LudumData

Tracer by ctrble

[raw]
made by ctrble for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

A neon, heart pounding, endless arcade racer!

Race down the gauntlet, faster and faster! How far can you go before you crash?

Pick up shields, power ups, and bonus points, if you can...

itch.gif

How to Play

All you need is a keyboard and nerves of steel.

Movement

Move left [A] and right [D] to dodge obstacles.

Use Power to Boost [W] or Slow [S].

Tip: Your ship will continuously pick up speed as you race down the track. Use Slow to more easily dodge obstacles or get items (like Power Ups).

Repairing

When you're hurt, quickly Repair [Spacebar] your ship with Power. Hitting an obstacle causes cascading critical damage to your ship, and Repairing only fixes a little bit at a time. Mash [Spacebar] to fix your ship before you die!

Tip: Keep an eye on your Power, if you run out you can't Repair, and if you Repair when you're not hurt, you'll waste Power.

Controls

  • A - Move Left

  • D - Move Right

  • hold W - Boost (uses Power)

  • hold S - Slow (uses Power)

  • hit Spacebar - Repair (uses Power)

menu updated.png

Items

Snag some of these, you'll need 'em.

Power Ups

Power can be used to speed up , slow down, and repair your ship. This thing does everything!

pickup-power small.png

Shields

Shields protect your ship when you run into hazards. You can have as many as you can get.

pickup-shield small.png

Bonus Gates

Collect these for bonus points and a higher total score!

pickup-gate small.png

Credits

Made in Unity, Asset Forge, and Photoshop. Thanks to Flyover Indies and MidCoast Game Developers for feedback, testing, and support. Thanks to Catlike Coding for inspiration and a really fantastic tutorial to base this on. And thank you everyone who's played and provided feedback!

Screen Shot 2020-04-22 at 8.09.20 AM.png

Changelog

4/24/20

  • Increased starting power levels slightly for all difficulty modes

4/22/20

  • Updated obstacle materials, now they're slightly translucent because translucent is clearly better
  • Updated menu background to an image instead of a very too bright but also boring color

Bugs Squashed

TODO: Find more bugs - Screen shake not so shakey - ~~Power usage not reset on respawn.~~ Fixed 4/24/20 - ~~Some game difficulty settings were not being reset on respawn.~~ Fixed 4/24/20 - ~~After dying, ship spin rotation affects the next game.~~ Fixed 4/21/20

Future updates?

If I keep working on this game, here's a list of things I'd like to add or change:

  • Add leaderboards
  • Adjust power, how it's collected and used
  • Redo in-game UI, make power, health, and shields clearer
  • New effects for boosting and slowing
  • Update music track order
  • Different ships to choose from and/or ship customization (faster rotation, better boost/slow, better defense)
  • More touch controls, better mobile support
Youtube https://espiongames.itch.io/tracer
Youtube https://github.com/ctrble/LDJAM46-tracer
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/tracer

Ratings

Overall 685th 3.717⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Fun 444th 3.733⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1922th 2.914⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Theme 2240th 2.983⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1222th 3.633⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1353th 3.321⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Given 28🗳️ 40🗨️

Feedback

Alexander Crane
21. Apr 2020 · 03:57 UTC
Really fun, and I love the effects. Multiple difficulties is an extra bonus that really adds to the game. I can see myself playing this over and over again (and I did). When you die and the ship spins, your next playthrough maintains whatever orientation it landed on, which can make it hard to see. As far as the theme is concerned, this really made me think of white blood cells traveling through veins!
tweedle
21. Apr 2020 · 10:40 UTC
hard mode?! yes plz 🏎️💨 nice work!
🎤 ctrble
21. Apr 2020 · 13:53 UTC
@alexander-crane, thanks for playing, I'm glad you had fun! I added the spin at the very end of the jam, looks like I have a bug to fix with that spinning thing, thanks for letting me know!
TateTate
21. Apr 2020 · 15:03 UTC
Love the atmosphere!
JonhTheHutt
22. Apr 2020 · 02:40 UTC
Really nice work! I loved these type of games growing up :D I had a really awesome experience playing your game where I was spinning, avoiding all of the of bars, and the rate at which I passed through the bars went exactly with the beat of the music, which felt awesome. The only thing I would say is potentially, instead of the speeding up costing power, perhaps it gives power? That way it's a high risk, high reward thing: you move faster making it more difficult, but you have more power to repair. Also the repair feature was a lot fun - spamming the space bar after a mistimed dodge was really great. Honestly most fun game I've played today!
Pilarius
22. Apr 2020 · 13:21 UTC
Quick reminder to get more players: Use a thumbnail for your game. Otherwise your game is presented with this grey box. Some great Games are not played because of a missing thumbnail ... You can still change it by editing your submission page :)

![GreyBox.png](///raw/c26/8/z/32518.png)
🎤 ctrble
22. Apr 2020 · 23:20 UTC
@jonhthehutt Thanks for playing, I'm glad you had fun! I am planning on making some changes with how power is gained and used, so I'll keep your suggestion in mind!
🎤 ctrble
22. Apr 2020 · 23:23 UTC
@pilarius thanks for your feedback, luckily I finally had some time this morning to update the page. I hope you'll consider playing the game and letting me know what you think!
🎤 ctrble
22. Apr 2020 · 23:24 UTC
@tweedle and @tatetate, glad you both enjoyed it and thanks for playing!
Pilarius
22. Apr 2020 · 23:32 UTC
A simple but fun game. Having different difficulties is great and the overall controls felt good. I personally would use another color than red. The main menu "jumped" towards me when i first opened the game and was a big strain for the eyes. Inside the game the effect was not that prominent but the red boxed were still pretty bright.
But overall nice entry :)
🎤 ctrble
22. Apr 2020 · 23:55 UTC
Thanks @pilarius, and I agree with you. I don't love how the menu and UI design turned out, and they're high on my list of changes I'd like to make. I may also make the red obstacles slightly translucent to help ease how bright they are. Thanks for playing!
ropedog
23. Apr 2020 · 00:31 UTC
Really good game! The overall aesthetic of neon lights and polygonal shapes really gives this an 80s vibe - and that's complimented by the choice of music (with a different song for each difficulty level!). The speed of the game lends itself to a more twitchy style of gameplay, and there's even an option to _go faster_. However, after playing for awhile I found myself getting into the zone. In that way the game has sort of a tetris effect after you stop playing.
My only real constructive feedback is that I couldn't really tell if I could save my ship once I ran into something.
Great entry!
🎤 ctrble
23. Apr 2020 · 02:27 UTC
@ropedog, glad you had fun! I'm planning a future update with UI adjustments to more clearly show how much power and health is left, which you can use to repair your ship by mashing the spacebar, hopefully that helps a bit. I also want to re-balance how much power you start with for each difficulty mode, since right now it's really easy to run out on hard and then end up in a position where you can't repair.
Lishnor
23. Apr 2020 · 17:30 UTC
Great game :D simple yet extreamly addictive. Love the atmosphere and feel
🎤 ctrble
23. Apr 2020 · 23:55 UTC
Thanks @lishnor! That's exactly what I was going for!
Lerg
24. Apr 2020 · 12:35 UTC
Very cool, but too slow and I couldn't figure out how to repair. I had full power and hitting anything instantly shows game over despite me hitting the spacebar. Played boost a lot a few years back. Good job!
🎤 ctrble
24. Apr 2020 · 13:16 UTC
@lerg you actually helped find a couple bugs, so that you very much for your feedback! I've updated the build to fix what I think you may have experienced. If you died while using power, that wouldn't properly reset so your power would drain immediately on respawn. Also, if you selected hard, died, and switched to easy, some of the hard settings persisted. So thank you again for helping me track those down! If you get a chance, I'd be curious to hear if you're still having troubles with it :)

As for the speed, it does increase with time, but the rate that it increases varies by difficulty level. I'd recommend playing on hard, if you do get far enough you'll be picking up a lot of speed pretty quickly.

Thanks for playing!
BitPokit
24. Apr 2020 · 16:56 UTC
This is really fun! I love the fog at the end of the tunnel effect, it's a terrific way of creating a sense of depth and endlessly chasing something. Music was phenomenal. Controls are simple and responsive. I'm also amazed you were able to make 3 different difficulties in such a short period of time. Terrific job! :slight_smile:
DauntlessStudio
24. Apr 2020 · 22:38 UTC
Excellent work. The music and sound really work well with the visuals. And the pacing of the obstacles is perfect for the speed, the feeling of banking hard and avoiding a series of obstacles is a great game experience.
🎤 ctrble
24. Apr 2020 · 23:54 UTC
Thanks so much for playing @bitpokit and @dauntlessstudio, I'm glad you both had fun!
Cadstor
25. Apr 2020 · 00:47 UTC
It is a lot of fun, I am not very good at this type of games but I liked it. The general environment with music and effects is very good.
🎤 ctrble
25. Apr 2020 · 00:50 UTC
@cadstor I'm glad you like it! Thank you for giving it a spin!
DSF100
25. Apr 2020 · 10:11 UTC
Wow that's a great game, at first glance, the neon aesthetics are great. Now I would like to suggest some stuffs.

* First of all, when you have several shields, there is not a real visual feedback to the player when you hit an obstacle, even a simple particle system helps in feedback.
* I wonder, since it only takes one hit to kill you, what is the point of having a health bar. Not that it's a bad thing but maybe in a future update you could rework the full system.
* The spinning is a tiny bit harsh for me :sweat_smile:, I don't have any chronic diseases but oh boy does it spin lol.
* The colours and post processing are good, but I think that it would need a bit of tuning up.

It's a great game nevertheless, the music is nice too!
Nocity
25. Apr 2020 · 11:30 UTC
Liked the look and the music
AryanJumani
25. Apr 2020 · 12:06 UTC
Loved the look of the game! The audio is really good and fitting for these kind of games! Also would want to know what was the use of the space bar? Never understood that system. Otherwise it is a really good game!!
🎤 ctrble
25. Apr 2020 · 14:17 UTC
@dsf100 thank you for the suggestions and I agree with pretty much everything you said! I'm planning some UI/graphics updates, including better shield indicators and more polished effects throughout. As for the health, that's also on my list to rework (along with the power system), though it sounds like maybe you missed the repair option for when you do get hit (mash the spacebar, but it does use power). That is an easy thing to miss, it's also part of the UI changes I'm planning. Anyway, thanks so much for playing and for your feedback!
🎤 ctrble
25. Apr 2020 · 14:18 UTC
@nocity thank you!
🎤 ctrble
25. Apr 2020 · 14:25 UTC
@aryanjumani thanks for playing! The spacebar is how you repair your ship after you hit an obstacle, but it only repairs a little bit so you'll have to mash it before your health runs out. Be careful with it though, it does use power and if you repair when you don't need it you'll just waste that power.

For now I'll update the description to give players a clearer idea of how that works, but I'm actually planning an update in the future to redo the UI and the whole health/power system. I think it could be much simpler and clearer!
AryanJumani
25. Apr 2020 · 15:02 UTC
@ctrble thanks a lot!
stuckne1
25. Apr 2020 · 21:06 UTC
This is fun! I found it addicting to try and beat the previous high score. It is awesome how the music speeds up too.

One thing that I think would be cool is if there was a bit more visual feedback when speeding up or slowing down...like maybe the engines could emit varying sized flames or something.

Anyway, I'm a fan of this game and I look forward to potential updates.
🎤 ctrble
25. Apr 2020 · 22:03 UTC
@stuckne1 thanks! And I love the idea of adding more effects to the speeding up and slowing down, I'll add that to my list of updates to do!
FinnThePirate
25. Apr 2020 · 22:07 UTC
post process and the color combination is great, love the music and I agree with the some of the other comments, game needs a bit more visual and audio feedback for movement of the ship but all in all great work
🎤 ctrble
25. Apr 2020 · 22:31 UTC
@finnthepirate completely agreed, too! Thanks for playing!
ChuChuGeralt
26. Apr 2020 · 15:40 UTC
Absolutely love that game. Hard mode makes me mad, but i actually want to restart it every time after I crash. Smashing game!
DrumGadget_433
26. Apr 2020 · 19:00 UTC
I have to agree with a lot of the others here that you nailed the mood! I really love the 80s aesthetic, color choices, and music selection. The small details really added to the gamefeel for me (the ship movement lagging sightly behind the shifting of the tunnel, flashing of the bars as they meet your view, etc). The controls felt nicely tuned. Such a simple and addictive concept! Great work!
🎤 ctrble
30. Apr 2020 · 00:31 UTC
@chuchugeralt Thank you for playing! I'm so glad you had a good time (even on hard, haha)!
🎤 ctrble
30. Apr 2020 · 00:32 UTC
@drumgadget-433 thank you so much! That's exactly what I was going for!
MrChippy
30. Apr 2020 · 11:46 UTC
Excellent game.

I loved the look of the tunnel and the controls felt really good.

I started out on easy because I am a small baby but after my first attempt I switched to hard. I couldn't get that far but the speed felt more balanced and interesting.

I'd suggest adding screenshake. It would make things feel a lot better when you hit into obstacles.

This was really good. If you put it on mobile I'd play it a lot.
jk5000
30. Apr 2020 · 12:38 UTC
This overall a very well made LD game.
🎤 ctrble
02. May 2020 · 13:18 UTC
@mrchippy thanks for playing, glad you had a good time! I actually do have some screen shake in there, but it's bugged at the moment and is on my todo list to fix (and a good reminder for me to officially update the bug list). And good to know about playing on mobile ;)
🎤 ctrble
02. May 2020 · 13:18 UTC
@jk5000 thank you!