ProjectProposal-ShyamVijayakumar
From CS 160 Fall 2008
Contents |
Target User Group
The target user for this game is someone who wants to drive a vehicle in the near future. The user would like to learn the rules of the road as well as apply them somehow before actually taking a drive on the road with a parent or other licensed driver. The user should get a feel for the various driving situations that might come up in the real world before actually doing it.
Problem Description
The problem is that beginner drivers have no alternative than to immediately drive a car with a parent or other licensed driver. There should be a way for these drivers to get a feel for the decisions they will make in the real world without actually driving a car.
Problem Context and Forces
Many beginner drivers might feel timid about driving out in the real world. Often times, the parents of student drivers do not feel safe letting their children drive with them or with an instructor. There has to be a way to soothe both of these concerns before an actual vehicle is driven. Many student drivers have to take a driver's education class, where they learn the rules of the road through boring lectures. It is easy to remember the different types of road signs and whatnot but it is difficult to actually see one of them and react in the correct way with respect to the sign itself and to the other cars present. Again, there has to be a way to apply these rules of the road before anybody actually drives a car. Of course there is nothing like physically driving a car, but atleast mentally, the user should know what to do in certain situations and should have practice in making correct decisions under those situations before driving a car. Driver's Ed is a driving simulator that already exists, but it is very limited in the number of driving situations available. Also, it is quite boring and needs a better user interface.
Solution Sketch
The user can be playing an RPG (Role-Playing Game) where the user’s character needs to drive a vehicle. There could be some background story that would make the game more interesting. Basically, however, the story would involve the user needing to get from a certain location on a map to another. Along the way, he would run into various road signs and different levels of traffic. Different levels can be easily achieved by introducing more cars and more obscure road signs as the difficulty gets higher. Whenever the user violates a rule, a message might pop up letting the user know what he did incorrectly and why it is incorrect. Alternatively, a policeman character can be used to give tickets and have a conversation with the user’s character. The user can also have health points based on how much damage he has done to his car and lives based on how many accidents he’s been in. Here is a potential environment without the road signs in it. In the following one, a stop sign is appropriate at the intersection for example.
Image courtesy of http://i.d.com.com/i/dl/media/dlimage/35/53/0/35530_large.jpeg
