Super Arcade Racing

Overview

A project inspired by the 80's and 90's retro classic videogames. We started working on it in late 2018 and took around a year to complete it and publish it. My role in the creation of this game evolved throughout the process. On top of all the graphics, I started designing the overall flow and monetisation mechanics, to later on focusing exclusively on the UI/UX aspects and helping with the writing of the story, too.

Objective

What we were asked to create was a pure arcade game, finding its roots in 80's retro classic examples.

The target of this project was obviously nostalgic players from that "arcade" generation, as well as younger ones drawn to try classic pieces with some modern mechanics. That was the challenging part of this task, striking a good balance between old and new, trying to make all fall in love with it for different reasons.

Process

Process Step 1: Brainstorming & Product Set Up

Considering this project was supposed to be able to appear in many different platforms (mobile, pc, nintendo switch), the planning had to be flawless and the foundation incredibly solid. The monetisation mechanics were the biggest challenge to tackle, having different ones in every platform, but the essentially the same game in all of them. Many brainstorming meetings and calculations were needed.

Process Step 2: Layout & Style Search

The second step of this game's creation is key to understand and choose what kind of identity we want to give it. We started exploring different routes, being a retro inspired piece, the challenge was to build it in a way that could seem from the 80s under certain aspects, keeping it modern for people who have no much knowladge of vintage games. After many hours and days of research and layout attempts, we made it!

Process Step 3: Production

Once we were all happy with the direction, style and feel the project was taking, we started the production phase. This is a critical, creative and also mechanical state, where we quickly need to create many elements, all consistent and coherent with each other, for all the game's menus and sub-menus. Constant iteration and approval from the whole team is needed, in a point where quality needs to meet quantity.