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[Sar]

What I don't understand is how people could have so much fun with this, when all you could do was fly a randomized plane, and possibly loop with it

That's because you're locked into a violence-normative game paradigm!

[Terry]

Fantastic post, two4teezee, kudos

[Hideous]

What I don't understand is how people could have so much fun with this, when all you could do was fly a randomized plane, and possibly loop with it

That's because you're locked into a violence-normative game paradigm!

Then how come I love Animal Crossing?

[Sar]

Then how come I love Animal Crossing?

Animal Crossing is packed with violence! Even leaving side that you spend half your time destroying weeds or digging holes or murdering innocent fish, there's the classic game starter where the sinister mafioso raccoon loan shark threatens you with dire consequences if you don't pay off your debt, forcing you to do his dirty work and locking you into a continuous upgrade/cost spiral, and the 'gifting' is clearly a repressed assault (one-up-manship) mechanic.

Not to mention that the game feeds entirely on the brain's self-defence mechanism to appear appealing; you are forced to 'play' on a regular basis to avoid damage (weeds) being done to your town, which is truly the player's in-game avatar to a higher degree than the little guy you control.


Honestly, flying stuff around without a care in the world, that's a peaceful game. But Animal Crossing? It should be a 15+ at least.

[William Broom]

I have to agree with Hideous, I'm afraid. The controls were very difficult, although I have to admit that was partly due to my lack of understanding of... plane sciences.  Once there are some objectives it will be a lot more interesting.

[Hideous]

Psh, the planes could rash and kill both the pilot and everyone inside it.

[two4teezee]

What I don't understand is how people could have so much fun with this, when all you could do was fly a randomized plane, and possibly loop with it

It's a work in progress, give him a break.

I wish I could make a game from scratch like that! What's this game written in?

[Crackerblocks]

Thanks for the epic explanation two4teezee. I'll pour over it more closely tonight. It's written in C++ using the PopCap framework.

I totally understand all the "it's pointless" comments. But it's not likely to grow a point any time soon.

[Hideous]

I understand that it's a work in progress, and I love the idea, but I see people with comments like "oh my god this was so much fun i played with it for 40 minutes", and I don't understand it. That's all I meant.

[Stij]

Looks pretty cool so far, but I wish there was more to do. This could be fleshed out into a more complete game idea, I think.

This game reminds me of Dogfight, a German freeware game that I highly recommend if you've never played it (http://dogfight.kuto.de/, once you download you can go in the options menu and select English as your language). You can make many parallels between that game and others that have come before it, mainly Dogfight for Amiga.

Oh hey, I've been looking for this game for ages. Found it on the internet a year or so ago but never got around to trying it. Recently, I tried looking for it again, but couldn't remember the name...thanks, random person! :D

[Pip]

Sar's right on the money re: AC. Nook's such a capitalist pig / raccoon.

[mewse]

That's because you're locked into a violence-normative game paradigm!

I totally have to memorize that reply.  Would come in handy all the time.   

[Noyb]

Very fun base you got here! Figuring out the nuances of each shape is fun (as is just maxing out the throttle and pitch on a tiny plane and watching it loop crazily).

Part of me wants to see crashing, but part of me also really likes the instantaneous restarts. The terminal velocity feels very slow, especially when dropping from above the cloud line (which could probably use faint stars in the background to indicate movement).

Maybe a Pilotwings approach could work for the gameplay: take off from a runway, fly through rings, then land safely within a time limit. A straight longest flight would fit in well with the tester theme, although the physics are a bit too arcadey for that at the moment since it's a bit too easy to stabilize yourself in the air if you have a light touch.

[Crackerblocks]

She's done, Jim. Link on the first page!

Changes since the demo:
- I slacked off the game side a bit. Gameplay revolves around high scores in different categories (highest altitude, number of loops, etc.)
- More variety in planes. Bi and tri-planes are in, but fairly rare because they sometimes defy the laws of physics.
- Rolling is in. You can briefly see "The Third Dimension".
- More gooder physics. Some days all I did was tweak variables. It's driven me crazy. I'm aching to make a totally abstract game now.
- I had engine sounds, but removed them due to being awful. For now, when you fly a prop plane, go "pfpfpfpfpf" out loud. And when you fly a jet, go "vrrrrrrrr".

[camosid]

Vagina makes a really good plane.

[Noyb]

Fun! I guess it only saves your records if you land successfully?

[Lukas]

"Tit" all the way...

Awesome game!

[Checker]

Adding the little dude on the plane was awesome, totally gives it all more personality.

So far i was having fun with Tricky / Trickie / Tricksy. Tricksie is just a huge plane without wings i think that cannot really go up into the air

Fun stuff Crackers!

[Crackerblocks]

Fun! I guess it only saves your records if you land successfully?

yes! I knew I forgot to mention something. And the purple bar is your fuel (which was meant to balance out the power of planes with rockets by giving them less fuel).

[BobFM]

What a cool idea! Gameplay reminds me a bit of Sopwith, but with a more realistic flight model (and no cows). http://www.sopwith.org

I found a good plane called the "Odd Duck 2" (can go way into space!) though the fuel doesn't last long on that one.