Bassline Burn (A Drifting Video Game)

[ChristopherBrousseau]

Keywords Section 5, Unity, Socket Weaver, and Art Software

Project Abstract

This groovy drifting game aims to provide the player with crazy drifts, good jams, and light competition. Race on popular drifting courses around the world and showcase your best times to your friends in a ghost replay system. While you race you'll be listening to live radio stations that will affect your cars speed, acceleration, and drift power.

High Level Requirement

This game will be a Top Down Racing Game in which to pass a level you need to finish a course within a certain time limit. To add to the replay ability, there will be a leaderboard system in which we can hold other racers' best times along with their ghosts racers in which you can race. Each of these courses will be based on popular drifting locations from around the world.

Conceptual Design

The initial design concept is rather simple, since we can utilize Unity to handle all the front end stuff. We will have a Player, Boundary, and GameManager script that will take up the majority of the scripts. All of these scripts will be done in C++ which is the native language of Unity. Within these scripts we will utilize plugins like Socket Weaver and LootLocker to keep track of high scores and ghost drivers. Along with this we will utilize the NAudio plugin to implement the radio concept of this game.

Proof of Concept

https://github.com/SocketWeaver/karting.git https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z6OLqH4NDc https://github.com/sjbmcg/RadioUnityStream.git

To run this project you need to download the required files and running them in Unity. This project plans on using and modifying some of the code, mainly for implementing the online connection part of the game.

Background

There really are no popular Top Down Racing Games, however it is very similar to racing games like Mario Kart. In fact Mario Kart is the main inspiration for the drifting and ghost driver mechanic. The Youtube video above is a creator that made a very good 2D Top Down racing game that will be referenced a lot in development.

Required Resources

Unity Hub, art software, an internet connection, and a good attitude!

[ChristopherBrousseau]

Project Proposal - Chris Brousseau.pdf

[JRheeTU]

Hey Christopher,

I like games and have done a few projects (relatively simple ones), so your project interested me. As a guy, living a drifting fantasy has always been a dream of mine.

If I were to work on this project: Having developed a few game projects, I could help out with programming a lot of the physics and other logic behind the game. I have also worked briefly as a graphic designer at an internship, so I would love to be involved in the design choices of the project.

That being said, A few suggestions:

Because your game is 2d, you have to compete with well-developed AAA racing games. Usually, these games have a huge edge in the market simply due to their responsiveness, insane graphics, and extensive developing resources (and developers). But I've seen small 2d games like this really thrive when taking advantage of the lower processing demands. Adding absurd powerups, hectic map events, and large customizability would really spice things up.

You could have temporary and permanent powerups that could: Do melee damage Bounce off walls Slide frictionless on grass Increase/decrease the car size Shoot guns at other cars

You could add map events: Hurricane (All cars blown to the left or right by the storm) Meteor event (Dodge them coming down) Ice event (floors become icy and cars slide)

Map Ideas: Environmental hazards (Oil spill, Logs, signs, Toppling buildings)

Aura meter: Charges when you demolish other cars or drift (maybe both) Unleash it to do the "special" ability of that class (Maybe rock has fire spitting out the sides and increased speed)

The possibilities are really endless for what you can implement in this game. Each shouldn't take an extensive amount of time, which allows you to pack a lot of content within the game that can really separate it from its competition.

I know what I'm proposing is very "bullet hell-ish" and "rogue-like" esque, but you don't have to go that direction. I was more suggesting these things to give it something to stand out. I'm sure you have your own ideas to pour into things project. So go with your heart King

[glantig1]

Hello Christopher,

This is my top pick for project proposals. The core idea of using music to base racing stats is novel and makes it unique, not just compared to the proposals, but compared to other racing games. On top of that this feels like the most feasible game project that uses an game creation engine.

While I'm not familiar with game creation, never really finding the willpower to start an actual project, I've always been interested in game development. I am intimately familiar with game design, having found myself several design documents (some in the hundreds of pages) on video concepts and critique as a hobby. My most valuable contributions will be related to game design as I have some familiarity with games that have used music to determine mechanics and customization that affects stats.

While I hope this project gets selected and I get placed in its group, I have to acknowledge that I will encounter a steep learning curve when it comes to the programming side and hope you'll be patient with me.

Good Luck!

[JohnDaang]

Hey Christopher!

I love the idea of this game as it is really unique. I don't think I have seen or heard about any racing, driving, or drifting game that has an emphasis on music as the main part of the game's feature. I love racing games and I personally think that a 2D over-the-top look is really cool and refreshing as racing games nowadays are all about the realistic graphics and who has the cooler car. With this game we can really focus on the music aspect and how to incorporate that into game.

I have never worked with a game design engine or anything of that sort, but it seems like a great thing to learn. I do have some UX/UI experience so I think I could be of help in that department, along with any backend game logic that is needed. I've always loved racing games and I also love music so I think this would be a great project to work on and a lot of new things that we can think about and invent.

Here are a couple of suggestions that I have been thinking of: You said in the presentation that there would be a radio where you could switch channels and that would change the characteristics of your car. I am not sure how you planning on using this idea, but I figured we could have a feature to switch stations during each course, for example maybe this one part of the track has a lot of turns, you can switch the radio to a song that gives your car better handling or drifting, and then after maybe the track has a pretty long straight road, then you can change the radio back to the song that gives the most speed. So along with driving skills, the player will need to be able to change to the proper channels during the race in order to achieve the best time. Learning which song to switch to and when to switch it would be a part of learning the game. Also I know you mentioned racing your or your friends ghosts to compete for best times, were you also thinking of a multiplayer functionality where you could all race together on the same track? With this we can implement the ideas of powerups or attacks. Maybe a certain powerup makes your radio channel louder, increasing all stats of your cars, while an attack could be like if you pick it up it causes the other racers radios to become static for a while, messing up their cars.

[Gunlords]

Hey Christopher!

This project sounds amazing! The unique combination of drifting mechanics, music-influenced gameplay, and global track locations makes it really stand out in a crowded racing game genre. The idea of switching radio stations to affect car stats like speed and handling is creative and adds an extra layer of strategy to the game, making it engaging for both racing fans and music lovers.

While I haven’t had much experience with Unity, I’m really excited to learn and contribute, especially on the backend or with gameplay mechanics. I think I could also help with testing and refining the game balance, like optimizing how the radio boosts impact different types of tracks. The ghost replay feature is a great touch too, giving players that competitive edge without needing multiplayer.

One thought I had is to integrate unique achievements or challenges based on radio channels—like a “Speed Demon” challenge for tracks completed using only speed boosts. Also, what if there were seasonal or theme-based channels that players could unlock for special effects? It could give the game replayability with fresh content every few months. Overall, I’d love to work on this project and bring some creative features to life!

[Random76520]

Hello, Christopher.

I looked over your project suggestion, and found it somewhat resourceful for aspiring video games developers overall. I remember from a previous course last year that you already had some experience with Unity, and have been working on my own project recently (as I presented yesterday). Although I can see the idea that listening to certain music can affect a driver's speed, I never considered it being implemented as a game mechanic. This especially caught my attention, because it showed how much more uniqueness I have yet to use for myself.

In terms of contributing to the project, I could try adding UI implementations from a website I found over the summer. In addition, I could also show how much I know after working with C#, and observe its similarities with C++. Unfortunately, my own experience is rather limited, so most of what I could show you would probably be what you already know yourself. In spite of that, I would still like to see more of your project.