what is alternator the game will saves
the planet
the idea for alternate it came from the
fact that there's usually so much
negativity surrounding the future the
planet we thought it'd be great if we
could make a game that had a message
that if you backed the right ideas the
future can be awesome yeah so we came up
with this really cool concept of taking
the gas guzzling car racing genre and
turning it on its head by fueling the
cars with alternative and clean
technologies but neither of us had ever
made a game before that's right i mean i
had some experience with 3d graphics and
special effects from my TV work and i
produced a lot of multimedia theater
shows and live events fortunately we
were able to team up with John Wells
who's one of Australia's leading serious
games experts it's a project which is
really highly indicative of the way that
this should be approached we were taking
a subject matter and we were building a
game to satisfy and the the need
associated with that subject matter this
high-octane carbon neutral series game
to save the planet it was another way
that we can engage with people that was
not being preachy but actually was
giving them an enjoyable experience
through which they could actually learn
so much more
concept is the really fun part because
you can let your imagination run wild
and we had some really fun brainstorm
sessions where we were working and then
thrashing out just how the game should
work one point we even used deans bridge
as a visual aid I Drive over the pot but
it's a little bit slower off track that
was less than successful but luckily we
had some amazing artists working on the
game with us we had David McDermott as a
concept artist he did some really
beautiful were capturing the look and
feel that we were after it was important
that there was still recognizable
aspects of today's technology but there
are wild and crazy and futuristic like
nothing anyone had seen before I've been
designing vehicles and I've been
designing mods which are used in races
to enhance your vehicle and get it
working better the mods would have to be
one of the most crucial elements of the
game because that's the part where the
player learns about all the renewable
energies and technologies that we wanted
to highlight at the same time that those
mods need to be cool and don't like make
the vehicle look really interesting so
it's a challenging process but it's
really really fun we wanted the
upgrading of the car to happen in a way
like we'd never seen before in any other
racing game and we fell in love with
this idea that the mods themselves could
reshape the car in really dramatic cool
kind of ways so this is the latest
incarnation of the hero car for
alternator you can see my working planes
that I have to kind of guide me making a
car a 3d model one of the core design
features of alternator is that the
player will be able to customize their
car with a number of different
attachments and these are hard points
here at the front the side in the back
allow the player to attach those
modifications to the car
the serious game content itself was a
real challenge for us because we didn't
want to have a game of two parts you
know where you have the fun racing game
and then these facts about renewable
energy tapped on and we actually spend a
lot of time and effort on that you're
gonna get it right we did there was a
lot of brainstorm sessions because it
was a tricky one and it was great to
have Matt Caron who are on the
programming and design site on our team
because they did a fantastic job making
sure that serious game content was
really well incorporated into the
gameplay experience there's a young
British inventor who created a
carbon-neutral flying car to have this
huge kite that lifted it into the air
the pilot from Switzerland set a world
record by flying a plane powered only by
solar panels for 26 hours non-stop some
American car designers use the latest in
lightweight materials and aerodynamic
designs to create the most
fuel-efficient vehicle and one a
five-million-dollar prize there's a
motorcycle drag racer able to clock 96
kilometers an hour in under 1 second
powered by lithium batteries and there's
heaps more incredible inventions
featured in the game and they become the
future mods that you add to your car so
that you can drive fast
drift better fly higher and win races
and again save the planet well the
people who play the game can save the
planet and I think alternate is
definitely going to inspire people to
take more of an interest where they
might not have had it before and that
inspiration it's really the first step
like my small small wall kenstar the
Avalanche you know and and it could be
again Albert Einstein said that you
can't fix a problem using the same
thinking that caused the problem in the
first place and that's exactly what we
are seeking to achieve through
alternative is we're looking to change
thinking and who knows I mean maybe some
future Einstein will start out playing
alternator get inspired and end up
inventing the ultimate solution to our
energy crisis that abuse
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