Vanarchy - Sept Comp Entry

Started by STEVIE G, September 11, 2018, 22:42:57

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STEVIE G

Quote from: Derron on October 20, 2018, 11:38:53
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* 2 player - hotseat mode where the players change when a life is lost.

So the one who is guilty for loosing a life swaps position with the one who did well until now? Isn't this a bit "unfair" ?


Quote
* Improve controls for analog input - doesn't seem to work too well.

Is this really a matter of analog input? can't you just increase "tolerance" of the grid? So if your car is at "y = gridCellY + 0.05*gridHeight" it already turn move left or right, it does not exactly have to reach the "gridCellY" position. It should "slip" around the corners.
Or what exactly is borked up on the analog gamepad side?


bye
Ron

In 2 players, only one of you can play the main vehicle at a time (it's not going to be split screen).  I'm not talking about the player who lost a life swapping lives and score with the one who didn't - now that would be unfair.  ;D

It pretty clear that you haven't played the game.  The grid already allows a good tolerance for movement and it also allows early turning so that you skid around the corners. Digital input is just more precise at the moment in tight situations than analog.  I have a very high dead-zone set for the analog stick (0.65) but I probably have to increase it to almost 1 so there can be no mistake about the direction you want to travel. 

Derron

#76
Ahh, ok so it is some kind of "direction probability" - what was the direction the player most likely tried to go to.
Hmm... while this is surely "overcomplicating" things: can't you have some kind of "calibration scene"? A scene consisting of a fast driving car and some "90° corners" (no cross roads) so player is enforced to steer accordingly. If you had some "S-shaped" curve it would enforce the player to rapidly change directions - leading to a finger movement which does not 100% hit "right" or "left".

When we played "Atomic Bomberman" years ago - we had a dozen of cheap joypads/gamepads/PS2-like-pads with very inaccurate analog pads - so It wasn't the games fault not to move your player, was the gamepads fault to not properly send out its "axis values". Better game pads and it worked wonders (eg these "$2.50-SNES|genesis-gamepads" seem to work nicely).



@ not played
Yes, I played almost none of them (only tried holzchopf's game for 3 minutes) - wanted to wait until bugfix-time was gone (to not go in "biased").


bye
Ron

Derron

Gave the game a whirl these days: plays smoothly on my old win10 laptop.

Game pace is a bit "slowish" (I know ... it is a van!). The speed when having a "booster" is what I assumed to be default speed. Maybe add a "speed option" in the options screen (just increase/lower speed of everything - except particles).

City selection: what influence has it (did not see an Eiffel Tower on my tour ;-)) - and why is the city selection hidden in the options screen instead of somewhere when selecting "1 player"?

When I hit "ESC" to exit a (manually tried "busted") game-over screen it faded into the "start screen" - I hit "ESC" again in the hope to exit the game but it faded again into the "start screen" - I hit "ESC" multiple times and somehow the screen stood nearly dark with the "start screen" texts being barely visible - but selectable (so I was able to quit). Maybe your Screen Fader run into a bug?

I had once an "arrow" in the level but nothing happened there ... no ENTER key no "move along" no "can drive into the house" or such a thing.

Suggestion: instead of "killing" "flashing police" you should write "ram" or "hit" (imho "kill" is a very harsh/hard word which is not needed in the else "nearly childsafe" game - but maybe I am thinking too soft-skinned about this word and its meanings).



Else: nice little game (as expected) and if you evolve it into something "bigger" then do some brainstorming on how to do proper "theming" for the cities (French, US, UK - maybe some Japanese buildings ...).


bye
Ron

STEVIE G

Quote from: Derron on October 28, 2018, 19:00:20
Gave the game a whirl these days: plays smoothly on my old win10 laptop.

Game pace is a bit "slowish" (I know ... it is a van!). The speed when having a "booster" is what I assumed to be default speed. Maybe add a "speed option" in the options screen (just increase/lower speed of everything - except particles).

City selection: what influence has it (did not see an Eiffel Tower on my tour ;-)) - and why is the city selection hidden in the options screen instead of somewhere when selecting "1 player"?

When I hit "ESC" to exit a (manually tried "busted") game-over screen it faded into the "start screen" - I hit "ESC" again in the hope to exit the game but it faded again into the "start screen" - I hit "ESC" multiple times and somehow the screen stood nearly dark with the "start screen" texts being barely visible - but selectable (so I was able to quit). Maybe your Screen Fader run into a bug?

I had once an "arrow" in the level but nothing happened there ... no ENTER key no "move along" no "can drive into the house" or such a thing.

Suggestion: instead of "killing" "flashing police" you should write "ram" or "hit" (imho "kill" is a very harsh/hard word which is not needed in the else "nearly childsafe" game - but maybe I am thinking too soft-skinned about this word and its meanings).



Else: nice little game (as expected) and if you evolve it into something "bigger" then do some brainstorming on how to do proper "theming" for the cities (French, US, UK - maybe some Japanese buildings ...).


bye
Ron

I think the pace is fine - you need the time on later levels when there's alot going on.  I don't plan to add an option.
The City selection just gives you a new set of level layouts if you wanted to try something different. It has no influence on anything.  It's hidden in the options menu because I ran out of time and didn't start the menu's until a couple of days before deadline :)

I've checked the current version and the multiple ESC works just fine.  Some bugs were no doubt present in the comp version.

The orange arrow indicates where you need to take the briefcase to complete a job.  If you don't have the briefcase it does nothing.  I'll change it to say 'Return with Case' or suchlike.

I've already changed the instructions to say 'Ram' as I agree - kill was a bit harsh.

I did plan on doing some city specific buildings/landmarks but no plans to have completely new tilesets for each country as it would not be worth my time and effort.

In the last week I have added a 2 player mode, oil can pickups which can be dropped in to form a puddle to divert pursuers and a control configuration menu.  I plan to add a few more features / vehicles / buildings before I release the post comp version.

Thanks for playing.


Derron

@ pace
Maybe have some "slow" and some "faster" levels?
Why was I suggesting a speed option? So when I started my first level it ... took ages to clean the map. I had (of course - it was level 1 ;-)) no issue cleaning the map but I could have finished way earlier (time wise, not "efficiency wise"). This made the game feel "slow paced".
I understand that later game stages require the player to "think ahead" and so prepare routes and the likes - but for "nothing to do" levels it felt a bit too slow.
And yes - this is only my opinion but I thought it was okay to share it with you - and maybe it encourages others to either support my POV or yours. So it would help for other games to estimate "what the others" would like to have - slow or fast paced games.



bye
Ron

STEVIE G

Final version uploaded ...

https://stevieg.itch.io/vanarchy

2 player mode - alternate turns with same controller
Short cuts
Oil Slicks to redirect pursuers
Control configuration
Start stage select - replaces difficulty
New powerup  - Destroyer (rammer + booster)
Loads more buildings
A few new vehicles
Some minor bug fixes









Qube

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Until the next time.

Steve Elliott

Cool.  Just got around to downloading right now...
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BasicBoy

Did someone really reach a hi-score of 117130 ?

Impressive.

STEVIE G

Quote from: BasicBoy on November 13, 2018, 10:24:37
Did someone really reach a hi-score of 117130 ?

Impressive.

Aye, that was me a week or two ago playing with friends.  I actually had to quit before I was finished with 5 lives left so could have been quite a bit more.  I'd got to level 10 but the trick is getting a lot of 4-5 kill multiples where the points can really rack up.

I'm going to upload one final update in a few days which includes Safe houses (where you can hide for a bit of respite in later levels) and an incognito powerup which is found in said houses.  Basically you spray paint your Van a different colour and the cops don't chase you for 30 secs. 


3DzForMe

Great development from the creator of stramash, if memory serves me right
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