Jump to content

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, Karl G said:

If you have all of the features that you want, and still have space left over, a title screen might be nice. If one player hits the button to start, maybe it could start a countdown timer for other human players to hit the button if they want to participate, with those who didn't do so being computer opponents as it is now.

A title screen is planned if I can come up with something nice, e.g. the name in pop art style.

image.png.cf2624a31b06f703a96cd23bd7ea3e77.png

 

But I suppose I will need some help here.

 

Regarding starting the game with a controller button, I am not sure if that's a good idea. After a race is over, people might not like to have the result removed by someone accidentally pressing a button. Maybe this is one of the exceptions, where this function should be limited to the console only.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, s0c7 said:

Have a game variation where the speed boosts come in a predefined order (giving the potential for a "perfect run") and one where they are random (to help offset the skill difference of the players).

Booth options would be easy to implement. I only have to find a way to make them easily selectable without making the selection overly complicated.

 

1 hour ago, s0c7 said:

In keeping with the early Atari arcade theme, maybe a B&W mode (although it may be difficult to get all 8 with a unique shade).

I don't think that would work. At least the cars have to stay colored to be distinctive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, alex_79 said:

What about refueling?

 

This would involve a new "pit stop" zone on the track. On this zone pressing the button would brake, while releasing it would accelerate (to be able to restart after refueling).


Deceleration  should be greater than on normal "non boost" zones, and it should be possible to stop the car completely. When the car is stopped it should be refueld.


This zone should be short, so that you would miss it if running too fast. Therefore it should be preceded by a long enough "non boost" zone to be able to reduce speed.

 

There's not much room for a fuel gauge, maybe a simple indicator based on colors would suffice. (E.g. green,yellow,red). There are three scanlines without hblanks to the left of each track, before the lower curb that could be used for that.

I think refueling would break the flow of the game. And I don't want the game to become overly complicated. It should be easy to understand and quick to play. 

 

Maybe there could be game variations which are longer and a bit more complex.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Regarding starting the game with a controller button, I am not sure if that's a good idea. After a race is over, people might not like to have the result removed by someone accidentally pressing a button. Maybe this is one of the exceptions, where this function should be limited to the console only.

Well, there could be a delay before button input is accepted to restart a game - and maybe starting via button or console-only would be a good candidate for a difficulty switch option.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

The cars are fixed assigned to a controller. I suppose when this is played on a party, the controllers would be marked with colored stickers.

 

I noticed people would get confused about which paddle is which player when I've set up Medieval Mayhem at the Houston Arcade Expo. In 2016 I did this, worked well.

 

IMG_7741.jpg

  • Like 11
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

The cars are fixed assigned to a controller. I suppose when this is played on a party, the controllers would be marked with colored stickers.

What if you had a little on-screen indicator in each lane that blinks on and off when you press and depress the button? The visual feedback would tell you which car is yours, because it will blink in synchronization with your button presses. It would have to be during the waiting time before the race starts. That's kind of how it works in Nintendo multi-player games where you're selecting a character. There's on-screen feedback when you press buttons.

 

I went back and noticed you do indicate which lane you're in by changing from grey to color. It's easy to miss though if you're not paying close attention.

Edited by azure
update
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, azure said:

What if you had a little on-screen indicator in each lane that blinks on and off when you press and depress the button? The visual feedback would tell you which car is yours, because it will blink in synchronization with your button presses. It would have to be during the waiting time before the race starts. That's kind of how it works in Nintendo multi-player games where you're selecting a character. There's on-screen feedback when you press buttons.

 

I went back and noticed you do indicate which lane you're in by changing from grey to color. It's easy to miss though if you're not paying close attention.

Good idea. Since the computer cars permanently change color, I could add that feedback for the boost arrows. Or vice-versa.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Bomberman94 said:

Already looks really great - unbelievable for only 2k and having up to 8 players ?
 

Maybe you can add a number „1“ (maybe left) next to the car the player chooses and „2“ to the second and so on - else it is hard to see what car a player controlls. 

This would work nice, have it display for a few seconds. Once the race starts it disappears. Or, as mentioned earlier, use colored stickers. Make them a pack-in extra.

---

Don't like the new sound mixing. Or whatever happened to it. Sounds disjointed and tedious. Can also do without the braking sound.

 

Edited by Keatah
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was thinking something. This game would work nicely in the vertical direction but with rockets instead of cars. Although limited to 6 rockets for non-flickering sprites. Instead of acceleration arrows, maybe acceleration clouds. Heh.

 

Maybe an option for a future sequel? 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

22 minutes ago, azure said:

I was thinking something. This game would work nicely in the vertical direction but with rockets instead of cars. Although limited to 6 rockets for non-flickering sprites. Instead of acceleration arrows, maybe acceleration clouds. Heh.

Vertically wouldn't work, way too much flicker even with just six rockets.

 

But the current game could be easily converted into spaceship racing. Just change the few graphics and colors, plus sound.

Edited by Thomas Jentzsch
Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, Keatah said:

This would work nice, have it display for a few seconds. Once the race starts it disappears. Or, as mentioned earlier, use colored stickers. Make them a pack-in extra.

I still don't get how the numbers would help. The paddles are not numbered too.

 

43 minutes ago, Keatah said:

Don't like the new sound mixing. Or whatever happened to it. Sounds disjointed and tedious. Can also do without the breaking sound.

Too bad. Now I am waiting for more feedback here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

Temp cart graphics for next Tuesday's show. ;-)

 

- James

 

image.thumb.png.a1db000afd8699adcc73d975c8d4f744.png

(NOTE: I didn't draw the cars, I found the graphic)

Quite OK. :) 

 

What the game really needs is play testing to fine tune the parameters.

  • How strong should the boost be?
  • How strong should the braking be?
  • How should the boost arrow density be (more or less longer ones)?
  • Should there be more or less friction?
  • How about the minimal speed?

The current values are resulting from only a little bit of play testing myself. I hope you and others can provide some good input here.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Too bad. Now I am waiting for more feedback here.

I personally found the braking sound really helpful. It's hard to see the last bit of acceleration arrows turn black as they go off the screen so the new braking sound indicated I was holding down the button too long when I didn't know I was doing it before.

 

The braking sound actually improved my gameplay!

 

- James

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, azure said:

I was thinking something. This game would work nicely in the vertical direction but with rockets instead of cars. Although limited to 6 rockets for non-flickering sprites. Instead of acceleration arrows, maybe acceleration clouds. Heh.

 

Maybe an option for a future sequel? 

Lots of transition possibilities as the rockets leave the launch pad and travel though space.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

I personally found the braking sound really helpful. It's hard to see the last bit of acceleration arrows turn black as they go off the screen so the new braking sound indicated I was holding down the button too long when I didn't know I was doing it before.

 

The braking sound actually improved my gameplay!

 

- James

That works well for 1 or 2 players, but 8 players? When there's that many players sound isn't a good cue for anything.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Quite OK. :) 

 

What the game really needs is play testing to fine tune the parameters.

  • How strong should the boost be?
  • How strong should the braking be?
  • How should the boost arrow density be (more or less longer ones)?
  • Should there be more or less friction?
  • How about the minimal speed?

The current values are resulting from only a little bit of play testing myself. I hope you and others can provide some good input here.

The boost strength is fine.

The breaking is a little too strong. Very easy to get far enough behind you have no chance of catching up.

Arrow density could be longer once in a while.

Friction is fine.

Minimal speed should be a a bit faster.

 

AI needs to be more random. The grey/white car never wins. The two red ones win nearly all the time. AI should be less perfect. The 6 players I asked to try this never won against AI. Should be adaptive to where it sometimes just lags behind human players (by messing up the timing) and other times where it's spot on and pulls ahead.

 

Edited by Keatah
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, Keatah said:

AI needs to be more random. The grey/white car never wins. The two red ones win nearly all the time. AI should be less perfect.

Actually that's intentional. The AI has different skill levels (hot colors are faster, cold colors are slower), so that it offers competition for more or less skilled players. 

12 minutes ago, Keatah said:

The 6 players I asked to try this never won against AI.

IMO that's fine. Players should be somewhere in the middle of the field and try to improve from there. When one can beat the AI easily, why would one need an AI at all? :) 

12 minutes ago, Keatah said:

Should be adaptive to where it sometimes just lags behind human players (by messing up the timing) and other times where it's spot on and pulls ahead.

It is adaptive already. The better the position, the worse it becomes. But this has to be balanced with the initial AI skills. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

55 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:
  • How strong should the boost be?

Maybe have occasional special golden arrows with a power boost? So missing those would be extra costly. Basically like the boost arrows in Mario Kart. ?

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, SpiceWare said:

 

I noticed people would get confused about which paddle is which player when I've set up Medieval Mayhem at the Houston Arcade Expo. In 2016 I did this, worked well.

 

IMG_7741.jpg

I mentioned this in the chat room during the ZPH show while they played Vroom!

Didn't you also have colored twisted wires around the cords too??

Edited by Arenafoot
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Arenafoot said:

Didn't you also have colored twisted wires around the cords too??

 

I used these in a previous year, but they had a habit of sliding down the cord towards the plug, which made them ineffective at identifying which paddle controlled which position.

 

P1020795.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I played a bit last evening.


The gameplay feels "right" to me already, so I find difficult to suggest any specific change to the parameters. Maybe it's best to post a few variations to compare?

 

The AI seems well balanced too. I played several rounds and I finished the race in all possible positions. I'm using real hardware + CRT, so no input lag in my tests.

 

Maybe you could have (optional, e.g. selected using a difficulty switch) some extra boost inversely proportional to the position, so it's easier to catch up making the race challenging until the end.

 

A "bonus" of some kind might work too (this could be optional as well), like the power boost suggested by @azure. It should be short (single arrow), so it's difficult to catch.

 

I prefer the audio of the previous version, without the brake sound.

 

Autodetection works correctly, I can now control a single car without the QuadTari.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...