Two years ago, when Jenkat was doing casual game development, we pitched the idea of NASCAR/racing-themed games to several publishers. The reaction wasn’t what we had hoped. However, based on demographics and social media statistics, there seems to be a huge crossover between NASCAR fans and causal gamers. We think – if done right – that NASCAR and racing inspired games would find a large audience.
We pitched two-types of NASCAR/racing games. One was a time management game like Diner Dash, where you managed your car and driver in the pits from practice to qualifying to the actual race. To win the game, you would need to field the best driver and team, thus winning a “Winston Cup”-like trophy. Locations for the game would have included different cities (Charlotte, Daytona, Phoenix, and more) and different settings at the race track.
The other game was a hidden object game that we had a working title of “Day at the Races” where a family of four have won, ironically, a day at the races. Their day would start at home and they would eventually make their way to the race track. Along the way they’d have to search for many items in many different locations, including having to find their keys, pack the car, stop for breakfast, pick-up lil’ Jerry from baseball practice, get an oil change, make it to the track, park, find their seats, go on a tour, get some lunch, watch the race, and finally celebrate in the Winner’s Circle.
Our target release date for both games was going to be the week of the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600, which is the biggest weekend of racing each year. Those two events traditionally take place on the same weekend in May.
In the end, neither game has materialized, however we still hold out hope. We’re casual race fans and casual game fans, and we believe that if those two worlds collided it would produce some entertaining games.
Racing Weekend May 2011, anyone?
