research - Nicky-Nice-Games/ggk-UnityProject GitHub Wiki
- Inspirations
- Related Games
- Target Audience
- Market Analysis
- Foundational Information for Developers
- Competitive Analysis
- Playtesting
- Playtesting Forms
Obviously, at its core. This game is an RIT IGM-themed Mario Kart. The Mario Kart series is a large inspiration. While each game in the series and the series as a whole provides inspiration, specifically, we will look at Mario Kart 64 for the following reasons.
Mario Kart 64
- Arguably the simplest most basic iteration of the game.
- (Sans Super Mario Kart with its SNES 2D implementation.)
- Simple single kart design that only changes color, but not the model.
- There are no “varying karts”, or other sub kart parts that can affect “kart attributes”.
- While this game has playable characters that are divided into three weight classes, which determine characteristics such as speed, acceleration, and handling. We will not be doing this. Character choice will be purely aesthetic for our game and have no effect on stats.
Example gameplay footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmHiQJy4oRw
We are here to goof around and have fun. While things might get competitive, being serious is secondary. So we lean into the Go-Karting and Bumper Cars sort of vibe. Rather than the Formula 1 and Simulation Racing vibe.
Some big things here are the physical and social aspects of our product space. Our end product will most likely be a desktop computer hidden behind some wooden walls to make it look like an arcade cabinet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t look at existing arcade cabinets for aesthetic, ergonomic, and functional design.
There is also something to be said about a big eye-catching installation. It grabs the attention of everyone around it, especially if someone is using it. People will walk up to watch what is going on. We should also design for the experience of someone watching someone else play.
“In addition to this formal and informal training, Miyamoto learned to design arcade cabinet games first. Good arcades support both the player and the spectator, the assumption being that people would crowd around the game, watch, and comment.”
Our game takes inspiration from Mario Kart's style of racing, so to speak it is much closer to racing as a concept rather than a simulation. It's meant to have a low fidelity to realistic racing, with a high focus on speed, drifting, and some luck aspects with our items. This also plays into our theme of being a cartoony low poly game, so we want to show a more gameified and silly version of racing as opposed to emulating the real thing.
The theme of our game is meant to be cartoony, in that the characters and styles of the game are colorful and unrealistic. Beyond this, we also implement an extent of cartoonish physics, by having our game be fast paced and have drastic or steep turns. We also allow for silly and unrealistic tricks to be done in midair.
I like this art style vibe of low fidelity. It also helps that in theory, anyone on our team could contribute an art asset on this project.
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Another Kart Racer, but more so here for its power-up and item system as inspiration.
We want this game to be based around RIT in as many ways as possible, including locations around campus, the color scheme, and also the characters. One of our goals is to attempt to make an IGM mascot that could be used in future co-op games like this one.
Possible Related Games
- Mario Kart
- CTR
- F-Zero
- Garfield Kart
- Lego Racing
Reminder of our Target Audience as outlined in our summary section.
Our Primary audience is IGM students who use the IGM lounge located on the second floor of Golisano Hall. The students consist mostly of young adults majoring in Game Design and Development and New Media Interactive Development. Due to their studies, these students have above-average game and design literacy. While they’ll likely be the most critical student group, they will also be considerate of the limitations of student projects, such as the short timeline and limited knowledge that comes with varying years of students. These students are using the lounge area for a place to work between classes, socialize with other students, and hang out during their downtime so ideally any addition to their space should be considerate of that.
Those seeking to do work in this area will need the arcade cabinet to not be too audibly distracting, so its volume shouldn’t be too loud. These students might also want to use the cabinet for a fun break from work, so they will also be attracted to gameplay that is brief, rather than time-consuming. They may choose to play our game with friends or alone, so they will want a positive solo player experience from the game which can be provided by NPC racers that enable single player races to still be fun and competitive. Those seeking to use the lounge for a social setting will also need aspects that provide a positive experience for all parties. This can be done with a visually appealing game, quick competitive gameplay, and a machine that is comfortable for the player and onlookers to view at the same time.
May Foster, 21
Demographics: Female, age 21, from Buffalo NY. Attends school at RIT as a Game Design and Development student and lives in a Riverknoll apartment on campus. Works in the kitchen at Crossroads and in another restaurant off campus on weekends. Uses the money she makes to pay for college and housing.
Psychographics: She values close personal relationships and enjoys working in small teams because it allows for more individual creativity. She enjoys gaming, sketching, and reading in her free time and is often up late playing video games with her friends. Interested in starting her own studio, she has taken some business oriented courses and started teaching herself about entrepreneurship.
Goals: Wants to start her own game development studio to build games she would enjoy playing and to create experiences that are exciting and meaningful to her. She also wants to empower female developers and increase the amount of women in the games industry.
Our secondary audience consists of IGM students who don’t regularly use the lounge, as well as the broader community in Golisano and RIT. The students in the communities are less likely to encounter the arcade machine by chance and will typically learn about it through word of mouth, posters, or online promotion. The more a student is disconnected from IGM, the less likely they’ll be aware and reminded of our game and machine, and so the importance of their first impression increases. For this reason, the game must deliver a positive visceral reaction. Aesthetics, game mechanics, and engaging gameplay will be key factors in driving interest and replayability among this group.
IGM faculty and staff also make up an important part of our secondary audience. While some may engage with the game for entertainment, many will view the project as a showcase of student work. Professors will want to see something that reflects well on IGM, both in quality and ambition, and may use the aspects from the game as classroom examples. As such, the game must demonstrate strong creative efforts in design and development and an understanding of principles in design and programming, even within the constraints of a student project.
Beyond these previously mentioned aspects, the audiences will also need aspects that entice continuous gameplay. To do this, the game should promote some skill development or have a reward system. The game should also be easy to access online in terms of navigating to it and considering controller options.
Sammy Parker, 30
Demographics: Female, age 30, married, from Rochester NY. Is a visiting lecturer that's been teaching at RIT for 3 years now. She teaches beginner Experience design courses within the school with a few classes in beginner programming. She graduated from the Game Design program 8 years ago and began working at an Indie studio shortly after. Her income is about $50,000 per year.
Psychographics: She values close personal relationships and family. She is very enthusiastic about revising and improving herself in how she teaches and in personal ways. She is passionate about teaching and wants to see her students grow and succeed in their personal and professional lives. In her free time she likes to travel.
Goals: Being a previous student she has a passion to provide quality education and guidance to current IGM students. She wants to see the continued success of the IGM department and is excited to contribute to the department. Although she enjoys teaching and cares for her students she eventually wants to return to industry.
One of our direct competitors is the Mario Kart franchise which has their newest iteration, Mario Kart World, releasing on June 5th, 2025. The success of previous Mario Kart games tells us that there will likely be an overall positive reception to the release of this game, however its high price point of $80 has some fans more skeptical. Mario Kart Tour is the only free game in the series and it was released to mobile app stores in 2019 and has accumulated 267 million downloads.
While it’s difficult to find statistics on the kart racing genre, the overall racing genre has been growing and is expected to continue to do so in the next few years. This growth is mostly attributed to improvements in gaming hardware like VR headsets that make games more immersive and software like improved physics systems that make handling a vehicle more realistic. These technologies help create more true to life experiences, but as the kart racing genre doesn’t make use of these features it is difficult to use forecasts of the overall racing game market to make predictions for the kart racing market.
This is good developer onboarding information. What should a developer of this project need to know before starting work on day 1?
What is our genre?
“Kart Racers” is a subcategory of the “Racing” genre of video games. They are a fast paced racing game that mimics go-carts rather than racing cars. The carts are humorously subject to the whims of extreme physics, providing the player a racing experience more akin to a Warner Bros Looney Tunes cartoon rather than a Formula 1 Grand Prix simulation.
What are the games we should know about in our genre?
| Game | Release | Developer | Publisher | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mario Kart | 2025 | Nintendo EAD | Nintendo |
| 2 | Crash Team Racing | 1999 | Naughty Dog | Sony |
| 3 | Diddy Kong Racing | 1997 | Rare | Rare, Nintendo |
| 4 | LEGO Racers | 1999 | High Voltage Software | LEGO Media |
| 5 | Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed | 2012 | Sumo Digital Ltd. | Sega |
| 6 | ModNation Racers | 2010 | United Front Games | Sony |
| 7 | Super Indie Karts | 2015 | One Legged Seagull | One Legged Seagull |
| 8 | NASCAR Arcade Rush | 2023 | Team6 Game Studios | GameMill Entertainment |
| 9 | DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing | 2023 | BamTang Games | GameMill Entertainment |
| 10 | Mickey Speedway USA | 2000 | Rare | Nintendo |
- Kart Racers - Designing Fun for Everyone ~ Design Doc
- Ep 2? - Experimental Kart Racers - Sonic, Kirby, Snowboard Kids & More
- What is a kart racer? And what are some examples?
- What's the BEST Kart Racing Game?
- https://youtu.be/tk_IFN7sCo0
- Mario Kart over time
- The Evolution of Mario Kart Tracks
- https://youtu.be/dOeKp-FzlO8
- Items
- The Evolution of Mario Kart Items
- https://youtu.be/RJg8ka9bwRI
- Level Design - tracks?
- Lessons learned from a first mod
- How I Made My First Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Custom Track
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU4oyP0xHys
- Lessons learned from a first mod
Videos to watch later
- How the Best Mario Kart Tracks Design Themselves
- An Analysis of Mario Kart's Track Design | Kardino
- What Makes a Good Mario Kart Track? Analyzing the Best and Worst Courses in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Game Design in Arcade Racing games
- The Best and Worst Mario Kart Clones!
- I Made Mario Kart 9
- KART RACING video games [1988 - 2024]
- 10 Kart Racing Games for PC
- 10 Best Kart Racers That Aren't Mario Kart
- Good Game Design - Diddy Kong Racing: Perfecting The Kart Racer
- The Story of Super Mario Kart
- A Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Retrospective (Including DLC!)
- What If We had A Mario Kart Maker?!
Crash Team Racing
- Not official, but something...
- Crash Team Racing | Making of Documentary
Our primary competition is Mario Kart. The newest game from the series is Mario Kart World, which has sold millions of physical copies. Realistically, our game does not directly compete with anything, since it is intended on being enjoyed by a specific group, and on a specific platform, that being our arcade cabinet.
Currently, our game is mostly being playtested internally. Though, going forward, we intend on having external playtests through open door integration testing, but also full playtests that will be hosted by our Quality Assurance team.
Level Design - 1st Internal Playtest Form Level Design - 2nd Internal Playtest Form Level Design 07/15 Integration Testing Feedback Form Level Design 07/17 Integration Testing Feedback Form GSP 07/08/2025 Playtest Feedback Form GSP 07/10/2025 Playtest Feedback Form