Loco Motive

[Lee_Harris]

For those not in the Facebook group, this is a game I am currently working on. I wanted to make something more reminiscent of an arcade experience. It’s still early days, but with good feedback and suggestions from the group, it is moving along. The latest additions were the minimap and the rearview mirror.

After you’ve robbed a bank, the game starts as you are attempting to escape the long arm of the law. You have to race the train to the crossing and get across to the other side before the police catch up with you.

[Rob]

Hello stranger

Looking good Lee, looks like it will be good fun.

…I had hoped you might have added a longer train though…

[Lee_Harris]

Hey Rob, good to see you! I actually have no idea how long that train will ultimately be, since the whole aim is to get ahead of the train and get to the crossing first. It defeats the objects if you get to see the end of the train so I will probably start instantiating carriages when the game starts and then calculate if it needs to add any more based on variables like time left (if I include a counter).

[Rob]

You too

Perhaps you could make the speed of the train proportional to the speed of the car, in the case where the player slows down - and maybe not let them stop? Or, expose them to a little police brutality if they do.

What happened to the doggy game? Did you do any more on it?

[Lee_Harris]

I’ve tried to make everything as proportional as possible regarding size and speed, but I am fairly sold on the train maintaining its speed throughout the game. I think if I introduce a countdown timer, that would add to the tension and not let the player just stop, however there is always the risk of police catching up so the player shouldn’t want to just stop. I could add some kind of reminder if you stop that there is a police car incoming, like a ‘radio voice over’ that the perp has stopped?

I Am A Dog is on the back-burner. I realized my ideas are bigger than my free time which makes my ‘interest drop-off’ quite steep, hence my number of prototypes. We all love that new project feeling but finishing them is also a rush that I miss. I am going to focus on smaller, more ‘arcadey’ type games like this that can start small and then grow over time. Once I build a portfolio of smaller games, maybe at that time I can think bigger. The dog will return, I’m just not sure when.

[Rob]

Hey Lee,

If the train speed is a constant then yeah, I’d go with the audio warning and police car mechanic, I think it may look a bit odd if you have this reaaaaaaaaaally long train though, so maybe at a specific time (or train carriage), the player’s ability to go slow is punished more quickly. What I mean is, at the beginning of the game the train is only just passing, so it doesn’t look too long, if the player hesitates, or goes a bit slow, no biggy, but once enough of the train has gone by, in order to prevent it from looking odd by having thousands of carriages, that’s when the police should catch them. The end of the train could then rumble on by whilst you repeatedly taser your player! Just a suggestion, and it would need a bit of testing/tweaking, but it might work.

Aww, well I look forward to seeing a return of the - you always put together some great prototypes but I know what you mean about that challenge of seeing them through. Your Loco Motive game brought back memories of Outrun on my old Atari… happy days

[Lee_Harris]

Thanks, I have actually been using Outrun for some of my research! I also love(d) Chase HQ. In Texas, at least for freight trains, they can be hundreds of carriages. Although using a passenger train at the moment, the train asset will change. I live in a town that a track runs through and you really hope you don’t get caught at a crossing! You’re probably starting to see where the inspiration came from You seem hell bent on getting police brutality somewhere in this game LOL Is there something you need to share with the group?

[Rob]

…and you really hope you don’t get caught at a crossing!

lol… I hadn’t considered the length of trains in other parts of the world in my earlier response, I suspect Australia also have rather lengthy ones - they have to have an end though, right?

You seem hell bent on getting police brutality somewhere in this game LOL Is there something you need to share with the group?

rotfl… no, no, not at all… officer

(Police Brutality in Chase HQ)

Always good to have some consequences of actions though… Maybe you could dress up the pooch from I Am A Dog and have it chase after the driver

This search had to be done “longest train in the world” - 682 wagons and 8 engines!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LsuNWjRaAo

(shoddy quality vid, soz)

8 minutes of watching a train go by… lol… could be your Game Over scene

[Lee_Harris]

I think that train has come through my town before, or maybe it just seemed like it! Sometimes they even carry military vehicles which is interesting to watch, as tanks and jeeps pass by in front of you. Good idea for a Game Over screen. I want this to be as child friendly as possible so maybe no guns pointed at heads haha.

[Rob]

I think that train has come through my town before, or maybe it just seemed like it!

hehe, I bet!

Sometimes they even carry military vehicles which is interesting to watch, as tanks and jeeps pass by in front of you.

That might be something you could consider for your train, have it a bit randomised with different carriages/wagons and so on, so each time the player sees it it’s different. Quite cool to have a game feature born out of something you see regularly at home

I want this to be as child friendly as possible so maybe no guns pointed at heads haha.

I like the sound of that!