Racer Prototype: POSTMORTEM

15/05/25 Racer Postmortem

Hey all! So i have done enough work on my racer to finally make a postmortem post about it, and I've definitely learnt a lot this time around. Before i get into that, i wanted to let people know that my racer prototype (as with all my other prototypes) can be found and played under the "people who i would like to meet" section of my profile.

- what chapters inspired  design process

The main chapters which inspired my work for this prototype were chapters 2 and 11 primarily, as well as some information given in class. Chapter 2 explained the structure of games in which every game requires these elements:

- Players: how many players in the game, (in my case it was a singleplayer game)

- Objectives: what is the point of the game, (mine was to get the highest score)

- Procedures: what are the required actions for play, (mine was to dodge obstacles as long as possible)

- Rules: Any limits on player actions. Rules regarding behaviors.

- Conflict: What causes conflict in game? (the conflict between other players fighting fo the top of a leaderboard of sorts)

- Boundaries: What are the boundaries of the game (physical boundaries for the players of not being able to go off of the restricted track)

- Outcome: what are the potential outcomes of the game? (the final score)

I heavily lent into these concept to engage the player into my prototyped game. Furthermore, in chapter 11 the concepts of fun and accessibility were outlined. Another aspect i heavily leaned into in this prototype is the concept of lizard, mouse, frog dynamics which are used to describe a game which includes a player selection which has their own advantages and disadvantages. 

One thing i would change about how I developed my racer prototype would be to lower my ambitions when creating a prototype. throughout my design process I've had this clear idea of what a finalised version of my game would look like. this type of thinking had a fatal flaw as it led to me having trouble juggling features to add to create a base version of my game. Because of this, a lot of other important features were over looked such as UI elements.

One thing i would change about my design is the background layouts. although I'm proud of my implementation of base features, i wish i spent more time on the formatting of my backdrops and ui elements. this would fall under the accessibility features talked about in chapter 11. I know I've always had trouble visualising things like that but its no excuse for not trying to do so with the time i had. Next time i definitely want to form my mechanics off of the basis of a well thought out layout. This will be done to improve player accessibility and thus improve their enjoyment of the game.

Anyways, thats all for this post. Kieran signing out!