DragTypist by Slashee the Cow
(TL;DR: The pretty pictures and download links are below. Scroll down.)
DragTypist
When I say DragTypist, I don't mean someone in the office is stepping out a bit with their fashion choices, although I'm not not saying that, either...
Err, anyway, this is a typing racing game. Because I've always bemoaned the lack of a keyboard behind the wheel. Press each letter as it appears in that cute little box above the track to move. That might sound easy (and it starts off pretty easy, but like most predators, I'm here to lull you into a false sense of security), but the faster you go, the harder it gets. Just like real driving, right? (I wouldn't know, I always follow the speed limit). But seriously, as you go faster, the letters get harder to reach and you have less time to press them. Oh wait, I didn't tell you have to press them before they time out? See, I already trapped you!
Also, there's this other thing where if you go too fast for too long, your engine will blow up. Don't worry, it's not serious, you'll just stop completely. But you can go again right away, so it's not too bad. If you need to cool down, just miss a couple of letters (press the wrong one or let them time out, I don't really mind). Or just to make things interesting, press a lot of them in a row without missing any and you'll get a cooldown bonus!
Much as I'd love to crowd around a keyboard with a friend or two, multiplayer isn't something I had time for. There's "AI" cars though. They're not very smart, but they don't need to be. They only have to go in a straight line. A better way to compete would be for the quickest time. Actually, speaking of that,
Please share your times in the comments!
Some people have said that it's a bit too hard, so I made an easier version, but remember that is not the compo version, play that one (the download link is at the bottom of this post, before the comments), and score it then if you want to try the easy version, the download link is in the comments.
Alternatively, I don't know if anybody thought it was too easy, but I made a hard version. The download link for that is in another comment further down, but for the sake of my reviews, please remember to play and score the regular version first.
How to Run
Windows: extract the zip and run dragtypist.exe.
Linux (Thanks to @mrspeaker in the comments): If you have Python 3 already installed (most distributions should, if running python3 --version doesn't give you an error, you should be alright (I've only tested with 3.6 so I don't know how well earlier versions will run), if not, consult your distribution's documentation for how to install it), install pygame with pip3 install pygame, then extract the source code zip into a folder, open a terminal in that folder and run python3 ./dragtypist.py
Other platforms: download the source code, extract it somewhere and run dragtypist.py in Python. You'll need Python 3 and pygame (which you should be able to install through pip). If I have time later, I'll see if I can provide a precompiled version for Linux (ironically the platform least likely to need one).
Controls
Press the letter that's in the box. It's that simple!
Well, except for pause. Press escape to do that.
Developed in:
Python, using Pygame. Sound effects generated using Bfxr, musical cacophonies made in Bosca Ceoil.
System Requirements
- Not much, really. Haven't formally tested it, but it's worked fine on the two systems I've tried it on. Anything that supports SDL, I guess, but it only uses software rendering, so I don't see why anything couldn't run it. Please don't take this as a challenge.
- A 640x480 minimum screen resolution. It'll probably run at less than that, but you won't be able to see all of it. Which would be bad. But as an added bonus, if your desktop resolution is at least 1280 x 960, it'll run at that.
- One actual note here: it only takes screen resolution into account, not scaling. This can both be a good thing (set scaling in Windows to whatever you want it to and it'll follow that) and a bad thing (it can go off screen if game resolution x scaling is above your actual resolution).
- Software requirements:
- Windows: A relatively modern version of Windows. Not sure if XP would work. 8.1-10 probably have all they need already. 7 may or may not need the Visual C++ Redistributable available from https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads.
- Other platforms: Python 3.6 and Pygame 1.9.3. Not sure how well earlier/newer versions would work. Hopefully well.
Any problems?
Hit me up (preferably not literally) in the comments section - I'll be keeping an eye out!
| Windows | http://www.slasheethecow.com/ld/drag/DragTypist.zip |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/dragtypist |
Ratings
| Overall | 240th | 3.559⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 173th | 3.588⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 392th | 3.288⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 442th | 3.382⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 289th | 3.382⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 156th | 3.394⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 222th | 3.309⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 45🗳️ | 33🗨️ |
This is excellent and frustrating. Exciting music, fantastic art, loads of fun. Great job!
Slightly annoying with overheating but still pretty fun little game. nicely done!
It's a pretty tough game, I'm not the best typist and when it comes down to random letters, I think it makes it much more challenging (I almost wish it were words instead of letters).
The sounds and graphics fit very well with the themes you chose. Also the motion on screen looked smooth and nothing felt out of place.
Nice work!
Ok, back to the game: I thought it was a blast! (though I am partial to typing games... I made [Flappy Bird Typing Tutor](https://www.mrspeaker.net/dev/game/flappy/) a few years ago).
This game really reminded me of the hours I spent on Mavie Beacon Typing Tutor - they had a racing car game too! I personally like your graphics better - they are perfect.
I didn't really understand the cool down bonus system though... I like that you can't just type like a maniac to win, and had to "throw the game" to cool down, but I'd like more indication of how far away I was from getting a cooldown bonus. Like, if I new the next correct letter would get me a bonus then I wouldn't hit a bad letter to avoid overheating.
Annnyhooo, great work - I'm glad I got it running!
@conrad-etherton - Glad somebody noticed. It is intentional, when I was testing I found there was nothing more annoying than missing a letter by *that* much, so now that each letter lasts *that* much longer, it's harder (I hope) to blame the game
@mrspeaker - Thanks for those instructions - I haven't really used Linux in a while (want to, never quite get around to it) so I didn't want to post any instructions (which I thought would be something like what you suggested, but not sure exactly) in case I was wrong.
I think an indicator for how close you are to a cooldown would be a good idea (honestly didn't think of it, but since the cooldown was one of the last things to go in I'm not sure I would have had time anyway). If it helps, you need to hit 5 in a row without missing any to get a cooldown.
@conrad-etherton & @mrspeaker - Nice times! I don't think I could crack the 52 second barrier in my testing (and who likes to get beaten at their own game?)
Everyone: Thanks for the kind words! I haven't had a chance to try all your games yet but the ones I have have been pretty good.
EDIT: I and my gf played this on stream, if you'd like to check it out, you're at ~13:30. [Twitch Video](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/254590165)
Those letters come really fast, so it feels great to get a good streak. It feels a little more like a reaction speed test than a typing game, but that kinda works with the racing aspect.
Nice pixel art, good sound, and good music. And great job managing to do all 3 of those things at once! Also, great job with the UI and the tutorial! The UI worked flawlessly and the tutorial was very effective at visually showing me how to play.
I found that I was very quickly hitting the overheating and spent most of the time waiting for it to cool down, it'd be nice to have a version where it was a little harder to overheat so you could actually enjoy typing the keys when they come up. :)
**Please note that this is _not the compo version._** Rate me on that, then play this if you'd like to try it a bit easier.
- Windows: http://www.slasheethecow.com/ld/drag/DragTypistEasy.zip
- Linux/Other: Download the source zip above and http://www.slasheethecow.com/ld/drag/dragtypisteasy.py and run that instead of the dragtypist.py included with the source.
@zinkler @hexagore @themoonrise
I like the pixelart and the tutorial was good and helped me understand the game. Adding a scoreboard would be pretty cool too.
Overall very cool entry, glad I got around to playing it. :smiley:
1. First letter times out
1. New letter is picked (second letter)
1. Hit first letter during the short time after it times out where it's still valid, new letter is picked (third letter) which instantly replaces the one (second letter) that was there
Hmm... when I put it that way, probably shouldn't have made hitting a letter a little late draw a new letter, should have just had it continue the previous letter it picked.
Hope that helps, and thanks for the feedback!
- The grace period you have to press a letter after it times out has been shortened significantly
- The AI cars now go from "fast" to "really fast" instead of "that slow guy who always seems to be in front of you" to "sorta fast, on a slow day"
- The heat bar display hasn't changed, but the warning now doesn't show up until you're closer to overheating
- You no longer cool down completely when you overheat (but you'll still lose a fair amount of heat from losing all your speed)
- __Probably most importantly, the key sets have changed - instead of starting with some letters, adding some more as you go faster and use all of them at top speed, you start with all the letters, then it adds numbers (number row only, not numpad), then adds punctuation.__
- A few fairly minor changes to the source code to support all that
- Fixed a minor crash bug (minor as in if you quit the game by closing the window before the race, it crashed quit instead of smoothly, calmly quitting)
- Oh, and I changed the title screen to show how hardcore you are. But if you want to mess with your friends, just replace it with the regular version, they're just PNGs in the game's folder
I will however repeat this just so nobody misses it: __*this is definitely not the compo version,*__ play that one first (the download links are at the end of the game's listing before the comments), rate my game, share your time, then download this one *only if you want to see how much of a cruel, vindictive person I can be*. There's an easier version a few comments before this if you'd rather go that way.
- Windows: http://www.slasheethecow.com/ld/drag/DragTypistHardcore.zip
- Source/for other platforms: http://www.slasheethecow.com/ld/drag/DragTypistHardcoreSource.zip
The letters are a little fast in the Compo version, though it wasn't too fast.
I'm personally not really a fan of the menu music, but that's just taste I guess.
Something that I'm really not happy with, are the tutorial screens. I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of text thrown at me. It's better to introduce the controls to the player in such a way that you only have to give a minimal amount of explanation, that's something you could think about for your next project.
**@ciaranw** While I agree the UI could use a little more work (not quite accurate to describe everything in an LD compo game as "last minute", but for me at least, everything is usually "how I'd do it if it really was the last minute, because if I take too long on any one thing, it will be"), having the UI (specifically the heat bar and the current letter) in different parts of the screen was a deliberate decision to try to force you to look away from the current letter. The overheat warning being more visible is a good idea though (I could make the background of the UI at the top flash or something) and doesn't really go against that principle because it has an audio warning too, so it's supposed to be something you notice whether or not you're looking at it... but I guess not everybody plays with sound (one of those "wait, people aren't testing it the same way I've been testing it for two days?" realisations).
**@shimapleleaf** Wow, that's a great time, especially for a first try (the best I could manage in testing before I uploaded it was about 52, I've since managed to crack the 50 second barrier, but not by much). The menu music and tutorial screens really were last minute things - the sounds were about the last thing to go in overall, so for the music I just did what I could that covered the criteria of:
- "doesn't take too long"
- "sounds retro enough"
- "doesn't make my ears bleed", sorry if it didn't live up to that one
The tutorial screens were something I realised I'd need fairly early on (after I decided to implement the heat mechanic), but not something I could work on until near the end (the UI, other than the current letter, went in not long before the sound, and I needed that done to take the screenshots), so I didn't really have time to get my graphic design on. I wouldn't want to split it up into more screens (nobody wants to have to press enter five or six times just to get to the game) but I can definitely see how they're a wall of text with no indication of where to start (or continue), so I'll definitely try to see how I could do better next time.
**Finally, to mostly everyone:** something I probably should have made clear in the description (or possibly thought to mention in a comment before now) is that I tuned it so that going at maximum speed, other than overheating, is designed to be really really hard (basically hard enough as to be almost impossible), that's why the AI cars won't go faster than 8/10, so you can still beat them even if you can't go max speed - I made the game and even I can't keep up max speed for more than a single cooldown streak, two if I'm lucky.
Once the engine gets hot and the letter time gets super short I found it to be just chaos. I think something like this would be much easier with a Guitar Hero-style queue of letters (even if you have to still match it to a fret bar equivalent). If you're going to go with just pure response time I'd think about slimming it down to just arrow keys or asdf.
Though I would have liked an "easy mode". Not because the game is hard (I won by a mile despite performing horribly) but because I'm bad at typing fast, I feel the time it takes to change letter decreases way too fast as you get more speed, and it made it less fun cause I kept missing the letter, trying to match its speed. So a "slow typer" mode would have been nice for people like me who still use 2 fingers to type in 2018.
I didn't take it into account for the ratings, but I also tried the post-jam version and this one showcases an issue that probably exists in the base version but that I only noticed on the post-jam:
It's not "all types of keyboards" friendly. :T I have a swiss keyboard, meaning all keys like ; : ! and things like these (although I only saw ; ) aren't at all at the same place and most even require to press shift; on top of that, y and z are reversed. So when I see z, I actually need to press y to match the base keyboard layout. ... And unlike most games that use that layout, it's pretty much a problem cause changing the keyboard layout with my computer (since I don't have an english keyboard laying around) doesn't help since I don't know where things like ; are placed.
Also, O and 0 are confusing, you might need to add a / to your 0, so that we can distinguish it from O. (from what I experienced, I typed O while it was 0, don't know if there actually is an O in the patterns)