Royal Riddle Racers demo walk-through premise

Just a quick meeting this one, I presented the 'Demo Walk-through' for the demo level we will be creating. It was warmly received, and apparently made it all a lot clearer in peoples minds. It outlined the play mechanic, and general feeling of the game:

Family Game Demo Level Walkthrough:

Of our plan B, multi-faceted, single screen multiplayer racer / puzzler.

Initially, you are faced with a faded distorted slowly panning splash screen of a crowning ceremony. This indicates the open visual style appropriate for all the family. Pressing start, large cartoon-like text will indicate the main options on the panning circuit / environment background; Single player, Multiplayer, High Scores, Help/Tutorial (or something similar).

Selecting multiplayer will prompt the screen to fill with all manner of characters running on. Multicoloured pointers relating to which and how many players are connected. Are used to select their characters (we can limit the choice to 4 or 5 in the demo). When the characters are hovered over, their specific puzzle preference pops up to indicate how that character plays.

When all are chosen and locked in by pressing a, the screen proceeds by fading out the unpicked characters and dropping the chosen ones onto a barely visible plane with 2 spotlights indicating the 2 starting teams. Players can control the characters at this point and move side to side to determine the teams. 2 vs 2 or 3 vs 1, whatever they choose.

When teams are chosen, the panning background becomes black and in fades the inside of a building (maybe a barn). They go out through huge barn doors together into the environment looking out across the stylised cartoon world. All but the first (randomly) determined racer disappear off / ‘zorb’ away. The camera centres on the racer player, and the 3 other players ‘zorb’ onto the screen in their 2d puzzle overlay space. Each player has a small picture of their character in the corner of the sections.

(That above sequence could be for the start of the 1^st level, I propose doing the last level for the demo and providing screenshots / flythroughs for the other stages as extra eye candy)

The ‘race’ starts, the driving player simply avoiding basic objects - walls / rocks. As the driving player picks up small collectables, and puzzles that are given to your puzzle solving team-mate(s) if you have any. These are being done as you race around. Once a puzzle is done, you will get a reward in the form of an item for you crown. It will appear ahead of you on the track but only for a limited time. This is where the opposite powers (the other players) can strike, by completing their puzzle; they can spawn objects in front of the driver to dodge. Crashing into them will slow the driver down, and they may not get to the pickup before it vanishes! The 3 players not driving can change their allegiance to the driver. They may all decide to gang up on them and throw objects in the way (maybe if dad is playing) or band together and help spawn lots of goodies when granny is playing.

You get bonuses and add-ons for characters for doing well in the puzzle bits as well, so there are rewards for doing the puzzles too. Plus, the intended audience want upgrades and customisation.

Extra pickups are awarded at the end of the stage for completing it within a set time to ensure the driver is racing against the clock but balancing it with collecting puzzles and avoiding obstacles. An incomplete puzzle will slow the racer down but the puzzle solver will have the option to discard the current puzzle at any time, speeding the racer up but discarding the chance to create a crown piece for that puzzle.

Each player will get to drive a different stage as the selection is random. The last level is a dash to the royal stately house. The driving player arrives at the finish point, and drives through a huge side-on crown statue. Once arrived, all the player characters gather at the staircase to the grand mansion, make their way up the stairs and whoever collected the most crown bits gets to walk towards the prince and crown him the new king in a grand OTT cutscene.