"Spanking Runners"

Fulqrum Publishing | K-D LAB
Publisher in former USSR and Baltic countries: 1C Company
Release date: On shelves now
URL: http://www.kdlab.com/eng/projects/project_view.php?id=18

Description:
"Spanking Runners" is a cute game where you control crazy vehicles with amusing animated drivers around funny obstacle courses using a lot of bright magic spells. The game belongs to Adventure/Racing Arcade genre and has several addictive play modes including well-known Real-Time and unique, never seen before, Turn-Based go-through adventures as well as classic Split-Screen and powerful Hot-Seat competitions. The game style is imaginative and easy to perceive. It features cutting-edge state-of-the-art graphics/physics technology and includes a lot of original music, whimsical animations and high-detail interactive environments.

Technology
A proprietary "know-how" technology Surmap ARTT is used to create game worlds and unique and qualitative 3D landscapes. This technology uses voxel approach in designing landscapes and assigning properties to them. After that this data is approximated with a detailed 3D mesh, which gives a polygonal landscape a new level of quality, and allows employing modern 3D accelerators. The final result is better than that achievable with a traditional approach. The departure from tiled texture maps and the use of real-time rendering of the landscape from continuous attribute maps give us powerful means for design. All necessary coordinate recalculations to put environments on the small spheres are performed on the fly.

Game objects (e.g. vehicles, Runners) consist of 3D polygonal textured parts. The engine computes the lighting, shadows, glares, translucent and masked parts, all in real time. Static 3D objects are also used as additional details of the level: bridges, some artificial structures, vegetation etc. There are various and original special effects like local colored light sources, complex particle systems for simulation of magic spells, force fields, whirlwinds, volcanoes, smoke, plasma etc.

The game has a realistic physics model of interaction of complex hierarchical 3D objects and 3D landscape based on rigid body dynamics with various models of behavior, including movement with the help of wheels, legs and wings.

The game engine fully utilizes modern CPU power as well as state-of-the-art 3D hardware accelerators. The game supports Direct3D API for accelerated rendering of all polygonal elements and special effects. Our 3D technology delivers graphics superior to that of our competitors in terms of quality.

Gameplay
There is a special central planet that links all other racing worlds (totally 30+) with the help of portals. This planet serves as an original interface, where the player can select or modify his/her vehicle/Runner, choose racing track and learn basics of vehicle control. This planet is also inhabited by the Narrator that briefs the player and gives him/her various hints.

The player's vehicle consists of the Runner itself and 3 main parts: (1) fore-part, (2) front and (3) back wheels. Every part is a unique device and generates a magic spell that may be used during a race. Thus the player may constantly modify his/her vehicle by changing various parts and experiment with new sets of magic spells that will help him/her to win races.

Only 5 Runners are available from the very beginning of the game, however 5 more will become available after the player defeats level-Bosses. Every Runner has its own set of attributes (energy level, speed, handling, mana recharge rate, weight etc.). The racing vehicle itself is also a very nonstable and variable vehicle as it may be broken apart/reassembled and competing Runners may even exchange parts during a race.

All racing worlds are grouped near the level-Boss statue and share a common style. Only the easiest tracks are available in the beginning, though player always faces several options. New and more complicated tracks appear as he/she advances through the game. Each racing track holds one special vehicle part, and the player will have to win the race or buy it in order to get this part.

Economical system of Spanking Runners is quite simple. Every track has a specific amount of checkpoints, and every checkpoint consists of a fixed amount of Bottles. The player gets all Bottles for going through the checkpoint first, one Star less for coming second, etc. Thus the player is constantly motivated not only to win the race, but also to lead all the way to get the maximum amount of Bottles.

Bottles are the game's currency as the player can buy access to new tracks and additional vehicle parts if he/she can't win a race. Such concept makes the game friendlier towards the user. As the player advances through the tracks he/she obtains more powerful spells that are designed to physically harm opponents, create various nasty traps or alter the vehicle itself, for example temporally imbue it with powers of flight.

There are also special moving bonus creatures of several types: refilling the player's energy or mana level, increasing his/her speed or simply adding to Bottles total. Plus there are other objects that temporally boost vehicles or make them jumping. Such environments were created to make gameplay more challenging, entertain the player and motivate him/her to a constant change of tactics.

The game is very dynamic. The player is always in the middle of an enchanting show and has lots of opportunities to affect its course. This is the basic principle of our game design: we have abandoned the concept of long and dull tracks, and try to follow the new concept of creating tiny environments full of events. The player will race on round planets constantly facing funny arcade situations.

There are two control modes in Spanking Runners. The first control mode is a classic arcade race in real time with a third person view camera. And the second mode is totally new. An alternative turn-based gameplay extends the audience to include those people who do not have good reflexes and prefer a calm "tactical" gameplay. This mode allows the player to set waypoints in top-down view, analyze and forecast situation on the track and activate spells during pause. When the player is done, game returns to real time and he/she observes what has happened during the move. In addition the player can examine exciting environment from various positions without any haste.

Spanking Runners feature a classic Split-Screen (vertically and horizontally) multiplayer mode in addition to singleplay adventure. Turn-based mode allows 5 players to play simultaneously on one computer in hot-seat mode. Turn-based multiplayer can also be played via email. Such combination will make the product's life considerably longer.

The product does not resemble any other competitive game. With its innovation and attention to details, it has good chances to attract those gamers, who are saturated with a flood of games that look like one another. Many fans of the arcade genre are waiting for something fresh and noteworthy in their favorite type of easy and fun entertainment.

Storyline
Storyline can be shortly described as follows. Once upon a time the game world was a happy universe of interlinked planets inhabited by funny creatures freely wandering from planet to planet via portals. However an Evil Mage has transformed several inhabitants into hideous monsters or level-Bosses who are now guarding portal entrances and gathering entrance fees. The Evil Mage had also organized constant races on all worlds, giving the remaining Runners various magic parts. The player has to dispel the evil magic and free all planets. To achieve this goal he/she will have to compete Boss creatures in races. However he/she will have to beat all other Runners in order to open portals leading to all racing worlds.

Artwork
Spanking Runners's style is fun and easy. The graphics accumulate the best specimens from arcades (both PC and consoles) with their hilarity, vivid colors and familiar forms. The game has a blend of absurdness to it and its own original coloration. Spanking Runners's arcade gameplay seamlessly blends with its simple yet deeply wrought tactical features.

The game worlds where races take place have colorful interactive environment. All the game elements are things familiar to people. Here are some examples of worlds: ocean world (islands, cannons, ships, lighthouses, whales, fish, palm trees), forest world (dandelions, snails and worms, grass, a windmill), clock world (wheels, springs, a spider sitting in the mechanism), and so on. Our goal is to create wonderful environments that will please the players just by their appearance though without losing functionality.

Runners are the core of the design and every player will select his/her personal Runner according to his/her own taste. Every Runner has its unique set of animations turning the whole racing process into a funny and colorful show.

System Requirements

Current platform: PC CD-ROM.

Minimal configuration:
- Pentium MMX 233MHz,
- 32Mb RAM,
- CD-ROM Drive,
- Direct3D-compatible 3D video accelerator w/12Mb RAM,
- Keyboard, Mouse,
- DirectSound-compatible sound card.

Recommended configuration:
- Pentium II 400 MHz,
- 64Mb RAM,
- CD-ROM Drive,
- Direct3D-compatible 3D video accelerator w/16Mb RAM (Voodoo 2/3, TNT 1/2, GeForce, Matrox G400),
- Keyboard, Mouse, GamePad,
- DirectSound-compatible sound card.

OS: MS Windows 95/98/2000, DirectX 7.0+