[Libgdx][Android] Highway Dodge

GET IT HERE

The holidays gave me the unfrequent time to do some game development, so I have converted a desktop game to an android app. This is a remake of a more than 10 year old 4K game.

http://trilligames.com/highwaydodge/icon-320.png

The rules for the game are fairly simple. Race along a highway, dodge oncoming traffic and make it as fast as possible to the finishline.

The game is in open beta so it is not finished, but fully playable.

http://trilligames.com/highwaydodge/HighwayDodgeSmall.png

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Gameplay on my device is smooth, but the recording could not quite keep up…

Controls:
Tilt device to steer
Press the break-pedal or hold the device upright to break
Press the turbo icon to activate the turbo

Let me know if it works well on your devices.
Is it too easy or difficult?
Gameplay suggestions
Do you care about highscore on mobile games?

One known issue is that car sounds does not work on all devices, so it would be nice to know how many of you actually experience that problem.

This is available on playstore as an Open beta (Should be able to get it via the link below, but not searchable in playstore): GET IT HERE

Let me know if it works well on your devices.

  • It works like a charm technically. I couldn’t perceive any stuttering or anything like that.
  • You might want to give the user debug options while the game is in testing phase (fps counter, etc)

Is it too easy or difficult?

  • Kind of on the difficult side gameplay-wise because of the narrowness of the road and the traffic density.
    But you do not feel compelled to be as fast as possible, the other cars aren’t really a threat but more like an annoyance, since you cannot really die.

Do you care about highscore on mobile games?

  • [rant]No, f**k that, the google play login stuff is cancer.
    Every second of startup-delay is a second to much[/rant]

    You could make logging in optional and add a menu button for people who need this stuff.

Gameplay suggestions

  • Broader road, less forest, if it still fits your target resolutions
  • Let the car survive smaller crashes like scratching and pushing other cars and make the game restart if the player totally wrecks his car, this also adds a bit more difficulty
  • Let the dirt make the car swerve instead of it being a save-but-slow heaven
  • Combine the gas and break pedals into one pedal
  • Add color-glow to the progress counter so that the player can see how he is doing compared to the avg time (green->good | red->too slow or so)

The car sound effects did start working for me after crashing once, they might be a tad bit too loud compared to the rest of the game.

Good luck with your furtheer development!

Many thanks for the feedback, it is very useful.

I will add the PFS counter back into the game. I had so much debug info in the screen and then removed all of it before opening the beta…

Is it too easy or difficult?
The game being “on the difficult side” sound quite OK, it should be challenging. I think the “easy” level is almost too easy, since one should more or less be able to go full throttle the whole way through, but I have been play-testing for many times. What levels did you try?

highscore
My idea was that you should feel compelled to make the best time, well just to get a good time and if you care about highscores, just to beat your buddy in the list. The original that was made on Atari ST kept me and my friend going for A LOT OF TIME, just to beat each others score. One collision or driving too much off-road would not do it. If you don’t care about getting a better score, then it is harder to motivate naturally.

One idea I had was to create an endless run where scores are gathered for passing cars and driving at great speed. Do you think that could be more of a motivator? Collision would be an instant game over and driving off-road would reduce score.

Regarding Goole Play login, I was following google play login guidelines, but only allowing users to log in via a button and NOT requesting at startup is also allowed, so I will consider that approach. Would be good to hear more points of views on this. The achievements that you get for logging in is a pretty good dimension to the game. You can get achievements for not colliding for a whole race or not driving off-road for a whole race. That gives you purpose for the things that you thought had no purpose. :smiley:

Broader road
The road is actually broader in the easy level (too broad in my opinion), but maybe I should make it even wider?

car survive smaller crashes
It actually does, but there is not feedback that it does, so I should implement that. Sparks and paint flying would be nice! I think I also should implement bumping cars a bit, but that means a whole new level of checks to see if AI cars collide and have them trying to avoid each other. Potentially you could nudge one AI car onto a car from opposite direction, creating a pileup and AI cars needing to avoid collisions and so on… That is a lot of more code :-\

game restart if the player totally wrecks
I drive pretty much flat out the whole time. I want to get the feeling that you are driving at 110% if your capacity and still surviving most of the time. Not sure if that is something other people like, but I would never really make it all the way to the end on other than the “Easy” level other than being super careful and that is not the game I want to make. 110% and careless is the way to go 8) What do other people think?. The “endless level” might be a good option.

make the car swerve
I think that would make it way too hard to control. It is fairly difficult as it is. I will ponder on that.

Combine the gas and break
Not realistic, but then again it is not a sim. I wanted a possibility to just free rolling which will be difficult with it combined, but not sure if rolling is something that is needed anyway. Will think about it. I will also add icons explaining the controls a bit.

Add color-glow to the progress
Absolutely! I have that in another game for the exact same reason. Don’t understand why I have not done that here.

sound effects
I will have to look into that.

Many thanks for the great feedback!

I have now added an “endless run” mode, where it is game over as soon as you collide. Score is gathered for going over about 120km/h, and it increases faster the faster you go. Subtraction to the score is done when going outside the road. I added some visual queue for the turbo as well, improved break power, changed the main menu to fit in the endless run selection and some other minor tweaks.

Im sorry but it still feels kinda awkward/boring. I wouldn’t spend my time playing it, it feels like being forced to do some boring task forever without any progress. You need to include some reward or goal that is embedded into the game to keep the player engaged.

Articles on this topic

Why?

When?

There is a lot more too it but I’m not a great expert on this. I really tried to like it but it just doesn’t feel rewarding :frowning: