LudumData

Don't Make Me Stop This Car! by UncleChris

[raw]
made by UncleChris for LD 38 (COMPO)

IntroPage.png ScreenOne.png Summer vacations were a blast in the 1970's. You loaded the family into the station wagon, and Dad hit the gas and tried to make as much time as possible, while the kids complained and wanted to see every side trip they could and Mom wanted to get some bargains at Outlet malls along the way.

This is a car driving along the highway, your family in the stationwagon. They was a plan for an irritation meter for dad, mom's bargain meter and kid's frustration meters - but sadly they all had to be cut.

I did get sound and music this time. Everything should be playable in WebGL with other ports as builds are completed. You don't have FULL control of the acceleration, as Dad gets closer to his intended destination he gets more of a lead foot.

SITE: www.uncleintheattic.com/Apps/LudumDare38/index.html

TWITTER: twitter.com/uncleintheattic

SOURCE CODE: http://www.uncleintheattic.com/Apps/LudumDare38/source/LD38DMMSTC.zip

The cars are from a wingding type of font - Oil Crisis. I fixed a game killing bug and reuploaded fix today 4/25/17.

Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/dont-make-me-stop-this-car

Ratings

Overall 528th 2.409⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 516th 2.182⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 480th 2.409⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 515th 2.364⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 502th 2.364⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Audio 347th 2.455⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 151th 3.045⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 495th 2.35⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 15🗳️ 11🗨️

Feedback

picapica
26. Apr 2017 · 17:53 UTC
I like that the game is autobiographical! I actually made it to the other town a couple of times, but that might have been mostly luck, since father won't let any traffic stop his progress. The "restart" after winning didn't work for me (but I could reload the page quickly so it didn't matter much). Too bad you had to cut the features making it more complex, they sound nice.
mrspeaker
01. May 2017 · 14:45 UTC
Cracked me up! "Don't make me stop this car" is a great title. The game play is pretty tough though: hitting a 5 lane traffic jam, and smashing into the back of a car with no place to go seems a little unfair!

Instead of "You won", it should be "have to pull over because someone needs a toilet break" - then on to level 2 xD
epiplon
01. May 2017 · 22:01 UTC
What? The road just ends with some buildings and you lose? How do you win this game?
🎤 UncleChris
02. May 2017 · 20:18 UTC
If you make it to the buildings at the end, and don't hit another car, you should win.

Just double checked, I was able to win - it took me quite a few times, the car algorithm generates too many much of the time. Your back wheels have to cross the end of the road at the Buildings without hitting another car and you win.
tylerraz
04. May 2017 · 21:14 UTC
Nice idea, try to get those other mechanics in!
wareification
04. May 2017 · 21:58 UTC
Certainly not an easy game. I had to retry a handful of times before making it to the finish line. Personally I struggled a bit with the bounding boxes of the cars.

Great start though! The game wouldn't be right with a station wagon :)
Tat2Tim
04. May 2017 · 23:08 UTC
Cutting features always sucks, but you should be proud for crossing the finish line! Unlike me in your game, I killed too many people in highway accidents :(
schizoid2k
05. May 2017 · 01:37 UTC
Nice take on a classic game. I got to the end and then the next level, the car just sat there... oh well, I guess Dad had to stop the car afterall :grin: Nice graphics too.

Perhaps turn this into an "endless runner" type of game... see how far Dad can drive.
AlextheDev
05. May 2017 · 10:12 UTC
This was quite a fun little game, I managed to win first time then had like 10 plays because I couldn't win again ahah... I really like the simple idea and you can play it quite quickly which is great! There's no sound fx from what I could tell (but I didn't keep my sound on for too long). Love the title too!
Wheerd
09. May 2017 · 16:36 UTC
Nice idea and sad you hat to cut the meters :disappointed_relieved: The game is challenging and it took me a couple of tries to get to the goal. After I restarted, the car didn't move anymore, however. The graphics are nice, but I found the music a bit annyoing after a while. All in all, a fun little game, nicely done!
🎤 UncleChris
09. May 2017 · 18:44 UTC
Fixed the weird restart bug, seems it was leaving the game in pause mode when it reloaded the scene.

Thanks for info,
Uncle Chris
mwcz
11. May 2017 · 01:24 UTC
Hooray! I WON! The music was toooo much for me. Fun to play!
devpaul
11. May 2017 · 15:00 UTC
The music is nice, but I don't think it matched the mood of the game, also I hear some annoying background noise. The cars are nice, must have taken a while to draw them all, but again its kind of weird how the cars look like line art, the background like pixel art, and the heads like vector art. Also I felt like sometimes the cars in front of me spawned in a way that made it impossible survive. I understand why you had to cut some of the features, [my game](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/small-world-transport) is simple and a Jam entry, but I run out of time too! Most of the features had to be cut.
🎤 UncleChris
11. May 2017 · 16:44 UTC
I had trouble with music, and agree it has issues, my first Jam with music/sounds.

Thanks for the feedback on the mixed art styles. Polishing it up would have probably been to pull the art together. The cars were actually a winding font, which made it easier and then colored the main station wagon and procedurally colored the other cars. The background sound was the engine on the car. I wanted to add some variability to it so it had some backfires and such, but sadly didn't get that far along.

Thanks very much for the feedback.
Frodewin
11. May 2017 · 23:29 UTC
I especially like the story of the game and the graphics. The music is repetitive, but that is fine, given that it annotes a highway drive. As far as I understood, I can only change lanes in the game, right? I was wondering if the heads of the the four people in the car are there on the left screen side for a reason? I won the game after playing (and losing) several time. It appears to me that sometimes one is just unlucky, being not able to evade a bulk of cars in front in time.
SecondDimension
12. May 2017 · 19:08 UTC
Well done on getting something completed! I managed to win after about 6 turns, but there were a few times when it was impossible because all the lanes were full! The idea was quite different actually, it was a shame you had to cut the metres as it feels like the game needs something else.
Somnium
16. May 2017 · 14:27 UTC
Fun concept, and interesting take on the theme! I love the title, it fits the game nicely

The graphics were clear, and the gameplay worked rather well, although victory seemed a bit random, with the cars often putting the player in an impossible position.

...although on second thought, that could count as increased realism as well.


>The car is our world,
>as we move towards our goal.
>Dad, are we there yet?
anim_ace
16. May 2017 · 17:47 UTC
pretty simple game. was retrying it a bunch trying to get to the goal.
Baraa Marwan
16. May 2017 · 17:58 UTC
Its a pretty simple game.Great Job!!!
Please rate my game.I don't have any categeory greater than 20 so,plz help!!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/monster-island
dunin
16. May 2017 · 19:29 UTC
I like the car style, but as it is flat, it's hard to judge when we will hit or not a car.
And with the random part, I win or lose more by chance than by skill.

I think smaller hitbox (nearly a line, as shmup have sometimes nearly a point), less random car spawn, and longer levels with slower acceleration (let player to have the time to be stressed...) could improve the fun...
CoderDozer
16. May 2017 · 22:30 UTC
Nice game with simple game play. I would have liked the car to be a little more to the left of screen to make it a little fairer to see the traffic ahead. Also the movements are a little sensitive or maybe its the hit boxes, I ended up in the barriers a few times trying to maneuver around cars.
Jupiter_Hadley
08. Jun 2017 · 15:38 UTC
Nice little game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piKz6z64rgg