The document provides details about the existing racing game "Midnight Club: LA". It takes place in Los Angeles and features effects like green smoke during races. It displays a map and speedometer on screen. Sound effects include car engines. Music plays in cars and reflects popular LA music at the time, allowing custom playlists.

1. Research
Alfie

2. Existing Product
Grand Theft Auto London 1969
Location: The setting for this game is 1960s London.
Angle: The angle is from a Top-Down Perspective so you see your character and their surroundings from above.
Effects: There are effects used such as explosions in this game since weapons are used. There are also cutscenes although they are
still and have no movement other than the mouth moving.
Use of lighting: the lighting is often quite dim and dark.
Costumes: The game only really shows costumes during cutscenes and loading screens but the characters are usually wearing smart
clothing such as suits. This is because criminals and gangsters in the 1960s stereotypically wore these types of clothes at the time.
Props: The cars are made to look old fashioned and are definitely inspired by popular cars at the time. For example one of the cars is
called the Jugular which is a parody of the English car Jaguar and there is a car called ‘Myni’ which is inspired by a Mini.
There are weapons in the game such as pistols, machine guns and flamethrowers.
Music: The music played on the loading screen and when you are driving a vehicle is a similar style to music that was popular in the
1960s.This helps set the scene to the 1960s.
Sound effects: There is the sound effect of the Big Ben when you select things on the menu screen. There are also sound effects
used from weapons such as gunshots and explosions, sounds from vehicles such as their engines, tyres screeching, car horns and
police sirens. Screams can also be heard when you kill people.
Dialogue: The dialogue is meant to be very stereotypically British. The accents of the characters and pedestrians in the game are
mostly all in Cockney accents and there are phrases used in the game like “You’re brown bread!” If you die during the game, or “Nice
one, you beauty!” when you pass a mission. These are all meant to be over the top stereotypes of how British people talk.
Another use of dialogue is when you commit a crime such as run someone over, you can hear a voice talking like on a police radio
saying the location where you are and what crime you commited.
An image of the Myni

3. Audience appeal: Audience appeal: The gameplay is quite violent- you can shoot people, run people over, blow things up etc. This will appeal to the fans of the Grand Theft
Auto series since these games are known for their over the top violence and they are also known for being games where you have a lot of freedom to do basically do
whatever you want like kill random people.
I think that this game also appeals to people from and fans of the 1960s, fans of British culture and British movies. Many of the characters are inspired by British celebrities
from the 1960s such as Michael Caine, (an actor) David Bowie (a musician) and also criminals like the Cray twins.
There are references to subcultures such as mods and hippies that were popular around that time and also the cars that are clearly inspired by popular British cars.

4. Existing Product
Crazy Taxi
Crazy Taxi is a game by Sega where you play as a Taxi Driver trying to get passengers to their destinations as fast as possible whilst making as much money as they can
through the passengers and through tips from doing “crazy stunts”
Location: The setting in the game is inspired by San Francisco. The palm trees and bright weather definitely give a California feel to the game. The location is pretty realistic
and detailed, featuring real life fast food restaurants as locations, such as KFC and Pizza Hut. Also there is a store for the sports brand Fila.
Angle: The angle used in the game is a third-person viewpoint. This is a view from behind the character you are playing as. Whilst it would be possible for me to animate a
third person view to be in my game, it would be extremely difficult to animate one in 2D with my little animation experience so I will most likely use a top-down view as this
was what I used in two of my experiments and I think that it would run a lot more smoothly when completed.
Effects: One of the effects used in the game is that there is an arrow above the car that is pointing in the direction of where the passenger wants to go. This arrow keeps
changing direction as you drive around, so it is always pointing you in the direction of your destination.
Another effect used in the game is that the people that want to be picked up have a dollar sign hovering above their head. If the dollar sign is red it means it will be a short
trip, if yellow it means a medium trip and if green it means it will be a long trip.
Lighting: The lighting is naturally bright, suggesting that it is the lighting from the sunny weather.

5. Costume: The four taxi drivers wear colourful clothing such as patterned shirts and hats. I think that they are wearing these types of clothes as they are in a similar style to what was popular in the late 90s/early 2000s
and so people playing the game may be able to relate to the characters and like them more since they might be wearing similar clothes to them.
Some of the pedestrians in the game wear clothing related to the place that they want to be taken to. For example, a priest (wearing a priests outfit and holding a bible) wants to be taken to the church and a man
wearing a baseball hat and jersey wants to be taken to the baseball stadium.
Props: There are items that you can drive over such as ramps in the game that help you get to your destination faster and also give stunt bonuses for driving over them.
Use of sound/music/effects. The music that is playing throughout the game is fast paced rock and punk rock music. I think that this music was used as it goes together well with the fast pace of the game. It features
songs from famous bands that were popular at the time the game was released such as The Offspring and Bad Religion.
Sound: The pedestrians you pick up in the game talk to you as the driver telling you where they want to go and also things like “Go there” “Go that way” “I’m in a hurry” and then thanking the driver when they have
been dropped off.
There are noises when you collect money.
A certain noise plays to let you know when you are close to your location.
Colour: The colours in the game are often bright and flashy, including bright colours such as yellow. This is one of the things that I like about the game. I think the bright colours help keep your attention.
Fonts: There is a bold yellow font used to show how much time is left in the game. This is at the top left of the screen so it is easy to see.
There is also text showing how much money has been earned in the style of an old fashioned cash register.
Audience appeal: I think Crazy Taxi makes people want to play it since it is a simple, fast paced game that looks like a lot of fun.
I think that having a time limit in the game also appeals to people playing since it was originally a game just for arcades so people will go into arcades looking to break scores and set new high scores such as quickest
times etc. Also this makes the game much more exciting to play knowing that you really have to try your best or you will run out of time.

6. Existing Product
Ultimate Racing 2D
Location- There are a few different racetracks to choose from in the game. They are all in different countries. They often
have crowds watching the races and trees and water around them.
Angle- The game is played in a top down viewpoint. This is something I will probably use in my final product.
Effects- One of the effects that was used in this game is a blur behind the cars
when they are driving. This is to create the effect that the cars are going at a very
fast speed.
One of the other effects is that the car racers names are above the car and are
following the car as it moves. The car you are driving has the name highlighted
in green whilst all the other names are in white so you can tell which car is
yours.

7. Use of sound- The sound of car engines are heard when you are racing.
The sound effect of tyres screeching is used.
At the start of a race you can hear a beeping sound to signal that you can start the race.
When you drive your car into another car, you can hear a thumping noise.
Also when you are on the menu selecting your car and the map there is a beeping sound when you select it.
Use of music- There is not much music played throughout the game. There is none whilst you are driving. There is some
light dubstep music played on the menu screen but none apart from that.
Audience appeal- I think a way this game makes its audience want to play it is through the simplicity of the game. The game
is exactly what it says it is, it is a 2D racing game where you race cars and is nothing really more than that. I think the game
appeals to fans of racing games since they know exactly what they are getting when the play the game.
I think another way this game appeals to fans of racing games is that it uses a top down view. Most car games nowadays
are played in a third person view so it is quite unique and retro for a recent car game to try this out. This might make
people want to play it as they want to experience something different to a lot of recent car games.

8. Existing Product
Midnight Club: LA
Location: The location for this game is Los Angeles.
Effects: When you are in a race, green smoke appears so you can see which direction you are going.
One of the things that I like in this game is that it shows a map at the bottom left of the screen so you know where you are.
There is also a speedometer that shows how fast you are going and what song is playing. This is something that I like that I
may add into my game.
Sound: The noise of car engines are present since it is a racing game.
Music: There is music played whenever you are in a car- the music in this game was chosen by Rockstar Games since it is
meant to reflect the music that was popular in the Los Angeles area at the time the game was made. You can create your
own custom playlists of the songs in the game and you can skip songs at any time but if not the songs are just on shuffle.

9. Subway Surfers
Location: The setting for the game is the tracks of a subway station. Your character is getting
chased by a train driver. The location is constantly changing as the app often has updates where
the location usually changes each time. Locations featured include London, LA, Copenhagen,
Monaco, Paris as well as many others.
Angle: The game is in a third person view from behind the character and the camera is following
the character in a tracking shot.
Effects: There are effects used throughout the game through the power-ups.
Use of music: There is music playing throughout the game

10. Costume- There are
Props- There are quite a few props used in Subway Surfers. The main one is a skateboard that
the character you choose uses to get away from the train driver chasing him. There are coins
everywhere for you to collect and there is a magnet item that you can use to attract all the
coins. There are some shoes that help you jump extra high and there is a jetpack amongst lots
of other items.
Use of music: There is music playing throughout the game
Use of sound effects: There is a clinking noise each time you collect a coin.

11. Research Analysis
• What common features do the researched products have?
One common feature in all my researched products is that they are all set in quite interesting locations such as London, LA and maps all around the
world in the racing game. I think that having an interesting location is important as it keeps the player interested and makes them want to explore the
location more. Also, 3 of the games have quite a big map so if the person playing wants to they can just drive around and explore the location instead of
playing by the rules.
Another common feature is that in GTA London, Crazy Taxi and Midnight Club LA there are pedestrians and npcs in the game that often all have their
own lines of dialogue.
This makes the game feel more realistic as there are people everywhere that you can kind of interact with so you can feel more engrossed with the
game.
In all of these games, text is included on the screen to let you know things as how fast you are going, what lap you are in etc.
• What aspects of the research will you include within your on work?
For my work, I want to keep the colour scheme nice and bright like how it is in Crazy Taxi. Whilst I like the look and style of the two top down
games I researched, I don’t like that they both have quite a boring colour scheme, and that the locations for Ultimate Racing 2D are quite
repetitive as they all look quite similar. I want to have some interesting locations as well as an interesting colour scheme.
In my work I will use a top-down view like in Grand Theft Auto and Ultimate 2D Racing. This is because I think my game will run a lot smoother if I
animate it like this and also gives the game a retro style like an old racing video game.
I may include dialogue in my work so that the driver will speak and npcs in the game will speak also. I could do this by recording my voice as well as
some of my friends. I will also include sound effects in my game of things such as car sounds. I will be able to record these myself also to include
in my game.
I would like to include a speedometer in my game like in Midnight Club LA to show how fast you are driving. I want the speed of the game to
increase the further in you get and so the speedometer would show the player how much the speed has increased.

12. Bibliography

13. Bibliography
1. Rockstar Games (1999) Grand Theft Auto London 1969
2. SEGA. (1999) Crazy Taxi
3. Applimazing (2018) Ultimate Racing 2D
4. Rockstar Games (2008) Midnight Club L.A.
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xgx1I5td0g&list=PLA4xeFyPEwDuGFYFC6
MQSYwjfD6QBd4tC&index=10&t=297s
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSakprOvdDo&list=PLA4xeFyPEwDuGFYFC
6MQSYwjfD6QBd4tC&index=11&t=9875s
7. Watch
8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR_JbuXYiCY&list=PLA4xeFyPEwDuGFYFC6
MQSYwjfD6QBd4tC&index=5&t=221s
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjIGkv0_dEM&t=515s
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Taxi
11. https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto:_London_1969