Game Idea: Racing / Property / Tycoon

[clutchclutchgas]

Hi guys and girls.

If you want the short version, jump straight down to the bottom of this post, for the detailed version, here is my concept for a game:

I have an idea for a game but want to get some general public feedback before I put anything into action (and yes I know what I'm in for if I do pursue this - no social life for a couple of years lol)

Just think Gran Turismo, Need For Speed, and the Tycoon series mashed up into one game.

The game is based around your character - a wannabe racer (guy or girl). You start out with a set amount of cash, let's say $10,000 which will buy you a pretty ordinary car, not much power and nothing much to look at.

This game will be free-roam based (I'm not a fan on choosing things from menus - I prefer driving from one location to another). Instead of highlighted markers or icons on the street like Need For Speed and Midnight Club, there will be a number of tracks around the city (all which will have multiple variations of each track) that you can drive to in order to race and earn some money and reputation.

There will also be a couple of performance shops which would sell engine upgrades, exhaust systems, etc., body shops where you could respray your car, add decals, body kits, window tinting, etc., and accessory shops which would offer items that go inside your car, like steering wheels, gear shifters, pedals, stereo, dvd player, etc.

Like in life, you would pay an entry fee to enter a race, but I would set up the prize money in a specific way which I haven't seen before in a game (only in illegal street races). In Need For Speed, they have a set prize money, in Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights, they also have a set prize money but with the offer to make side bets with other racers. I would do it like this - you can choose how many people you race against, each pay their entry fee and the winner takes everyone's entry fee (plus his or her own back). The more powerful the cars and harder the race, the higher the entry fee and prize money. e.g. you vs 5 racers @ $1,000 entry fee - winner takes $6,000.

If there is one thing I really don't like about other racing games, it's the fact that everything is locked - cars, car parts, tracks, certain parts of the city, etc. and you have to win races to unlock items. In this game, everything is unlocked from day 1 - you just won't be able to afford it yet.

So at this point, it sounds like most other driving games out there, but let me put a twist on it.

You get to the point where you can afford another car and want to upgrade, but don't want to let go of your current car (you know, sentimental value or what not), you will need somewhere to store it. So now you have 2 options... either rent a garage (within a track or somewhere in the city), actually pay a set fee per week/month to hold a certain amount of cars - if you rent a 1 car garage and you own 2 cars, you will have the ability to change between cars simply by driving to the garage and choosing to swap cars. I may add the option to "jump" to locations for people who prefer that.

The other option... buy a house with a garage/multiple garages!

See, when I was playing Gran Turismo and other driving games, I'd manage to bank literally millions of dollars... and I'd bought everything in the game... (so expansion packs are being thought about - cars, car parts, houses, etc.) and I thought... I could buy a house with this money - so why not.

You will be able to buy houses, from a simple one storey house with a double garage to a 3 storey mansion with an 80 car underground garage (that idea was thanks to a mansion about an hour away from my house).

You can choose to live in the house, or use them as rental properties and receive rent money each week/month without having to do races.

Okay, so far this game is loosely summarised as this:

As a wannabe racer, you buy a cheap car, you enter races, you modify your car, you win money, you have the ability to buy houses to live in, store your cars and rent out your properties.

Let me add one more angle on this game - a career.

When you start out, you will literally have nothing. If you need to repair your car or fit new parts, you will have to take your car to various shops around the city. However, as you progress through the game, as mentioned earlier, you can rent a garage within a track, you can also hire a pit crew/team that will be stationed in your garage.

With a pit crew, you won't need to leave the track to have work done to your car on a race day, everything the pit crew do for you is covered in their weekly/monthly wage.

Eventually, get to the stage where you can bring another driver onboard and make a name for your team, have a colour scheme between all your cars if you wish, and allow them to race instead of you to build his/her reputation and driving skills, allowing the money to come to you (or your team) minus his/her cut.

So that's pretty much it. One more updated quick summary.

There are 3 parts to this game - Racing, Owning Property, and Starting and Building a Racing Team.

Your character is a wannabe racer (male or female), they have $10,000 and everything is available from day 1 - nothing is locked, they just can't afford it yet. As they drive and win races, they build up their bank to the point where they can buy more cars, houses and garages. They can also rent out houses that have been bought to earn money back without the need to race.

Your character has the ability to start his or her own team when the money is right, hire a pit crew, and other drivers. The team (your business) makes money and the drivers take a percentage from each win and the rest goes to the business.

I've deliberately been detailed to minimise the amount of confusion, so let me know if this is something you could see yourself playing and getting into, as I know living a second life through gaming has become very popular, especially when you have the ability to grow and become better.

If you've made it all the way through from top to bottom, well done

Thanks for reading and I welcome any opinions, feedback, advice or criticism.

[kalniel]

Sounds like TDU2. Which is going to be great, but if they're resorting to posts that sound like spam then I'm less impressed. (Not saying this is spam, but it's a bit odd for a first post )

[Andy3536]

I think if you want a career mode where you run a race team, buying houses would be an unnecessary and unwanted interuption for most people that would want to play those games.
It also sounds like from you talking about tuning the cars, the career mode would end up being a lot like running through a game of Forza or GT.

If you wanted to go to the trouble of running a race team, wouldn't the career follow proper race series rather than tuned street cars? Otherwise it's just going to end up like TD, GT or Forza. You wouldn't really need a race team if you were running a road car with a Turbo. You'd have a mate help.

I think with your idea you have 2 distinct games already covered on their own, but together might put of both parties that would have bought the separate games.

I'm all for improved career modes though

Just my 2 pence....

[Norman121]

Personally, I think there's a reason that a lot of things are locked from the start - and not just from a playtime point of view.

If you could buy anything and everything from the start, it doesn't encourage anyone to try everything that there is to offer in terms of events and competitions. If you really wanted (and had extreme patience) you could do the same one race over and over until you could afford anything.

Being able to unlock things introduces a sense of achievement and enticement towards parts of the game that you might oterhwise avoid. Sure, sometimes it can be frustrating to have to do something that you don't want to just to be able to get somewhere in the game, but when you finally do manage it, there is a nice reward for that. It's what bring people back to the game.

It should be a fairly easy thing to justify having certain things locked as well. If I remember rightly, Gran Turismo did this through having different licenses.

[clutchclutchgas]

Thanks for the replies guys.

@kalniel - im not a spammer but i can see where you're coming from. actually i just signed up to get some feedback, hence this being my first post. and shame on me, i didnt even know what tdu2 was, now i do... good old google = D but yeah tdu2 does look alright huh?

@andy3536 - yeah i suppose, i guess i was just trying to hit two birds with one stone... but thanks for ur feedback.

@norman - so you prefer everything to be locked? i find it annoying not knowing what im racing for, in hope i get something good and then just another body kit, etc. but okay, i'll take what u said onboard, thanks.

[GoNz0]

i think for one person it will be impossible to pull off anything remotely playable.
good luck though.

[Norman121]

@norman - so you prefer everything to be locked? i find it annoying not knowing what im racing for, in hope i get something good and then just another body kit, etc. but okay, i'll take what u said onboard, thanks.

Not everything, no. I just think that I would find the game uninteresting if everything was unlocked from the start. Just look at big hits like the latest CODs and even Battlefield 2 back in the day. A big part of the appeal of those games is the multiplayer and - more importantly - the unlockables.

Not only does it provide a goal, it's also about bragging rights and a sense of achievement. Now I'm not suggesting that every item in the game has some sort of challenge to unlock it but there need to be things to attain. For example, like I mentioned with Gran Turismo, you wouldn't be able to enter later races without specific licenses. These would then unlock a number of new opportunities.

There was no guesswork either like you mentioned (not knowing what you were racing for) as each track told you exactly what was needed.