SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

Qubes Cube Racer

Downloads :
Windows ( v1.0.1 - fixed sound )
Mac ( v1.0.1 - fixed sound )
Linux ( v1.0.1 - fixed sound )

Instructions :
Race around a circuit of Qube's Cubes. All the models are entirely made of six sided cubes 

Cursor Keys : Left / Right Steer and Up / Down accelerate & brake
P : Pause

Additional :
The sound is massively broken at the moment. I stupidly decided to create a sound manager this afternoon and totally messed things up. I'll have to fix this during bug week. Fixed

Also some of the game elements need tweaking but I doubt those could be classed as a bug.

Took ages to create the graphics. You could have thought that just using cubes would be a massive time saver 



** UPDATE **

New bug fixed version linked above. Sound is actually functional now - YouTube video below. Bit jumpy in places for some reason but you get the idea.

great very mario of you

- how to quit the game when "in game" ? for now seems only via "p" (pause) and then "esc" and then "q" (to quit) ... maybe have "ESC" pause too or make "ctrl + q" or "ctrl + c" work (or react to ALT+F4) ...
- the blur is too harsh for me .. the distance is only some meters away but blurred as if I drunk a bottle of Lagavulin (to have the taste of the cars fumes :p)
- needed to get used to the "delay" when accelerating (my brain say: "small cars = no delay" - especially because of the blurriness which makes it having a "miniature look")
- corners might be ... a bit more forgiving if possible
- in some moment I had very "bright" reflections popping up (see img)



PS: the wheel cap turns and the wheels not ... I assume it looked odd to have the "cubes" turning "into" the roads ... well chosen with the turning caps then.

PPS: Only nitpicking as usual ... so take with grain of salt etc

bye
Ron

That looks awesome very Mario Kart, like mainsworthy mentioned.   

@Derron - Yes the DOF blur needs sorting as is too harsh along with the reflective surfaces on the cars.

The wheels should turn left and right? Didn't think this got broken too when ripping out anything to do with sound. Will check and add to the bugs list.

As for corners, ramp up the speed and turbo slide into them 

Quote from: Steve Elliott on May 06, 2022, 16:59:09
That looks awesome very Mario Kart, like mainsworthy mentioned.   

Thanks. Hopefully it's a bit of fun to play but I need to get the audio back in and working.

the front wheels turn left right (found that cool) - they just do not "turn" (front backward movement) while the caps doo - which I think is a valid solution as the quad shape would lead to either the cars tyres going below the street - or the car "hopping"


bye
Ron

New bug fixed version uploaded

Downloads :
Windows ( v1.0.1 - fixed sound )
Mac ( v1.0.1 - fixed sound )
Linux ( v1.0.1 - fixed sound )

Sound is actually functional now - The options button doesn't do anything yet as I didn't get any time to do it before the comp finished. Will upload after the voting has finished.

YouTube video below. Bit jumpy in places for some reason but you get the idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NhJLTJE5J8

How are you (mostly) getting the slide into corners right? I'm all over the place and spend 90% of my time with my bumper impeded in the track wall.

Couple of little things I've noticed.

There's a sharp bloom that flashes out of the car when the camera is twisting sometimes as the car is running through a turn. That's pretty distracting.

It's a bit unforgiving when you do click the track barriers itself. You lose far too much progress on the car in front of you as it takes a while to get yourself realigned.

Slide into corners.. Use the cars speed, release the accelerator and turn sharply, reapply accelerator. Practice - think arcade asteroid physics but on the road.

Bloom - Yeah that needs sorting but I'm not sure I could class that as a bug?

Barriers - agree they need to be more slippy but for the comp submission could that be corrected as a bug?

More to add to the game yet so there will be a release after the voting. The nighttime race mode looks pretty swish

Been playing around with texturing Qubes Cube Racer, changed the lighting and material colouring and also remodelled the trees to be more, erm, tree-ey as the original ones were just very quickly made for prototyping.

BEFORE :



AFTER :

Fuck, that's a massive difference !! 

Will give it a spin later.

Yeah much improved, will definitely have a go later. 

Thanks still more tweaking to do yet and features to add before I release the updated version. Although I can't release it until after the voting has finished as per the rules.

Worthy update though :

1.. Improved graphics ( while maintaining the models made with only cubes ).
2.. Texturing and lighting improvements.
3.. AI improvements so the CPU cars perform differently and you can set between easy and hard to race against.
4.. Training track so you can master the power drift and cornering at speed.

Further updates afterwards will be different tracks but I may rip out all the models and redo it under a slightly different game name with none cube based graphics.

Quick video of progress with updating my comp game showing day and night settings. Not the finished version as much tweaking is still to be done before more goodies are added.

YouTube has mangled the quality for some reason

some first thought notes:

- start menu "button" texts are blocky - all others not (this looks odd then)
- blur of the levels is still too strong (or starts too early)
- clouds: maybe you have some ideas to improve the "puffy" look of the clouds ... some gradients (so a bit darker at the bottom)
- the "realistic texture" change makes it now look a bit like a "RC car" racer with a "prebuilt environment" (like model trains etc) - maybe you can use this to your advantage somehow


general:
- maybe add some doodads (cows blocking the street - or if you do not dare "throw cows into the air on crash" - not harmed of course)
- add the usual suspects brash/rubble/broken stones  ... or speedup areas
- the winner of the last race could receive a special "light/cone/visual marker" for some seconds when the startscreen comes up (might be "enjoyable" for the player if it is they who lights up )
- simply add the option to reverse  tracks (drive in the opposite direction)

advanced:
- add "depth" to the tracks: so slight hills etc - even including a bit of jumping?
- different ecosystems (desert, forest, icy regions, golf hole meadows) ... if it is a "rc car area" you could also orient on micromachines ... so a track in a sports stadium or during super market "lanes" ...


Very well done already!


bye
Ron