Try out my game 'MonkeyRally'
by Nick "Dig" Koirala · in General Discussion · 07/13/2003 (5:09 am) · 11 replies
I've been taking time off work, and spent six weeks pretty much full time working on this.
There's still a long way to go, but I thought it'd do me good to show everyone what progress I've made so far.
Bear in mind this has been only me working on this so far and learning Torque as I go, so don't be too harsh :P
Its a small car racing game, using Torque (obviously), the tracks need a bit of work, there needs to be more cars, the music needs to be much better and guiObjectView needs to work properly :).
It's on my website www.littlemonkey.co.nz
Enjoy,
Nick
There's still a long way to go, but I thought it'd do me good to show everyone what progress I've made so far.
Bear in mind this has been only me working on this so far and learning Torque as I go, so don't be too harsh :P
Its a small car racing game, using Torque (obviously), the tracks need a bit of work, there needs to be more cars, the music needs to be much better and guiObjectView needs to work properly :).
It's on my website www.littlemonkey.co.nz
Enjoy,
Nick
#2
Overall looks and sounds great. There are a few nitpicky things I'll point out below (which may be just my preferences) but otherwise I really like it. I think the music is fine and the general look and feel is very cute.
I'm not sure where the monkey part comes in, other than the name and maybe a couple of graphics. I would think if you're going for an overall monkey theme or something it would be more prevelant like having the monkey in the race as your guide or announcing things. Also to stay with the theme, using monkey sounds for things in the game like a "ooo" or "eeee" when the user finishes something. Maybe a monkey dance at the end of a level. Something to think about.
Here's a quick list of a few things I noticed:
-tach overlays the text at the bottom hud so it's hard to read the older messages
-environmental effects were good but they didn't seem to affect my driving performance. I would have figured snow and ice would have made the car difficult to drive on
-the checkpoint sound is barely audible so maybe consider doing that monkey sound instead along with the current visual
-the upper right corner is supposed to be an overhead map? it didn't show anything while I was driving
-fonts in some places (like best lap and rank) were difficult to see. for consistency you might want to consider using the same or similar font you use elsewhere and make it bigger and bolder
-the turbo effect was a little strange because I had to hold it down to use. Generally I've seen it as a one time thing then it recharges or is used up, giving you that "boost" you need rather than a faster car while you're holding it down. Maybe that's the effect you're going for but I prefer the boost type thing. The effect would be doing some flames or whatever shooting out of the car and having it add 100km or something to your speed. The consequences would be that the user needs to be able to handle the car afterwards so they'll only use it on straightaways.
-On some games I've seen there are visual hints to help you get to the next checkpoint. I find these invaluable. Once I hit the second track I had a hard time figuring out where the next checkpoint was whenever I got turned around. Maybe if the overhead map was working that would be my indicator or perhaps an arrow on the screen (configurable) to show me where the next one was would be helpful.
-I guess the guiObjview isn't quite right as I can only see the car body and not the wheels, but I would think at that screen you would show the level not the car and leave the car for a car selection screen.
Looks great, keep up the good work!
PS what was the installer you used? It looked very slick.
07/13/2003 (9:21 am)
Hi Nick,Overall looks and sounds great. There are a few nitpicky things I'll point out below (which may be just my preferences) but otherwise I really like it. I think the music is fine and the general look and feel is very cute.
I'm not sure where the monkey part comes in, other than the name and maybe a couple of graphics. I would think if you're going for an overall monkey theme or something it would be more prevelant like having the monkey in the race as your guide or announcing things. Also to stay with the theme, using monkey sounds for things in the game like a "ooo" or "eeee" when the user finishes something. Maybe a monkey dance at the end of a level. Something to think about.
Here's a quick list of a few things I noticed:
-tach overlays the text at the bottom hud so it's hard to read the older messages
-environmental effects were good but they didn't seem to affect my driving performance. I would have figured snow and ice would have made the car difficult to drive on
-the checkpoint sound is barely audible so maybe consider doing that monkey sound instead along with the current visual
-the upper right corner is supposed to be an overhead map? it didn't show anything while I was driving
-fonts in some places (like best lap and rank) were difficult to see. for consistency you might want to consider using the same or similar font you use elsewhere and make it bigger and bolder
-the turbo effect was a little strange because I had to hold it down to use. Generally I've seen it as a one time thing then it recharges or is used up, giving you that "boost" you need rather than a faster car while you're holding it down. Maybe that's the effect you're going for but I prefer the boost type thing. The effect would be doing some flames or whatever shooting out of the car and having it add 100km or something to your speed. The consequences would be that the user needs to be able to handle the car afterwards so they'll only use it on straightaways.
-On some games I've seen there are visual hints to help you get to the next checkpoint. I find these invaluable. Once I hit the second track I had a hard time figuring out where the next checkpoint was whenever I got turned around. Maybe if the overhead map was working that would be my indicator or perhaps an arrow on the screen (configurable) to show me where the next one was would be helpful.
-I guess the guiObjview isn't quite right as I can only see the car body and not the wheels, but I would think at that screen you would show the level not the car and leave the car for a car selection screen.
Looks great, keep up the good work!
PS what was the installer you used? It looked very slick.
#3
Nice game. (I like the installer, too). When I first installed it, it complained that I didn't have a sound device (which is not surprising because the machine doesn't even have a sound card). Then it would crash on startup. I replaced the openal32.dll with the one from the ThinkTanks demo and that fixed it. (Not sure what the problem was, because it worked fine on another machine).
It seems a little hard to control with the mouse. Maybe an option for mouse sensitivity that could be turned down, or something. (Or maybe I just need to get used to it more).
Other than that, though, it looks good!
07/13/2003 (12:39 pm)
Hi Nick,Nice game. (I like the installer, too). When I first installed it, it complained that I didn't have a sound device (which is not surprising because the machine doesn't even have a sound card). Then it would crash on startup. I replaced the openal32.dll with the one from the ThinkTanks demo and that fixed it. (Not sure what the problem was, because it worked fine on another machine).
It seems a little hard to control with the mouse. Maybe an option for mouse sensitivity that could be turned down, or something. (Or maybe I just need to get used to it more).
Other than that, though, it looks good!
#4
Edit: Nevermind, now it works. It must be my lagged network right now.
07/13/2003 (1:00 pm)
Wow, first game I've seen actually use my news GUI script other than mine. It appears it cannot communicate with your web server though. hmmm. :(Edit: Nevermind, now it works. It must be my lagged network right now.
#5
@Bob the vehicle in the game at the moment is the BraveTree Content Pack vehicle that I skinned with LittleMonkey advertising.. I'm still working on either a better name or getting Monkeys into it somewhere :P
@Bil Thanks for all those ideas, I'll work through them and see what I can implement. The Idea of a Monkey Character is great, I'll work on that to make sense of the name :) The Turbo boost I wanted to work as you described so I'm still working on that. I guess because I'm so familiar with the track I forget it difficult to find your way around, I'll add some visual cue for finding checkpoints... The Installer is Astrum Install Wizard
@Eric I used an old version of OpenAl32.dll because I was having a few issues with my sound hardware, but I fixed them seperatly from the DLL in the end and didn't think to change it back, I'll look into that. I guess I should have mouse sensitivity adjustable in the options dialog, that gui is getting a bit messy :P
@Nathan Thanks for that News GUI script, I hope it was your network connection, it was working fine for me (once I remembered to add '[done]' to the end of all the files :P )
Cheers,
Nick
07/13/2003 (2:55 pm)
Thanks for all that feedback!@Bob the vehicle in the game at the moment is the BraveTree Content Pack vehicle that I skinned with LittleMonkey advertising.. I'm still working on either a better name or getting Monkeys into it somewhere :P
@Bil Thanks for all those ideas, I'll work through them and see what I can implement. The Idea of a Monkey Character is great, I'll work on that to make sense of the name :) The Turbo boost I wanted to work as you described so I'm still working on that. I guess because I'm so familiar with the track I forget it difficult to find your way around, I'll add some visual cue for finding checkpoints... The Installer is Astrum Install Wizard
@Eric I used an old version of OpenAl32.dll because I was having a few issues with my sound hardware, but I fixed them seperatly from the DLL in the end and didn't think to change it back, I'll look into that. I guess I should have mouse sensitivity adjustable in the options dialog, that gui is getting a bit messy :P
@Nathan Thanks for that News GUI script, I hope it was your network connection, it was working fine for me (once I remembered to add '[done]' to the end of all the files :P )
Cheers,
Nick
#6
07/15/2003 (8:10 am)
Good job Nick. The only issue I had was I thought the suspension was a little soft. The car controlled great on flat ground but on the last map if you hit a bump you would go launching into the air out of control. Cool demo though. Good luck !!!
#7
BTW: Anyone tried a multiplayer game with more than two players? I have a poxy 56k connection and only two machines here - hosting games is pretty difficutl and all the people helping me test it have complicated firewalls which are causing problems. In short, I haven't tried it with three or more players, just like to hear how it goes...
Cheers,
Nick
07/15/2003 (5:34 pm)
Thanks, I've been trying to sort out the suspension, I'll keep working on it, I realise that last track is pretty difficult when you keep getitng launched into the air!!BTW: Anyone tried a multiplayer game with more than two players? I have a poxy 56k connection and only two machines here - hosting games is pretty difficutl and all the people helping me test it have complicated firewalls which are causing problems. In short, I haven't tried it with three or more players, just like to hear how it goes...
Cheers,
Nick
#8
Thanks,
Nick
07/24/2003 (4:37 pm)
There is now an update available for this demo, and a short questionnaire if anyone can find the time to fill it out, it would help me a lot.Thanks,
Nick
#9
its still here
Enjoy!
Thanks,
Nick
08/20/2003 (5:06 am)
Ok the game's finished cos I have to leave the country! I've released it for the time being because I don't know when I can get back to it, but once I'm settled in Europe I may work on adding more to it, or I might work on my other game ideas.its still here
Enjoy!
Thanks,
Nick
Torque Owner John Kabus (BobTheCBuilder)
I'm assuming the vehicles other than the torque buggy are your design (very cool models). Plus its cool to see someone taking real advantage of the vehicle code, most games seem to add vehicles as an after thought (one more way to kill people in the game).
Looks like a great start especially for a one-man team. Looking forward to seeing more...
John.