Quick Shift is a (currently) undeveloped game concept that was created as part of my academic career. The idea behind the game was to create racing game on android that people could pick up and play, that would also feel “hip” and “cool” for the younger generation, and yet nostalgic for the mature audience – harking back to the days of Need for Speed and similar street racing games. At its core, it would embody the theme of street racing. As complimentary touches, the game would feature performance tweaking, competitive modes, and highly visually customisable cars.
“For those of you who played Ridge Racer or Need for Speed when you were kids, this memory will be very dear to your hearts. Imagine taking a straight down the road. You are shifting into 5th gear, focusing on staying straight as to not lose any speed. You see the corner in the distance – it’s a sharp one, but nothing you’re not unfamiliar with. As you approach the corner, with your foot on the pedal, you slam on the breaks, as you pull the steering wheel towards your right. Without losing momentum, you pull a drift around the corner. This is what I have to bring to you today. This is Quick Shift.” ~ Pitch Statement
The objectives of this project was split into two parts. Firstly, I had to create a pitch presentation that would be delivered to a live audience.
Pitch Presentation – Quick Shift
Secondly, I had to forge a document, detailing: the premise of the game and its key features, a competitive market analysis and finally a resource analysis (production pipeline + budget).
To read the full pitch:
u1435220 – HYL – CW2 Full Pitch
The hardest part of this project was understanding what made my product unique, to set itself apart from its main competitors. After all, you can’t pitch a product without a selling point. I had to dig deep into why this game is an appealing idea – which is where the “street racing” component comes from. Although CSR 2 uses this theme, their choice of modern sports cars don’t quite reflect the nature of true drag racing. Often times they only work with what they have, such as a Golf GTI or a Toyota Yaris, and they tune them up. What makes street racing alluring is when you take ordinary “people” cars and make them look race-worthy.
The other difficult part was, as someone who is an avid racing game player, I couldn’t quite understand why games like CSR2 or Thumb Drift didn’t feel like racing games to me – in fact they were more like arcade games or minigames. In the end, what I had concluded was that the control schemes for similar games are often simplistic and non-dynamic. In other words, players are often only doing one thing and one thing only. This makes the vehicle operation somewhat monotonous, disregarding the true mechanics of racing a real car that are often reflected on other racing platforms such as console – steering, gear shifting, acceleration and deceleration are used in conjunction with one another to navigate sharp corners. Although this is all in theory (as a prototype has not yet been made), I felt it would be more alluring for a racing game that includes all these mechanics together, without making it too complicated to play.
All in all, it was a very interesting project to see till completion, and it inspires me to want to make this into a reality!
Hoyung Ling 
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