Blogs - Pacer_is_Pathetic

A so-called “Sci-Fantasy” & tactical combat Racer, Feet Per Second is currently intended to be initially developed with Unity 5 and to have 3 incarnations(the last of which is aimed at Unreal):
FPS 3-2-1 = a ‘casual’, introductory version, for Mobile; 2D/Top-down view.

FPS 0 = the harder-core, ‘dedicated’ eSport, for Mobile; 2D < 3D/Top-down.

& Critical Mæss = hardcore, ‘dedicated’ eSport, for PC; 3D/1st-person view.

“3-2-1” will be truly F2P, only generating revenue via optional, highly incentivized Ads. “0” I have always intended to charge a fair Premium price for, but have now begun to consider releasing it as F2P, as well. “Critical Mæss” will definitely have a Premium price release.

Immediately follows what is perhaps, for some, the really exciting part:

50% of gross(or net) revenue, will be channeled into cash prize pools.

Cash prize events/tournaments are trouble, legally. Why it should be so hard for any business, company or, in this case, dev, to give back to its patrons, clients, players is, to me, well beyond common sense, even if there IS(?) sound reasoning behind such financial laws & regulations. I very recently had an industry veteran point out to me that even most AAA development studios and publishers, avoid cash and physical prize events/tournaments. He heartily recommended I simply steer clear of trying to implement cash prizes, and highly recommended that, if I am so determined to pursue such a risky and tricky course, the very first thing I should do is hire on a lawyer with the appropriate expertise. Now, the FPS Project is indie so, unless I could discover a fitting lawyer willing to consult either pro bono or for net profit shares, hiring such a specialist lawyer sooner, rather than later, just isn’t very realistic(even though I will look into it). What I can definitely do, however, is pledge that FPS will begin offering cash prizes as soon as reasonably possible and financially practical. All revenue - right from the very first $ generated by “3-2-1“ - will be split evenly down the middle, with half going into the growing cash prize pool. To await the happy announcement that cash prize events/tournaments have been legally implemented.

I want to offer cash prize events in “3-2-1”, but Google has strict policies against that, so it is extremely unlikely(if it is even a remote possibility). Apple may offer more leeway, so that may be a better bet, but I am not counting on it. “0” is intended to be the initial, cash prize eSport release, which will be available via Google Play if law and/or policy permit; or, if they forbid, for direct DL via a third-party site(I noticed Skillz has done this for some of the titles it offers). And, if/when “Critical Mæss” comes to fruition, it will be an exclusively cash prize eSport release.

50% of revenue into cash prizes has been my uncompromising vision for this franchise, since I conceived it as an eSport(even before I knew eSports actually existed) more than 10 years ago. If I thought there was a chance I will not be able to eventually implement cash prize events and tournaments for FPS, I would not move forward with production of even “3-2-1”. And if it does turn out sometime during development or after release of “3-2-1”, that introducing them won’t be possible, I will not go on to pursue the production of “Critical Mæss”…which is my dream. An integral part of my dream, this admittedly grandiose vision, is to, in effect, pay my players. Esports don’t play themselves; spectators show up to watch an eSport’s competitors. It’s high time far more devs and pubs themselves start giving back to their players, on a scale befitting their importance. Instead of clinging to the custom of relying on sponsors to put up prizes.

‘Enough about the money’…? Fair enough. So, here, have the preview the title promises.

5000) the maximum number of Competitor accounts to be made available for Critical Mæss.

2000-4000) the probable number of Competitor accounts to be made available(for “CM” only).

270) is the maximum number of Official tracks anticipated, for the U.S. Regional League(“CM”).

45) Official, regular Season events are to be held within every Regional League(all incarnations).

10 & 15) hrs: the strict weekly limits on competitor Practice time; “3-2-1”(latter) and “0”(former).

9) likely maximum of in-game Roles to be on offer, which include: Competitor Roles = Qualifier & Runner; Support Roles = Tactician & Techanic. Other possible Roles are: Rookie(competitor), Spectator, Sponsor, Cam Drone Pilot(official hires & hobbyists/freelancers) & Event Announcer.

6) the maximum number of dedicated servers/U.S. Regional League divisions of competition.

5) hrs: the strict weekly(Monday-Friday) limit on competitor Practice time, for Critical Mæss.

4) distinct variants of Standardized Track(two are ill-suited to 2D/unlikely to appear in “3-2-1”).

4) “Degrees” of competition, based on increasingly dangerous competition parameters, which are: Unarmed/Unarmored, Unarmed/Armored, Armed/Armored & Armed/Unarmored(all vers.s).

3) opt-in Classes of competitor: “Cau”(unique to “3-2-1”), Beta(possibly in “3-2-1”, definitely in “0” and Critical Mæss) & Alpha(possible in “0”, definite in Critical Mæss). With a special Class under consideration: “dElite”, which would be exclusive to survivors of the Armed Degrees of competition in the 46-48th yearly events(the Divisional, Regional and World Championships).

2) Ranking(‘leveling’) system: “R”(eal), for all incarnations & “s(im)-T”(raining), in “3-2-1” only.

1) basic Craft design(intended to eventually be customizable, down to its “race legal” frame).

Additionally: Bounty Hunting; Officially-sourced/new Parts & Supplies depots and certified, refurbished & non-certified/second-hand, unregulated Sales/Trading Markets; the seeking of Sponsorships of Regional Leagues & Divisions, and of Regular and special Events and single and/or bundled Tracks; Wagering with in-Game currency(“3-2-1” on); reimagined Craft/Track integration and movement mechanics; Official event ‘opt-outs’ and Qualifier runs(“0”+“CM”); solely Time - not progress or Rank-based - rotation of available, Official Tracks(all versions).

Hardcore, Realistic Gameplay, including :~:

Unusually deep pre-race Strategy, topped with common sense combat Tactics +

Total abandonment of the so-called “Arcade style”, for the elements of Combat.

Exclusively pre-race loading out, with Weight highly critical to Craft performance.

Feat. “Permadeath”: no respawns(“Cau”); 3-30 days(Beta) & 2-3 Seasons(Alpha).

Multi-faceted Resource Management: graded Air & Fuels; also, Power harvesting.

Entry Fee(in-Game currency) mechanic, to ‘wash out’ poorer “0” & “CM” players.

Logic-based aspects of Maintenance, requiring time and in-G currency(“0”-“CM”).

Plus, Unique To “3-2-1” :~:

Publicly Available Track Editor; Official Submission process and private Event hosting.

A few, generally obtainable, ‘collectable’ and salable/tradable items(as ‘reward drops’).

Wagering with “Real” Rank points, Parts & Supplies and Un-official event collectibles.

“Real”-Rank-based avenue for any competitor to Qualify their way directly into “0”…

I have also long been toying with the concepts of :~:

A special, “nTandem” Degree of competition(feat. 2 players in 1 Craft = Runner & Tactician).

Micro/minor sponsorship by any Spectator, of (struggling?) solo competitors, via Fan Clubs.

Betrayals - by means of Sabotage & Spying - and/or B(l)ack Market parts & supplies dealing

Alliances/Factional alignments and/or special, Team-based events and/or tournament series.

Challenger Duels ~ Events for one/a few high Ranking competitors and many of lower Rank.

Anti-cheat Implemented < Cheat Detection ~ with live, in-race executions of proven cheaters.

Strict Regulations(‘PROhibitions’) ~ against middling/top tier Professional gamers(“0”+“CM”).

“Pros & Cons” Tournament Series ~ Pro gamers vs. current and Ex convicts(mild-er offenses only), the former playing for charities, the latter free to also donate(or to keep their winnings).

^That^ is by no means a completely thorough overview of my concepts and design for FPS, but it is circa 60-75% of my vision, without diving very deeply into too many, specific details.

I would just like to add a few more things about cash prizes, regarding my payout system. I do not approve of - nor am I impressed by - how all/most of the current top eSports, pay out the bulk of their cash prize pools in huge/larger sums to relatively few players. I understand their system and I recognize that it is the accepted and typical industry norm. However, I am not in game design and development, to do what is widely accepted and certainly not what is typical. I am stepping up - and bringing forth the Feet Per Second franchise as a contender in general, and especially in its sub-genre - to push the established boundaries…and break barriers. I will do what I think is best, and what I think is right. Which is spreading the cash prize pool around to a lot more competitors, in far more reasonable amounts. My immovable objective is to pay out cash prizes from the pool, to every Official Event competitor whom manages to survive.

I don’t mind at all if FPS’ middling and top tier eSport competitors make a goodly portion - or even the entirety - of their yearly income from it. That is, in fact, my intent. But I do not believe it is right for individual players to earn 100s of thousands of dollars per year - be it from cash prizes or sponsorship/other - by simply playing a game...sitting on their tush. Even my game.

‘What about me?’ I do believe that ‘the sauce fitting for the goose is good also for the gander’. My business’ share of net profit(8% of only the U.S.’ share of whatever total, worldwide Rev is) will be capped(@ $300-30k annually, net), as well as the annual salary I will be awarding myself out of it. Single and without any financial obligations, my salary will start at $30k(net), and only potentially rise to $89k(also net), if I happen to get married and end up having as many as four children. You can bank on it. I may be an especially odd duck, but I waddle a straight line. I am also fully intent on holding my part-time day job, for another 40 months, regardless of when my annual salary from the FPS Project, will eventually kick in(hopefully late ‘23 or sometime in ‘24). Also, to not claim the up to 8% portion of any Patreon funding, to which I will - technically - be entitled, unless I absolutely have to. And to invest a minimum of $15k and a maximum of $40k of my own money, directly into the initial Prototyping and, perhaps, into the full development.

On a final, very possibly, overly positive note, my current plan is to “add” FPS 3-2-1 to IndieDB within Q1, and launch the FPS Projects Patreon sometime in Q2; with the public offering of the playable Prototype perhaps being made within ‘22, and the early access release of “3-2-1”s first phase of development potentially being published to Google and/or Apple within ‘23.

Ask Me Anything(but choose wisely)!

Regards, sincerely,
~ M.E.L, creator/designer and aspiring dev, FPS Project.

P.S. Oh. And do try to have an un-forgettable/regrettable New One.

BallisticNG is presented as a love letter to wipEout; written, you could say, from the present to the past. But the present is supposed to be about the future. I am writing hate mail to Pacer, from the not-too-distant future to the present. Pacer presently sucks, and isn’t going to get well soon. The genre itself can get better, be reborn.

Nothing is such a sticking point in the anti-gravity racing genre as combat. REDOUT opted not to even touch it, going instead for pure racing*. Any title tipping a nod to wipEout has combat, because SONY brought a combat factor to the genre NINTENDO spearheaded. The problem with wipEout combat is the Arcade-style. Arcade-style combat is not meant to be taken seriously. Most racers enjoy Mario Kart, few take it seriously. Which is why it is not an eSport, despite its dominant popularity. Most will opt to play Mario Kart over watch, because while it isn’t serious, it is serious fun.
*I favor a dual approach, with both pure & combat classes of competition

A few of the problems with combat in AG Racing are the lack of time, the distraction of…driving. The controls too have to be kept simple, given the limited availability of buttons for console platforms. One solution which addresses the former is to lengthen straight stretches of track, allowing more time for targeting and getting ordnance off. The latter is a simple matter of developing exclusively for PC, which offers a full keyboard of buttons to slave for a much wider variety of hot-keyed tasks.

My designs solution to ‘distracted driving’ is to take steering and throttling out of the equation, making craft maneuvering far less precise yet, in context, extremely exact. A less demanding system of movement frees competitors for combat considerations.

And combat has to be serious, not action-y/comedic, damn certain not ‘Arcade-style’. I previously, briefly touched on loading out, which is a key part of it. Limited room, with less Weight being far more desirable for craft performance. Carrying your full arsenal with you, tailored to your needs and preferences, and available for use as you see fit, rather than ‘picking up’ firing queues like they are cards you are drawing and playing from the top of a TCG deck you’ve built to battle it out with another racer.

Combat requires situational awareness, also known as a HUD. The more tactical depth in combat, the deeper the HUD has to dive for an increasingly informational interface, the more immediately responsive it has to be via tight, efficiently activated inputs.

The selection of weapons too has to be carefully curated. I prefer to keep things fairly simple, with mines, mini-missiles/rockets, small & medium caliber guns and lacers, all on-boarded via a variety of “rigs” which either install internally or mount externally.

Counter and defensive measures have to be in keeping with tactics. I eschew the gold standard ‘god mod’ energy shield in favor of interceptor rockets, lacer and gun fire and various mines, as well as multiple layers of physical, customizable armors.

Finally, kills without respawns, at a minimum. Or even the thrill of ultimate kills…

Permadeath reigns supreme.

R U 2 QU1CK 2 D13 0R 2 SL0W 2 SURV1V3…?

While the sub-genre of Anti-gravity Racing negates the performance factor of Weight, Mass is still very much a factor in handling on curves, acceleration and top speed. How you load out your craft will, logically and realistically, affect performance. So your craft’s performance will be at the mercy of how much punch you literally pack into it.

Feet Per Second features a unique craft/track integration and movement mechanic, which is not truly Anti-gravity in nature, but Anti-gravity-esque, combining adhesion with impulse. It is therefore natural to revert the traditional Mass factor to Weight(excepting for tracks presented in a zero-G locality), which will effect your craft’s performance adversely and exponentially.

Eurogamer.net

I was partly peeved and partly relieved, when I learned from the review linked above, that Pacer introduced customizable loadouts. Peeved, because this is a fundamental - and I feel, patently obvious - mechanic which the wipEout franchise lacked through several/all of its titles, and is a key aspect of my own gameplay design. Relieved, because the devs still managed to screw it up, by tipping a nod to the previous Arcade-style weapon loading mechanic. Srsly. WTFai!

The whole point of loading out is a finite, not a replenish-able, supply of ordnance. Whatever you choose to load out pre-race, should not be solely available for use, based on a ‘fly-over release’ mechanic. You should be able to begin unloading your full arsenal within seconds of the start of an event, without limitations, straight through to empty mags, racks and depleted coils. Without any consideration…other than, you might want to save a few of those for later.

If appropriate, loading out should also include counter and defensive measures(graded armor and shielding generators), fuel, power cells, air and specific, upgradable weapons systems.

As I recall, REDOUT had two columns of loadable performance enhancers, one for passive and one for active, and you could select just one of each. And REDOUT does not feature combat.

Nothing is perhaps more natural that a single or multiplayer game with milestones, trophies, various modes and unlockable content. These drive player retention and encourage longer play time, the former important for finalizing an initial sale until any refund period has expired, the latter to lend a greater sense of value to any Premium purchase.

Personally, I have never much cared about achievements, been driven to unlock all content or enjoyed additional game modes. For single player games, I play the campaign/story mode, and then I am pretty much done. I also do tend to bail when the going gets tough. I am not an avid gamer who feels compelled to strive for excellence in my performance, outside of multiplayer.

I consider achievements fluff, modes filler, and unlockable content a friggin’ annoyance. With regard to the lattermost specifically, I interpret unlockable content as the dev saying ‘you are not ready for this, you have to earn the right to get there’. I like to make up my own mind about that sort of thing. Content I’m not skilled enough to unlock has always been a thorn in my side.

DL Content is double-dipping, plain and simple. The original release does not generate enough revenue, so DLC is added on to generate more of it. I don’t hold with that. If your players paid a Premium for the original release, then expansions and updates should be included by default. If your game isn’t good enough to generate the initial release and ongoing sales revenues which you require or desire, then that is your own damn fault. Part of good game design is retention. And a sufficiently sustaining - or exponentially increasing - monetization model.

It is only natural then that my design incorporates none of these things. In place of trophies or achievements, a simple Ranking system, sufficiently exponential payouts of in-game currency and a genre-appropriate aspect of collecting and trading.

Modes are to encourage extra play time and add replay value. The emphasis in my design is not on increasing daily hours played, total hours played before abandonment or coming back to replay eventually, but on week over week retention, for many months, ideally stretching into years. Retention is simple for most eSports. Cash prizes offered via official events, if not day after day, then week after week. And spreading cash prizes around as much as possible.

A major consideration is my approach to unlockable content. All performance-enhancing items will be purchasable with in-game currency, right from the start. Your consideration - indeed, a key factor of the in-depth strategy characteristic of my design - is what upgrades to buy and when. Also, all of the tracks will be available on a regular, rollover basis, unlocked only by the progression of time, per season. Qualifiers aside, that is how real-life motorsports work.

Free DLC will be driven by the revenue stream and sponsorships. As it should be.

The way I have styled the monetization model is also simplicity itself.

Many years ago, I identified what is obviously a fundamental flaw common to the Anti-Gravity Racing sub-genre, one which I believe has been present from its very inception. I say “believe” because I am not intimately familiar with either of the earliest, defining franchises in this sub-genre, F-Zero and wipEout. Having googled for gameplay trailers, the former can be proven to have this flaw. The latter is a bit harder to pin down, but Teams have appeared in wipEout since inception, as proven by the GDD by Nick Burcombe, which has been made available online.

I feel that any seriously intended Racing eSport, should take inspiration from real motorsports. Indy, F1, NASCAR, hell, even motorcycle racing; notice anything common to each of them? I cannot claim to be a ‘motor-head’ or very familiar with any of those motorsports. I know that, in the (g)olden days, vehicles competing in the very same event, could vary widely, at least in their chassis design(I am not aware of if, or to what extent, specs under their hoods were to be standardized). As most of the motorsport racing leagues matured, standardization became the norm, so that the skill of the drivers became paramount. So it has to be for Racing eSports.

Various craft designs with distinctly unique specs, cannot be the standard for any Anti-gravity Racing eSport. Not if going mainstream to even non-gaming spectators is an ultimate goal. A game designed in this unique sub-genre must feature a single, basic craft design, one which is highly customizable, so that competitors can tweak and tune to the specifications they desire.

Incidentally, when I was googling for wipEout trailers, I found that the franchise is coming back, for Android and iOS: M.youtube.com 25 years on, same fatal flaw. A flaw that makes the franchise fun(?), keeps it classic, but does not give this fantastic sub-genre the hardcore rebirth it has so desperately needed for years.

Do not despair. Feet Per Second is coming. It will save you all…from the monotony.