Game Design Proposition

I recently played a game on Candyland.com called Monster Trucks 2 by Divo Divo. It was a 2D sidescroller where you drove a customized monster truck through a variety of wild courses. The goal was simple - get to the end of the track without destroying your car. It’s not as easy as it seems. The cars can flip and fall far more easily than expected. However, this adds to the fun of the game. Once you get the hang out it you can whirl your car around with style! After completing the races you have the choice to try the trick or trial runs through the previously completed courses, as well as moving on to new courses. You can spec your truck to exactly the way you want it - lowering or raising shocks, moving wheels around, etc. - all of which change the physics of the vehicle.

The game reminded me of Off-Road Velociraptor Safari by Flashbang Studios and even some aspects of GTA. What I loved most about those games was the physics created for cars - and of course the way you could relentlessly mash your vehicle into objects or people - or other cars (at least in GTA for the last one). Even Halo has some fun aspects when driving vehicles - going off ramps, boosting and crashing none the less.

I’d love to take the monster truck game and turn in into a 3-D sandbox game. Instead of simply completing races on a 2-D course and trying NOT to smash your car up, I think it would be awesome to have the game simply about destroying things. The setting would be in an everyday city with people walking around, magazine stands, other cars, etc. and the more destruction you cause, the more points/cash you rake in. Spend the points on bettering your vehicle, or perhaps adding stuff around the city just to obliterate in more fun, exhilarating ways. The player could have the option to enter races around the city, or perhaps destruction derby’s to compete against other violent vehicles. Ramps, cliffs, hills and the like would be strewn in various places around the sandbox. Doing tricks off of them could earn the player extra cash to play with, or just watch their vehicle careen into the side of a building. Furthermore, add in a multiplayer aspect so you and your friends can simultaneously thrash the city or just do it to each other!

I realize that the idea can seem rather mundane and could get boring just doing the same thing over and over. While it’s a game that would keep the reward/ratio very high, there wold be very little new content to entice players to keep playing. One way I see around this would be to have the player progress through different cities as “stages”, each one getting either more complex or more enforced. I think, however, if made to be multiplayer that would add significant replay value to the game. Also adding in secret upgrades, for example blades that protrude from the hubcaps that would slice apart other vehicles or pedestrians. It would also be necessary to add in micro goals so that there was always an alternative to demolishing the environment. I believe that while this wouldn’t be a game anyone would play for hours on end, it could be very pleasing for a 30 min devastation binge. It would certainly fall under the “casual game” category, with a violent, gory twist.