LudumData

Auto Racer by ethankennerly

[raw]
made by ethankennerly for LD34 (COMPO)
Press LEFT or RIGHT to change lanes.

Dodge cars to speed up.

Can you beat all 10 levels?

Post compo-version: Steer off-road to restart the level.


Thanks for suggesting 9 post-compo improvements:

* Steer off-road, TheMeorch restarts level.
* At highest speed, Drtizzle changes lane twice as fast.
* Blobo encounters 10% fewer cars that switch lanes.
* Nosfer plays level 11 and 12 with 10% faster driving.
* Muel sees cars signal lane change 4 more cars ahead.
* TerraCottaFrog finishes race at level 2 to 5 about 20% sooner.
* If competitor is moving faster, Blobo does not crash.
* LittleThor hears lane change and pass. Pass rise in pitch with speed. http://sfbgames.com/chiptone
* Muel hears soundtrack (autotracker_bu.py).
HTML5 (Post-compo) http://finegamedesign.com/auto-racer/web-gl.html
Windows http://finegamedesign.com/auto-racer/autoracer_windows.zip
OS/X http://finegamedesign.com/auto-racer/autoracer_mac.zip
HTML5 http://finegamedesign.com/auto-racer/ld34/web-gl.html
Source https://github.com/ethankennerly/auto-racer
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=3040

Ratings

Coolness 47% 1468
Overall 3.28 446
Fun 3.56 203
Graphics 3.20 426
Humor 2.34 500
Innovation 2.64 760
Mood 2.76 630
Theme 3.54 642

Feedback

oal
14. Dec 2015 · 14:04 UTC
I liked it. A nice progression in difficulty and the fact that the other cars signal before switching lanes works really well. If you crash, it's your fault, and not the AI's random behavior. Pretty addictive, but could have used a high pace soundtrack. Well done!
LittleThor
15. Dec 2015 · 17:44 UTC
Classic gameplay, but cute art and quite good level design! try to add sound next time :)
TheMeorch
16. Dec 2015 · 00:25 UTC
This was really fun. I love the blocky art, and the levels provide a nice gradual increase in complexity and difficulty. It seemed like hitting only one car almost inevitably prevents you from getting beating a level -- if that's the case, it's somewhat frustrating to have to finish a race after a collision. It could be interesting to provide more opportunities to come back from a collision if you play well (or just auto-restart a level after a collision). Nice work!
esayitch
16. Dec 2015 · 08:09 UTC
Nice game, could really use a soundtrack though :P

Gameplay feels smooth and I liked the blocky graphics.Good luck!
danbolt
16. Dec 2015 · 15:32 UTC
I love the voxel-ish Crossy Road look, so I'm happy to see a Compo entry with this style. :)

I found the cars moving very realistically to be interesting, but it made things a bit hard for me to plan ahead. That might not be a bad thing though. Good work!
Drtizzle
16. Dec 2015 · 17:43 UTC
Really fun game! The car models are nice, and the turn signal is a nice detail that really enhances the gameplay.
It would be nice if your car changed lanes a little bit faster, on high speeds it moves a bit too slow.

Well done!!!
rnlf
19. Dec 2015 · 22:01 UTC
Nice little game! I like the art style, it's perfect for a compo entry!

It could have used a few more sounds (and I find your selection of the only sound very interesting :-))

The progression in difficulty is good and it feels cool once the car is going fast. Could use a better engine though, it takes so damned long to accelerate :-p
TerraCottaFrog
20. Dec 2015 · 16:14 UTC
I love this game, but I feel two things could have improved it.
First, it starts out way too easy.
Second, it is impossible to recover after a crash. It would have been better to just restart the race once you crash, to avoid players having to continue something they can't possibly win.
The subtly wavy water on the sides of the road also felt a little out of place.
Great job!
Blobo
20. Dec 2015 · 16:21 UTC
The game was pretty rough. i love the ai system, however being hit by a car just throws you backwards. if you get hit, then you hit a car behind you, you go crazy fast backwards, and then you have to remember where cars were behind you, or you hit another, making you go faster backwards. sometimes, after getting hit, a car will change lanes into yours, throwing you backwards. it was a pretty nice game overall, i enjoyesw teh first 7 levels of it, but then it got rough.
Hot Box Games
20. Dec 2015 · 16:23 UTC
I really like the level design on this!
Very cool idea and a fun game :)
Nega Drive
20. Dec 2015 · 16:25 UTC
Simple but fun little game, very accessible. Nice sense of aesthetics with pleasant colour choices. Good job!
zenmumbler
20. Dec 2015 · 16:29 UTC
Not sure if level 8 is possible except for sheer luck, I got close but…
Simple, clear art style. Hope you'll have time next round for a quick music track.
Crazi456
20. Dec 2015 · 18:07 UTC
Very fun game! Would be awesome with some music, really loved it overall though!
loxo
20. Dec 2015 · 18:09 UTC
I like the simple graphics and the game concept. But I think the game is too unforgiving. You don't have a chance to win if you make one mistake. It's not much fun if you make the mistake right at the start and have to drive to the end knowing you have to repeat the whole level. I think a possibility to restart the level anytime would help. I don't know if you noticed, but you can see the "Press LEFT or RIGHT to continue" panel to the right when you get to the finish line. And more audio would be nice.
nosfer
20. Dec 2015 · 18:13 UTC
could be little faster and have some sounds and music :)
rplnt
20. Dec 2015 · 18:16 UTC
Can you beat all 10 levels?

No :(

Maybe if it had restart feature (it's really annoying to play the level knowing you failed). Pretty good game, kept me playing :)
sergicollado
20. Dec 2015 · 18:37 UTC
Very fun
VascoF
21. Dec 2015 · 00:11 UTC
For some reason, the Windows version ran really really slow on my system (took forever to load and ran really choppy). I was able to run the Unity Web Player version though.

I really liked the visual style and gameplay. I would just prefer longer and faster levels perhaps. Well done.
Muel
21. Dec 2015 · 01:00 UTC
I second what the people said about the difficulty.
Also, let me add that there's times when you know you'll fail - when the car changes lane a bit of a second after you pass. This way, if you stays in your lane waiting it to move, you crash. If you try to get pass, it changes lane and you crash.
Add this to the fact that one crash means a fail and you can't restart, and then you'll have a sad Muel giving up on lvl 10 =(

But, overall, the game is fun.
In the lack of music, I got my own, I think it fits perfectly xD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4h5v2zat9I
arzi
21. Dec 2015 · 08:44 UTC
Really fun game! Good difficulty curve too.
dx0ne
21. Dec 2015 · 12:06 UTC
At fair I was "ok that's a simple one" but then car started to blink to change lane and I was sold. Great that you punish with place instead of total fail. Nice difficulty curve to around 9th level.

Overall it was unexpected fun.
adsilcott
21. Dec 2015 · 14:51 UTC
This game has a polished and well thought out feel to it, and as a result it's really fun to play. Very nice!
🎤 ethankennerly
25. Dec 2015 · 21:50 UTC
Thanks for suggesting 9 post-compo improvements!

I made them in the post-compo version, linked above:

* Steer off-road, @TheMeorch restarts level.
* At highest speed, @Drtizzle changes lane twice as fast.
* @Blobo encounters 10% fewer cars that switch lanes.
* @Nosfer plays level 11 and 12 with 10% faster driving.
* @Muel sees cars signal lane change 4 more cars ahead.
* @TerraCottaFrog finishes race at level 2 to 5 about 20% sooner.
* If competitor is moving faster, @Blobo does not crash.
* @LittleThor hears lane change and pass. Pass rise in pitch with speed. http://sfbgames.com/chiptone
* @Muel hears soundtrack (autotracker_bu.py).
Muel
26. Dec 2015 · 05:26 UTC
The post jam version looks good!
Now it's still challenging, but less punitive
Si1ver
26. Dec 2015 · 07:21 UTC
This game is fun! I liked it very much.
I thinkm it should be named "Road of assholes" because none of them using back mirror when changing lines! }:-[
Dejvo
26. Dec 2015 · 08:42 UTC
great game. but you've made me soo angry :D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpTbnYozQk4
ragnta
26. Dec 2015 · 09:37 UTC
Nice game :)
Jakob37
26. Dec 2015 · 10:09 UTC
Very interesting! I love how you have taken the 'two-button-avoid'-idea and made it into something interesting. When up to speed, there were really a sense of speed, and the blinking to switch lanes was what made this one stick out to me.

Some feedback would be that it worked really well until I started colliding (around level 7). Then it became slightly frustrating to be bounced from car to car. I also think it would have helped with a slightly milder penalty for collision, now it felt like I could as well have exploded - the level was lost.

Nevertheless, I had a great time with this. Well done :)
Ithildin
26. Dec 2015 · 15:25 UTC
Interesting idea, well executed. The blinker hints was a nice addition, and controls worked flawlessly for me. Some more audio cues might have been a welcome addition, but it's understandable due to the time constraints. Good job!
Sri Harsha Chilakapati
27. Dec 2015 · 02:47 UTC
This is far the best racing game I've played in this LD, pretty awesome. There seems to be a small issue that we can go half into the other cars, but that's fine, maybe it's a ghost mode when collision occurs?
dustyroom
27. Dec 2015 · 07:43 UTC
Very fun game! Also, I found the secret key that turns off colliders :)
jackrugile
28. Dec 2015 · 22:54 UTC
I love the concept with this one. The blinkers added a ton of fun to the game for me. Well done!
Krafty
03. Jan 2016 · 05:34 UTC
Great job! There were some points where I felt like it was a little bit too difficult to predict when the other cars would move, and sometimes when I crashed I would go backwards and hit another car, and then another =P But I really liked the game despite that stuff, it looked good and I played it for a while! :)
Solifuge
05. Jan 2016 · 01:46 UTC
Neat puzzle game, though it felt procedural and like the "puzzle" element of the game suffered for it; a hand-crafted set of levels that knew what cars would be where when you were passing them would make a big difference in controlling the challenge! Still, the difficulty progressed well, and presented challenges well as you went.

Also, I'd have liked a visual signifier for Lane Changing Cars like a different body color, but I could also understand making them all blend in as a design choice too; this includes the visual design, where everything but the player is done in blue and white.

I liked the simplistic graphical style; fun game overall!