Spass Taxi
Hi
I have played the game for around 30min so far and I'm enjoying playing it
. After a few seconds I got used to the controls (not veteran mode though... finding it too difficult for now). There's a lot of good things but I'm assuming you want to hear what to improve on. So here's some feedback. Feel free to disagree
Thank you very much for checking it out and the feedback. Some things first:
The game is a remake/homage to the original Space Taxi and some gameplay (landing gear) or style (voices) is intentionally like it has been back in the old days.
Also the game is kinda in its endphase and already has more than enough complexity with all the level elements. I appreciate your ideas, though. I could probably put them on a list for Spaß Taxi II (that I'll do in 10 years or so ^^).
Note that this is an evening and weekends only project and I really need to do a hard cut somewhere considering the scope. All levels (currently 30) are hand designed (as I actally dislike generated stuff ^^) and each of it has its unique theme and mechanics. The first demo levels are a bit simple, of course to get the player accustomed to it, but if you check out the later levels, they differ a lot.
Gameplay
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- Autobalancing: I thought pressing the tab would get it immediately to horizontal, but it seems to go back to horizontal when moving, correct?
The autobalancing has been reduced multiple times as it often is more of an annoyance. Now it only brings you to the horizontal orientation after you don't rotate yourself for a few seconds and the angle isn't bigger than 45 degree.
I'm not using it at all. You have a button that you can press at any time to rotate back to normal. See the controls overview.
- Markers/Pointers at the edge of the screen might be better then just a zoomed render of the next passenger, especially if you would go for larger levels. Also when you get "Out please", at first I didn't know where to go. So perhaps a marker pointing to the exit might help.
Those closeups are just style, the levels are never supposed to scroll and whenever a passenger appears you have pretty obvious speech bubbles and also a blinking target indicator.
Mmh... you're the first to not notice the exit. It already has those particles and a sound. It also gets explicitly shown in the tutorial that you can play if you struggle to get everything right away.
- Tips given by customers. This diminishes over time, and the more you bump. Although I met something similar at a later stage but wasn't sure how much time I had. I like the drive slowly meter too.
The trophy bonus is actually from the company and not the passenger itself, but that is irrelevant info (said in the tutorial).
Bumping does not reduce the bonus directly. There is just one passenger who whants to go slow and also does not want to bump into anything. But crashing into stuff reduces your health, which is a reduction of your money at the same time, kind of.
- There's no sense of urgency. Perhaps because I'm still in the early levels. But perhaps if you take too long, another taxi comes in and goes away with your customer (goes out of the screen).
No urgency intended. ^^
You only lose points. And that is the only thing forcing you to be fast, precise, efficient (e.g. honking to make passengers move even before you land). You can either play it in your pace, just to see all levels (you can even pay to skip a level) or play it to be number one in the highscore list.
- I didn't see any collectables/powers up so far besides a money bag. Perhaps it's too early in the game. But you could have some difficult to reach powerups/crates. Like a shield, tougher body, double tips bonus for X seconds, speed boost for X seconds
No power ups.
The game is all about your driving skills and there are lots of obstacles like lasers, magnets, air currents, rockets, etc. later in the game. Some levels have difficult to reach bonus items and you need to fulfill all passenger tasks to open the bonus gate, that can also be at a difficult place in the level.
- I think you need a better level complete summary as it's not rewarding enough. E.g. Did the player miss any bonuses?
I don't really like those summary screens. They are just holding the flow. You are shown every bonus you get right when you get it and also know when you missed something right away. I don't think there is a need to tell you that again at the end of the level.
- Did you think about having multiple customers in the taxi (up to 3 or 4). Also sometimes you could have a couple or family to pick up. The idea is that you would need to be efficient in how you pick up the customers vis-a-vis your fuel and time bonuses. Right now it feels too linear without choice. You pick up a customer and have to go to another point, wait for him to vanish, then you get another customer. I think the player needs to have more choice so that he can balance risk/reward.
That is more like Taxi Simulator 2019. ^^
There are levels where you already need to be careful with the fuel and need to know whether to grab the bonus item first or get the passenger first. You also get better after knowing the levels, so there is a learning effect that is nice. I tried to reduce the randomness a lot to achieve that and let the highscore have an actual meaning.
Usability
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- Landing gear should auto-deploy automatically? I found myself leaving them always deployed. Is there any advantage with them retracted?
No, landing gear should totally be manual. If you have it extended you start to rotate when flying sideways. I even added that effect back in the casual mode as I previously disabled it for that mode.
It is a game element like spiders that hurt you just by touching them. ^^
- Not sure how to get into veteran mode (ah ok... found it in main menu but in in-game settings). Veteran mode is tough but I like that there's this option
Yeah, that was the only mode in the beginning. It feels a lot more awesome than the casual mode after you master it.
Audio
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- The robotic voices do not fit since they don't seem like androids but humans.
Those are not robotic but bad quality. It's intentional to be close to how it was in the original.
- The music is too mallow. I would have thought it would be more action oriented somehow
Music is a placeholder.
Theme/Visuals
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- After seeing the taxi style, I thought I would see some kind of blade runner neon-lighted city scapes. You could keep the same level structure but have floating buildings and what not. Have you considered slightly bigger maps so it feels navigating in a city? Then you could add some things to get the environment feel more alive, like birds (which you could bump into), funny adverts on buildings, etc.
Like the original, the levels are one screen. As the navigation is a main part, it would be a problem to not see the whole thing all the time. Pointers do not help here, either.
In the beginning I thought I would commission an artist for the stuff later, but I like the style as it is now as I think it has its own charme that would also kinda get lost if I replace it with the usual polished level art.
I think I will have a graphical polishing phase in the end where I might add some more details etc.
- The warping texture in the background is distracting. And the dark blue cloudy sky somehow looks off. I see there's something darkening it. But perhaps a cloudy sky is not the right background?
Mmh... people seem to like it. There are different backgrounds for the different level styles. You can also turn it off in the options. You should always have lots of options.
- Persistence. When you kill someone, his body should remain lying there, or calling for help. An ambulance could later come for him (it adds to the liveliness of the scenery). Also having them disappear into particles when a customer is given a lift doesn't make much sense.It's a cool effect mind you, but there's a disconnect with what has happened. If you go with a city scenery, you could perhaps see them enter some door or something similar. Also persistence should be applied to the taxi when bumping, like broken glass, hood dented, etc. I know it's a lot of work artistically speaking, but it pays off.
lol
Polishing
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- Have you thought about dynamic lighting? This would tie in nicely with a neon-light city scape
Not much neon-light city scape intended. ^^
But I have thought about some lightings with street lanterns etc. like your light blobs. Might think about it in the polishing phase a bit more.
- Reactions from passengers would be cool when crashing here and there, something like "Hey look out", "Watch it!", "Are you blind?", "Who gave you the space driving license". I saw something similar but they sounded too passive (Or perhaps the robotic voice overs where putting it off). You could have personas associated with the characters so it would customize the reactions accordingly.
There are ALWAYS details to add. Reactions would probably be cool. Like a reaction from your woman when you through her around.
- Have you thought about why people would share screenshots / videos of your game? Adding some kind of "character" to the currently static characters might give it some charm, e.g. some could be smoking, others texting, etc. Also do you have a character in mind for the taxi driver? He could be featured in the graphics, so the player associates with him. I know he is not visible during the game, but it makes a difference. Also, when completing the level he could re-appear with a thumbs up and level complete summary, or when you do a gameover he appear bashed up during the game over summary.
They have SOME character. The loading screen (that is totally optional and fake, but as my game is a bit more complex I needed a place to show some hints that players would otherwise NEVER read in the manual ^^) shows it with a little story. They have different chances for wanting to go slow, fast, vomit etc.
Tech question: Is your highscore system an online one? What are you using as a backend?
Yes, it is online. I'm using PHP with MySQL.
Hey, that was a lot of text, thank you!
I hope that you will revisit it when I launch it in 1-2 months. Hopefully. XD
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