Build The Road Jack by badpaul34

VIDEO
https://youtu.be/lKUkkObCALw
DESCRIPTION
Build The Road Jack is F-Zero mixed with Snake and Trackmania!
Go fast = Earn points = Build your tracks !
Dont run out of fuel and take care of your tracks placement : you cant ride a track you previously ride, or ride outside boundaries !
Build the longest road...
&
...Race it as fast as possible!
Controls:
Keyboard&Mouse -OR- Pad
Accelerate: [UpArrow] -or- [RT]
Drive left/right: [Left/Right Arrows] -or- [Left Joystick]
Enter BUILD mode: [CTRL] -or- [LB]
Detailed controls in the game. ;)
IMAGES



Made by Lazy Frogs, Concrete Games and friends
Enjoy and Have Fun!
Ratings
| Overall | 211th | 3.851⭐ | 103🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 326th | 3.579⭐ | 103🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 180th | 3.832⭐ | 103🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 492th | 3.715⭐ | 102🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 227th | 4.054⭐ | 104🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 394th | 3.333⭐ | 95🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 874th | 2.364⭐ | 83🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 582th | 3.293⭐ | 96🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 53🗳️ | 48🗨️ |
Looks really neat.
I hit a bug, I think, as I kept getting more and more stars on the restart screen. Or is that intended behaviour?
The combinations of genre is not really clear to me as building a track and racing on it has been done in many games before. Or is there something else I am missing here?
But execution is pretty good, with good visuals and smooth gameplay.
So, well done.
Cool usage of the theme. Gameplay itself was not as tight as I'd hoped for a racing game.
Great job!
Found some glitches and audio looks a bit annoying.
Control of the spaceship is not bad but need fix some bugs.
[Check our game ;)](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/dance-invaders)
We also make a cinematic game with pixel art. Want to check it out?
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/daxua
Take a look on my game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/vector-rabbits-slayer
The concept of essence was not very clear to me though, I didn't understand what it was or how it worked so maybe that could have been explained more clearly.
The controls worked good for the most part, the car was easy to steer and I really like that you can drive on all sides of the road. The only thing that I didn't like about the controls were that you had to hold the left or right arrow key to select which track piece to build, but it just takes some getting used to.
There wasn't any music in the game which could have been added (atleast for the build mode) instead of the loud sound effect for the motor. It was somewhat annoying to hear that during the building phase.
All in all a very cool entry and really impressive. Well done! :smiley:
I played the web version first, had no music and a lot of bugs - the next piece preview was not there for the first few tries, and I kept passing straight through those spiral separators on the track sections!
Seems like the downloadable build is much more robust and bug-free. The above issues were not encountered. I liked the music and how it changes when switching b/w building and racing. Controls could've been a bit tighter. The 3 fuel system was also pretty interesting but I usually kept losing track of it! I think the most interesting mechanic was trying to keep the track inside the cube. Great job, and good luck!
Cool game though.
Fast paced track building and racing. This has huge potential :D
Btw try out our 2nd LDJAM entry, its a 3D audio based horror + funny game : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/memebumps
Thanks!
Also, you've put Ray Charles' song into my head on loop now. Thanks.
Graphics and music are working towards the same goal : making it feel polished, and that's working really well.
Great entry !
Controls of the car felt a bit rigid, but i decided it would not affect my rating, as it's really well done !
Please, take a look at mine: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/confessional
As others have said, it doesn't really feel like it has a goal - something to work towards, or some AI to race against, would be great!
@neontropics, @LeReveur : a huge Post Jam version is on the pipe and should be released soon (this evening or tomorrow)!
A little preview (editor quality, sorry) :

I had fun playing and building roads.
Thanks for creating this game !
As other says, the building sometimes make a buggy race but I have seen that you are working on a post-jam version so I'm really interested in playing that version!
Good job!
Maybe introduce a simple tutorial to the game as it took me a while to get how the fuel works (i.e, I thought is one fuel but there are three differnt types). Perhaps, also an option to increase FOV.
I've got a game in my steam library similar to this here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/268360/Krautscape/
I've spent loads of hours on that game + could possibly spend around the same, if not more, on yours.
This could possibly be my favourite for LD41. :thumbsup: :heavy_multiplication_x: :100:
### :heart: What I loved
- Felt like a very new idea with a lot of potential to be explored
- fun to play and aesthetically pleasing
-loved the thoughtfulness to add gamepad controls. Played it with mine and it felt great
### :thought_balloon: My Thoughts
- I accidentally built through a wall on one playthrough which kept me from advancing, would be nice to have the game keep you from doing that, or add an undo button
- more obstacles to derail your car would be fun
**This is it, the Post-Jam version just released !**

**Thanks to all your ratings, comments and feedbacks, it's really helped us to empower this new version.**
@GvS, @neontropics :
In the first version, as you noticed, the main goal wasn't clear, we worked on a new Tutoriel, HUD, End Screen and a feedbacks when you complete a track to fix this issue!
@MZA, @pranjalbisht, @Q-ro, @Reality Blind, @linus: You are right: The fuel mehanic was poorly understandable and so, not really interesting : we have added a new GUI that greatly improve that during the race.
Fuels have a new visual, and there is more of it.
In the building view, track's colour now directly show the type of fuel on it. And also now, there is no more empty traks : we find that more interesting and meaningfull (@justinooncx : you will like that, for sure !)
@steel-dev, @q-ro, : You were many to complain about the camera in the building mode. We found that there was a random bug in there and fixed it, we also slowed down camera speed. This mode is now a bit easier to use.

@Linus : The engine sound was buggy, we fixed and removed it from building mode !
@Rodrigo Denúbila , @hpmnk,@pranjalbisht : Controls have been enhance. Especially the camera, that have been raised and moved closer to the car. We tried as much to improve visibility without losing the “high speed feeling”.

We also fixed other bugs, reworked some tracks, add new textures, visual effects(particles, trails) and a bunch of new tracks to build and race!
We hope you will like it! Thanks everyones, and have fun !

**Lazy Frogs Collective**
Only downsides: the camera was a bit wonky at times and I didn't really get the fuel mechanic.
Otherwise this is brilliant work, well done!
Feel free to look and vote for our entry: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/way-out
Some suggestions:
- Make the music a bit louder, I could barely hear it over the car engine.
- The camera feels a bit weird. There were times where I couldn't see what was coming up at all.
Speaking of gameplay details - I think balance is shifted too much to the construction part especially in late-game. I would like to drive more and have some challenge in avoiding obstacles or maneuvering in space.
Also the resource system is built the way you sometimes should slow-down or even stop or backtrack for resourses - it didn't felt right and the way you meant the game to be played.
Anyway I liked it a lot, you can see it from my highscore and structure :)


You don't lose enough Fuel and so you have too much stars to build tiles. Speaking of intentions, the racing challenge should be "driving as fast as possible to earn more stars". As the number of tiles built increases, and (so) the obstacles accumulate, your challenge of racing through the "forest" of previous obstacles increases too. So the balance is kept. But since (1) you don't feel enough the evolution of star earned per second according to your speed and (2) you have too much of these stars, you don't (feel the) need to drive that fast.
We didn't aim to make the player stop and backtrack. We actually are thinking about something that is running after you (maybe the tile lights up like a bomb fuse) to add pressure to the racing part.
Anyway, again, I like your analysis, and btw, you beat everyone in the team with your high score :)
(sorry my english is so french)
I left my rating of your game, if you can leave your feedback in our game, Witch's Escape.
I hope you continue with the project.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/witchs-escape