Campus Circuit Document Contents

• Overview
• Design Process
  • Initial Plan
  • Major Changes
• Future Work
  • Needs Fixing
  • Stretch Goals
  • Problem Areas

Campus Circuit Design Document

Overview

• Track Name: Campus Circuit

• Cup 1-1
• Difficulty: Beginner
• A nice and breezy introduction to Gizmo Go-Kartz!
• Link to One-Pager

Design Process

Initial Plan

• As the first track in the game, Campus Circuit is meant to be simple. Its shape is a basic loop.
• Campus Circuit takes place on a sunny university campus and serves as the introductory course for the player.
• It’s designed to familiarize new racers with the core mechanics, including steering, braking, boosting, and using shortcuts.
• The layout is wide, forgiving, and has signs to teach mechanics, with gentle curves and low-risk hazards to encourage learning without punishing mistakes.

Version 1

• The first iteration of the track is very rough around the edges, but matches with the initial plan.

Version 2

• The second iteration cleaned up the edges from the first.
• However, it is too small and the turns were sharper than expected.

Major Design Changes

Versions 3 and 4

• The third iteration has a much smoother shape, and now features raised walls to prevent racers from falling off the track.
  • At this time, GSP had not yet finished the script to bring racers back to the track.
• The fourth iteration is slightly more refined, fixing minor bumps that players drove across.

Versions 5-8

• The fifth through 8th iterations kept the layout of the previous track, but experimented with creating a larger base for the track.
• This base helped to bridge the distance between the track and the scenery, helping to blend the level into a single coherent piece.
• The most effective base size lies somewhere between version 5 and 7.

Versions 9 and 10

• The ninth iteration is an overhaul over the last version. The track was smoothed out and the sharpest turn was shaved down.
• The tenth and final iteration added a base to the ninth, creating the same bridging effect as 5-8.
• In Unity, alternative paths were added using the Unity spline tool and populated with a prefab.
  • These paths tend to be very bumpy and produce a lot of friction on the kart.

Future Work

Needs Fixing

• The alternative path and shortcut need to be remodeled in Blender.
  • Currently, they are planes instantiated on a spline that do not sit flat and bounce the kart around.
• The checkpoints are facing the wrong direction. When selected with the move tool, the red X-axis arrow should point opposite the flow of the race.

Stretch Goals from Summer 2025

• N/A

Problem Areas

These are sections of the track that are not broken, but can still be improved.

• There are sections towards the inside perimeter of the track where karts get too close to buildings. It is unknown if the karts can get stuck in any of these sections.