Throughout this book, we will be working continuously on a single game project example. The working title of the game is Edge Racer. As the title may indicate, it's a racing game; to be more specific, it's a futuristic racing game in which the player drives high-speed motorcycles. We will review the core concepts of the game in more detail in Chapter 2, The Game Design Document. But before continuing, I wish to list the reasons I decided on a racing game instead of another type of game—for example, a role-playing game (RPG)—as follows:
- Simplicity: Racing games have a simple premise—get to the finish line as fast as possible without crashing. Because this book is not about game design but game programming, I wanted a simple type of game that will permit us to focus on learning about software design patterns and not get bogged down with the implementation details of complex game mechanics.
- Fun: I've worked on various games of many different genres, and I always found that racing games are the most fun to develop because they are enjoyable to test. In racing games, you can speed-run to specific parts of the game and quickly reproduce bugs or test new features. Unlike other games with deep game mechanics and large maps, such as RPGs, racing games are usually quicker to debug.
- Performance: The main challenge of programming a racing game is maintaining a consistent frame rate as you add more features and content. So, I find working on racing games forces you to maintain good game-programmer habits by always keeping an eye on how fast your code is running and not just making it more readable.
- Personal: There's also a personal reason for me choosing a racing game—it's because it's my favorite genre. I love playing racing games and I love making them.
In conclusion, the game industry produces various products in many genres and sub-genres, but a racing game is a good reference point for us to start learning about design patterns in Unity because it's a simple context and forces us to keep an eye on keeping code clean and fast.
