Have you ever driven a go-kart? It feels fast. It’s thrilling and fun, and you love the feel of the tires fighting for grip on the track’s smooth surface and squealing in the turns. As you race around the track, you grip your steering wheel tightly, and every bump in the road sends shivers down your spine. Then you get out of the kart, look at the other drivers and wonder why they’re going so slow. They’re not driving slower, the experience is fast, but the reality is not.

Top Reasons Behind the Failure of NFT Car Racing Games

That’s the fundamental problem with a racing game: it’s not enough to simulate perfectly rendered cars on perfectly rendered tracks. To be a great video game, it needs something more. I think modern racing games forget this and prioritize many “features” over great gameplay. By playing racing games for 25 years, I know the answer. I can tell you precisely what makes a great racing game. The secret recipe is right here. Let’s go.

Controls

All classic games have great controls. It’s fun to jump on things like Mario, hover over Gotham as Batman, and shoot people in Call of Duty. In best nft car racing game, good controls mean you have enough grip to react quickly and reach your destination and enough grip to provide a challenge. Added depth, like a drift system or wheelspin controls, can also be fun. It won’t be fun if a racing game doesn’t feel right, is too slow, too slippery, too grippy, or even uncontrollably fast. Unfortunately, the realistic simulation of a real car will probably feel too slow and tricky, at least when playing with a control pad. That’s the way it is, so concessions must be made to make it more fun.

You must have some sense of weight, but not so much that the car feels like a loaded shopping cart. You must be able to steer safely, but not so quickly that cornering is not a challenge. Balancing the two is tricky, and only a handful of games have gotten it right. But the gameplay is extremely rewarding when there is always a way to take a corner a little better than before.

Atmosphere

It is crucial. Imagine the Super Bowl in an empty warehouse on a rainy Tuesday, with no halftime show, national anthem, or commentary. You can connect emotionally with a game in the best atmosphere. A cheering crowd, waving flags in the stands, confetti on the track, fireworks – all add immeasurably to the feeling that the race means something. Look at the difference between the post-race fanfare in Gran Turismo 6 and the lame, apologetic “FINISH” text and results graphic in Gran Turismo 5. Winning a race should be celebrated – that’s the whole point of racing.

It doesn’t have to be unrealistic/arcadian to be compelling. Project CARS’ “rain on the roof of the car” sound effect makes you feel like you’re cozy and warm in your car during a downpour. And the rolling 3D clouds and diagonal rain in the wind give the environment a real sense of place. Finally, while music can enhance the atmosphere of even a simple game (1986’s OutRun, for example), it certainly can’t make a boring race exciting – Forza 6, I’m looking at you.

Competition Between People

To race well, you have to compete against something. The best opponent you can race against is yourself. Your foe’s skills are similar to yours because he is you. That’s why a time trial with ghost laps can make even a mediocre racing game entertaining.

The game is an outstanding racing experience because the two best types of competition – against yourself and others – are woven into everything you do. The second-best competition is human against human – in other words, multiplayer. This works best when players are equal in personal abilities and start with identical base machines to test them. Driveclub is excellent in this regard, not because the traditional nft car racing games are great (they’re not), but because it combines multiplayer with Ghost mode and leaderboards, encouraging players to challenge each other. This encourages competition, and the framework now works correctly.

Artificial Intelligence

NFT car racing games differ from driving games in competition with other cars. Racing games can still incorporate all the different facets of racing game design (and be great games, too), but their non-player vehicles are merely obstacles. Too many games offer no real artificial intelligence to compete against them. The AI drivers need to be highly similar or equal in skill. Otherwise, there is an imbalance, and race is not fair. However, they should always be beatable.

It would be an outstanding experience if you had some leeway in their programming to be able to overtake and pass them. Otherwise, the races become a pure procession that is no fun.

Racing is about outsmarting the person in front of the person behind. On the offensive, this can mean setting your car’s racing line a few corners in advance to have the best initial straight-line speed, out-braking your opponent, or even taking a fast turn around the outside. Driving defensively means being able to keep a car behind you. It means sometimes letting a car through on the inside because you know you can get out of the corner faster and regain your position on the back straight. That’s “racing” – very few “racing” games involve that.

Risk versus reward is what racing is built on. If you brake too late or go too broad, you end up with nothing. If you make it, you look (and feel) like a genius. No one is surprised by a tightrope walker with a safety net under him. Rewind knobs ruin racing, and I’m ready to leave them behind.