2nd January 2024, 10:03 PM
(This post was last modified: 2nd January 2024, 10:34 PM by Delphinoid_. Edited 5 times in total.)
As TRUC mentioned, in order to get more players, the game needs some amount of marketing, which is currently non-existent. There are definitely influential YouTubers and Twitch streamers who at least remember the game (Simpleflips has occasionally mentioned PR2 and expressed interest in playing it during streams, for instance), which could make outreach marketing a viable strategy, but anyone revisiting the game would do so only briefly for nostalgia's sake. You have to understand that everyone got their fill of this game 10 years ago; it was dying even when Jiggmin was doing Motley Monday. This kind of leads me into the next point.
PR2 actually doesn't really have much to offer in the long term. The game lacks content, is extremely repetitive and is not even really that interesting by modern standards. It's a product of a different era, where it could capitalize on being one of the very few accessible multiplayer games (especially that wasn't an MMORPG). PR3 was a significant improvement, but well... we all know what happened to PR3.
I think in order for Platform Racing to become popular again, the most efficient approach would be to create a new game from scratch, put it on Steam and potentially even try to get some influencers who have some familiarity with the series interested. Since Mario Maker 2 is beginning to become less relevant, this is probably a great time for something like this. Here is a list of changes / features that I would suggest for such a game.
1. Huge focus on UGC. I think PR3's level creation options were the best thing to ever be introduced to the series, and even by today's standards they're incredibly unique and innovative. They give players so much freedom and add a lot of variety to the game. At least reintroducing custom blocks would be a must, but maybe you could even take it further somehow. Modern PR3's Lua support is very cool for instance, and games like ROBLOX show us that stuff like this can help a game succeed and remain relevant. Taking this to its logical extreme could be an avenue worth exploring (what if you could add custom entities as well as blocks?).
2. Levels should save world records and possibly first clears as well. Games like Mario Maker and Trackmania show us that people care a lot about competing for the fastest times on random user-made levels, so this should be embraced. The idea of tracking "first clears" is taken from Mario Maker; as well as being a nice thing for players to collect (a first clear on a particular level is something that will always belong to you), they also allow you to see which levels have been cleared; this led to an initiative in the community to collaboratively clear every level in the original game, which I think demonstrates the power of this seemingly random feature.
3. It would be nice to have some kind of "competitive" mode for people who care about that kind of thing. Just adding a ranking system to a game can keep people playing for a long time, since it turns gradual improvement into something measurable that they can share with other players.
4. More interesting forms of movement. PR has a tendency to turn into a "hold right simulator". That being said, I think it would be difficult to find non-intrusive ways of augmenting the movement. At the very least I would make two suggestions: first, I think PR1-style bonking (à la the Jigg hat) should be brought back, just without stunning the player being bonked (bouncing off people is fun and adds a new level of interactivity and strategy between players). Second, I think there needs to be a replacement for super jumping (especially if bonking is brought back); super jumping temporarily breaks the flow of the race and just inherently isn't really very fun to have to do in a series modelled after the phrase "Go fast. Win." The only thing is that functionally super jumping gives players with low jump stats a way to compete, so it would be challenging to find a good replacement that doesn't undermine the jump stat.
5. Untie stat points from ranking up. This may be a controversial change, but I think giving players a flat boost to stats for no other reason than that they've played for longer is stupid.
6. Collectibles / customization. Lots of collectible customization options is obviously a must and totally in the spirit of the series. The way PR2 and PR3 have done this has always been practically perfect, especially with their hats, which function as extremely valuable and desirable rewards. In line with the previous point, a remark I would make here is that it would be nice if no hat were ever a direct upgrade to not wearing any hat, unless the advantage it provides does not affect racing (EXP hat) or it's relatively easy to get (a reward you can quickly get from a singleplayer campaign or something). Hats done properly give players fun new (but not necessarily better) options and allow them to create new strategies that fit their playstyle. Hats done poorly are cheap and undermine player skill. An example of this kind of thing done pretty well is probably TF2's unlockable weapons. In practice though it might be difficult to balance hats with this in mind though, and honestly it's probably not so important as long as players can get at least one hat that holds up against the others from a singleplayer campaign or something.
7. Maintain (but maybe update?) Jiggmin's incredibly charming creative style. I think everyone loves Jiggmin's style, and the design of the original platform racing character is just brilliant: it's super cute and iconic, and I think it makes a really good first impression.
I think a project like this would be incredibly ambitious, but it's certainly doable. I think what's left of the JV community could even put together something like this given enough interest, although I think it would be pointless unless it were spearheaded by Jiggmin.
PR2 actually doesn't really have much to offer in the long term. The game lacks content, is extremely repetitive and is not even really that interesting by modern standards. It's a product of a different era, where it could capitalize on being one of the very few accessible multiplayer games (especially that wasn't an MMORPG). PR3 was a significant improvement, but well... we all know what happened to PR3.
I think in order for Platform Racing to become popular again, the most efficient approach would be to create a new game from scratch, put it on Steam and potentially even try to get some influencers who have some familiarity with the series interested. Since Mario Maker 2 is beginning to become less relevant, this is probably a great time for something like this. Here is a list of changes / features that I would suggest for such a game.
1. Huge focus on UGC. I think PR3's level creation options were the best thing to ever be introduced to the series, and even by today's standards they're incredibly unique and innovative. They give players so much freedom and add a lot of variety to the game. At least reintroducing custom blocks would be a must, but maybe you could even take it further somehow. Modern PR3's Lua support is very cool for instance, and games like ROBLOX show us that stuff like this can help a game succeed and remain relevant. Taking this to its logical extreme could be an avenue worth exploring (what if you could add custom entities as well as blocks?).
2. Levels should save world records and possibly first clears as well. Games like Mario Maker and Trackmania show us that people care a lot about competing for the fastest times on random user-made levels, so this should be embraced. The idea of tracking "first clears" is taken from Mario Maker; as well as being a nice thing for players to collect (a first clear on a particular level is something that will always belong to you), they also allow you to see which levels have been cleared; this led to an initiative in the community to collaboratively clear every level in the original game, which I think demonstrates the power of this seemingly random feature.
3. It would be nice to have some kind of "competitive" mode for people who care about that kind of thing. Just adding a ranking system to a game can keep people playing for a long time, since it turns gradual improvement into something measurable that they can share with other players.
4. More interesting forms of movement. PR has a tendency to turn into a "hold right simulator". That being said, I think it would be difficult to find non-intrusive ways of augmenting the movement. At the very least I would make two suggestions: first, I think PR1-style bonking (à la the Jigg hat) should be brought back, just without stunning the player being bonked (bouncing off people is fun and adds a new level of interactivity and strategy between players). Second, I think there needs to be a replacement for super jumping (especially if bonking is brought back); super jumping temporarily breaks the flow of the race and just inherently isn't really very fun to have to do in a series modelled after the phrase "Go fast. Win." The only thing is that functionally super jumping gives players with low jump stats a way to compete, so it would be challenging to find a good replacement that doesn't undermine the jump stat.
5. Untie stat points from ranking up. This may be a controversial change, but I think giving players a flat boost to stats for no other reason than that they've played for longer is stupid.
6. Collectibles / customization. Lots of collectible customization options is obviously a must and totally in the spirit of the series. The way PR2 and PR3 have done this has always been practically perfect, especially with their hats, which function as extremely valuable and desirable rewards. In line with the previous point, a remark I would make here is that it would be nice if no hat were ever a direct upgrade to not wearing any hat, unless the advantage it provides does not affect racing (EXP hat) or it's relatively easy to get (a reward you can quickly get from a singleplayer campaign or something). Hats done properly give players fun new (but not necessarily better) options and allow them to create new strategies that fit their playstyle. Hats done poorly are cheap and undermine player skill. An example of this kind of thing done pretty well is probably TF2's unlockable weapons. In practice though it might be difficult to balance hats with this in mind though, and honestly it's probably not so important as long as players can get at least one hat that holds up against the others from a singleplayer campaign or something.
7. Maintain (but maybe update?) Jiggmin's incredibly charming creative style. I think everyone loves Jiggmin's style, and the design of the original platform racing character is just brilliant: it's super cute and iconic, and I think it makes a really good first impression.
I think a project like this would be incredibly ambitious, but it's certainly doable. I think what's left of the JV community could even put together something like this given enough interest, although I think it would be pointless unless it were spearheaded by Jiggmin.
