If you could make a racing game...

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United States
FL, USA, Earth, Sol, Local Bubble, Milky Way
TeamACRZARacingo
GyroxOpex
...what would it be like? Would it be a sim, an arcade game, a hybrid racing/combat game? What would the mechanics be? What would make it unique?

This is an idea I've had for a few months: a 6DOF space racer that would also take inspiration from games like Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo and iRacing. The tracks would mostly be set in space, and the extra two degrees of freedom would allow for much more advanced track designs than most any other game; aside from your left and right turns, there would be upwards and downwards ones as well, and memorizing the track would mean also memorizing which direction to roll your ship to find the best line. The roster would include a few hundred ships, ranging from el cheapo civilian models to multi-million-dollar racing prototypes meant for sheer speed, but they'd all have their limits: no throwing it into hairpins at 500 mph and zipping out the other side with nary a scratch. The physics would definitely err more on the "simulation" side, in contrast to titles like Fast RMX and F-Zero.

As far as race weekend format, your standard three-lap sprint would be done away with. Each race would have practice and qualifying sessions to go alongside the main event, and you'd be able to control your ship manually on the formation lap, in the pits and (provided they're enabled) cautions. Yes, cautions: a ship crashing or stopping with a mechanical failure would necessitate a caution as safety crews clean up the scene and make it safe to race again. And yes, failures would be a thing; push your ship too hard for too long and you'd wind up damaging a part, forcing you to pit if you wanted it fixed. This would especially come into play during endurance races, where keeping the ship running smoothly for a long time would be perhaps even more important than going fast.

But that's my idea. Let's hear yours!
 
Pretty sure I've already posted my idea somewhere on GTP, but no harm in sharing it again.

Open world driving/photography simulator featuring the entire planet to scale, with emphasis on realism, car/camera collecting and sense of ownership, and gradually working your way up to better equipment. Wouldn't necessarily contain racing, though you could potentially drive to tracks throughout the world and partake in some racing... but you'd earn money simply by driving and taking photos. One exception to the focus on realism is that world will be peppered with interesting easter eggs that make for fun photo ops to hunt for.
 
Probably something a bit like Test Drive Unlimited. I know Forza Horizon is kinda like that series' spiritual successor, in a way. However I envision a coastal city setting similar to where TDU1, TDU2 or FH2 took place. You start the game off with you flying down in your private jet with, I dunno, a million or so dollars ready to spend on any sports car of your choosing - no locked cars either. However you also need the money to obtain the remaining roster of expensive cars, as well as a place to stay, racing equipment and gear, and all that. So if you end up just spending all that money on a Bugatti Veyron as your starter - well, you're gonna hafta earn more money by racing, maintaining a "lucrative" business, etc. Even it means literally living in your Veyron.

And the main thing for this particular game is it's simulation-leaning. Not really sim-cade, but not hardcore simulation. You'll be maintaining your cars, your place, your business, the races you enter, and so on. Heck, even have to pay for gas or oil change! But it shouldn't be too much baby-sitting, chores or repetitive work. Because you can hire mechanics, assistants to help you out. Just make sure you hire the right people - don't want your resident mechanic nab your cars for a joyride. And of course, full steering wheel support - triple screens, button boxes, VR, the works. But it depends on the car whether you can use features like Nitrous.

And speaking of Nitrous, this game will also have some NFS elements to it, as well. Not just grabbing a Testarossa from your garage and cruising along against the coastal highway during sunset. But nothing crazy like throwing neon lights on a Huayra. And speaking of cruising... there'll also be a "Free mode" if you just want to cruise and not worry about anything else (the "Career mode" that is).
 
Well there was this thing but it was 'GT6 + ???' so all clear I think.

@Lain has the basis of mine, and mixing in The Crew 2, BeamNG, and Sega GT's Carrozeria (or even better, Automation), give it arcade, GRID 1, and sim settings applicable to each type of vehicle (land, sea, air), allow for private servers to exist, import/export of models and liveries, and either a solid soundtrack or allowance for custom ones would about do it...to start with.
 
I dug this up from 3 years ago for what I would do for a GT7, but I guess it could also be applied to here as well.
I'd scrap absolutely everything and rebuild GT with a larger budget as a proper racing sim. I'd include a better structured career mode for players to start off in series such as the Trackday Trophy and spec Miata and work through up to top-tier championships like the WEC and Indycar. Players would work their way up from regular road cars to racing for works teams in the highest level of sport. Players will have the option to make their own team and hire a team-mate or take offers from teams in the game. The offline career would have full race weekends as standard with practice qualifying and races. Grid and rolling starts would vary according to the discipline players are in. A flag system would also feature with all the standard flags used in real racing.

I'd also include an Online career where you are paired against people of similar skill levels to you. Online career would allow players to create their own teams and make offers to other players to be their team-mate in a Driver Transfer Marketplace. Regular online would include matchmaking for similarly skilled drivers as well as more choices for custom room searching (tyre choice, driver aids on/off).

Online career and regular rooms would include driver ratings to help weed out the crash happy people as well as a streamlined report system. Players that continually disrupt races by driving the wrong way to cause crashes or deliberately crashing people off the track would see them gain an account strike. 5 strikes would see offending players temporarily banned from lobbies and dumped into bad sport pools for a certain period of time until their ban is lifted. Repeated offenses would result in increasing lengths of temporary bans.

I would include road cars for players to start off in, particularly in the early career stages and would have more in-depth customisation to allow players more fine tuning to turn their road car into a full blown racer. Full customisation options for players would include tyre width, wheel offset, individual camber adjustment, turbo boost pressure adjustment, axle track width, air restrictor size, bore, stroke etc. This would allow players to turn a road car like a Focus ST into an NGTC-spec touring car.

Livery editor would be a standard feature but players will have the choice not to use it. A livery storefront where players can buy, sell and share their custom liveries would also be included. Liveries would be closely moderated and any liveries that have profanity, nudity, sexual themes or racial discrimination would be deleted and the offending player give a strike against their account. If the offending player receives 5 strikes, they will be temporarily banned from the online servers. Continued efforts to make offensive liveries would result in an increased length of temporary ban.

Online would include the option for players to disable custom liveries on their individual system so they will not see liveries they feel might be discouraging to them.

Offline would include an Event Creator allowing players to create custom single races or championships. Players would have the option to choose cars, classes, number of AI opponents, AI difficulty, number of pit stops required, track time of day, weather changeability, Grid or Rolling start, single race or full weekend etc.

All tracks would have full 24 hour day/night transition and more dynamic weather. I'd outsource laser-scanning of tracks to a different professional company and would make sure details would be recreated down to the nearest millimetre. Legacy tracks would be redone with all new textures to ensure they are up to par.

Car count would be drastically reduced and modelling would be outsourced. All standards and duplicates would be gone to ensure consistent graphical quality that is up to scratch for a next gen console. More cars would be racing at once and will vary according to discipline i.e 43 Nascars, 55 cars at Le Mans, 33 Indycars at Indianapolis. The number of players in online lobbies would also increase to 32.

Offline A.I would be a variation of Forza's Drivatar and the A.I would have skill levels based on those of other players similar to yours.

The tyre model would get thoroughly redone to include variations in tyre pressure, temperature and sidewall flex. Punctures would also be included as well as a new soft-body physics damage engine which will allow more pieces of bodywork to fall off or hang on to the car, glass to crack and smash, and allow bodywork pieces to cut tyres.

Mechanical damage would become more advanced to include misfires, dropping cylinders, gearbox failures and complete engine meltdown.

The suspension model would also be completely reworked to include advanced suspension testing rigs.

Sound would be also get completely reworked to ensure accuracy and authenticity for both cockpit noise and outside.

Finally, for fan communication, I'd set up pages on all the social media outlets and have a special "Community Team" to look at gaming forums and actively take consideration of fan suggestions.
 
...what would it be like?
Setting:
Second part of 21 century. Mankind expanse through space. Different planets with different kinds of physical conditions(like gravity and temperature), flora and fauna, architecture and vehicles. Different worlds will represents different visions of future(80' cyberpunk,60' atomicpunk,90' nanopunk etc). Basic worlds made by procedural generation and then populated by simcity-like user generated content creator.

Gameplay:
Two different mods. First, simcity-like strategy game main goal of which is making of living world, best of the worlds will become playable planets for second mode. Second, simulation mode with different kinds of vehicles and goals. In simulation mode you can racing, participate in delivery business, bounty hunting, explore new regions, rule your own garage like in Discovey channel car-shows, even perform in arena car/plane/heli battles(blood sport at savage frontier planets).

Vehicles:
Planes, helicopters, cars, trucks, boats, bikes. As long as game sets in futuristic world we dont need real car makers and licenses and even could use user created models(approved by game developers,ofc). All vehicles are highly customizable(from engine swaps and custom bumpers to minigans and rocket pods for car battles).

Physics:
Simcade. Forza Motorsport, ETS, Warthunder -like.

Special features:
- In-game audio player.
- Simulation is first person only, but you also can equip your car with drone(which can be destroyed or jammed).
- UGC tracks and missions.
- Monthly changing seasons(divisions of year).
- Realistic economy.
- Always online main mode and single player with coop/invasion.
- Fast travel through trains, planes, spaceships.
 
1900's-40's focus when auto racing was still figuring itself out, so a bunch of cars hurling around on early auto tire tech and roads of questionable provenance.

Handling mostly inspired from NFS Porsche Unleashed, so not insanely realistic. Aiming more for the feel of trying to keep a 30-liter airplane-engined fire breathing monster that sounds like Satan gargling lava under control than anything. The barriers not being indestructable would be about the biggest committment to realism, oddly enough.

Car roster? Fantasy, but based off of notable early racers e.x Marmon Wasp, Beast of Turin, so on.
 
TL;DR Version: A Simcade open-world racing game blending elements from Test Drive Unlimited, Forza Horizon and The Crew.

Setting + Campaign:
The map will be inspired by Forza Horizon 2, consisting of Northern Italy, the south of France but also the Alps. There will be two types of Campaign mode in single player: Festival Career and Underground Career (though the former will consist of 75% of the game's events).

Festival events will have circuit races, sprint races, off road races, drift challenges and checkpoint challenges will be closed off circuit races with trackside decorations. Like in GRID 2, crowds will grow and have more decorations as you progress and gain fans.

Underground events will feature circuit, spring, drag, drift and touge events, mostly taking place at night. The streets remain virtually unaltered from free roam and you don't gain fans from underground events, but cash rewards are much higher and you can unlock exclusive mods. You can bet on other drivers and race for pink slips.

Gameplay + Progression:
Physics will be similar to that of Forza Horizon 1 but there will be an option of a Hardcore mode which makes handling more like Forza Motorsport. Damage will be similar to the likes of the GRID series.

My ideal career progression style is very similar to that found in Forza Horizon 1 - You join a festival themed racing series as an unknown driver then win challenges to become the festival's top driver. However, there are several elements from other games I would like to add:
- Like GRID 2/DiRT 4, you can acquire sponsors with challenges to complete so that you can earn extra XP, and these can be challenges outside races
- Your driving style affects relationships with other drivers and the buzz you create around the in-game social media (You get more XP for cleaner driving)
- You can complete side missions, similar to coffee break challenges (Gran Turismo 6) and Gymkhana events (think DiRT 3)

Vehicles:
The vanilla game will ship with around 100-110 highly customisable vehicles, split into 6 tiers. The quote below gives you an idea of what each class will consist of:

Tier 5 - Mostly sub-250hp, classic rally racers, Vintage cars, Hot hatches, compact coupes
Tier 4 - Super hot hatches, performance compact executive saloons
Tier 3 - High performance crossovers, Gran Touring coupes
Tier 2 - Supercars, Track day specials
Tier 1 - Hypercars
Tier X - Tier 1 cars with Stage 1 parts/Tier 2 cars with Stage 2 parts

Downloadable content and Expansions (Well, who doesn't like profit?)
Season pass includes instant access to the first 6 car packs released after launch.
- 6 cars will be added each month for 8 months (so two packs will not be included in the season pass)
- Bonus Festival Campaign released after 3 months (More off-road focus, new rally-inspired vehicles added)
- Bonus Underground Campaign released after 6 months (Along with new visual mods for some cars)

Other features:
- Car rental service like in TDU1 (Only applies to cars produced in the 21st century)
- Cars made before 2010 can only be bought in the used car dealership with varying levels of rarity between models
- Photomode with drone mode (If you are in multiplayer free roam, other players can see your drone)
- Customisable Drone
- Drone mini-games (I'm taking the drone thing too far now...)
- 24 hour day and night cycle
- Licensed in-game soundtrack with various radio stations
- Any game function can be accessed from the pause button (no need for menus)
 
Mine would be more focused on customization for a limitless single player experience. Sacrificing a bit of the sim value. The Super Mario Maker of the genre, if you will.

I'd grade the cars in the game with:

X - Formula 1 like cars.
S - LMP1 like cars.
A - DTM, GT500, DPi, LMP2 like cars with fictional race moded cars
B - GTE, GT3, GT300, Supercars like cars with fictional race moded cars
C - Hypercars
D - Supercars as well as Cup Cars
E - Sportscars
F - Pretty much the rest.
G - Kart.

Main mode is where you actually organize your own racing championships and share them online. You set the difficulty, tracks, laps, weather, regulation and the cars the A.I will use. Credits is earned based on these factors, the harder, the bigger the cash. There is also a side option to develop your own racing tracks and to send them online for others to try out.

A.I can use cars you personally moded, as well as events with rental cars being an option to try and make a unique experience.

Online mode is also a thing though not heavily focused, just matchmaking and private lobbies.
 
I'd create a lower-tier motorsports racing game. So from small hatchbacks, one make cups and up to touring cars, with the time spanning from the 1960s to the mid 80s or mid-80s to today. Simulate a proper career, with close racing being the order of the day.

So you'd have a starting point in time and an opening grass roots series and you'd decide to get as high as possible or find something you love and dominate. Racing on a mixture of fictional UK circuits up to the famous tracks as featured in the BTCC and with full race weekend, you'd have plenty of variety and a sense of achievement. A decent livery editor means you could create your identity or as in real life, work to sponsor's specific constraints if you make your way to top.
 
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