CPSC 4170/6170: �Final Presentation�

Samir Masih

CPSC 4170

Game working title:

K4SS0

(ka-soh)

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Game description

Concept: The Japanese game show, “Kasso”, involves skater contestants performing difficult tasks revolving around the sport. Combining that idea with the energy of the Crazy Taxi series and the stylistic choices of Jet Set Radio and Ollie King, “K4SS0” aims to make a fast paced game that will only get deeper and more engaging with mastery of the mechanics and knowledge of the map.

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Game description

Story: As a new contestant on the newest season of Kasso, the format of the show has changed to see how fast contestants can complete all the challenges in the area. With board in hand, you set off once the countdown drops with all intentions to take home the prize money with the highest score…

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Game description

Genre: 3D Action/Sports

The action and sports genres are both broad categories. Action games can involve real-time reactions, combat, or frenetic interactions with the environment, while Sports games depend on the sport being emulated by the game.

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Game description

In "K4SS0," objectives are “Arcade Style”, pushing the player to complete them quickly to keep playing:

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1. Race around the map: As the player character, you skate around the map and are able to do tricks to accrue points.
2. Enter “Challenge Zones”: Around the map, you’ll see red barriers. Enter them to start that area’s challenge, which differs per area of the map.
3. Complete challenges: The timer is paused while a challenge is active and a second “challenge timer” counts down. Finish the challenge as fast as possible to get the most points from it.
4. Keep the timer from running out: If the timer ends, your run ends and a rank is given based on the score during your run.

2nd objective ref: Traversal concept inspiration

3rd objective ref: trick and terrain ideas

Game information

Skill rating: Intermediate/Experienced gamers

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Audience:

Rated E for everyone, with no specific age, sex, or subgroup of note directly intended by the content of the game.

Game Design (visual)

A focus on early 2000s as an aesthetic will be the focus, mainly derived by the games that inspired this game as a concept.

©SEGA/Smilebit, 2000 (Jet Set Radio)

©SEGA/Amusement Vision, 2004 (Ollie King)

©SEGA/Hitmaker (Crazy Taxi: High Roller)

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Game Design (visual)

Examples of toon shading tests, done in blender (2022).

Game references

Third person perspective will be prioritized to give a full sense of the world. The feeling of movement and “flow” is a must.

Entities – Player character

1. Main character - “Grinner”
1. No given personality.
2. As the main player character, you skate around the map, beating Challenge Zones and performing tricks to gain score.

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“Grinner”

Game mechanics

"K4SS0" is based off of early 2000s Sega games and their mechanics. Top Skater, Jet Set Radio, Ollie King, and the Crazy Taxi series are main inspirations for the gameplay.

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• Timer and Score: The most important parts of a “good run”. Run out of time, and the game is over. Get too low of a score, and you will fail to win the prize money.
• Speed: Highly prioritized by the player aiming for a high score, the player must make use of speed to keep their timer from running out (detailed more in next slide).
• “Challenge Zones”: When a Challenge Zone is entered, a challenge and a second timer is given. Finish the given task in a certain amount of time, get to the end, or perform the actions given in order to get more points. Failure results in no points given, and you must visit the zone again to reactivate it.
• Teleporters: These blue barriers allow you to get around the map by entering them.
• Kasso Keycubes: These give the players extra points and are hidden. Finding all of them gives a big bonus.

Character mechanics

• Skating Controls: Inspired by downhill skating styles in real life, the controls focus on preserving momentum and managing speed using real life techniques.
• Turning: Players can turn left and right while moving forward.
• Push: Pressing this button allows players to move forward. There is a cap on how fast a player can push.
• Brake: Tapping this button decelerates the player until they stop fully.
• Powersliding: The ability to reduce speed while turning sharply.
• Ollie/Nollie: The simple action of jumping. This button can be used in multiple other contexts as well.
• Downforce: Pressing forward increases gravity, while pressing backwards decreases gravity. Useful for aligning jumps or attaching to rails.
• “Latch-On”: Holding this button in the air makes it easier to attach to rails near you.
• Tricking: Depending on your current speed, traveling fast enough lets you perform a random trick.
• “Bail/Panic”: Pressing this button resets you to the start of the level, in case you get stuck. This tends to happen a lot for physics-based games, so giving the player an out would be helpful.

Technical - Assets

• Character/UI assets.
• Ripped from Ollie King.
• Stage assets.
• Inspired by Ollie King and Crazy Taxi’s rendition of San Francisco, a custom version of the city will be created for this game.
• Visual effects
• Shaders and other GFX created in blender by me (see “game design” section).
• Audio assets.
• Voicelines, SFX from Ollie King.
• Variety of music included.

Animation example for tricks:

Technical - Levels

• One level.
• Large, open area that allows for different levels of traversal.
• Each sub-area has a challenge zone for the player.
• Varying terrain, altitudes, to challenge the player’s movement abilities.
• Based on the Shibuya stage from Jet Set Radio.

Technical - Levels

• Old concept art for stage, nicknamed “2000s Boulevarde” (2021):

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Technical - Collision & physics

• Simple collision detection.
• Possible collisions:
• Regular ground.
• Ramps (of specific types).
• Rails.
• Physics:
• Inspired by Crazy Taxi, physics will inspire the idea of preserving and managing speed and momentum based on the player’s application of the given movement options for the player character.
• Decompilation for Crazy Taxi 3 and Ollie King might yield the best algorithms for a high-quality physics engine.

Technical - Algorithms

• Physics.
• The most complex part of this game. Not only must player feel be involved, but many calculations will have to be done in order to reach the “authentic” arcade feel that is intended.
• The controls must contribute to the “expected” outcome of the physics engine. I.e. if you stop instantly without braking, or gain ludicrous speed without doing actions that gain speed, game feel will be off to a player.
• Score.
• Score will be based on tricks, grind rails, points gained from Challenge Zones, and Keycubes.

Software architecture

Timeline

Priority list (in order):

1. Movement/collision fully functional (April 5th).
• Player should have all movement functional by this point.
2. NPC tasks/actions (April 10th).
• NPC characters should be able to give a location and task.
3. Fully flesh out game map and interactables (April 17th).
• Game map should be done and explorable.
4. Wrap up graphics and animations (April 24th).
• Character animations should be fully fleshed out, graphics should be finalized around here.