Project GRID - Full Game Out Now!

[Jason]

Thread update: I've added the following to the main post, but I'll put it here for updates sake (And it bumps my thread, lol)

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Support:
Help support my project by placing this userbar in your signature, it'd be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[url=http://www.arpgmaker.com/viewtopic.php?f=293&t=76293][img][url=http://bb]http://bb[/url].ohsk.net/uploads/ProjectGRID%20UB.png[/img][/url]

 

[Jason]

So I've just decided on an idea I'm currently implementing (Or attempting to, should be easy enough though)...

Basically, at the moment I like the movement of the players car, however, after giving the demo to some other people (Not forum dwellers, I have other friends too! D, they've said they'd rather not have the drifting and think the steering is a little too tight...

Long story short: I'm adding an option where you can change between both driving types, I'll be calling them DRIVE and DRIFT (Simple, right?) through the pause menu... I'll also add some other options that you can tweak on the menu, that way I'll hopefully be able to satisfy both types of people (Those who prefer proper driving, and those who prefer drifting...), so I think the little extra effort will turn out in a win/win situation for me... (If the players like it, I like it!)

Ideas?

 

[bacon]

that is a cool idea you should totally implement it

 

[CrayFlail]

What you liked the most:
No particular order - I couldn't crash it (the car or the game). I thought with that many things going on, even just the basic shapes, there would be some lag but it was really smooth throughout (1500 kills, four/five black cars chasing). I found it to be a quite natural driving with a fun drift element. Old arcade style, classic.

What you disliked the most:
There was no obvious goal or ending, or even real progression. It's the first demo though, so there's the other side of that coin. I'm not sure if I want to hear dying screams for each death, but some sounds would be nice. Maybe just blips or beeps...

Your overall feelings:
With something as smooth and solid as this for a base, you just want to see where it goes...car upgrades, "special prisoners" that count for more points, enemy car AI, different weapon choices...some of this has been addressed in your recent posts, so I'll just have to wait for Demo 2.

The browser you were using:
Chrome

The average FPS you were getting:
59-60 early, as more cars were added, the FPS went up (!) to the mid-60's.

 

[Jason]

Another 60 FPS, I'm really happy how this is turning out, lol, since performance can make or break a game... and the FPS went up with MORE cars?! That's pretty amazing o.O

Also yeah like I've said there's no progression in this demo, it's just a basic "Hey look, my game works" sort of thing, showing off the core mechanics... although they're a tad flawed, lol. And you've given me more to think about with the sound effects now, blips and beeps WOULD sound cool, although I think I'd still want blood splat sound effects or something, y'know? I'll have to see what I can get my hands on and have a vote or something. Oh, and don't worry about weapons and upgrades and whatever, I'll be working on them, the ones I have planned should be relatively easy to do...

As a footnote, I'm going to say two things:

#1: I've been looking into adding proper physics, and I've sort of got it half and half at the moment, it's basically the same thing except your car bounces off the enemies now, not exactly how I'm wanting it, but it's doing it, lol, I'll update the demo tomorrow to show this off (Since it's ready now but I'm in the middle of something, and it's 3am almost, lol)

#2: This is mostly for bacon (pipesnogger), I've been working on the ability to switch driving styles, and even though I haven't tweaked it yet, here's a preview of the button on the pause menu, see what you think of the picture and give feedback, I've used similar colours to what I have ingame, and sort of plan to keep these colours, but with enough requests it could easily change. You'll also notice I've darkened the background while on the pause menu now, I thought it'd help those people that struggle to read text on top of busy backgrounds, it was actually done for my brother since he has this problem, lol.

So finally, here's the screenshot!

Also, along with this screenshot, it's reminded me to update the screenshots in the main post, since even though there isn't much of a difference, I'd rather show off a REALLY busy scene with 60 FPS, and eventually with the new weapons and enemies I have planned, and EVENTUALLY a title screen, still haven't got one of those yet... or player health, lol, should probably work on that soon.

 

[Tuna]

What you liked the most:
The particle effects! They were all squares, but it still managed to produce a very cool feel! I also enjoyed the drifting feature of the driving, but it could have been a bit tighter.

What you disliked the most:
The background. It's a bit too bright and horribly distracting. Maybe you can find a nice texture to use?

Your overall feelings:
With tighter controls, some sound effects, and some sort of goal (maybe you can upgrade your car every 300 kills, and the other cars also become more hostile), this game could turn into a mildly addictive sit-down.

The browser you were using:
Google Chrome

The average FPS you were getting:
41 fps


If you're looking for a source for sound effects, this site may be able to help you.

Keep up the good work, JB!

 

[rosareven]

(Note: I was trying the demo while at work, so I wasn't putting my full attention into the game)

What you liked the most: The physics of being pushed around. The push back and momentum feels natural. I love the graphics in the sense that they are simple rectangles being very effectively used.

What you disliked the most: In-game instruction, but I jumped straight into the demo link without reading anything. My game entry also hasn't gotten any instruction yet either (inside the game). I didn't know you could shoot and I was struggling to blind guess how to move around.

Your overall feelings: I like it! Without reading the instruction at all and jumping straight into the demo, I can already grasp a heavy sense of uniqueness from the game itself. I think the colours can use more contrast. Right now most things are towards the darker side beside the player's rectangle.

The browser you were using: Firefox

The average FPS you were getting: 30 (from my trashy work computer!! That means it's lightning fast)

 

[Jason]

Thanks for the feedback rosareven! 30 FPS is still decent, since that's the average framerate for games these days anyway, atleast on consoles lol, but the game does feel better at 60 FPS, have you tried the game on your home computer/laptop to see if there's a performance increase? I think it works best with Chrome to be honest, lol. And what do you mean by ingame instruction? The pause menu has the instructions at the bottom of the screen... :tongue:

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An update on my progress:

So it turns out, this drift button is harder than I thought to make, well... sort of, I can get it working ingame, but I only wanted it accessible from the pause menu since it's a little big to have in the corner all the time, and having to click it while getting chased by cars can be difficult and distracting.

HOWEVER!

I've got a new idea, since I'm adding more player customisable options into the game, I've decided to make use of the ASD buttons of the keyboard, your left hand (Or atleast my left hand) rests naturally on the ASDF (Although I reckon some people will be on QWER) and Spacebar of your keyboard, so they're not in an awkward position, and will be easily remembered once I explain.

What I can have is, while ingame, you press D (For Drift!) and it'll toggle drifting on and off, and to show this, the picture (I've drawn one with the tyre greyed out too) will display in the top left corner and I'll probably add text saying Drift: On, Drift: Off, and that'll appear for like a second just to let you know... personally I think this is a better idea, although I'd have loved to get it working in the pause menu, but since my Time Lapse is set to 0 for the pause menu, it doesn't activate until you leave it, and you can't switch between them more than once per pause, which is sort of bad.

So as you can see, that's my work around, which I think will be better since this way you can do it on the fly...

Question: Do you think it's a better idea to do it this way?

 

[Tuna]

Mapping something as a key press during the game gives you the impression that it's some sort of hotkey that needs to be used frequently. I think having an on/off toggle in your pause menu would work out a heck of a lot better. The player shouldn't be enabling or disabling drift too often anyway, right?

 

[Jason]

So the drift toggle has been added and works perfectly, you can even switch in the middle of steering if you really want to... I guess this is worth mentioning, lol.

When I upload the new demo (I'll do it in a couple of hours before I go to bed) you guys can give me feedback and see if the driving (Not drifting, that's unchanged ) is okay or not, I'm basically just using the default setting with very minor tweaks...

 

[Jason]

Mapping something as a key press during the game gives you the impression that it's some sort of hotkey that needs to be used frequently. I think having an on/off toggle in your pause menu would work out a heck of a lot better. The player shouldn't be enabling or disabling drift too often anyway, right?

I've never had this happen in any game, it's there if you want to use it but you don't have to... this is just to accommodate more than one play style, but some people may want to experiment and change it on the fly... I could also give it a cooldown so it can't be toggled too quickly anyway, lol.

 

[Jason]

Okay, so just to tell you, I've uploaded a new version of the demo, it includes the following changes:

- You can now toggle between "Drive" and "Drift" driving modes by pressing the D button during gameplay, this is done on the fly.
- When a bullet hits an enemy car, sparks now appear (They're not amazing but I thought it'd add to it... not sure if I did a good job here)
- The text on the pause menu has been moved slightly, and the controls have been aligned properly underneath the rest of the text and centered, making them easier to read.
- Enemy car health has been increased from 20 to 30 (Keep in mind, each individual bullet does 1 damage)

Thankyou for being patient while I released this revised demo, and if you'd like to give me any additional feedback on the new changes, feel free to do so, since I literally take EVERY comment into consideration when tweaking...

 

[AeroLowe]

What you liked the most: The overall concept. It's pretty okay in terms of execution, but the graphics, a bit bland. Drifting is pretty good.

What you disliked the most: No music. Especially. The sparks were too big and not yellow though (so yeah it was pretty bland). My letters on the keyboard don't seem to respond to HTML5 games so I don't know anything about anything that involved them (and also I can't test any demos that involve them either so yeah that's pretty bad).

Your overall feelings: A pretty more solid attempt overall, though it could use more work. I wish the enemy car takes less bullets to destroy it and its HP increases later on. Also make the humans run away. And give it some atmosphere too. The car also seems so...forceful, too. But yes, good attempt.

The browser you were using: Firefox.

The average FPS you were getting: 50-60.

 

[Jason]

I'm still trying to find a way to make the enemies run away, but it's harder than it looks, still hoping for help on this, if anyone would care to offer advice on how to do it, that'd be great! As for the sparks, I did mention that I wasn't sure if it was good or not, I'll either change them, or just take them out altogether. It sucks that your letter keys won't work with it, I guess that means you weren't able to switch driving modes...

Also, music and hopefully sound effects WILL be in the next demo, I'm actually working with Tuna right now to get them in the game and working, unfortunately nothing is original though, since I don't have ANY music making program(s) installed on this computer, if the deadline were a week or two later I'd be able to whip something up, but I joined the contest a little too late to be able to fit custom music into the agenda... but yeah, music will be in the next demo, which I MAY be able to release tomorrow, along with hopefully some other new features.

The enemy cars, yeah I think I may have made their health a little too high now, a 50% increase is a tad too much, it's just that while I was test playing, 20HP seemed a little too low, since you can kill one in 2 bursts if you can line it up properly... what would you recommend, just a 25% increase to 25HP, or should I put it back down to 20HP?

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Another thing to mention: As well as working on these tweaks to make the gameplay mechanics fun, I'll be working on a title screen and menu (Instead of giving it to you in the pause menu...), and if I can keep my events under 20 after that's finished, I've decided I'll be using the rest to make the game have levels instead of being just one survival map, each level will have extra cars on, and they'll be harder to kill, and HOPEFULLY I can have a boss level of sorts, and I have two possible endings planned if I do go this way, so I COULD make it a multiple ending game, and factor in the kill variable (Get over so many kills, see a different ending), or I could just have one ending and have people help me decide which one to keep, I'll go into more detail with that later on though.

 

[Jason]

Also yay another person with a high, smooth framerate! :D

 

[AeroLowe]

That sounds ambitious, Jason. Don't get caught up in it too much, hm?

Anyways, on the enemy car, I think 20 is good to start then increase it by 5 everytime.
Also, would you like us to suggest music for you if you're still stuck with that problem? Or is Tuna helping you just fine?

 

[Jason]

He's helping me just fine, I've already settled on two tracks that sound great ingame, now I'll just need to compliment them with some nice sound effects, haha. He's also helping me with the movement of the enemy humans, I can get them to run away now, but they do it as soon as the level starts, then they run off the screen and never return, so I'm trying to make them move randomly, unless you're in their radius then they'll run away, sounds a lot better to be honest, but it's a little tricky.

And maybe I am being a little ambitious, but I'll get everything in eventually, even if I have to keep working after the contest, since I think I could turn this into something really cool, y'know? Besides, I need to put all the extra effort in and try to add things that people want if I'm going to win anything in this contest, even though I didn't join to win, I still think it'd be cool to get some sort of prize for my hard work so far :D

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Also, what would everyone think about a new style of graphics? I'll still be keeping everything squared since that's the style I'm going for, but I mean adding more detail to things, making cars look like cars, while still being rectangles... not sure about people though since they're really small to begin with...

 

[AeroLowe]

I think that this would turn out really amazing!
Plus you'll have the full version of Construct 2, so you better work hard on this project again once you get it! =P

But yeah, the graphics, make 'em a bit more detailed. Like, add more lines and stuff. And now I'm dumbstruck because I'm bad with graphics. DX

 

[Jason]

What's this, a THIRD demo just a few hours after the second?! ARE YOU MAD JASON?!

... Maybe, maybe not, who knows? Actually, I know... yes, yes I am, I'm posting on my thread with news, and it's 3:45am, so I'd say quite so. As the bold letters clearly state, I'm releasing a third demo this early (Amazing, right?), with this version I've had the help of Tuna with the enemy humans running away, it was actually quite a ball ache... but in the end we've done it! Demo link and changes:

Demo here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/67653237/Projec ... index.html

Changes:

- Enemy humans now run away from you once you drive into their radius, and will also now change direction on their own (Instead of walking straight forward as before) at random intervals
- Enemy car health has been reduced back down to 20HP
- I've added some background music, although there's a delay before it starts to play (Around 5 seconds for Tuna, although it's instant for me for some strange reason...)

Not much in terms of bullet points, but it's a pretty big step forward in terms of the AI, and I'm really happy with it!

I'd like to know a couple of extra things, which I'll be adding into the main thread form too:

What do you think of the enemy human AI and would you change anything?

How long does it take for the music to start playing for you?

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Also about the long delay on the music, if anyone knows why this is (It's set at preload so I' don't know why it isn't doing so) and could help out, that would be great!

 

[MarioSuperStar]

For me it takes like 2 seconds to play the background music. Apparently, the fps at the beginning needs to reach 60 so that the song starts playing.
I like your game so far, but I think the controls are a bit off and rough. Even as long as I played, I couldn't really control the player myself. I think you should maybe let the player change the direction even if it's not accelerating/reverse.
I am guessing that the demo is the survival mode(I think I read that through the topic...), so I think you should let the player shoot some little more bullets before the cooling effect.