UFO Racing

Software	Java or C++ or Smalltalk or another object oriented language with good GUI facilities, or app building tools, or Flash.
Covers	Graphic application development, potentially AI
Skills Required	Programming, basic physics, ideally some interest in artificial intelligence
Challenge	Conceptual ? Technical ?? Programming ???

Brief Description

Earth isn't the only planet with boy racers! Fly your flying saucer round the race track, skilfully bouncing off the boundary force-fields, obstacles and other racers... Are you the fastest lifeform in the known universe?

The idea of the project is to build a simple (to start with) pc/tablet/smartphone game, where the player uses four buttons, for acceleration, deceleration, left turn and right turn, to control a circular flying saucer (that can't instantly stop or change direction massively) as it flies. The track is represented as a closed loop on the screen, with inner and outer walls - how twisty this is is up to the developer: you could hard-code several, or generate them with random variation. When the saucer hits something it has a geometrically accurate inelastic collision and heads off in a different direction (you'll probably need to decide you don't get friction or spin). Skilled players can exploit bounces; inexperienced players might find themselves going backward.

In the simplest form of the game, the aim is to fly a specified number of laps as fast as possible, ideally with a leaderboard for the fastest times recorded by the game. The first variation you can introduce is flying the course clockwise and anticlockwise. You can then add features...

Extensions

Alternative tracks: You can make your tracks as twisty as you have space for on screen, but a long straight might be a dangerous temptation. Different tracks for different screen or window sizes might be useful.
Fuel: Changing speed or direction costs fuel, and you only have a finite amount...
Obstacles: Place round or polygonal obstacles on the track at random for the racers to dodge or collide with.
Moving obstacles: Instead of treating obstacles as immovable, give them (and the saucer) a defined mass, and use correct Newtonian mechanics to compute how they move when the saucer hits them or they hit each other; the saucer can gain and lose kinetic energy from the collisions as well as from the accelerator and decelerator buttons.
Damage: Instead of being harmless, collisions with boundaries, obstacles or other competitors could weaken the saucers' force fields. Lose enough shielding and you're knocked out of the race, so your first challenge is to finish the course.
Random tracks: Instead of having one or a few tracks, the game could generate its own tracks. Ideally the algorithm would employ a seed or generate a description string that would allow the game to regenerate a previous track, for instance to allow friends to try to beat each others' times on different machines.
AI Competitors: Computer controlled saucers to race against require ways to represent the track ahead and procedures for deciding to turn or accelerate or decelerate. These could very simple or more elaborate. Apply standard Newtonian mechanics to collisions between racers. What works best? Race different algorithms against each other to find out. (Lifeforms? Just ugly bags of chemicals with over-inflated opinions of themselves. Who needs 'em?)
Learning to Race: Develop AI racers that can learn decision-making rules from experience, or use genetic algorithm techniques to evolve better racers.

Variant

Use a game controller to fly the saucer instead of a keyboard or touchscreen buttons.

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