FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD41 → Racing Defender

Racing Defender

By nicksmaddog

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall6532.6930
Fun6072.6730
Innovation5802.8530
Theme3103.6630
Graphics6512.3330
Audio4602.4230
Humor5531.7330
Mood6352.0130

Comments

jcmonkey 2018-04-23 02:48

interesting game, i would put colliders on the edge of the screen so that the player cant leave.

nicksmaddog 2018-04-23 22:46

@JCMonkey yes, I would agree. I re-arranged the level right before submission and forgot to add those in.

blinkenlights 2018-04-23 23:00

Ooooh, it's difficult, it is.

morphine 2018-04-23 23:10

I agree, we need colliders on the edge of the screen, additionally I'm not sure if it was just the web GL build, but my car would go in reverse if I wasn't constantly pushing forward which made it really difficult to line up and upgrade. I also never did figure out how to upgrade my stuff even though I collected 6/5 resources

adroitconceptions 2018-04-23 23:59

hard to figure out the game play before dying.

nicksmaddog 2018-04-24 01:15

@morphine that is an odd bug, I haven't seen that before. To upgrade towers, you need to drive up to one and press 'E'. I admit, I didn't do a great job explaining it on the main title screen.

nicksmaddog 2018-04-24 02:18

@Jason-Kennedy I had a hard time balancing the game. After playing it 1,000 times during development, it started to feel too easy. I needed to have some play testing done before submitting!

adroitconceptions 2018-04-24 02:28

@nicksmaddog - yah... the game dev is the worst playtester.

haberworks 2018-04-24 06:03

cool concept, got a few towers upgraded but they were no match for me eventually

gonz0 2018-04-24 22:19

nice stuff, love the musix

norris-eldridge 2018-04-24 22:24

I was a little confused on how to play the game at first but overall it's a very interesting concept! Well done!

flying-cat-of-the-pepes 2018-04-24 22:51

I didn't entirely understand how to play it, but it was kind of fun. The concept is good, but I'm not being egotistical when I say that, even though I also made a racing TD https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/racing-tower-defense. Nice work over all.

aplite 2018-04-26 01:39

Fun concept. Definitely not a game combo I would have expected to work so well together.

I encountered the same issue as @morphine, and my car also would turn constantly in some playthroughs. Not sure what would cause it, but if that was fixed this would be a fun game to try for the long haul.

let-off-studios 2018-04-26 02:04

This has been one of my most enjoyable LD games I've played yet. I personally enjoy the retro vibe you created. It's a great combination of 8-bit racing games from my youth, and the more advanced tower defense games that came out decades later. I'm a big fan of retro music and SFX and I think you nailed those nicely. Good work with Godot! Nice match with the theme, for sure.

Yeah, I agree that it's challenging, but the urgency adds to the atmosphere and I felt like I was becoming better at it the more I played. I think I'd like to try my own hand at making a game like this.

EDIT: Just beat it! It's a satisfying quick fix, for sure. :)

nicksmaddog 2018-04-26 02:50

@aplite @morphine that is strange, I'll see if I can fix whatever is causing that bug. Are you playing the web version?

nicksmaddog 2018-04-26 02:57

@let-off-studios That's exactly what I was going for! Thank you so much for your comment, it makes the entire jam worth it!

morrilet 2018-04-26 03:50

I like the idea of a racing game crossed with a tower defense game. Clever. I found that the car was a little frustrating to control, though. Aside from that I think that I would've liked to have some indication of how many resources I had and how much it takes to upgrade the towers. On the whole though I think you've made a fun little game. I liked the art and the audio was pretty good, too. Nice work!

slashee-the-cow 2018-04-26 04:17

It's definitely a good concept, but there were a few things I found confusing at first that next time you might want to explain better: - It actually took me a little while to figure out I needed 5 resources to upgrade the towers - I thought the # / 5 in the top left meant I could only hold 5, not that was how many I needed - The square towers that didn't seem to do anything until I upgraded them? Wasn't clear that they were towers which could be started by upgrading them - There are invisible walls on the side of the racing track (where the coins appear), but they look like grass like the bit you can drive over to get to the tower defence lanes, for a little while I wondered how I was supposed to get to the towers until I accidentally drove off the end of the track and realised you could do that - It seems like even if I'm at the start of the track when the resources appear, it's impossible to get them all before the time runs out, which makes it seem like the enemies are unfairly getting bonuses (since I don't seem to be able to stop them)

That might sound like a long list of complaints (which they aren't just things I think could be explained a bit better), but I actually liked the game, and we all run out of time to add all the explanation we'd want to to our games (plus after we've playtested them a million times over two days, we don't realise things that are blatantly obvious to us, other people don't get).

Can I suggest one thing I think might make it a bit more fun (albeit a little harder) though? I think it would be awesome if the car had momentum, instead of driving like a tank.

nicksmaddog 2018-04-26 11:03

@morrilet thanks for the feedback! It does actually show you how many resources you have, and how many are needed for an upgrade, in the top left of the screen. The text is pretty light and can blend into the background a bit. That was something I wanted to improve but wasn't able to get to.

nicksmaddog 2018-04-26 11:10

@slashee-the-cow thanks for all the feedback! I originally had art for walls to go around the racetrack, but could not for the life of me make them look any good. So, I ended up with invisible walls haha. There is definitely a lack of explanation of resources and building, and the GUI doesn't do it any favors. That's something I want to focus on in the next LD. Thanks for the feedback on the movement, that's another thing I want to improve next LD! Whether it's a car or something else.

aplite 2018-04-26 12:51

@nicksmaddog Yes. I am playing it in Google Chrome.

weston-walker 2018-04-26 15:36

Love your idea. I think removing the rubber band feel from the car would make the game smoother and less frustrating.

baby-dino-herd 2018-04-27 02:44

I really liked it! After just one playthrough I got the hang of it and lasted a fair while before game over.

I like the premise and that the geometry of the track makes it a little bit strategic where you want to be before the resources spawn. I would have maybe liked a little bit more of a graphical representation of where the grass/dirt divide exists (preventing crossing) and where you can enter. Also found that I was not spending a lot of time paying attention to the tower defense part, so I often didn't really see what I could have done better on that front.

miggyg 2018-04-27 03:57

I really enjoyed this game. Took a couple of plays to get the hang of it but once you do it's a lot of fun. One thing I would like to see more a of a visual cue for which towers I've upgraded and how much. Overall the UI could use some work but the game was fast paced and fun! Great job!

autumnotopia 2018-04-27 04:15

I also couldn't figure out how to upgrade my stuff until coming back and rereading things like the comments. The concept is really neat though, and it feels like a fun management setup with having to balance between upgrading and collecting stuff. The turning radius felt awful quick though, so driving at times was a little weird. Overall most of the problems are pretty minor things that would be resolved with either minor adjustment or a bit more of a clear of an explanation, so well done!

lost-dutchman-software 2018-04-27 04:19

I like how this gives more incentive to want to go fast.

slashie 2018-04-27 04:19

Nice game! there was something weird at the beginning, my car would just drive around like bumper car. But it fixed after a while and I was able to figure out all the game and get better progressively. Still haven't beat it but realyl fun :)

dark-roast-studios 2018-04-27 07:56

nice idea, but really need to stop the car driving outside of the map bounds. The mechanics work well to give you a good incentive to go fast

mrwillowb 2018-04-27 16:20

Nice idea I got lost

raccoonludos 2018-04-28 00:47

I like the idea in general, but I don't understand why you divide track in two, i think it would more interesting to race together with monster on the same track, while upgrading your towers once in a while. This track separation kind of kills the idea a bit for me, because now you just have two separate games. But still a good game. So good work

gurbx 2018-04-28 15:14

Very cool and original idea! Some explanations on how the game works would have been nice. I couldn't figure out how to upgrade the towers before i read the comments. It would also have been nice with some more racer like player movement instead of a constant movement speed. I also think it would be cool to have the racetrack closer to (or around) the towers so the two gameplay modes wouldn't feel as much separated. The idea is really cool and unique and with some more polish and refinement this could be even better.

pietro-ferrantelli 2018-04-28 22:16

Pretty tough, you have to get used to the controls but after that it's really fun ! This is a pretty nice compo entry ! The idea is well executed, good job !

nilstastic 2018-05-03 19:04

Ohh this was really difficult. I was so bad at this, interesting idea though. I really like TD games and I like your take on it.