in the race. If performed correctly the player reappears with a limited boost in speed. We did not want to penalise the player for hitting obstacles and falling out of the competition for first place. Hitting obstacles can be used tactically as well since a speed boost is awarded if the Wiimote action is performed correctly.

Characters:

The characters are all residents of Hamlington and each of the steeds is either found in a farmyard or in the countryside. Both the riders and steeds have stats that tie into the actual gameplay. These stats add a competitive edge to the game. The environment will have to accommodate these characters or at least their places of work/residency for authenticity. Note: only a selection of characters will actually be made for the game (due to the limited time period).

Levels/Environments:

The main theme of the game is Britain in the 1950s. Each level will guide the player through the village itself, farms, private estates or the surrounding countryside. By creating an entire environment that encompasses all of these areas, each level can then be sectioned off using props such as gates and fallen trees. To expand the number of playable levels each one can be played in reverse, have a variety of weather conditions and a different time of the day. Note: only one level will actually be made for the game (due to the limited time period).

Wii Remotes

Well, the concept has somewhat changed but I'll let my colleagues fill you in on those details. I'm far too excited about the cube we have moving around. Using DarwiinRemote¹ we have the Wii remotes, complete with nunchucks and classic controllers, synced up to the Mac. It takes a while for the software to detect the Wii remotes but once connected they perform very well and we get nice pretty graphs of the motion.


From here and with the discovery of the Unity plugin, UniWii², it was possible to use the data from the Wii input devices directly in the game's scripts. The whole set-up process, as with everything in Unity so far, was very straightforward. I particularly like the way it structures everything required by a project in a well-organised folder hierarchy as this is how I like to work.

Starting with a basic controller script I mapped the motion data from a Wiimote to a cube and watched it move as I moved the controller. This was quite satisfying in itself but I then went on to create a simple vehicle controller and had a very simple car driving around.

1. http://sourceforge.net/projects/darwiin-remote/
2. http://www.unifycommunity.com/wiki/index.php?title=UniWii