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A jam submission

RaceBlades!View game page

Race your car to the finish line and transform into a spinning blade!

Submitted by Kieran (K-Embee) — 5 days, 10 hours before the deadline

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RaceBlades!'s itch.io page

Results

Criteria	Rank	Score*	Raw Score
Visuals	#809	3.645	3.645
Audio	#1198	3.032	3.032
Enjoyment	#1244	3.097	3.097
Overall	#1253	3.226	3.226
Seriousness	#1538	3.194	3.194
Creativity & Theme	#1619	3.161	3.161

Ranked from 31 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Game Engine

Godot

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Comments

Incognito_UserSubmitted78 days ago (1 edit)

I'm wondering how any of you made it past the third level. I read here that you're supposed to go into the boss fight with at least 8000 RPM, but I probably gave it about half an hour and at least 50 attempts and was still only able to come in with 7200 RPM at most. But even then, I feel like it wouldn't have been a problem if you had more control over your blade. The blade fights felt really unfair because it seemed like any input I made with my cursor weren't responsive enough, and any dashing movements would constantly overshoot. This was especially apparent for the Titan Blade, which had a tiny arena that was very easy to fall out of and a huge profile that was hard to maneuver past. It also did so much damage that if you so much as touched it (which was very easy to do given the above), you would lose hundreds of RPM instantly, pretty much guaranteeing you a game over with the slightest mistake.

I really wanted to finish the game, but I couldn't. Am I missing something?

Submitted

Kieran (K-Embee)Developer78 days ago

Am I missing something?

7200 is very low to be coming into the boss fight with, and the only way I could get that low is by finishing in the wrong gear. Keep in mind that most of your RPM for the blade battles comes from the RPM at the end of the race, i.e. how high the tachometer dial was, with gear and time bonuses being minor in comparison.

Stage 3 is a little counter-intuitive in that you should almost always be finishing in 4th gear instead of 5th gear, getting your last upshift in after the bridge and just before the final corner. This is because the final straight is too short to build up enough RPM in fifth gear, you might get more gear bonus (1600 in 4th VS 2500 in 5th), but you're throwing away an easy redline in 4th (7000+ RPM) for a very mediocre finish in 5th (~4000 RPM).

The blade fights felt really unfair because it seemed like any input I made with my cursor weren't responsive enough, and any dashing movements would constantly overshoot.

The blades will follow their inertia and the contour of the bowl more than anything else, any non-dash movements will make relatively minor differences. And, unless you're attacking, a dash is best used perpendicular to the bowl's radius to be able to pick up speed and orbit around the bowl. If you dash directly towards or away from the centre, you're either going to overshoot or just rock back and forth as an easy target. And for the record, the NPCs use the exact same movement behaviour and physics with a virtual cursor, so you're on an even playing field in that regard.

I really wanted to finish the game, but I couldn't.

Let me know if you manage to finish the game, or at least beat Titan Blade, after reading this!!

Incognito_UserSubmitted77 days ago(+1)

OHHHH that explains a lot, thank you so much! I didn't realize that most of the RPM was actually from your tachometer and not from the time bonus, so I was frustrated when I grinded really hard to get my time down a few seconds for only a marginal increase in RPM. I also didn't realize that the contour of the bowl had such a big effect, which probably explained why I was losing (I kept trying to stay in the center). Finally finished the Max Blade with your tips!

FrozenOrangeSubmitted78 days ago

I found both parts of this game enjoyable. Good job on the car audio. I was able to shift off of just listening which is good attention to detail. The bey blade fights were a bit hard. I didn't feel like I had much control of the beyblade without dash/attack. Overall very fun.

Submitted

Momentum Driver

newexpSubmitted79 days ago(+1)

I really like the driving segments in the game. It reminded me of the drag races I used to play in Need for Speed and it was fun trying to time the engine right. As for the blade section, I do think it is a bit difficult to try and take the enemy down so maybe more actions can be implemented to give the player more ability to take down the enemy. But overall, this was nice!

Submitted

Kittyking101Submitted80 days ago(+1)

The driving game is well balanced, though learning how to slow down required some extra reading.
The first couple of spinning blade games can be won by avoiding the other spinner, so I found it was too passive.
The art/music/SFX made this feel like a complete experience, and I liked the hand-drawn aesthetic.
There is certainly room for something to connect the two games together in some way.
A bit of storytelling would help sell the experience of being a professional spinner.
Both games connect well with the theme.
Driving is serious.

Great job!

Submitted

Kittyking's Spiderling

Quest Friends!Submitted80 days ago(+1)

The mountainside is littered with the corpses of dozens of cars and beyblades. This game is hard.

I love the idea of performance in one game influencing the other! I think there's a strong mechanical link, but I would've liked if there was more of an explicit thematic one, as well (e.g. the blades are the wheels of the car). It could also get frustrating when I was dealing with a difficult boss fight, so I had to go back and replay a level that was already challenging enough just to beat. It works, but I wonder if a more free-flowing setup race stage (similar to Kirby Air Ride's City Trial) would've worked better for me.

Submitted

Booker's Breakout

Kieran (K-Embee)Developer80 days ago(+1)

One of the things I wish I had time to implement but had to end up scrapping were little cutscenes between the race and blade phases where the enemy would appear and the player's car would transform into the blade, just to give it that extra bit of narrative connectivity. Like the player's car slamming on the brakes and drifting off-road into the arena to fight Grey Blade, or Titan Blade dropping out of the sky like a meteor and blowing a crater in the middle of the road.

RemmerSubmitted81 days ago

Big fan of the art style for this game, but I found the controls a bit confusing. Fun game though!

Submitted

Faraz The Web GuySubmitted81 days ago

Love the art style!

Submitted

Windmill Defense

Clink_Y99Submitted81 days ago(+1)

Alright no offense but this feels like a racing simulator with a bayblade battle tacked onto it. Does this mean that either are a bad game, no just that its a little disconnected. The art style for this game is amazing and the music and sfx definitely fit. I personally preferred the racing and I personally think it might have been better to just focus on the racing part to add more levels and polish it more.

Saying this, I did really enjoy the game and it had a really fun and cute art style!

Submitted

The Legend of Beyble

DatSnappyBoiSubmitted82 days ago

That was quite fun! the art is endearing and the music fits well but I didn't feel like the bayblade part was really connected to the racing part, it felt like playing 2 games at the same time :P

Personally I liked the racing better so at the end of the races when I had to do a bayblade bit I was like mehhh

Still great fun though! (I'll be looking out for a racing exclusive version :p)

Submitted

Honse 3 The Joust!

Invicta_FortisSubmitted82 days ago

Car go brrrrrr. Nice game, interesting mechanics, also bayblade battle. Good submission

Submitted

ArgentumixSubmitted82 days ago

Absolutely charming artstyle!

Submitted

PoitraSubmitted82 days ago

I found the fact that it combined two mechanics really great and that it was fun to play. The only problem was kind of the difficulty of the blades fight but i think it was because of my poor driving skills here..

Submitted

Kieran (K-Embee)Developer82 days ago (1 edit)

Glad you enjoyed the game!! The last couple of blade fights are supposed to be pretty hard since they have unique patterns that need to be exploited to be beaten, but you should be coming into them at 8000-10000 RPM. During playtesting, facing the same boss when you're starting 7000 vs 11000 RPM was a night and day difference in the difficulty, mostly in how many mistakes you can afford to make.

CLAYMORE_DEVSubmitted83 days ago

I found the controls a little weird, but I liked the overall theme and style.

Submitted

Kevin HorkaewSubmitted83 days ago(+1)

I enjoyed the game! Took some time to get the hang of what the control is asking of me, but kept me really engaged.

I think the audio might be a tad bit too loud. I wish there was an in-game audio control/setting.

Otherwise, great job! I can see myself coming back and play this.

Submitted

Teach a Man to Fish

Kieran (K-Embee)Developer82 days ago(+1)

Thanks! Glad you found the mechanics engaging, and I hope the tutorial was clear enough on explaining it.

Audio sliders is one of those things I knew I should add, but ran out of time since I was still wrapping up the stages and NPC behaviour on the last day. Playing through more jam games, I'm definitely missing that little extra bit of polish and flair that some of them have, but I'm glad I got this far anyway.

Kevin HorkaewSubmitted82 days ago(+1)

Yes! You finish something and got it submitted, that’s what really counts!

Zelders56Submitted83 days ago

Cool idea, the art style was great! the car UI was really well done and immersive!

Submitted

undoaholicSubmitted84 days ago

Loved the game and the art style. Great job!

Submitted

Dungeon Spinner

PangbotSubmitted84 days ago(+1)

Really nice hand-drawn artstyle for the backgrounds. It was a little odd having two different games in one, but that's not to say I didn't enjoy them. But jeez, the Titan and the Max fights were tough! I wish I could've dodged while charging a shot (like the AI could), but got my win in the end. Nice job!

Metagame cog 34/125

Submitted

Ruler_Shooter_DevSubmitted84 days ago(+1)

I really really liked the art style and the game paly was good well done!

Submitted

Sam The Serious Safety Inspector

Sc4rchaSubmitted84 days ago(+1)

Very fun game. I imagined a crackhead running around in his car looking for new challengers to beat up with his beyblade. Also lovely artstyle!

Submitted