TIGSource Forums

Finished game at supercheffing.com/publictransit.zip (http://supercheffing.com/publictransit.zip)
(http://supercheffing.com/kptscreen1.png)

(http://supercheffing.com/kptscreen2.png)
original post:
In King of Public Transit, you play as a guy with a bunch of jerk friends that love making you run errands for them.  They want you to go buy them a book or some bananas, then meet them for lunch at a cafe.  And the cafe and the book store are on opposite sides of town.  And they show up 30 minutes late for lunch, then make you pay.  And you just happen to be a slow walker, so you better take the bus or the subway if you want to get there on time.

http://supercheffing.com/mockup.png (http://supercheffing.com/mockup.png)
Street, bus, and protagonist.  Not crazy about the face or the pompadour yet.

http://supercheffing.com/mockup2.png (http://supercheffing.com/mockup2.png)
Subway station (wip)

It's a mix between Animal Crossing and inverse Crazy Taxi, with a bit of River City Ransom minus the chains thrown in for good measure.  What's procedural?  The game map (streets/locations), bus and train schedules, missions, character names, and random encounters (procedural encounters?).

I'm at the point where I've done enough to start a topic, so maybe this'll give me the motivation to finish it.  Feedback on the art and concept is appreciated!

Best game description award  :P

Loving the art. Game sounds good too!

Thanks, moi and haowan!  I'm glad you like the art, because it's all I have to show at this point :P

(http://supercheffing.com/charwalk.gif)

Just finished my walk animation.  I'm still not crazy about it, but it will do for now.  I need to start coding!  Hopefully I will get character movement, street generation, and the clock done tonight.  It shouldn't be too tough.

The game looks great so far, and it sounds like it can become a really good game! If you manage to pull it of as a fairly tight game I'll be impressed, and if you do you'll be set for awesomeness.

I want to make a store siiign! :P

Have at it, Hideous!  You can even make several if you want :P
The dimensions are 138x30.  I've been giving them a black 1px border, but if something else looks better to you, go ahead.  I'd just like to keep those dimensions for the procedural stuff.

If anyone else wants to do a sign, you're more than welcome.  It'd look great if they came from a bunch of different sources.

Thanks for the feedback, Dacke.  This awesomeness sounds enticing.

Yesterday I got movement and street generation coded.  Today I'll just keep chipping away.  Hopefully I'll have a video or demo or something later tonight/tomorrow.  Getting started coding is always the hardest part for me, but after that, I have trouble stopping ::)

(http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8493/gothstuffww5.png) (http://imageshack.us)

Bwahaha.

(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x197/haowan/shopsign.png)

MS Paint is hard to use with a laptop touchpad.

(http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/7408/moneylaundrygl3.png)

Those billboards look awesome. The game sounds great as well. Will you have (somehow) randomly generated funny dialoge?

Our concern, your death.  ^^

(http://nsa02.casimages.com/img/2008/05/30/0805300913523476219.png)

  O_o

(http://nsa02.casimages.com/img/2008/05/30/0805301140133477000.png)

(http://www.nurykabe.com/stockage/temp/sign01.png)

(http://www.nurykabe.com/stockage/temp/sign02.png)

A tribute to DEMOLITION MAN...

(http://nsa02.casimages.com/img/2008/05/30/0805300252203478344.png)

^^

(http://nsa02.casimages.com/img/2008/05/30/0805300358103478872.png)

Wow, everyone, thanks for the signs!  I never expected this many :-*
I've never seen Demolition Man.  It sounds funny from IMDb; I might have to rent it.  Nurykabe, that lettering is awesome.  Did you do that by hand?

I didn't have as much time as I would have liked last night to work on this, but I still made some progress.  I should still be on schedule for a tech demo release today.  I want to code buses first, which shouldn't be terrribly difficult.

I'd love to, but I don't know if I'll be able to pull it off in the time left.  I'd like to try to get the gameplay solid first, because I think it will require quite a bit of balancing.

Keep the signs coming!  Also, if anyone has neighborhood name suggestions, I'd love to put them in the generator.  Right now I only have Stockholm, Red Hook, and Orleans.

Little Andorra, Jellydonut, Hoboken. Whatever :P

Are the signs gonna be random on the stores?

Here's a sign I made, for some non-descript budget shop. (Attached)

Hope you can make the game fun! Or is that not the idea?

LOL those signs could have been PGC

heh heh ehhhhhhhh

Dig that user participation vibe.

(http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/482/ninoshopve1.png)

(http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/6186/signsverycheapqr9.png) (http://imageshack.us)

This is the first time I have actually drawn something, enjoy.

(http://apu.mabul.org/up/apu/2008/05/31/img-101544vs52h.png)

yes, thank you.  :)

(http://www.nurykabe.com/stockage/temp/sign03.png)

Wanted to get this posted last night, but life's been hectic.  I guess that shouldn't surprise me, though.  Always gets that way around deadlines :P

http://supercheffing.com/techdemo.zip (http://supercheffing.com/techdemo.zip)
That's the tech demo.  You can walk around, go from neighborhood to neighborhood (there are three), and ride the bus.  There isn't any gameplay yet; rather, I'd like some feedback on how moving around feels.  How's the walk speed?  How are the buses? Did it occupy you for thirty seconds or ten minutes? etc, etc.  I'm already pretty sure I don't like moving from city to city (walk to the far left or right), so that will probably get changed.  Anything else, please let me know.  I've never coded anything this complex before ::)

Also, just to think about while you're playing, the game will have three different mission types.  The first, easy, will be to deliver a message for someone.  This isn't timed.  The second is to meet someone at a specific place at a specific time (medium).  The third is to pick up an item for someone, then meet them at a specific place and time (hard).  If you can try to imagine yourself doing this to see if these seem like plausible goals as the game stands and give me some feedback, it would be greatly appreciated.

I love these signs :P  raoul_slayer, as much as I wanted to, I didn't include the Windows sign or the Mario sign because I am deathly afraid of copyright infringements.  I should have mentioned this; sorry.  Evil-Ville, I didn't include yours either, because I didn't think it really fit in with the game, and I have no idea what they would sell.  Thanks so much for putting in the time to make it, though - all of them were pretty flattering.

I'm borderline rambling, so I'm going to have breakfast now, and then code missions.  I hope you enjoy!

hu, I'm testing the game, I like it so far.
(i'm really waiting to see the encounters btw)

(http://www.nurykabe.com/stockage/temp/sign04.png)

(http://www.nurykabe.com/stockage/temp/sign05.png)

Bahaha, I spent 10 minutes just looking out for my signs. It was awesome.



Also Hoboken is a reference to Mafia, if you didn't catch that.

(http://nsa02.casimages.com/img/2008/05/31/080531071212.png)

I just noticed this post and had to make this sign for an
Icecream store ;D. Plz tell me it's not too late for this sign.

I also hope it's not too late to add an ad

(http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj200/increpatio/ad-1.png)

How's this?

(http://distractionware.com/junk/randompictures/infocenter.png)

(blown up)

(http://distractionware.com/junk/randompictures/infocenter.png)

:)

Hideous, I've never played Mafia, so I had no idea  :P

Nurykabe and raoul, thanks for the new signs!  You've both done a bunch :o
Nurykabe, I hope I have time to get the encounters coded, because I'm excited about them too.  I doubt they're what you're expecting, though ;)

Ipsofonic, it's not too late for signs, but the dimensions need to be 138 by 30.  Also, could you save as a png or gif?  Jpeg compression doesn't play nicely with pixel art - if you look closely, your yellow background is really lots of different shades of yellow.  Other formats don't do that.

Increpare, thanks!  I love the colors and the lettering for 'flesh-coloured'.  Very cool.

Terry, thanks as well!  I don't understand the joke, though :-[ Does anyone mind explaining?

Still working on missions.  I hope to have the easy-difficulty ones implemented tonight.  I hope the game can live up to all these signs.  Might have to hold a Best Sign competition :)

I thought it was a district in new-york.

Notice, if you will, that 'the' is slightly lighter than 'of', and 'shop' is slightly darker than 'flesh-coloured'.  "Why?" I hear you ask.  Well, because the inkdropper tool in Pixen doesn't seem to be entirely accurate  >:(

It's an in-joke.  I don't have the energy to go searching for the link for the first reference (youtube-related I think), but I'm sure someone else will help you out.

This is not a problem, I thank you to have to use the others  :)


Toilet paper replaced by "three seashells", a concept unexplained in the film.

If you want to know the truth :

http://www.dailymotion.com/raoul_slayer/video/9446554 (http://www.dailymotion.com/raoul_slayer/video/9446554)

Have fun ^^

(http://nsa02.casimages.com/img/2008/06/01/080601073742.png)

(http://nsa02.casimages.com/img/2008/06/01/080601084618.png)

This took a while to make, as I couldn't find a dropper tool or a "flip" tool.

Might be that too. I have no idea. Never been to New York.

Generic Italian Restaurant to the rescue!

raoul, Chief Emu, Robson, Hideous, thanks a lot!  That makes the in-game store total 25, and I still have a few I want to make as well.  The city looks really great.

I feel like I'm in the home stretch now!  I just finished coding the deliver-message missions, so now I'm going to do the other two types.  Hopefully I'll get random encounters done today too (shouldn't be too hard).  After that, it's just balancing, adding in more proceduralness, and then entering it Monday 'round about midnight.

This has been the most fun I've ever had developing a game.  You guys are awesome.

Hey, I had a pretty fun time making those signs. Thanks for giving me the oportunity and crediting me for it!

Thanks, it's been really fun making signs too. ;D

Also city names if you need them:
Ulrichport
Grenville
Shelbyville
Springfield

You can download King of Public Transit at supercheffing.com/publictransit.zip (http://supercheffing.com/publictransit.zip).

I feel pretty good about how far I got.  I wanted to add more signs, music, and another mission type and test it a LOT more, but I guess that's what I get for starting something so ambitious (for me) so late ::)

Thanks again for all your help, everyone.  Couldn't have done it without you.

I hope you enjoy!

Hehe, that was funny. Could REALLY use a few sounds and maybe a fun tune. I like all the signs and the odd random encounters and what messages they ask me to deliver. :P

Lol, I got to get me one of those t-shirts with that printed on it!  ;D

Sound's at the top of my list after a bug fix I'm working on.  I wanted to get at least a footstep sound in before releasing, but the timing was messed up so it sounded more like drums, and I was exhausted by that point and didn't feel like messing with it anymore :P
As for music, know any composers?  When I try to add music, I usually make things sound worse, especially when I can just play to Last.fm.

I'm glad it made you laugh!  That made my day.  I'll try to put some sounds and stuff in tomorrow.

I missed my stop and got lost.  :'(

Feels like public transport to me.  :D

You know, if you want to add more signs and sounds and stuff, there's nothing to stop you from working on it after the contest ;D


Also, you've got my vote.

I just downloaded it, I'll give my opinion in a mo'.

Today I tried to fix a pretty nasty bug that was brought to my attention.  You can download the fix at the same location (http://supercheffing.com/publictransit.zip (http://supercheffing.com/publictransit.zip)).  Sometimes the game wouldn't realize that you had an errand at a location, even if you were standing right in front of it.  I messed around with it for an hour or two, but decided it would be better if you could just skip missions altogether.  Now you can skip missions from the mail screen for $1, because everyone knows email applications charge you if you don't do something :)

I also added two signs.  There are now 27.  My quest to hit 33 continues tomorrow!


I usually study bus/train/street maps for about an hour before I go anywhere :P
I really wanted to add maps, but SDL doesn't really have drawing support like I wanted.  Maybe next time.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.  Sorry if you ran into the bug, and I hope this fix makes it a bit more enjoyable.

Wasn't too fond of getting to a location and then it refusing to let you in the door. :) Interesting game, the signs are pretty fun to read as you are strolling by (didn't know the stage well enough to use transportation at first).

I do love the wrestling with a tiger bit... for $2.

Confused, I stopped the bus in front of the funeral home, got a mission to deliver a message there.. but no action available in front? Are there multiple of a store front..?
And for some reason I like the aesthetic of this game. I know it's simple but.. it's nice?

That bug keeps coming back to haunt me :(
It shouldn't happen (obviously), and the only way to get around it is to skip the mission, unfortunately.  Sometimes there are multiples of a storefront, yeah, in which case the location furthest east will be the correct one.  Again, shouldn't happen, but I got burnt out and couldn't make myself draw any more signs.

Sorry it's broken, everyone!  It's a result of me biting off more than I could chew in a week and not being very experienced at C++.  I had to spend a bit too much time saying, "Why doesn't this work?  It works like this in Java!" :-\

I'd love to revisit this concept post-compo and have some time to polish it up because I still really like the idea.  I need to do something new first, though.  Don't feel like riding any more buses :P


That makes me very happy.  Thanks!  I love big, flat colors and simple shapes.  Glad to know someone appreciates it.


I think the signs are my favorite part.  It was great to see a street with the same three buildings over and over turn into something that feels like a real street with just a few lines of code.  Made me think about procedural content a whole lot more.  The possibilities are quite endless!

The basic idea was much funner than it should be! I too got annoyed when I went to a Goth Store right on time, waited for 5 minutes with no event, wandered on bewildered only to find another Goth Store two shops away.

Banal game mechanics turning out to be fun + street walkin' / shop interactin' reminds me of Shenmue!

This makes me imagine a gigantic Tigsource PG game with dozens of people contributing  8)

Love the concept.  With some sound, a bit more variety in the shops and perhaps a map to give you some idea where things are located I think it could be very entertaining!
Cheers,
--Zack