I've always thought it would be great to have a xc video game where you start as a freshman in high school and work your way up to the pro's. You would race with your runner on many different venues and develope more and more tactics to use in the game as your runner got older. The game play would be similar to the Athens 2004 video game but with much more competition and several different tactics to choose during the race.
training would also somehow be involved
Maybe they could incorporate this into some sort of WiiFit game. This could inspire 9-13 years olds about cross country. You could travel all over the country and get sponsorships, etc... I think you're on to something. Other than wiifit or the old nintendo running pad, how would you make it interesting? Using a controller, you're still using buttons to make somebody else run...
mario olympics running is fun, and they have a 2 min or so cross country race where you pump your arms to run. it could be timing related like dance dance revolution but with the controller. that might take away from the actual xc action though. if they had a game like this that was around $700-1000 dollars and was a treadmill with a screen and a built in game like this how sick would that be. or maybe an elliptical so it didnt interfere with training for running as much.
Get a grip - noone we does not run xc in real life would be even remotely interested in this!!
there are so many fat asses in america. just market it as losing weight while having fun and challenging your self with online features where you can race your avatar against other people from around the nation or even world.
you can create racing circuits similar to real life where you qualify for big meets. the qualifying times can be set with easy, hard, professional
idk just some input if u were serious bec. if it works then a lot of money for u man i'm too lazy to work on this kind of stuff but think of how e-bay, google, or videogames were in their infant stage
u make it i'll guarantee u there are enough runners who will buy it for u to make a profit and tht can be ur base marketing target nd then general public hell advertise for free on flotrack and letsrun
Pro Cycling Manager is a perfect example of what an XC game should look like. If anyone is a computer programmer I got some great ideas, we all should get the ball rolling on this. Pro Cycling Manager has been made about 7 years in a row, the engine could easily be translated to running.
types of training:
hills
threshold
max vo2
anaerobic
easy runs
hurdling
drills/ploymetrics
altitude
alter-g
each training type would increase a certain attribute in the runner. and you would control the training like exactly how fast on each run, interval, etc. and of course it would produce a training effect like +4 to stamina, +2 to recovery, etc
it would be cool to have a food section as well and different foods give you different effects as well. you should obviously be able to control the racing, when to pass, when to sit, how hard to get out, etc.
and there should definitely be some sort of athlete/coach relationship built in. maybe you have to learn what each runner likes/dislikes not only in training but in how they race, what food, etc.
how bout making it something like a manager mode in the EA sports games like Madden or college football. Your the coach and you train your runners. Create a weekly schedule, come up with workouts, sign up for certain meets, and you can even recruit.
Theres a lot of stuff you could do with a game like this, but i would think that making it just for XC would limit your market...maybe it could have both track and XC where you have to train for both seasons, and in the track season you would just be in charge of the distance runners 800-10k.
Yeah and you could add a part time job option for your professional runner because they can't live off what they get paid to run. lol