Rockin’ Derby
What is Rockin’ Derby
Rockin’ Derby is a multiplayer kart racer built in Unity that is played with a special controller, a physical rocking horse, the player has to rock while steering the head in order to race!
Race Course
A single play experience consists of multiple laps.
Level maintains the horse head shape.
Player never has to come to a complete stop.
Aiming for 3 to 5 minutes of playtime.
Race Course Evolution
Original shape.
Creating an environment to surround the race track.
Team Project, January 2025 - OngoingMy role
As the sole designer on the project I was responsible for iterating on the mechanics of the prototype to elevate it into the experience the team envisioned. The original prototype was a single player time trial game with limited navigation through preset lanes, but the vision evolved into a multiplayer kart racing game.
What I did as a designer
Wrote documentation for gameplay mechanics such as powerups, speed boosts, AI behavior, and obstacles.
Researched existing kart racing games.
Developed and iterated on the race track.
Created a cinematic for the race using Unity’s Cinemachine.
Experience
Communicated between interdisciplinary roles such as engineers and artists on a team of 13 members.
Researched the fundamentals of level design for kart racing game.
Worked within level design constraints unique to the project because of the controller’s properties.
Designed systems such as item weights (probably of getting each item) based on player position in a race.
Created and iterated on the race course for the players using Unity’s terrain and spline tools.
Starting with little experience regarding the designs of racing games, I invested significant time researching popular kart racers such as Mario Kart and Sonic & All Stars Racing. Taking inspiration from the Mario Kart track “Yoshi’s Island” I wanted to design a racetrack in the shape of a horse’s head consistent with the theming of the physical controller. Relying primarily on Unity’s spline tool, I created and adjusted many versions of the track. A unique constraint to designing the Rockin’ Derby racetrack the researched games never had to contend with was the limitations of the controller itself. The physical controllers had hard limits on steering that created complications a traditional controller would not have had. For example, this made track features like sharp turns extremely difficult for a player to navigate without having to come to a complete stop, not ideal for a fun racing experience. After working through numerous versions of the racetrack I then partnered with our team’s environmental artist to polish the shape from my spline art into a proper 3D modeled racecourse.
Level Goals
Issues Resolved
Implemented turns that did not impede the gameplay experience.
Matched playtime to the physical demands of the controller.
Intro cinematic gave players a preview of the course and what to expect.
Changing into a multi lap track.
Changing the sharp turns into looped turns.
Adding variations in elevations.
Final shape before artist polish handoff.
