Primary Research:
Here is the primary research I have done for this game project.
Research on the mechanics:
For the first form of primary research, I decided to put out three Google forms asking a variety of questions on the racing mechanics, the menus, and the sounds and music.
For the first survey, I asked questions on the racing mechanics asking them about how they should feel what the player expects and what is the most important.
In this survey, I asked eight questions to get a range of answers on the topics of mechanics.
Here are the questions I am asking:
For this i made eight questions based on how a game should feel and how the player likes to interact with a game.
I asked these questions in order to get a grasp on these topics and to collect relevant data and to find out about what players expect the feel of the game to be.
For question one I asked what makes a good racing game in response I got 9 answers with the biggest recurring answers were Good visuals Nice controls and fun gameplay these to me signify that the game must look good as it was one of the main answers and it must play well the tight controls will help the gameplay feel fun making it able to get two issues with one solution.
For question two I asked what makes a racing game feel good this question is to get more information on improving the game feel wich is a point brought up in the first question. The answers I got mainly were good and tight feeling controls, nice drifting and handling and accurate feeling physics. To me, this shows that as long as the controls and physics are well made the game should feel good to most players as all of these things make the mechanics feel better.
For question three I asked how you like to play racing games to find what control scheme to go with for this Question the answers were heavily shifted for controller-based play as it was the answer 75% of the time with the rest being both. This to me shows that the controller is the way to go as it is the most used method to interact with a racing game.
For question four I asked what consoles do you play on to get a feel for the audience for our game and based on the answers being 50% Xbox seems the main platform for our game with the second option being PC as it got 25% of the votes. This to me shows that most of our survey answers play on the Xbox making the biggest market for our game based on this research.
For question five I asked how the player likes to interact with the AI for this question the answer was mainly bumping as it was the answer 5 out of 8 times with the rest avoiding it. From these answers, it seems most players like to interact with the AI which was not a part of our indicial idea so I will relay this information to the one coding AI so they can research into it.
For question six I asked what the player would want when it comes to mechanics for this question the majority of the people answered Driving and drifting. To me, these answers solidify the belief that drifting will be a big part of the game and that players will put a large focus on driving. So I will try to make the driving feel smooth and accurate but simple.
Next, to gain more information on the player base I asked what they expect to see in a racing game and what draws them into a specific game for this question I mainly got answers on the tracks showing that they have a big impact on the player. So I will take this information and make sure that the people working on the tracks know what the player is looking for. The other answers mainly focused on driving and mechanics which I will put a great focus on.
For question eight I asked what the people's favourite racing game to play is I did this to find inspiration and games to research and look at for reference. With this information, I will look into the games to see how they play and control.
Research on the Menus:
For the second survey, I asked questions on the menu asking them about what options they as the player expect and how they want them to look.
In this survey, I asked seven questions to get a range of answers on the topics of menus.
Here are the questions I am asking:
For this, I made seven questions based on how a menu should look and how the player likes to interact with the menu.
I asked these questions in order to get a grasp on these topics and collect relevant data and find out about what players expect to see on a menu.
For question one, I asked what colours go together for this question I got pretty much entirely different colours the only colour pairs that I got more than once were purple and green but we will take into consideration each pairing for the game's look.
For question two I asked if the people preferred brighter or muted colours for the menu UI I asked this to see what we should consider for a menu colour scheme. Overwhelmingly muted was chosen with some of the reasoning being that it is easier to look at and it is less distracting. With this, I will keep the menu looking muted with greys and whites.
For question three I asked what colours did people think fit a racing game this question was asked to get more specific answers and elaborate on the previous questions. For this question the answers varied a lot with the most common colours being yellow and red I will take into consideration all of the colours stated when coming up with the colours of the game and send them to the map designers so they can see what colours people are saying.
For question four I asked what options people expected to see on a game menu. For this question, I was looking for answers I had not considered to make sure I did not miss anything to put on it. The main features stated in the answers were options/settings, credits, play, quit, about and tracks with some of the odd ones out being accessibility and Multiplayer.
For question five I asked what games had good menus I did this to see what to research as a base reference when making my menu. With these answers, I will look into both the looks and options of these menus and use them to inform my menu. All the answers to this question were different due to the broadness of the question. But some were Forza, Car X, Mario Cart and others.
For question six I asked the people what makes a good menu in a game I did this to find out what the people are looking for in a game menu and what makes them good. Most of the answers were about the simplicity and rememberability of the menu with some of the other answers being about ease of access and not being too complicated. From these answers, I learned that I will need to keep a simple yet rememberable look.
For question seven I asked if they prefer simple menus or detailed menus with this question I was hoping to find out what I should do with my menu go simple or go detailed. From this question I got eight answers with the most common being simple with the split being 62.5% for simple and 37.5% for detailed. This shows me that going simple will be best.
Research on the sounds and music:
For the third and final survey, I asked questions on the music and sound asking them about what sound they as the player expect to hear and what genres of music fits certain scenes.
In this survey, I asked seven questions to get a range of answers on the topics of sounds and music.
Here are the questions I am asking:
For this, I made seven questions based on what sounds and music the people as an audience expect to hear in a racing game.
I asked these questions in order to get a grasp on these topics and collect relevant data and find out about what players expect to hear in a racing game.
In question one I asked the people what type of music fits an exciting scene I asked this to get a grasp on what type of music would fit during a race scene. For this question, the answers ranged all the way from jazz to drum and bass with the most common answer being metal. With this, I am going to apply this and find music that fits these genres for the game.
For the second question, I asked what sounds would them as the player expect to see in a racing game. I asked this question to get a grasp of the types of sounds that players would expect to see in games like ours. From this question the most common answers were engine sounds and tyre noises and some of the others included terrain noises and environment sounds. These answers show me that these sounds should be implemented into our game.
Next, I asked what games have a good soundtrack I asked this to get a feel for what good soundtracks sound like and to find items for me to research. All of the responses were varied with the only games that came up multiple times being Forza and Hotshot Racing. From this, I will look into these games and get evidence for a choice of soundtracks for our game.
For question four I asked how many music tracks would they expect to see in a small indie game. I asked this to get a look at how many songs should be in our game so I know how many songs to make/find. The most common answer I got was four and two with the rest being higher. From this, I will make 2 - 6 songs as it was the most common answer and it feels like a good number four in our game and it fits the answer range pretty well.
For question five I asked what style of music fits a menu screen. I asked this to find what type of music to put in our game for the menu I also did this to find more genres of music for the researching step. The answers I got were mainly something simple catchy and calm but there were other answers like pop music and sad music.
For question six I asked what makes a good video game soundtrack. I asked this to find out what to look for when making a game soundtrack and to find out what makes something like a game rememberable. The most common answers I got from this question were veracity catchiness and fitting music. With this, I will make sure to build a soundtrack which fits with these options.
For question seven I asked what type of music the people thought matched with Japan / Asia. For this question, I asked it to find out what type of music we can get to fit our game's environment as it will be mainly set in Japan and Asia-inspired tracks. The answer I got the most often was Taiko drums and anime/JPOP music. These answers I will use as inspiration when making the game soundtrack and I will look into some of the folk music to get a Japanese feel.
Reflection:
Here is my reflection on the primary research I have done for the mechanic's menu and music.
Overall:
Altogether I am happy with the research conducted and the work I have done for the primary side of the project. I would like to have gotten more responses but I hit the amount I had desired to get the more responses the larger and more conclusive evidence. If I were to do this again I would have done it earlier to get more results and made more in-depth questions. But I do think I improved on my previous surveys.
Survey one:
For survey one, I wished to ask more detailed questions as some people answered with things that either did not make sense for the question or did not give the answers I had hoped for. For example in the first question, I asked what makes a good racing game in response multiple people answered car which was not helpful as a car was already a must for a racing game.
Survey two:
For survey two I am happy with the overall result and found the information helpful. The info I got is also able to be baked up with secondary research as it follows along with secondary research that I found. To improve this survey I wish I had asked more questions and gotten more responses as I would have liked to get information on other aspects than the look and features.
Survey three:
For survey three I am happy with the results and I am happy with the range and variety of the questions I asked. All of the results have been helpful in my work and they all answered the questions I asked and how I hoped for full results. The biggest change I would make Is I would have hoped for a bit more variety in the answers.