{"id":294,"date":"2013-10-21T17:11:21","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T21:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/?p=294"},"modified":"2013-10-21T17:11:21","modified_gmt":"2013-10-21T21:11:21","slug":"between-forza-and-mario-kart-the-middle-ground-of-racing-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/between-forza-and-mario-kart-the-middle-ground-of-racing-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Between Forza And Mario Kart: The Middle Ground Of Racing Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my experience talking to folks who play racing video games, the issue of \u201cfavorite game\u201d tends to divide people into two very different camps.\u00a0 On one side, there are the simulation fans, the Forza Motorsport<\/i> and Gran Turismo<\/i> players who expect their games to take the phrase \u201cvirtual reality\u201d literally.\u00a0 They want accurate physics, real cars and tracks, photorealistic graphics, and a wealth of options for changing the look, handling, and performance of their cars.\u00a0 On the other side, there are the arcade fans, the Mario Kart<\/i> aces who live for over-the-top spectacle.\u00a0 They want accessible controls, creative tracks, colorful visuals, and clever power-ups.\u00a0 For all their differences, these two groups have at least one thing in common: they don\u2019t typically care about games that exist somewhere in the awkward middle of the two extremes.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s a game developer to do?\u00a0 Making a sim racer with more attention to detail than Forza<\/i> or an arcade game more fun than Mario Kart<\/i> is next to impossible, but splitting the difference runs the risk of appealing to no one at all.\u00a0 There are, however, a few tried and true ways of finding an audience in a genre dominated by a handful of big franchises.<\/p>\n

The first option is to go for niche appeal and find a kind of racing that the major players don\u2019t cover.\u00a0 Codemasters<\/a> clearly has this figured out.\u00a0 Their DiRT<\/i> series has become the big name in off-road rally racing, while their F1<\/i> franchise is the only game in town for fans of the world\u2019s most popular motorsport.\u00a0 The big risk here is that commercial success draws the attention of the big hitters, who may try to move in on the action.\u00a0 The release of a rally expansion for Forza Horizon<\/i> showed that DiRT<\/i>\u2019s popularity did not go unnoticed.<\/p>\n

\"F12013\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If all the good niches are occupied, there\u2019s always the option of combining good points of the two extremes.\u00a0 The most common method is to take the shiny graphics and licensed cars of the sim giants and give them the drift-happy handling and explosive power-ups of a carting game.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen this for years from big franchises like Need For Speed<\/i><\/a>.\u00a0 The problem with this approach is that it\u2019s impossible to prevent people from griping about how the cars handle.\u00a0 They\u2019re either too \u201cfloaty\u201d or too \u201cunforgiving,\u201d which are essentially code words for being too close to the arcade or simulation ends of the spectrum.\u00a0 I suppose you could also try applying Gran Turismo<\/i> physics to the cars and tracks from Mario Kart<\/i>, but I suspect there\u2019s a good reason that\u2019s never been done.<\/p>\n

\"NFS\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One final option, and perhaps my personal favorite, is to do something completely different.\u00a0 Throw the rules of the genre out the window and give gamers something they\u2019ve never really seen before.\u00a0 My favorite recent example of this approach is the Trials<\/i> series of games on Xbox Live Arcade.\u00a0 By combining elements of the off-road racing and 2-D platforming genres, developer RedLynx<\/a> essentially gave gamers a playground full of physics-based puzzles to solve while riding motorcycles.\u00a0 Throwing in a powerful track editor was a big help to the franchise, as user-generated content is a great (and free) way of extending a game\u2019s lifespan.\u00a0 It\u2019s arguably the most risky option, but without developers and publishers willing to take a chance on a unique concept, we\u2019d never have racing games in the first place.<\/p>\n

\"TrialsEv\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So yes, the driving genre can be a tough market full of gamers who\u2019d rather stick to their franchise of choice than try anything different (I count myself among this group).\u00a0 But then again, the same can be said for shooters, RPGs, sports games, fighting games, strategy games, and platformers.\u00a0 But as long as there are options for doing something different, I like to believe that talented developers will always find a way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pit Box One is written by Paul Jensen. You can follow his thoughts on video games and motor racing on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my experience talking to folks who play racing video games, the issue of \u201cfavorite game\u201d tends to divide people into two very different camps.\u00a0 On one side, there are the simulation fans, the Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo players who expect their games to take the phrase \u201cvirtual reality\u201d literally.\u00a0 They want accurate physics, [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions\/300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}