Kartoon Chaos

Project description

Kartoon Chaos is a kart racing game where up to four players race against each other and AI computers to see who can finish the track first. The karts can be controlled with several different control schemes including Keyboard, Xbox Controller, JoyCon, and Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. Controlling the kart is simple and there are a number of movements and abilities players can use to potentially gain a lead in the race. 

 Steering can be controlled with ‘A’ and ‘D’ or the control stick on the controller, and acceleration can be controlled using ‘W’ on the keyboard or ‘A’ on the controller. Drifting is a crucial mechanic to gaining speed. The longer you drift around a turn the faster the boost will be when you release the drift. Drifting can be done with ‘Shift’ or the bumper buttons on a controller.

Other useful methods of movement exist such as braking and reversing. These are useful for avoiding obstacles or falls. Braking can be done with ‘S’ on the keyboard or ‘B’ on the controller. Reversing can be done by continuing a brake long enough to begin moving backward on the track. Put together, all of these movement options allow the player to control a high-speed kart, bob and weave through the track, and surpass other racers.

Each race consists of eight racers. Up to four of these can be humans playing in local multiplayer, whilst the other racers are controlled by AI. Whilst racing there are various item boxes on the track, that the player can interact with and obtain items from. Items can be held behind the kart, or they can be used with the Item button, ‘Ctrl’ on keyboard, or the right bumper on controller. Each item is used differently, and knowing when to use what item is crucial for succeeding.

Items

There are a wide range of items, some of which can boost the user and others that can slow down others. Items like the Cassette Rewind Button, which forces all other players to move in reverse, and The Spin, which causes all player cameras to flip, can lead to a quick advantage for the user. Other items such as the various Apples and the Dice grant quick speed boosts. Finally, there are items that can cause other karts to spin out and lose their lead. These include the Buzzsaw, which is placed on the track, the Bow which can be fired in quick succession multiple times, and the Dodgeball which can bounce off walls. There’s also the Spoon which grants the kart underground invincibility and allows players to spin out other karts by running into them. Using all of these items at the right times is key to reaching first place. Keep in mind though that what items you receive depends on how far ahead, or behind, you are in the race. 

• Cassette Rewind Button: Forces every player except the player that used it to lose standard control of their kart and move in reverse for a couple seconds.
• The Spin: Rotates the screen for about eight seconds of all players except the one that uses it. 
• Apple: One use, grants an instant speed boost to the player’s kart.
• Spoon: Causes the player to dig underground. The kart can no longer be seen, but a mound of dirt and dirt particles can be traced where the player is. As the kart moves underground a trail is left above ground that causes any other racers that collide with it to spin out.
• Bow: Fires several arrows either forwards or backwards. Any kart that hits the arrows spins out for a few seconds.
• Buzzsaw: This item gets dropped behind the kart and remains there for the duration of the race. When a player, even the player who used the item, collides with it, they spin out.
• Dice: Grants the player anywhere from one to six apples. The number decided by the dice is in fact not random, but instead based on how far behind the player is in the race. This creates a feedback loop for players who are far behind to catch up.
• Dodgeball: Allows the player to throw a dodgeball either in front or behind them. This dodgeball bounces on walls and when it hits a kart, it causes the kart to spin out.

Post-Mortem

What Went Right

• We had excellent communication between all group members.
• Our goals would be completed in a timely manner.

What Went Wrong

• It was difficult to get the AI for the CPU karts to achieve the behavior we wanted it to have and our first 2 attempts at making it were a bit of a failure, but at least we had some form of progress from attempt 1 to 2. We were able to overcome these problems by coming up with some creative solutions and we were eventually able to achieve the behavior we wanted.

What Was Changed

• The AI for the CPU karts went through 3 different changes, at first we planned to have the karts use machine learning to race but the learning process for the CPU karts was very slow and would’ve taken too much of development time if we decided to stick with it. Next, we tried using a navmesh for the CPU karts, which functioned a lot better than the machine learning AI but still didn’t achieve the behavior we wanted the CPU karts to have. Finally, we were able to get a solid AI working thanks to an idea by Spencer that had the kart use the Leaderboard system to follow the forward vector of the checkpoints within the tracks.
• Originally we had plans for making 8 tracks and more characters and items to use, as well as a Kart Design System that would allow the player to customize their kart and its stats. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to implement everything, we had to cut down on some of our goals but we still managed to achieve most of the core gameplay mechanics we desired and we are satisfied with our final product.

What Did We Learn

• Unity Version Control is a lot easier to use than GitHub for Unity projects. When we first started the project we used GitHub for a short period of time and we never knew when there would be some kind of problem that would pop up that would not let us push or pull from the repository, but Unity Version Control made it much easier to know what was changed and what would cause a conflict.