Toy Racer by Avon

Download:
https://avon.itch.io/toy-racer-ld38
The game has an online high score, so you can compete against everyone for the fastest track time. It submits the score automatically when you complete the track, so make sure to set your username in the main menu first.
UPDATED VERSION:
Adjusted car controls to be more responsive, intuitive and fun. It should also work with gamepad now, using left stick to steer and buttons to accelerate/brake.
CONTROLS:
Control the car with arrow keys or WASD. Gamepad works only on updated version.
'R' - Restart race.
'H' - Show online high scores
'ESC' - Back to main menu
Music:
"Mischief Maker" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
BUGFIXES:
-Fixed a bug with the camera when restarting the race.
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/toy-racer |
Ratings
| Overall | 664th | 2.818⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 603th | 2.727⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 712th | 2.273⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 360th | 3.476⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 270th | 3.818⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 605th | 2.75⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 22🗳️ | 34🗨️ |
Unfortunately, the controls are bad for a racing game. It doesn't seem physics-based, more like some strange sort of character controller (the car doesn't keep momentum and you need to accelerate to steer for example).
You have talent for designing race tracks. Now you just need to spend some time creating (even an arcadey) driving model.
## Good stuff:
* you managed to visually keep it consistent, and really feel like it's toys, not some scaled -down models, which is not as easy as it seems. Kudos for that!
* The race track is great!
* Looks great graphics-wise
## not so good stuff
* driving model indeed needs some work. I'd recommend some arcade model because of the theme - let the car keep at least some momentum. Now, I know it's a toy, but still, for a racing game it's crucial - it allows to make tight turns and all that :) And even matchbox cars keep momentum.
* if you jump off track, there's no reset and no way to get back on track.
## the funny stuff
* I jumped off track and discovered that I can drive *under* the carpets. So I went on a spree throughout the room :D
All in all, I like your project very much, an I'd love to see an updated version after LD is over.
Cheers!
I've already figured out most of whats wrong with the driving model, planning to add a postjam version very soon. The main issue was simply that I didnt apply a force in the steering-direction while the car was moving, but not accelerating from user input, which only made it possible to steer while accelerating. Not an issue if you are always accelerating like I did, but its not intuitive and not how cars actually work.
Overall, I had a lot of fun playing. Well done!
By the way, I'm referring to the original version for these comments. Sorry if these issues have been fixed in the updated version; I want to rate the version submitted for the jam.
A small bug is that when typing a username and typing 'h', the leaderboard covers the screen. (By the way sorry for the username, was curious as to what would happen)
The track is quite tricky to get around, the blocks on the border are viscous. One thing I didn't like is that the pencils on the jump didn't get knocked over, but made me drive on the boot of the car for a bit. I really liked being able to knock the footballs around, and would have liked it if more of the stuff was physics objects, so I could pretend to be a child and tear everything down (the stacks of pencils would have been awesome).
@veralos Thanks for playing, faster turning was indeed one of the main issues fixed in the updated version.
@navot Thanks! The car is intended to look like a painted wooden toy, but its a bit hard to tell from the distance you are seeing it. I hadn't thought about 'H' being and issue while typing user name, good catch. Its still possible to type in the username while the high scores are visible though, you just cant see it. I did want to make more of the objects physical, but ran out of time for that, knocking over the pencil stacks could indeed be fun. The track edges did end up being more annoying to crash into than I intended.
I must say - I'm very jealous that you managed to get an online leaderboard in there! I really wanted to have that but didn't know how to do it (especially within the time limit).
One thing I didn't try - if you fail the jump - do you land back on the track beneath and have to go round again? I was so desperate to get on the leaderboard that I wasn't willing to take the penalty to find out!
Online high scores are actually fairly easy to do, there is a good tutorial on it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZuqEyxYZCc
I followed it pretty closely for this game. The basic implementation can probably be done in an hour or two. It only saves high scores as integers though, trying to send float gives back a 0, working around that took a bit of time.
My opinion:
- Great physics and mechanics
- Awesome graphics with some really cool shaders
- Nice level design
- The music brings you in the right mood
And it really brings back the 90's for me. ^^
Awesome job!
Overall, it reminded me a lot of the old Micro Machines games, which is awesome! I had a lot of fun, I just wish the controls were a little bit better. :race_car:
@crazi456 Thanks!
@arcticmattekar Thanks for playing! Top down camera would probably fix that, but you also cant see that far ahead the track, making it difficult to plan your path. I could have made it an option though.
@for-science Thanks! You are right about the clunky steering, it was fixed in the updated version. The camera is fixed to the car and the car is definitely rotating around its own axis. I was hoping to implement a more advanced camera, but ran out of time for that.
The graphics was otherwise really nice and it would have been cool to actually see all those 3D models better and not just curse them and their abundance when you got stuck on them again. I think I managed the most 3-4 seconds between running the car into stuff. The side of the track, the blocks, I think it was unnecessarily evil to have their colliders as blocks too that quickly rotated the car. I think it would have done better with a kind smooth collider and physics that avoided rotating the car. Otherwise I liked the concept and it made remember playing Micro Machines all these years ago.
Also, the level design is overcrowded, forcing slow and careful driving, over the more satisfying high speed driving and drifting action.
@batmanasb Thanks for your feedback. I did actually use a normal rigidbody, but with a very high drag value, and no friction. I was able to fix most of the issues you bring up by tweaking the values and formulas in the updated version, though I thought it'd be to complicated to add drifting in my current model. You are right that the track should have been a bit easier, I was probably too focused at making it fun for me, rather than people who only play it once.
The first is the motion blur. It feels a little bit tacky and fails to give the sense of speed you want. It also creates performance issues for people with subpar graphics cards.
The second is the controls. They did not match the expectations for how a car should behave. I let go of the gas to turn corners more accurately, and in response the car stopped turning. Reverse caused a huge number of issues.
At one point I also exited the track upon failing a jump. I feel like teh car should be reset at this point. This was in the second lap and I feel it penalized me too much. I did not complete the race because of this.
The assets were very good, however, and the obstacles are fairly varied.
Good work.