Thank you very much!
I've been thinking the same about skipping the menus and go straight to the next race. So I went ahead and made it possible.
About the skyboxes: you're right. But sprite/art work is my least favourite thing. 馃槅 But I'll do my best!
Next update will be in a couple of days. Lightning struck somewhere and now we don't have internet. Just 4G on our phone.
Hello Bizarre Creative,
Thank you very much! I really appreciate the gesture.
I'll email you tomorrow with all the answers. It has been a busy day and I finally tackled an issue that no one seemed to care about, except you, me and my 10-years old nephew: the other cars doing wheelies.
I'm from Tremelo, Vlaams-Brabant, Belgium by the way.
Hello Robert,
My name is Yves by the way, but you probably knew already.
To answer your questions:
- I actually wanted to prove myself that I could make a racing game inspired by (Turbo) Outrun and Super Hang-On. But because I'm not an artist, I simply wanted to use those games' sprites as placeholders, until someone would make custom sprites for me. Oh, and I wanted to create a game that I would enjoy. Something with an in-depth damage system and a realistic handling model, without the grinding of Super Hang-On's original mode on the Genesis.
Once finished, I indeed wanted to sell it on Steam, but with a different name. However, if I could pitch it to Sega, why not. As long as it's still my little project. I'm just a one man's team with hardly any programming skills and I have to keep my guards so the project wouldn't become too big.
- About the pixel size: I like the esthetics of 80's Overdrive. Perhaps we can use that game as a reference?
- The large checkpoint banners are certainly possible.
- I'm working on the branching road already. At this stage it's possible to split the road in 2, but both sides still follow the same corners. That's the next challenge, after I can change the height of both sides independently.
- Career and arcade modes: I like the idea of having these two modes, although it will be quite a bit of work to separate these two modes. Perhaps the arcade mode can have the branching paths? For the career mode: instead of using currency, I prefer the idea of doing the repairs/upgrades within a time limit. I would also like to give the player the choice between a male and a female driver.
I'm looking forward to seeing some images of a pixelated 3d model!
Best regards.
Hello Robert,
It took a while to respond. It's been a busy week and I needed some time to think about answers, while working late on the branching road.
- Unity vs Unreal: I've chosen Unity for its accessability/low learning curve. It takes some time for me to get familiar with a new platform. It even took me years to get to the point where I am now, and it's probably going to take me quite some time (months?) to just refactor everything to Unreal. If I know myself, I'm probably going to abandon the project if I try this, like I did with my other projects that grew over my head in the past.
- I'm a really big fan of the esthetics of 80's Overdrive. Bright and colorful, all sprite based, looks like Outrun, ... There's another game on Itch.io (Max Downforce) that uses 3d car models. It works for a still image, but in motion it doesn't click with me. I like the choppy animation of the sprites when you see an AI car going around a corner, although it's a lot more cumbersome to program. (But I already did the programming, so meh.) But I like the idea of using 3d models and make images in different angles of them.
Police and radar: yes, I've been thinking about that for quite some time. The police shouldn't be too annoying, but annoying enough to motivate you to get the radar stuff. Perhaps the radar stuff can be upgrades in my current parts system.
Then, what should be the speed limit? It shouldn't be too low, because that's the speed traffic should drive. The lower, the more difficult the game will be. I've been experimenting with a speed limit and a limit between 220 and 260 kph works well (which is absurd in reality ofcourse.) This speed limit will probably stay in my next update.
I also want the police to chase your opponent if he's ahead of you, to make things fair, giving the winning driver a disadvantage, just like in Test Drive 2: the Duel.
- Railway crossings: cool idea!
- Countries, landmarks and seasons: sounds great! It sounds a bit like Outrunners.
- About the gray boxes/placeholders: it depends on the objects. Perhaps some combinations and patterns work better than other's, but my system is pretty modular. It's always possible to move objects.
- Speaking of modularity: each corner and each hill is created by a single line of code that's easily edited, or moved. One disadvantage: you have to restart the game each time you make a change to see the result. But perhaps I can make a track editor.
- Sprites and sprite sheets: at this point every object has its own sprite, but putting them all in a single sheet per country for example shouldn't be much of a problem. Right now the naming is like O_tree, where O stands for Outrun, TO for Turbo Outrun CSM for custom and so on...
- Publishers, Kickstarter, ...: OK, as long as the code is pretty much finished, or at least in a state that there aren't any programming challenges any more.
- Good idea about a contract and bank account!
- About the royalty free music: good idea, but I'm going to make it in a way that the music is easily replaceable by the user.
Meanwhile I'm going to continue working on the branching road!
Sorry for the delay, I saw your post and started writing and I was almost done then left it and shut down my computer.
The next day I realised I lost it all and was too busy to type it out again.
Anyhow that's ok Unity will be more than enough to do the job.
I thought you would like 80's Overdrive, Yes Max Downforce runs really smooth and has 100% the pixel look.
I have some inspirational music for you to listen to play the game and listen to the tracks.
I have set up a Dropbox send me an email and I will send you the link, so you can download and listen to them.
Yes, the sprite sheet per track sounds great this way we can ensure to apply a consistent look and again keep everything modular.
I think we should start setting goals on things to do, and meet up in 4 weeks.
For yourself, I would suggest
- Create the track editor, this enables us both to design them
- Work on the branching tracks
- Implement the large checkpoint banners for every checkpoint
- Add the large Goal banner with the crowd in the background
I will look at the following
- Develop UI wireframe
- Find more suitable fonts
- Create consistent menus
- Create in-game elements gauges, score, etc
- Obtain low poly 3D vehicles, I think we may be able to apply a pixel look or voxels.
I have also created a spreadsheet where I placed all the tasks, we can give the cell a green fill when complete.
This is in the Dropbox. robert.moyses@bizarrecreative.com
This should be enough for us to work on over the next 4 weeks, let me know what you think.
We can make it at the beginning or end of the month to make it a regular thing.
You do not have to have it complete but you are working on those things.
Best regards.
Thank you for your donation and feedback!
I'm going to try to dive into the world of Unity's new input system and I hope I can offer input customization and even wheel/pedal/h-shifter support in the future.
About the drifting: I've been thinking about if for quite some time, but there's no easy way to implement it. The drifting mechanism has to be compatible with the tire simulation, and it has to be easy to learn, but hard to master. Also, I don't want it to be mandatory to win the races, but rather a way to be slightly faster.
If I'm going to try implement it someday, it will probably something in between drifting and trailbraking.
Thank you for your reply. I feel that it could be done the way it was done in OutRun 2. Hit the brakes then gun the gas around a corner. However, you're the expert here on this one not me. I still can't stop playing it. It's so damn cool! Thank you again. OH! How many vehicles can be unlocked? I got the Countach and the Bike.
Bill
The problem is that it will become a bit too arcadey if you understand what I mean. Do you know the game Slipstream? It also have a drifting mechanism, but controlling the car is so vague that it becomes frustrating to me.
If I'm about to implement drifting, I want it to feel natural and predictable to me. I've been thinking about how I can achieve this all day, and I think I have an idea, but it's going to be a lot of work.
At this moment you've unlocked the only two vehicles, but there's a 3rd on the way: the Corvette ZR-1 that you race against with the bike.
And I guess I have to make more stages!
Oh, have you tried the manual transmission?
Thank you very much!
- Yes, the falling animation is horrible. I'm going to rewrite it in the future.
- At a certain point all Sega related images will be replaced with custom images. These images will be in a higher resolution, probably something like the game 80's Overdrive.
Thank you very much!
Yes, I'm going to work on new sceneries, although all sprites will probably replaced by custom made sprites somewhere in the future.
I'm glad you've enjoyed it!
I'm glad you liked it! And thank you for your feedback! Here are my thoughts about it:
other cars' shadows too wide...and extend up in the air a bit?
Yes, I've been struggling with the shadows in the past, but I'm probably going to use two shadow sprites that move when the angle of the car changes. That way it will look more natural.
- goes to car upgrade screen after you lose a race--then shows scores, then straight to title screen
You're supposed to repair your car after each race, whether you win, lose, or didn't finish. But I understand it's weird that you go to the title screen if you didn't finish. I've changed that. Now you only go to the title screen if you run out of lives.
- volume sliders don't actually lower volume
That's weird. They're supposed to work. But I'm going to throw out this option screen anyway and make a nice one that supports button control and no mouse. Maybe that will do the trick.
- sometimes can't adjust "AI cars volume" slider - "Skid volume" moves instead (oh I think you have that covered in your list in the OP : )
Yes, Unity is weird. The new options screen will fix that.
- other cars drive in wheelie position for long periods (ah Bizarre Creative noted this a while back)
It used to be worse when I used flat shadows instead of the sprites now. It will look better with the new shadow system. But yes, the system that calculates the angles of the other cars need some more fine tuning. However, I'm also stuck with the sprites that I have.
- can't use controller on options screen
True. The options screen was just a quick job.
- throttle is on a face button as well as a trigger, but brake is only trigger?
On a controller, only the right trigger should do the throttle, or on my old Logitech game pad: the right joystick. On a keyboard you have the choice between the up arrow button, or ctrl. It's weird that that face button works too.
- physics of cars being knocked off track are a little odd, they just kind of move sideways:
I'll try to rework them a bit.
- game makes my laptop fan crank even when left on the title screen
Maybe because it doesn't have a frame limiter? Not sure why that happens. I'm a driving instructor that happens to know how to program a bit. 馃槅
And one small suggestion:
- suggestion: let player skip animation of technicians after picking gear type
Yes, I totally understand. It's possible now, but I've made it one second shorter too.
Thanks to your video I also noticed some other flaws, like a misunderstanding in the parts screen. The minus sign is supposed to mean "worse", so "heat-" means "more heat". I've written it all out now.
And I'd like to point out why you can't always choose a branch in Outrun mode. The leader chooses the branch, so if your opponent leads, you have to follow. There is supposed to be an arrow to point that out, but I haven't implemented that yet.
I'm also thinking about writing a manual, because I don't like tutorials or long messages in an old school game. But I understand that the game is a little vague in some areas.
Oh and one last thing: the full manual mode doesn't actually make you faster. The automatic mode is actually the fastest because it shifts really quick and at a good rpm, and you don't have to manage your throttle and brake because of the traction control and abs. Manual is just harder and more spartan. 馃榿 Maybe I'll add an option to turn off traction control and abs with the automatic.
And I'd like to point out why you can't always choose a branch in Outrun mode. The leader chooses the branch, so if your opponent leads, you have to follow. There is supposed to be an arrow to point that out, but I haven't implemented that yet.
Oh! Getting sucked over to the other branch is pretty weird, also pretty jarring and makes it tough to stay on the road. In OutRun 2006, when you can only take one of the branches, the other is blocked off with big red arrow signs--that works pretty well. : )
Maybe because it doesn't have a frame limiter?
Yeah, that seems to be it. I set the frame limit to 60 using RivaTuner Statistics Server and that fixes it (and the weird shrill little shrieking sound my laptop was making when running it, too...that was probably bad ; D). Can't use RTSS when running it through Steam but I guess it still controls okay even without the Xbox analog input--and now I can have it as a taskbar shortcut and use the little icon I made for it. ^ _^
Oh yeah and now that I'm not running it through Steam Input--I'm using keyboard controls through Joy2Key--I'm reminded that without that Steam Input, the Throttle key doesn't work on the Car or Transmission select screens (or for skipping the pit crew animation after Transmission select in 0.3.5)--have to hit Enter instead, which is a unintuitive/inconvenient.
Oh and one last thing: the full manual mode doesn't actually make you faster. The automatic mode is actually the fastest because it shifts really quick and at a good rpm, and you don't have to manage your throttle and brake because of the traction control and abs.
Oh good, I really like automatic. : ^D I drove stick in real life but I don't seem to get along with it in OutRun, like even the 2-gear toggle shifting in the original OutRun just does my head in somehow, I suppose because the games are so fast and there's other stuff that seems a lot more critical to be thinking about! ^ _^
-- Upgrades screen bottom bar legend shows only Xbox buttons, not keyboard equivalents--and Francky doesn't always say them; so I got a bit confused trying to work out which keys to map to my controller for Select (Enter?) and Canceli (Backspace?), and then the key for overall Confirm Repairs (Space?)
True, and I've added keyboard buttons right before you've made this post. xD Not sure if I already uploaded that update.
-- I keep thinking it would be more intuitive if at the end of the top row of repair-type icons was an overall "make repairs" button to advance, which you could activate with the same button you use to activate any menu thing, usually
That's a great idea. I'll look into that and see if I can make that possible.
-- And then if you got some confirmation, like a brief "Car repaired/upgraded!" message across the screen or something, that might be hepful; there's no confirmation right now and it just goes right to the next thing (currently "Best OutRunners," which always seems to me like a Game Over type display), so I always think I somehow hit the wrong button and skipped out on the intended upgrades/repairs
Exactly. Someone suggested another (short) pit crew animation sequence. I'd like to do that while the clock ticks down and perhaps show you a list of the repairs/upgrades that are being executed.
-- Why not let Throttle/Brake keys & buttons also do Upgrades Select/Cancel? Turbo (in effect) does Confirm Repairs; anyway for me trying to map keyboard controls to the controller through Joy2Key, it feels confusing to have a new set of keys just for the Upgrades screen
I immediately binded those keys to the select and cancel commands, but I also immediately found out why that doesn't work. When using a keyboard, down = brake and down = also 'choose upgrade part'. If I bind down to select, you also choose the next upgrade at the same time. It would mess up the controls.
- 35:09 - was passed by motorcycle going REALLY fast, then just after they disappeared over the horizon, came across two odd little ~three-pixel-high marks left in that same lane
Yes, for some reason the flame sprite of the motorcycle doesn't deactivate when it goes off screen. I've been too lazy so far to fix this. Also, there are no flame sprites when you look at the motorcycle at an angle that is different from straight from behind. This damn motorcycle has slightly less than 30 sprites and I didn't feel like adding flames to every sprite, which are 2 flames per sprite and 3 flame sprites per motorcycle sprite. (2 x 3 x 30...)
- 35:27 - punched car through tunnel wall
Track limits are dynamically calculated, but I haven't found the courage yet to fine tune that track limit when that tunnel entry starts. (All this 3D stuff is calculated in-game by code instead of creating the mesh beforehand in a visual editor like 3DS Max.) That's why you can clip right through that wall.
- Knocked car off cliff in last race (40:13); they slide straight sideways, not down, then later were driving in space down there! = DD
Yeah, it needs some fine tuning to make it more believable. But that car is not supposed to be driving down there. xD Not sure why that car didn't stop.
- Cars still have shadows under them while in the air off the cliffs
I could turn off the shadow at the moment the fall down animation starts. Turning off the shadow of the Countach is a difficult task because it's part of the sprite and the artist of Chase HQ didn't provide visible wheels, so I would have to draw them myself.
- No CPU-driven Lamborghinis?
No, it doesn't look nice, because I haven't ripped all Countach sprites yet. (The ones angled up and down.) If I rip them all, I could add it to the CPU-driven cars.
- Get "GAME OVER" when lose race but still have lives remaining (then goes straight to Upgrades screen; would be a lot less confusing if got something like "X LIVES REMAINING..." instead of "GAME OVER" there)
Great idea!
- "Best OutRunners" screen is shown AFTER upgrades screen; it should probably be shown ONLY immediately after COMPLETING a race, BEFORE the upgrades screen, and probably shouldn't be shown at all if you're continuing (ie didn't finish but still have continues left). So maybe the scenarios could go something like:
--If win a race that isn't the final race: Name entry, Best OutRunners, Upgrades, next race
-- If win the final race (I haven't got this far so may be missing something!): Name entry, Best OutRunners, "GAME OVER," title screen
--If lose race but have lives left: "X LIVES REMAINING", Upgrades, repeat race
--If lose w/ no lives left: "GAME OVER," Best OutRunners, title screen
I'll look into it. I've put the Best Outrunners screen at the end because of the music. The congratulations music is also the parts music, so for me it's obvious that you immediately go to the parts screen right after you've finished the race. But perhaps I can show the Best Outrunners screen when the game is over, but then it should show the best times for all the races that you've done.
- Title screen says only "Turbo Outrun," not "Turbo Outrun Reimagined" (probably just an alpha thing, but it seems like something that might be a little confusing for people seeing the game for the first time, especially just in a video or something)
I know. I've been too lazy to at that. That picture of the car was already a pain in the ass to make it look right, without the American map behind it and the text that used to be in front of the car.
- (and I'm not sure if it can be changed at this point, but the itch page address is "outrun-clone" rather than "turbo-outrun-reimagined" or whatever, and the downloads are "Turbo Outrun clone.zip" rather than "turbo_outrun_reimagined_[version number].zip" or something)
I don't want to change the page address because it will probably break all the links to it. But yes, the file name is still the old name. It's easier for me to keep things clean in my folders if I don't change that. I could add the version number though.
- Standard practice would show the version number somewhere on the title screen as well, usually in a lower corner, or just below a corner of the title
Good idea!
- Suggestion (I suppose this is probably just an alpha thing ^ _^): EXIT/QUIT option on main menu, with "Are you sure you want to quit the game?" confirmation dialog--rather than instant exit via ESC key, which is kind of easy to do accidentally
Also good idea!
- I'd meant to play for just a few minutes this time, but somehow I did much better and my one Original mode game went 45 minutes = o; I may have to start limiting myself to one life or a few races ^ _^...at least until the OutRun mode is further along : D
Hah, I'm glad you enjoy it!
- The external framerate limiter might have been helping me do better somehow? But it (RivaTuner Statistics Server) also interferes with the OBS recording software in certain games, including this one, meaning I have to record my whole desktop instead of just the game, making for a slightly clunkier recording
I'll enable vsync in the next update. Perhaps that solves the problem.
Also, I've enjoyed watching your playthrough. And I've noticed some stuff and perhaps I can give you some tips.
First of all: I have no idea why the sun repeats itself in the first stage of the last race. It doesn't do that in the 2nd stage of the first race and it's the same damn sun.
The arrows next to the road indicates how sharp a corner is. The more arrows, the sharper the corner. 1 arrow = go flatout, 2 arrows = short brake, 3 or more arrows = long brake. The arrows are shown sooner if it's a sharp corner, so it gives you an idea when you have to brake, usually when you pass those arrows.
Sparks flying from your car means you have no brake material left. It's just metal to metal and it indicates that your stopping distance will roughtly be doubled.
You can brake while holding the throttle, but there is no advantage doing that. On a contrary: your engine and brakes will wear out faster, it increases your braking distance and make your brakes hotter which might introduce brake fade. (It's indicated by the left green bar, although I've hardly ever experienced brake fade. Maybe I should crank it up a notch.) Also, releasing the throttle will cool down the engine as it's no longer burning fuel and therefore not creating heat.
Speaking of engine temperature: the faster you go, the faster the temperature drops. Air flow cools down the radiator. If you want to cool down the engine faster, manual shifting might help because high rpms create more heat. So shifting earlier cools down the engine faster. (That's probably the only advantage when choosing the manual transmission.)
About upgrades: I recommend choosing the tires first, because it will make you faster off the line and you can corner faster. For the heavier cars, like the Countach, I also recommend choosing the weight reduction as it will significantly increase your acceleration. Because the DX40 is already basically an F1 car with a body on it, there isn't much left to strip out.
When you have ABS, the brake upgrade it kind off useless, until brake fade becomes a thing.
Next up is the transmission because it limits your top speed. Adding a 6th gear makes you go faster without bouncing off the rev limiter and it also lowers your rpm and therefore lowers your engine temperature. (The DX40 doesn't have a transmission upgrade because it already has a pretty high top speed. The Vette already has a 6th gear, but it's a very long one and therefore useless for racing, so the upgrade will shorten it.)
Oil and radiator upgrades are great for lowering the engine temperature and increasing the lifespan of your engine and turbo and are essential when choosing engine and turbo upgrades.
When using a keyboard, down = brake and down = also 'choose upgrade part'. If I bind down to select, you also choose the next upgrade at the same time. It would mess up the controls.
Oh hm. Well, for what it's worth, the up/down selection for upgrades as it is now is kinda confusing. You can't tell where you are in the parts order, really. Like, if it would fit, something like a row of descending upgrade icons on the left side with your current version of the part highlighted could really help clear things up.
But maybe it could also instead be a left-right row of upgrade icons, becoming active once you've picked the part type--so then you're still browsing with the left/right button keys.
I'll enable vsync in the next update.
Ooh--well, I hope there will be an option to disable vsync as well. ^ _^
I have no idea why the sun repeats itself in the first stage of the last race. It doesn't do that in the 2nd stage of the first race and it's the same damn sun.
Oh man I hope the repeating sun stays, it's so cool. ^ _^_^
(It's indicated by the left green bar, although I've hardly ever experienced brake fade. Maybe I should crank it up a notch.)
Oh, so that's what that is. I had no idea. = o It seemed sort of pointless, in that regard. ; D Good to know about the sparks though, I had a feeling those were showing SOMETHING was wearing out. I'm never gonna remember those other parts tips, so I'll just hope they're more or less covered by the descriptions of the parts in the upgrade screen. ]_] ; )
Exactly. Someone suggested another (short) pit crew animation sequence. I'd like to do that while the clock ticks down and perhaps show you a list of the repairs/upgrades that are being executed.
I hadn't wanted to suggest the pit crew animation because I'd been afraid it would have been too much work to add in or something. ^ _^ Although it just occurred to me that even a sound effect, like a repeated quick whirring sound (as in a mechanical bolt fastener), or a glug glug sound for an oil change, would go a long way in telling the player that the upgrade work they'd ordered was being carried out. : )
Turning off the shadow of the Countach is a difficult task because it's part of the sprite and the artist of Chase HQ didn't provide visible wheels
Oh wow, I was just looking at Chase HQ (in one of the JP PS2's Taito Memories collections) yesterday, now I wish I'd paid more attention to the car sprites! ^ _^So I did a couple of stuff, like the addition of the quit option. There's no confirmation request yet. (It's getting too late now.)
I've also added the "Reimagined" part to the title and I've added the version number.
In the parts menu, I haven't reworked the navigation system yet, as it will take a lot of time to redo that. I'm probably going to add some visual indication on the left of the parts description to let you know where you are in the parts order.
But I did add an extra icon that you can choose to confirm the repairs. Pressing the space button on your keyboard will immediately send you to that icon. When you've confirmed the repairs, the clock resets, and you'll hear the sound effect of an air wrench.
Instead of "Game over", you'll see what you've suggested: "x lives remaining", until you have no lives left.
Oh and instead of enabling vsync, I've added a frame limiter. At this point it is set to 120 fps.
And you may be right, perhaps I should remove the Lamborghini. Perhaps I can try to make my own sprites, using a 3D mesh of the car.
Slightly out of date feedback here--was 0.3.5, not the new 0.3.6:
Suggestions:
- Have controller Start button and keyboard ESC key bring up a pause menu
- Allow end-of-race name entry or at least confirmation with controller, so I don't have to keep reaching for the keyboard ^ _^
- Have d-pad do steering during a race (currently does nothing)
I had a funny-looking wipeout where I was close to the cliff edge as the road narrowed to the cliffside in the jungle setting--51:27 in this video; the car sunk to the right across and down into the road:
Thanks!
I'll look into it and try to add a low resolution mode. What filter would you like to see?
The way the sprites zoom in are the responsibility of Unity's 3D engine. I didn't do anything about it. Changing this means I have to start over from scratch and build my own pseudo-3d engine, which I tried 14 years ago, but never finished.
Not only does it sounds difficult, it actually is difficult. I know, because I did it 14 years ago. I eventually managed to do it with the use of sin/cos, but using Unity's built-in 3d engine is so much simpler and more reliable.
I'm making a compilation video of all my iterations of my game. In the first fragment you'll see how it used to look like when I did it the hard way.
By the way: take a look at Outrunners, because in that game sprites are scaled like they appear in real life. It looks much more like my game.
As a matter of fact... I exported Space Harrier 1/2 to Genesis/Megadrive Mini 2, pseudo-3D is not as difficult as it sounds. :-)
It is quite simple than real 3D calculation. But it is difficult on Unity.
Anyway, I think it's fun enough as it is. I look forward to the future.馃憤
