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Backseat Driver
CTIN 405 – Context-specific mobile game
Backseat Driver is an iPhone game that uses Google Maps and challenges car passengers to find the fastest route to their real-world destination in a strategic racing game.
Context
The Backseat Driver app targets iPhone users who are stuck as passengers in a car. More specifically, it targets those passengers who think they know a better way to reach their destination.
Design
Backseat Driver’s gameplay consists of selecting routes for the player’s three cars in order to reach a particular destination as fast as possible. The player must then modify the routes in real-time as the cars run into traffic.
The player’s goal is to reach the destination using the virtual cars before he or she reaches the destination in real-life (determined by the iPhone’s GPS).
Beyond directing the routes of the cars, the player can use special “reckless driving” abilities to make real-time play more exciting. These abilities include “sidewalk driving” and “run a red light.” When a player uses an ability, he or she plays a short arcade mini-game in the vein of Frogger or other simple 2D retro game. The more an ability is used, the more difficult the games become. Failing to complete a mini-game results in a time penalty.
The primary challenge in developing this game is determining the traffic density and speed of surface streets. Google Maps only covers the general speed of freeways. The temporary solution to this problem to create general speeds for different surface streets on a city-by-city basis for the different times of day—morning-peak, morning off-hour, midday-peak, midday off-hour, afternoon-peak, afternoon off-hour, evening, early morning.
If enough users participate, the program could track the users and record their speed on a given street at a particular time. With enough data, the average speed of different routes could reflect this data. This information could even extend to Google Maps database similar to Google Image Labeler.
Play Experience
After the player enters the application, the destination is pulled from the Maps application. The player must confirm this destination. If the destination is denied or no destination is found, the player must enter a destination using the Maps app interface.
The player then enters a route using waypoints, similar to the route creation on the web version of Google Maps. Once the route is determined, players may alternate between the different cars.
The user sees the selected car’s location (a red icon) and speed. The other cars’ locations are marked by green icons.
The user may expand this window and select “Change Route” or one of three abilities: “Run red light,” “Sidewalk drive,” or “Illegal maneuver.”
If an ability is selected, a new view is opened with a top-down view mini-game. These mini-games can be decided at a later time. If the player loses, the car is slowed down and the player receives a message, such as “Stopped by a cop!” If the player succeeds, the car increases in speed. In either case, abilities for that car are given a 15 second cool down. Every time an ability is used, the associated mini-game becomes more difficult.
If a car reaches the destination before the user, the player receives a win-screen and score. If the player reaches the destination in the real-world first, the player loses and receives an end-game screen celebrating the talents of their driver.
