This is a rough build, but we're on track to finish up in about a week more of development. This is designed as a web game. The main mode will be a timed scoring optimization exercise. Currently there are a few problems, one of which is performance. Still! We'd love to hear any feedback on the controls, what's fun for you, etc.
Web Version: http://www.flashbangstudios.com/tests/raptorpreview/And a
standalone build (please play the web player first, though, and then this if performance is too assy):
Any and all feedback welcome! Hit us up. What was the coolest thing you did? The most frustrating? What do you wish you could do?
I didn't play the web version (some plugin required, I don't know); the standalone one seemed to perform okay (but I guess 1/20 raptors will do that). It did seem to lag for a few seconds one time during a 'round', when I was spiking a raptor, but perhaps that was a fluke.
Here's a big disorganized list of thoughts had while playing:
* The length of one round is probably too long; to really get players hooked to a high score game I think you need to give them a reasonably quick cycle of feedback. Although there also doesn't seem to be a high score table or anything yet, so I'm not sure how it'll feel when it's done.
* There's no time-reward for good performance also, which makes the timer countdown feel like the frustrating inevitability of a game demo, where it's not really a part of the game and you're supposed to want to pay someone to make it go away. If I had much less time to begin with, but got 'time bonuses' for scoring well, I think the overall game would feel a lot more satisfying.
* The way the car controls feels really odd
* The points seem to be weighted such that the only 'real' rewarded action is killing raptors and delivering them to the base? But stuff like jumping or riding on two wheels is actually about as fun, so I think that could be rewarded more significantly as well.
* As mentioned, the game is creepy! There's no motivation, no threat, just a situational implication that the player should go kill the raptors, and then a point-reward for doing so. Even if you're not going to make the raptors aggressive, I would try to give some explanation for why the player is out there killing raptors. I don't expect anything serious, but you could have a lot of fun with something really over-the-top cheesy. It would fit well with the name and aesthetic too.
* The slow mo is satisfying but it's still lacking a little bit of *something* when you score points, and I think doing something with the sound effects when the player gets points would really add to the experience. Perhaps a cheesy announcer voice would work, and would not be too hard to add.
* In general the sound effects are very 'gentle' -- for example, if I land a crazy jump from off a hill by ramming a tree, I still just get this dinky clank -- and this isn't as satisfying as it could be. The game has a lot of the raw redneck appeal of a demolition derby, and I think more satisfying, crunchy sound effects could add a lot to that side of it. (BurnOut-like car destruction would also add a lot, but is presumably beyond the 'scope' of this project)
* The level of draw-in for plants is very noticeable and I think most computers could render quite a bit more than that. Have you tried doing any LOD stuff? Or perhaps adjusting that draw distance outward if you notice the computer isn't having any trouble drawing what you give it?
* It seems like fog is being used on the mountains (hills?) to make them fade away to white, but up against a blue sky it doesn't disguise the limited draw distance at all, and just looks kind of strange, like the hills are foggy but the rest of the world isn't. It also looks pretty funny when the mountains are clipped because just slight turning can dramatically change their shape at this point (as the intersection between the draw plane and the landscape changes). I would try to push the zfar plane out far enough that the mountains are just never actually clipped. Actually, you could do this without extending the draw distance too much, if you could intelligently clip beyond the 'top' of the hill ...
* I think I managed to run in to an invisible wall at the top of some hills; it seems the terrain is randomly generated so it would be good to, er, not have an invisible wall, or at least to push it further out and make the mountains steep enough nearby so that the player can't reach it.
* Trees on steep hills don't always have their entire base within the hill; they sort of float half-lodged in the hill.
* When doing a long jump from a hill, the game sometimes decides to move the camera under the car so all I can see is the car underbelly and the sky; it's disconcerting and perhaps the least interesting view for enjoying the jump.
* The game is very numbers-focused, in terms of listing rewards, but the way numbers are written, where "500" becomes "50 (large amount of blank space) 0," is disconcerting and actually makes me misread numbers at first glance.
* I do enjoy the category records (longest jump, etc) and enjoy thinking about how to do better in a given category, but the overall score seems basically superfluous. (Much shorter rounds and a high score table would help a lot with this!) Interestingly, this means the activity the game deems most worthy of reward, capturing raptors, is the least satisfying, since it has the least room for personal improvement in technique.
* The game has a very nice sandbox sort of appeal to it, but doesn't yet seem to have all that much in its sandbox. If you could think of more strange things to reward, it might add to the longevity of the experience. I noticed it doesn't seem possible to 'roll' the car, but rolling might be another fun thing to reward if you can tweak the physics model to allow it. (Counting the number of times the car has flipped in quick succession)
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