Opposite lock racing, The game

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#1

I have finally managed to file off the sharpest edges, so it should be possible for you to test out my latest game. Race against the clock, using arrow keys to steer and ctrl for handbrake.

This game might be a challenge to control at first, since you control the front wheels and not the whole cars as many top down racing games do. I have though added a skidpad, where it is easy to practice. If you start with a frontwheel driven car, it should be a bit easier, since you won’t have so much oversteer. 4WD is a bit more tricky and rear drive is quite a challenge. Best thing to get started is to use the school bus. :smiley:

It would be interesting to know what times you do as well, and if you think the controls are too difficult.

PLAY!

http://games4j.com/OppositeLockRacing/sc.jpg

Video here (Sorry for spamming threads, but that one went off on a tangent a bit :slight_smile: )

#2

I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong, but it seems the game I’m playing is somewhat different from the game from the video you posted . For example, I don’t see the finish line, and the car selection screen is different .
It’s not counting my laps as well .
I’ve played a little and the controls are VERY difficult, at least for me ! But I didn’t try hard to master it to be honest .

Sometimes it seems the sounds are taking a while to load, for example when crashing against the walls, it hangs like 1/4 of second or so then plays the sound . are you using quickPlay from paulscode sound library ?

#3

Ah yes, I should maybe have pointed out that the “skidpad” level is ONLY that, a skidpad, with a track pointed on it. I didn’t want to put obstructions on it, so that you can fool around as much as you want without damage :slight_smile: Since it really isn’t a track, I have no lap to time. Select “Tarmac” or any other track and things should look more like the video.

Car selection has evolved a bit since video recording. Planning to have more cars than a list on one screen can hold, so right - left like many other AAA cargames do to select cars.

It will most likely take a few laps to get a hang of it.

I will look into it now :smiley:

Thanks for the feedback!

#4

I see what you mean, 1st play through I sucked…
2nd attempt (@tarmac) I managed a best lap of: 14.56, with total time: 63.48

#5

I get this 6 times before the game runs normally:


java.io.FileNotFoundException: http://games4j.com/OppositeLockRacing/lib/lib/SoundSystem.jar

Really fun game btw :slight_smile:
The turning is not really friendly but I got used to it after a while.

#6

Great! So it is quite possible to pick it up quickly 8) That is a quite good time. What car did you use?

#7

I got kind of frustrated, the car always seemed to turn longer than it should have after a handbrake application, so I kept overcompensating. Also, it seems like the car starts to become more and more wild the further you are, which is weird. I always found the first lap okay to control but by the third lap my car was all over the place.

#8

I didn’t see that on my machine, so the logging can very well be OS/Browser specific. I think I know what the problem is though, and it should be fixed now, hopefully along with the worst delay of the crash sound that Teletubo reported. I had looked into the quickPlay() for sounds, but I don’t think it plays the sound any quicker (once it is loaded) but it is a quicker way to code playing a sound, but I might be wrong. Pauls is welcome to fill me in if you are reading this. I have instead loaded and played the crash sound with 0 volume before the game starts and hope that it will help. I don’t want any security popup if I can help it, so it is still crappy old Java sound behind it all. The only way to get instant sound could be to switch to popup requiring approaches…

Thanks!

I only hope that people will stick around until the game gets fun :slight_smile:

In my opinion it is the controls that makes this game more fun. I really like to be able to take the Ford GTS or Audi R8 sideways through the corners, but I have testplayed it quite a bit, so that might be needed to be able to control it like that…

#9

Oh, there’s more than one car? :slight_smile:

#10

Sorry to hear that. I think it is mostly down to practice and focus… and not using the handbreak so much. It IS really hard to control a handbreak turn, and none of the tracks available really needs it.

There is a secret little “cheat” available in the game as well, so I’ll let you know if you don’t tell anyone. Press “F1” when you are in the actual game, and you will be able to change some of the characteristics of the car. If you think that the car it “fishtailing” too much, then you can increase the “OppositeLock” and possibly “Angular weight”, it might help (but reduce the fun IMHO :’(). This “cheat” is for testing only and not very well done, so use at own risk. Stay away from rear wheel drive cars. Best is probably the Alpha and the quatro (NOT R8) for nice and stable cars.

Hope this helps, and let me know if you found a car setup that works better for you, and I might add that to the game later on.

#11

Dang, so that was not obvious… Well the whole menu should probably be improved, so I will have to fix the car selection feature as well.

Just click the right and left arrows (OK triangles) to cycle through the cars, or use right and left arrows when the car button is highlighted, in case you haven’t already figured it out.

#12

Yeah, tried out the others.

Managed a 53.83s total time with the Quattro, and also a best lap of 11.76s in (I think) the BMW M3 - both on tarmac.

Worth noting that the total time includes the time before the 1st lap begins, rather than just a sum of laps 1 through 4.

Oh, found a (not particularly exploitable) glitch with collisions.
It’s easiest to replicate from the start line on tarmac:

  • Reverse from the start position
  • release reverse about 1/2 a second before the car hits the wall.
  • as the car bounces, hit accelerate.
  • the car is propelled forwards at high speed.
  • After a few seconds of driving forwards the camera begins to shake, though it stops after ~1second.
#13

First time was around 136 sec. Best times after 2 or 3 tries were around 80 seconds.

I like the controls. Challenging but fun.

The menu system is really confusing. The reason is because of several inconsistencies.

Panel 1:

  • selecting the car is done via clicking on the arrows and gives immediate feedback
  • to advance to panel 2 you click on the car button (eh?) or click on the select track button

contrast to panel 2:

  • selecting the track is done by clicking on the track button and that gives no immediate feedback but instead starts the race
  • but the race doesn’t start right away… the game appears to freeze while it is loading the race

My suggested changes are:

  1. selection of the car / track should give immediate graphical feedback (done already for the car selection) - think of these buttons as a radio button group.
  2. car / track selection buttons should be completely separate from a button that advances to the next panel i.e. clicking on the car or track selection button should not advance you to the next panel / start the race
  3. the advance buttons should be “Continue” on the first panel and “Start Race” on the second panel - think of these buttons as the “Next” button in a wizard dialog.
  4. the advance buttons (“Continue” and “Start Race”) should look very similar to each other i.e. same shape or color
  5. the advance buttons should be different in appearance from the car / track selection buttons
  6. the test skidpad track should be separate from the other tracks (not first) and clearly marked that it is a test
#14

Looks promising :slight_smile:

I guess I need a faster system than the one I’m playing it on now (HP Mini 2133, ancient graphics chip). It’s too slow :frowning: (before I closed my java console there was something about underruns). Another problem on this netbook is the resolution (1024 x 600). Won’t fit vertically.

#15

Those are really good times. I hope that doesn’t scare other people from posting their times :wink:

Yes, I could move the car to the startline, so that the lap-time and race time starts at the same time. That would though mean that you will start the first lap form standstill and typically have a slower first lap. I have to think about what I like best.

Hmmm… I knew that could happen, but hadn’t experienced it. I will stay on the todolist, but not a high priority, since it doesn’t really negatively affect the gameplay. A bit of a pain to fix.

I might have to add the Lamborghini as an unlock if one completes tarmac under 55s or so.

#16

Great that was the most important thing for me to know before I proceed. Seems like it is mixed, but most that make an effort will quickly get the feel for it.

Yes, you are definitely right about that. I just didn’t get around to it since I wasn’t sure there was an interest in the game, given the fact that the control is a bit challenging to begin with. All what you said makes sense, and I will move that up the todo-list. Now I need some good graphics for the menus…

#17

Well I have updated the menu system a bit. It still needs more work, especially the graphics needs improvement, but I will get to that when I know that the layout is roughly how I want it.

#18

Good start! I hope you keep developing it.

I’d use lines to do the skid marks instead of particles. i.e. === instead of ooo. Also the steering seems to have an effect after releasing the key - are you simulating the turning of a steering wheel? That is a bit unintuitive, given there’s no-screen indicators.

It reminds me of the classic micromachines - a good thing! :wink:

EDIT: meant to ask, will this be open source?