Runner Up by Jeremy Nikolai

[raw]
made by Jeremy Nikolai for LD27 (JAM)
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Controls:

Left/Right, A/D, or J/L to steer
Spacebar to use powerups

(android):
Touch the left or right side of the screen to steer
Tap both (left + right) to use a powerup

There's only one track. I had planned on doing more, but didn't get back to it in time.

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Powerups:
(I didn't really explain these in the game, so here they are):

Teleport (blue thing, meant it to look like the star trek teleporter beam, though it totally doesn't): Teleports you to a random point within your current lap

Speed boost (Yellow fast-forward arrows), uhm, makes you go faster.

Heavy (Anvil), slows you down, and makes you heavier (if you bump/get bumped by another car, you won't get knocked as far)

Trap (blue splat), drop it behind you, stops anyone who runs into it.

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Theme:

I was going off an alternate interpretation of the theme: The idea was to do a racing game where you were trying to get second, for ten races -- 'ten seconds'. It's a tenuous connection, I know, and it doesn't read all that well in what's there.

If the AI were trying for the same goal (and used powerups, etc, towards that), I still think it could make for some interesting scenarios --right now though, they're oblivious.

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Story:

The half-hour-from-deadline version of the story, as copied/pasted from the game:

The end-of-the-world is coming. World leaders decided the only way to stop it is to sacrifice ten virgins to the gods by throwing them into volcanoes.

Participants are chosen at random, and forced to run a race.

The winner of each race gets to be sacrificed.
The runner-up gets to compete again in the next race as a consolation prize. All the rest are also given to the volcano, as palate cleansers.

To keep anyone from cheating, all the cars have their brake lines cut and gas pedals bolted down.

You were chosen to run the race.

If you want to live, you'll have to come in 2nd in each of the ten races.

You just need ten seconds.

Ratings

Coolness 57% 3
Overall(Jam) 2.94 369
Fun(Jam) 2.97 277
Graphics(Jam) 2.61 476
Humor(Jam) 2.50 262
Innovation(Jam) 2.88 332
Mood(Jam) 2.85 321
Theme(Jam) 3.00 319

Feedback

whiteravens
27. Aug 2013 路 01:52 UTC
Not Found

The requested URL /LD27/RunnerUp-win.zip was not found on this server.
馃帳 Jeremy Nikolai
27. Aug 2013 路 05:46 UTC
should be fixed now.
jay griffin
27. Aug 2013 路 06:06 UTC
It seems to be a/f nor a/d for steering, at least for me anyway. Other than that, it's a smooth little racer that works well.
KhaoTom
27. Aug 2013 路 06:14 UTC
Nice concept, I'm glad to find one (so far) that used the theme not related to time. 2 problems: I don't know where the finish line is. The game (windows version) seems to crash when hitting the skip buttons after the first playthrough.
MrBlade
27. Aug 2013 路 06:14 UTC
Hm, overall pretty great! A few small problems when first playing: I couldn't steer with A/D,Left/Right works fine, though. The power-ups were not well described by their images. And I do not understand how this fits the theme. Music would have been nice since this is a Compo entry, but oh well. The second time I played this, it randomly crashed hm. Nice job for the most part! With just a tiny bit of polishing, this game could be turned into an amazing title. KEEP. IT. UP.
馃帳 Jeremy Nikolai
27. Aug 2013 路 07:04 UTC
@jay, you're right -- thanks. I always use IJKL, so I had typo'd it and never even noticed it.

reuploaded, with A/D input and the crash on second playthrough fixed.
Typedeaf
27. Aug 2013 路 08:08 UTC
The cars were cute, but i had no idea why i lost...
raincole
27. Aug 2013 路 09:01 UTC
Neat racing game.
@Typedeaf you have to be the second, not the first.
AlvaroH
27. Aug 2013 路 10:08 UTC
Very nice! I like retro racing car games
vandriver
27. Aug 2013 路 16:55 UTC
I love this control scheme on racers. Super Sprint was one of my favorite nes games. I feel like there needed to be more powerups or a wider view to see more racers to really feel like I was more in control of orchestrating a second place finish. Also I'd randomly drop from first to fourth.
alvivar
27. Aug 2013 路 20:34 UTC
nice gameplay!
keyboardmonkey
27. Aug 2013 路 21:00 UTC
Love the back story involving virgins and volcano's! Can I get the source anywhere? I cannot execute 64-bit.
Sh1rogane
27. Aug 2013 路 21:03 UTC
Good entry, had fun with it
馃帳 Jeremy Nikolai
28. Aug 2013 路 00:03 UTC
@keyboardmonkey, added a 32-bit windows build... I don't have a machine to test it on, so let me know if it works.
namrog84
28. Aug 2013 路 00:42 UTC
haha, totally missed the part where I Was supposed to come 2nd.

Loved it

sound?

it was very smooth, I liked it a lot
shockedfrog
28. Aug 2013 路 00:45 UTC
Nice alternative interpretation of the theme, and the racing was quite well made and fun, though the teleport powerup was kinda strange and the results seemed weird - twice I was in second place going into the last straight and suddenly my position was rapidly changing to 1st or 4th, so I ended up in a volcano. :/
Epiphane
28. Aug 2013 路 05:03 UTC
Fun, clever little idea. It controls extremely smoothly. Trying to get into second is funny but kind of stressful; also the teleport and anvil powerups are all but useless. Also, might want to make the intro screen buttons say "Next" instead of "Skip."
naufr4g0
29. Aug 2013 路 15:50 UTC
woow! I love retro racing games! :)
I like steering wheels, collisions and controls in general.
I'd like a more sliding car, but I also like current behavior.
Another word... Where can I find the interpretation of the "10 seconds" theme?
ellipticaldoor
29. Aug 2013 路 17:20 UTC
Good gaem
Diptoman
29. Aug 2013 路 19:24 UTC
I like the word play around the theme, but you're treading through dangerous grounds.
In any case, the fact that we have to lose the race is quite interesting and difficult to manage for me. :P
Loved the "You didn't get 2nd place, and got tossed into a volcano" bit. XD
Cthulhu
29. Aug 2013 路 22:23 UTC
I really like this game. Your interpretation of the theme is very interesting I haven't seen anything close to yours this far.
Being second is more challenging that it seems at first sight!
Sadly I have noticed a bug in the rank, and sometimes it says I am 3rd or 1st while I am really second. Also the AI seems to struggle in the second race (counter clock-wise). But maybe this is intended (which is fine).

Anything else is great. Maybe some different tracks would have been a good addition (I only reached race 2).

Great job.
KevinWorkman
30. Aug 2013 路 16:48 UTC
I like this take on the theme, and the controls worked perfectly which made it really addicting.

I did encounter a few bugs- one when I kept "bumping" after driving through the grass, and another where I was in 2nd place the entire race but still lost. That one happened twice, so I'm pretty sure I can't win. :c

But like I said the controls worked perfectly, and I could see this being a really fun little racing game. The wheels on the car even changed direction when you turned, nice touch!
bitowl
03. Sep 2013 路 12:45 UTC
wow! I really like your take on the theme and how the controls feel :)
The only thing that is strange to me is why its so "glibberish" when you are of the street. would be better if you'd just be slowed down
nthird
11. Sep 2013 路 04:53 UTC
Nice interpretation of the theme, cool to see something different. I found it very difficult however. Maybe some more powerups? The AI was so consistently clumped together I had a hard time sneaking in. I oscillated between 1st and 4th most of the time. If you keep working on this (and I recommend you do) it would be interesting for the different AI cars to have different goals. Like some also understand that being second is ideal but otherwise are looking to win. That and some obstacles or more powerups would significantly spread out the racers and improve strategy in my opinion. Very unique and interesting mechanic!
Jacob123
13. Sep 2013 路 13:22 UTC
Fun little game, although I am not sure how to use the powerups on my android device.