World Rally Driver 4K

Contests 4K Game Competition - 2009
#1

WORLD RALLY DRIVER 4K

Score points driving world rally stages.
Race on asphalt, dirt, and snow. Don’t let your ghost car win!

http://members.iinet.net.au/~craigmitchell/WorldRallyDriverScreenShot.jpg

http://members.iinet.net.au/~craigmitchell/WorldRallyDriverScreenShot2.jpg

http://www.java4k.com/index.php?action=games&method=view&gid=197
or
http://www.craig-mitchell.com/WorldRallyDriver/

Comments, problems, suggestions, anything else, more then welcome. :slight_smile:

#2

cool :slight_smile:

#3

Thanks Appel! :slight_smile:

BTW: I just changed the default zoom to be zoomed out. I thought being zoomed out made it easier to play when you are just getting the hang of the game. It will automatically zoom back in once you have scored some points on the track (unless you request a zoom, then it will stay with what you requested). Let me know if anyone disagrees. Cheers.

#4

Really nice game! Looks nice and plays well to. I especially like the fact that you can’t press the accelerator the whole way through the game and make a good time. There should be corners where one have to slow down to make a good path through a turn. Unfortunately for me, the game slows down quite a lot when the skidmarks are drawn, making it quite hard to play. I think you are right about the zoom level.

WinXP, Java 1.6

#5

Thanks Jojoh!

The skid marks are just a few fillRect calls on the background image (they modify the background image, so they are only done once). Not sure why they would slow the game down. ???


bgGfx.setComposite(AlphaComposite.getInstance(AlphaComposite.SRC_OVER, 0.15f));
bgGfx.setTransform(AffineTransform.getTranslateInstance(...));
bgGfx.rotate(...);
bgGfx.setColor(new Color(0,0,0));
bgGfx.fillRect(...);

However, my game loop wasn’t that great (it would always call sleep) ::). I’ve now improved it to use yield. If you get a chance, can you please try it again and let me know if I’ve fixed the problem.

Thanks!

#6

For a bit of fun (not part of the 4K comp). I totalled the top 100 players scores based on countries to get a ranking of which countries had the best drivers.

The winner by a long shot was the United States (not too surprising there).

A very close 2nd and 3rd were the Brits followed by the Aussies! Noooooooo! ::slight_smile:

You can check out the other places: http://www.craig-mitchell.com/WorldRallyDriver/ then click on “Country Rankings”.

#7

This is really fun, I like the physics of the car and for some reason I actually perform better with the zoomed in view :slight_smile:

I’m 47th in the total rankings, and everything worked fine on Mac OS X / Java 5 / Safari.

#8

I’m still a little unclear about the rule listed on the java4k site:

[quote]The game must be startable using Java Webstart.
[/quote]
Does my game (and the Left 4k Dead game) pass this rule? :persecutioncomplex: Technically, they both can be started via JWS…it’s just that they both don’t get started via JWS. :-\

#9

Well, this didn’t come up until after the competition started.

The “webstart only” thing is mostly for user convenience, so the user doesn’t have to leave the Java4K site to play the Applet games on another website.

I’m not sure how to handle this. There are a few Applet games, and I’m actually FOR Applet games. I’d like to enable developers to host their games on the Java4K site, so that the games are run as an Applet from the site, just like on any other normal game site on the Internets!

For now, I like to change this rule to: “The game must be startable using Java Webstart or as an Applet.”

#10

You could start the Applets in a new page like you do for the links to the contestants web page. target="_blank"

Thanks! :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

#11

[quote=“appel,post:9,topic:32597”]
Awesome! =D

#12

Yup, that seems to have fixed it. Thanks! Very odd that the problem occurred in the first place. Code looks harmless. Anyway, now I can play for real :slight_smile:

Well filled highscore list 8)

#13

Really awesome game. I think I spent 2 hours playing it trying to get a high score. I got the record for USA and I’m 2nd all-time! Woo!

PS - I hate Siberia.

[EDIT] - What happened to Tom’s score?

#14

Thanks Demonpants! Great driving!!!

The “High Score” table is a rolling high score table. The “Top 100 Players” table is where you earn your stripes! Tom is the Commander-in-Chief of that table! :slight_smile:

#15

Oh snap I’m only 5th! :o

Gotta increase that Siberia score.

#16

I rule and you can all eat my dust. You will never beat me. Whooaaahaahaahaa :stuck_out_tongue:

#17

I beat you in USA. 8)

#18

not anymore

#19

Your game benefits tremendously from the hi-score list, adds lots of value to the gameplay. But as a standalone game, it wouldn’t be as much fun.

In the strictest sense, the game must be “self-contained”.

Hi-score lists are sort of in the gray area.

I like the idea of hi-score lists, but I think we need to make it explicit how a hi-score list can be implemented.
Should the 4K game be the only application that should manage and display a hi-score list file on some server?

What’s stopping me from creating a 4K game that just spits out some numbers, which then I must use to insert into another application, which is a lot bigger than 4K, to see some effect?

I’m inclined to direct the judges to ignore the hi-score list, as it’s an external application and should not be considered part of the 4K game itself.

What are your thoughts?

#20

I agree with you - the highscore list should not be considered unless it can be proven that it fits into the 4kb.

In a similar fashion, I hope the judges last year ignored my non4kb version of Spiderball4k that featured replays, and preferrably also the map editor (although the map loading function was in the 4kb game, the editor itself was a separate program). Judging from the comments, they more or less did.

This game is pretty cool, btw. :slight_smile: