Ideas So Far: Term 1

Concerning my 3 main projects, I have come up with ideas for each of them, I already mentioned I had some for the card game project for games design.
With animation, I've got a few ideas floating for the comedic gag that the robot will succumb to and I'm actually pretty excited about it as I'm keen on both animation and comedy especially the latter, so making something humorous is right up my alley! I can actually feel inspiration gathering and I can't wait to see if I can actually recreate my ideas as I would love to! Whether the final idea I choose is going to be funny, unique, creative and memorable enough for the standard required is just a matter of time, but I hope I do well on this to be honest as I'm pretty keen on it.
With those Phoenix Wrongs, I get pretty creative with them and I specialise in slapstick, random humour in them so I'm really hoping to apply what I do there to this project and hopefully make something memorable for the right reasons and good enough to pass with a decent mark.

For the rollercoaster project which is what I wanted talk about mainly, I have 2 main sources of very convenient inspiration actually. One of them is a 3D rollercoaster game on my phone, which I only just realised I had! I play it a lot and have picked up a lot from it through playing it, which is going to be extremely helpful for this project! My other source of inspiration is another game called Audiosurf. Normally, people would say RollerCoaster Tycoon as as source as its a popular and well known game, but here I'd like to focus on something more unique and abstract.
First things first though, we had to choose whether to have our roller-coaster set in space or underwater, and I've opted for underwater which is the harder one as I realised. With underwater, I will have to recreate accurate physics of travelling underwater, but I already have a counter measure against that. I'll probably need to model wildlife and plant life to add to the atmosphere of course, otherwise it will be quite an empty and disappointing ocean. I may have to leave them out due to time restrictions, but I will try to include some in including a shark and a turtle as well as some shells and seaweed possibly.

The counter measure against the water physics I mentioned just now by the way, I will not have to worry about that really as I plan to have the roller coaster go through an underwater tunnel with some "freaky" movement along the walls and ceiling, which is something I picked up from playing a Sonic game called Sonic Heroes.
As you can see from the 2nd screenshot, that is the level that inspired me. Its one of hte bonus stages from the game and you're inside a huge transparent glass tunnel which you need to chase that hot air balloon to the end. What I love about this level is that you can run along the walls as well, other games have incorporated this in their own way I think, actually the F-Zero games do have something like this as well. I imagine the rollercoaster car going down a tunnel like this underwater and it moving along the walls and the ceiling in a corkscrew fashion as the track spirals through the tunnel.
What would be the icing on the cake would be the fact you could see the wildlife outside whilst travelling through at high speed which can be both entrancing and also scary depending on what appears. Actually, that reminds me of another source of inspiration to think of it, the film Jaws 3 I think it is. It's where they are at this water resort and at one point, I remember them being underwater in a tunnel like this and the shark smashing against the tunnel, which could be a good surprise to be implemented in this.

I also got some more inspiration of a friend of mine who said I should have the rollercoaster go through an area populated with underwater mines and have the roller coaster weave in and out rapidly to increase tension and thrills. I'd like to also implement a ship wreck somehow too if possible, but I doubt it will be possible due to time restrictions. For the car itself, I'm probably going to have some sort of submarine/roller coaster car hybrid so that it can travel outside of the tunnel, by automatically closing a watertight shield over the car when it reaches outside the tunnel. I'd like to also have it come out the water at certain times to go through the air and rapidly drop back into the water, with the track ending the back of the island you start on.

Back to the first 2 sources of inspiration anyway. The game on my phone is called 3D Rollercoaster Rush and it is by Digital Chocolate.
I noticed whilst browsing images of the game, that UFOs appear in the background during a nightime setting which is an interesting touch, I'm not far enough in the game to know that but I'm sure I'm close. This game as you would expect gets more intense and difficult the further in and I find it to be a great deal of inspiration right now. They include features like breathtaking drops, very steep slopes, closely put together gaps and huge loop de loops to add intensity to the track and you really have to balance your speed throughout to make it through safely, never mind scoring the 5 star rating!

The other game I mentioned is Audiosurf, a game emphasising use of your own music to produce the actual game! Basically, you ride a spaceship down a track collecting coloured blobs and creating matches mainly, and the actual track is formed by the song used, it changes completely to suit the song loaded, with bumps, tunnels and other features representing particular moments of the song.
The shape of some of the tracks you get can be very wild, twisting, mad and eye-appealing really. The speed you fly down the track is affected by the tempo of the song and also the amount of blocks you have to deal with (the "traffic"), is affected by the song too. I've always felt the game to be like a musical rollercoaster to be honest, it literally is like the sci-fi racing game F-Zero fused with music recognition and a typical puzzle game to me. The tracks themselves are the source of inspiration here as they can have corkscrews, huge drops and climbs, hills and the like, which remind me of a rollercoaster and hence I can get inspired by it too.

A screenshot above shows a typical screen from the game whilst playing on a track anyways. It cant really be seen, but in the top left, you do get a mini map of the outline of the track showing what horrors are coming your way xD. Quite a strange choice of song too there...

Anyways, I am planning to work on some outlines for the track later today, I did try to do them digitally and it went badly, so I may use an A4 sketchbook instead to sketch out designs, as it will be easier. I do have a graphics tablet, but I still find it hard to use in this sort of situaiton so doing it on paper will probably be best, I can try using the mouse with the paths tool in an image editor to think of it, but Ill see how I get along on paper first. I'll scan my drawings in if I do opt for the paper option and I'll post them on here.