RAILWAY by lukbebalduke
RAILWAY is a compo entry for Ludum Dare 40, where you control trains and build rails in the desert, avoiding collisions and creating smooth paths to keep trains on the rails!
Once you've created a rail, you cannot destroy it. Clicking on the bifurcation in the control mode switches between paths, clicking on the bifurcation in the build mode changes its original path.
That's it. If you want to use more controls, there are some extra keys (F10 fullscreen, F7 color mode, F5 turn off particles).
First of all: Thanks! This is my 11th Ludum Dare and it has been always a big pleasure to interact with you and play great games. I'm really excited about my result this time, I have improved a lot this year!
This is the first time I am using GameMakerStudio2 and things worked pretty well, I felt really comfortable with the new tool. Also, I decided to create a TimeLapse this time! Yeah! You can check it HERE.I hope you do enjoy my game :)
The original files can be found at the last link
[V.1.0.0.1] - BUGFIX - Trains were getting stuck at the second station and over spawning, sometimes trains were loading infinite cargo. FIX - One text box had a grammatical error
Ratings
| Overall | 55th | 3.955⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 98th | 3.795⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 114th | 3.682⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 129th | 3.909⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 29th | 4.25⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 259th | 2.971⭐ | 19🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 92th | 3.643⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 19🗳️ | 20🗨️ |
The graphics are terrific and the sound effects very satisfying.
BTW How good is game maker studio 2? I haven't switchet yet due to a lack of HTML5 features.
Talking about Studio 2, the new interface and room editor does help a lot, much cleaner and faster to compile in native language! Recently I even decided to move an entire big project from GMS to GMS2 :)
sadly the trains are able to leave the track and circle arround. but that is the only downside i could find.
as good points i need to say: hell your sounds are nice, and the overall look doesnt look like 48 hour jam.
well done!
if you find some time in your next station feel free to visit me:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/team-or-greed
Some concrete thoughts:
- I'm sure you played to Train Valley, I think the pause function is vital to this type of game because without it it's impossible to play more than 2:45 to 3:00 minutes consecutively. Part of the joy (in my opinion of course) resides in watching the trains cross the map (more like toys).
- Having icons to represent speed, mass and destination of the train would be better than numbers and colors. For the colors of destination, there's not enough variation between them and this may prevent colorblind people to play your game (everybody should play this game ;)).
- A restart function on a shortcut or on a pause menu would be nice, I did close and open 4 times the game while learning the details to try an optimal play.
Globally I'm impressed and I really appreciated playing this game :)
Keep up the good work!
Come check out my game if you like!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/virus-detected
I'm conflicted about a few things, mainly about toggling a pause, but I quite like the frantic nature of it (mind you, I haven't got very far), so I'm not sure it would benefit from it.
I do agree with @mr-matt in that the tracks should cost something to balance making smooth, but expensive tracks and 'edgy', but cheap ones. If that comes to play a possibility of destroying tracks could work if super expensive so it could be used but only as a last resort.
I encountered a tiny bug - if the number of damaged trains exceeds 3 (at the point of impact), the game just continues and shows x/3 tranis damaged. I assume there's an equality check and not a >= check.
In any case, I liked it a lot and the scope is just ridiculous for a compo. I hope one day I'll be able to churn out half as much as this in a jam...