Critical Play: Racing Games
I chose to play two games from the racing genre: Alto’s Adventure and Clustertruck. These are racing games in a different sense from what you might first think of like Mario Kart or Forza.
In both of the games I played, the objective centers around beating some metric. In Alto, it was distance, and in Clustertruck, it was time. What’s interesting about these racing games is that the core mechanics are extremely simple and barely change whether you’re a new player or an experienced player. There’s a straightforward game loop at the start of the game to teach you the skills to play the game, and then that’s it. There aren’t any other significant loops to introduce new mechanics. So what keeps the game interesting if it’s the same thing over and over?
While the mechanics are the same throughout (sliding/jumping in Alto and sprinting/jumping in Clustertruck), the “levels” are designed in a way that constantly tests your skill. The theme of “racing” implies speed and reaction time, and the levels involve careful choices of when to react. So in a way, you never truly “master” the skill of these basic mechanics, because eventually you’ll make a mistake, which makes these games also a test of endurance. All of this has a competitive backdrop to it, and the players are always competing with themselves to see if they can do better. The fast paced nature of the gameplay and the variations in level design (where the rocks/big jumps are in Alto; where the trucks are, their direction, and other obstacles for Clustertruck) keep the player’s attention and the final score and leaderboard create a competitive urge for the player to come back.
Another interesting aspect of the racing games I played was the possibility for tricks. This adds another dimension to the gameplay beyond just beating the metric. It adds some more personality to the game too. Sure, anyone can beat this level if they tried enough; but what if I did a sick triple backflip?! This small mechanic doesn’t completely change the game, but it provides another avenue to compete with yourself: style.
Both of these were fun games, but they do rely on the player’s disposition toward competition and the fun of challenge. Competition/challenge is great for inducing a state of flow, but once the player exits and puts away the game, there isn’t a strong reason to come back to it later. In Alto’s Adventure, after playing for 10 minutes, I felt like I’d seen it all already; there wasn’t another reason for me to want to come back and beat my previous score (though they try to do this with mini quests). On a side note, the art and environment (and how it changes between day, sunset, night, rain, etc.) in Alto is beautiful and added a nice feeling of immersion to play into the fantasy that I’m actually some guy skiing down a mountain to save my llamas. Clustertruck is designed into different discrete levels which does provide some incentive for the player to come back and see what the next challenge is.
