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[leek]

Woohoo Drive! is a great top-down racing game where you drive your space rig using your mouse or tablet only. The point is to get from point A to point B as fast as you can. Your highscores are then sent to the online scoreboard and you get ranked against other players! Whether you're bored sitting in an office or looking for a fun game to chill you out, Woohoo Drive is a perfect match!

A promo video may be viewed under here -



Woohoo! comes in both Windows and Linux releases.





At this point I am happy to announce that we've officially made a first release! You can download it for free using one of the links below:
Windows
http://www.indiedb.com/games/woohoo-drive/downloads/woohoo-drive-073-windows
http://woohoodrive.com/woohoo-0.7.3.rar

Linux
http://www.indiedb.com/games/woohoo-drive/downloads/woohoo-drive-073-linux
http://woohoodrive.com/woohoo-0.7.3.tar.gz

It is already in a playable beta stage. There are countless features we are willing to introduce as the interest and community grows. Current free bundle includes:
-23 playable maps divided in 3 difficulty levels
-Players and maps rankings





We've put quite some effort to get with Woohoo that far and as indie developers we don't ask for much in return! If you like it and want to see it bloom please register your copy for as low as $5! You can register by visiting http://woohoodrive.com/register/ Registered version allows you to:
-Record your demos and share them with other registered players
-Create your own levels with easy to navigate level editor
-Stand out in the crowd of unregistered players with a shiny emblem next to your name in the scoreboards
-Enjoy a minimap!

Things we're planning to introduce in the future:
-Multiplayer
-Different materials of any kinds - killers, lifts, doors, triggers, targets, teleports, moving obstacles and more!
-Accuracy and collector game modes
-More weapons that will help on your way for the top ranks
-Extensive statistics
-Customizable rigs!
-Fully customizable game themes
-Countless others!

That's basically it from us now, we're extremally curious of your feedback so if you happen to play the game and feel like making a comment on something, don't be shy!

[Netsu]

Sup bitch!

It is a nice and well executed idea. I especially liked the menus, very clean. As for the gameplay itself, it's weird that the race always auto-restarts whenever you finish, I think it would be better if the game asked if you want to play again, change the track or whatever.
I see that there is a minimap on the screenshots, that's great because I felt it would be much better with one.

Also, the game ran smoothly on my linux, but crashed once, just before a race start (when the counter reached 1 or something).
I hope for some awesome graphics later on in the development

[RichMakeGame!]

going to give it a spin now, but just a quick reaction to the video teaser- all the 'trick shot' type stuff in there actually began to put me off.. I started thinking 'ok, here's a game where the creator is an expert and it looks great fun when *he plays it.. but am *I going to have fun?'

here's my first play experience:
singleplayer, hit normal, first level. worked out the aim with mouse, click to move.
got hit by the spinning blue thing
got sucked into the spinning blue thing
now I'm stuck in the center of the spinning blue thing.
don't know how to restart, go to menu and start game again

go 2: notice the f1 instructions at the top: ok, i can restart (I would consider keeping the f1 text there for the whole first level btw not just the start- I don't know I'm going to need it at that point)
start playing, get sucked into the blue thing again, hit enter
go 3: get to the second blue thing, get sucked in. hit enter only to realise it's restart game not checkpoint
go 4: get stuck in the same blue thing, came back here


so, I think maybe my vid reaction is a little bit accurate. Imo you need to watch some people playing the game for the first time and iron a few things out- the first thing I would do is one of 2 things: A- detect when a player is hopelessly stuck and offer a prompt to restart from checkpoint, or B- decrease the strength of the blue things so that yeah they are still a pain, but they can never hold you indefinately- at least a player can slowly struggle free

[Netsu]

I started thinking 'ok, here's a game where the creator is an expert and it looks great fun when *he plays it.. but am *I going to have fun?'

I think the difficulty scales up nicely. In the easy difficulty there is nothing besides just riding from start to finish, and I haven't noticed any rockets (you have to pick them up before you can shoot them) until the hard difficulty.

Also, sometimes I got stuck in the vacuum/magnet/whatever and could in no way get out. It would be nice if there were no situations when you lost even though the game doesn't say that, so you could for example kill the player if he gets stuck in the vacuum.

[RichMakeGame!]

ah, you see I did not associate 'warmup' with easy difficulty. warmup says to me like practice mode in beat-em-ups, where you just mess about but you're not really playing, so I skipped it and went to normal

PS- none of this is meant as criticism btw, just straight up first reaction. I think the game idea is great

edit-
sometimes I'm having difficulty seeing the black obstacles- on my monitor they are quite close to the dark in the checker patern

[Landshark RAWR]

in that case you should probably change the difficulty's name from normal to medium

[leek]

@RedProduct: First of all, thanks a bunch for your feedback, so far the most useful and helpful comment we got so far. Kindda the stuff we were looking for. You're right in every aspect you've pointed out and we're basically improving these asap. Thanks again.

@Netsu: Thanks, we knew you're gonna like it:p Regaring the magnets issue, we're leaving that out for now, we will just try to work on more gradual map difficulty level to allow the player to learn more through the experience.

@Landshark: That's going to change as well.

[RichMakeGame!]

awesome- one note about the difficulty settings.. I can't remember where I read it, but there was an interesting point made by, er, someone.. No-one likes to play on easy and lose, it feels kind of like the game is laughing at you. Why not massage the users ego a little and call the modes something like 'pro, expert, hardcore' ?

you know you're not really a pro when you die on the first level, but inside it just pats your ego a little bit and you don't feel so bad when you totally suck :D just a thought

[Netsu]

One more thing leek, but concerning your registration system and not the game itself. I think limiting the scoreboard to registered users only seriously gimps your game's expansion. Online top scores are a great way to get players hooked up and playing more, inviting their friends to compete with them etc. I think you'll get much more players, and in turn more money, if the scoreboards were open for all and registered users got access to the map and rig editors, maybe some custom game themes or whatever you're planning for future releases.

[leek]

After recieving some great and very well pointed out feedback from some of you guys we’re introducing some important user interface changes that will hopefully attract you more to Woohoo!





Download links:

http://woohoodrive.com/woohoo-0.8.0.rar (Windows)
http://woohoodrive.com/woohoo-0.8.0.tar.gz (Linux)

There’s also a new promo video:



Changelog includes:
-Added a thorough and comprehensive tutorial level
-Renamed level difficulty names so that they are more suggestive to the first time visitor
-Levels are sorted more properly now with regards to their difficulty
-You can now earn medal awards for completing each map.
-Map ranking displays after you’ve completed each map
-Main menu/save demo/play again/next map options display after you’ve completed a map.
-Some changes to the overall game visuals
-Improved visibility
-Minor level fixes and adjustments
-Added turbo material in a few places
-Cleaned up hud
-Spiced up level editor
-Choose from 8 different rig skins to match your style!
-Added default and player personal best time ghosts!
-Some of the chnages we’ve made require redownloading Woohoo! If you’ve downloaded Woohoo! already, please do again. From now on, there will be autoupdate included so you will not have to worry about anything anymore hopefully. Sorry for all the inconvenience!





Looking forward to hearing your ffedback and good luck on your way for the top ranks! Speaking of ranks, we’ll be rolling a little contest shortly to give out a few premium keys for the most avid and dedicated players, stay tuned in!

[Netsu]

That's a great improvement. I liked the tutorial, and the game runs perfectly smooth even on my netbook. Unfortunately playing with the touchpad is a pain in the ass so I'll have to wait until I get home to test it some more.
But hey, I'm on the scoreboard already :D

[Netsu]

Ok, I played it for a while. The ghosts and medals are an awesome addition, it was much needed. The same goes for open scoreboards.
What I miss is some info about your scores in the map selection screen, it only says what are the requirements for the medals. I think it would be better if it said what is your best time and what medals have you earned already. When I'm selecting a map I want to know which awards I am missing so I can earn them.

[RichMakeGame!]

waaaay more playable now. nice work! agreed on the ghost, great addition and adds some much needed singleplayer competition
only thing I feel like I want now is a minimap :]

ps, is there any sound? I didn't get any

[Netsu]

One more thing that's missing, ESC should definitely pause the game in addition to displaying the escape-menu.

[edit] I get segmentation faults quite frequently, always right after the end of the countdown.
[edit2] Okay, it doesn't happen after the countdown, it happens when the game tries to connect to the server to submit my scores for some tracks. For example I still can't submit my score for Bastard because the game crashes every time.

[leek]

A new version is up and it includes various fixes, adjustments and additions such as new live ranks on woohoo! website, maps, some of them modified, other redesigned, other totally new, adjusted medal awards times. Linux segfault issues seem to be resolved as well. No audio yet, our sound dudes are working on them and should be ready for the next release.



Auto update got kindda broken so you will need to download a new woohoo once again:p
Download links:
Windows - http://woohoodrive.com/woohoo-0.8.1.rar
Linux - http://woohoodrive.com/woohoo-0.8.1.tar.gz



We have also a new redesigned menu mockup indluding all useful map info, including your requests, really looking forward to implementing that:p


Whoops! I forgot to mention something important!
We're giving away free registration keys! Just get in the top 10 ranks by the end of this month and the key is yours! Your key will be emailed to the address you've entered in your game settings so make sure it's valid!

[Netsu]

The mockup looks sweet. I'll download the new version when I have some more free time, I have to get back to the top 3 :C

[BitPuffin]

Hello there, here is what i think.
(i played the free version)

I think its a pretty fun idea, atleast in theory for now. It didn't feel like it was glitchy or anything wich is nice.
I dont know if this is something you plan to add later but i did notice sound settings in the option but there were no sounds for me atleast, wich made it feel kind of dead and deserted.
I think you should add:
Widescreen support.
Multilanguage support for keyboards.

I liked the controls, they were simple and felt good.
I hated the blue boxes, especially in the first level on normal, because it was slow to get past it.

The thing that didn't make the free version of the game very good for me is that it felt like i wasn't racing against anyone or anything. Just felt like i was going for a ride.

Seems like multiplayer will be fun though, if it is something like trackmania you have in mind it would probably be pretty fun!

Keep working on it and it can be pretty awesome!

[Netsu]

The thing that didn't make the free version of the game very good for me is that it felt like i wasn't racing against anyone or anything. Just felt like i was going for a ride.

As of now, the free version should include ghosts against which you can race, and an internet scoreboard in which you could compete. Still, multiplayer would be nice.

[leek]

@MilkshakePanda Thanks for your input!

Audio effects are scheduled for the next release which in turn is scheduled on as soon as the sounds are ready:p That will be some time soon I believe as we already have most of the audio done thanks to our two supercool sound dudes.

FYI: Unregistered version isn't much different from registered one in terms of gameplay, there are only a few extra features such as demos, map editor or a minimap but there will be plenty more as the time passess if we're able to sustain our current workflow!;)

At the moment Woohoo! is quite featureless but for it is hundreds times more fun to make the game this way when you can actually play it in such an early stage:p

[BitPuffin]

Nice!  

I'm looking forward to see what will be made out of this game.
Might even throw down the $5 for the game when i've bought some other stuff

btw, i love that you can play it on linux.