BUMPER DERBY X-TREME (BETA) NOW ON GS WEB

synthesissynthesis Member Posts: 1,693
edited November -1 in Announce Your Game!
HERE IT IS!!! Version 0.4.1 is up for action!
http://gamesalad.com/game/play/46197

Its far from perfect...has several performance issues when trying to run on devices but seems to function fairly well on the web.

The shocker cars do not work 100% correctly and the AI switching breaks at times (GS collision detection reliability defect I think) and the scoring and bump tracking stops working and you can become pinned down. If this happens...refresh the game player (or your browser) and start over.

But in the end, I think you will get an idea of what the game is trying to be...even with its many imperfections. :)

The reason I am releasing it unpolished is we hit a bit of a snag with our game. It just will not work on a iPhone3G and crashes after 2 minutes on the iPodTouch 2ndGen.

From what we can deduce...its going to take a near rebuild since the GS game engine is using up 2/3 of the memory available on older devices. We are going to look for ways to optimize our side...but unless Gendai is able to make GS more efficient...games like this one are going to be VERY DIFFICULT to accomplish. They just don't leave enough space for you to run your game elements in memory.

Anyway...see what you think.
Any suggestions, critisms, or downright frankness is welcome.
And if you like it...we love to hear that too...especially what parts you like.

Thanks for giving it a whirl.
Syndessol

Comments

  • ckurt25ckurt25 Member Posts: 122
    That's too bad. Looks like a really fun game. Great graphics, sound, gameplay and I'd say its pretty unique. Not sure if there are similar games out there or not.....How does it run on the 3GS? Maybe just release it for that. I'd buy it ;)
  • DanielAvniDanielAvni Member Posts: 114
    Awesome game! i played for about 10 min and had lots of fun i cant wait to see it on the iphone! this ones a winner for sure! :)
  • adadoadado Member Posts: 219
    Yours looks and sounds way more intense than my StarKeep game and StarKeep will only run on the newer devices. I'm a coder whose been around the block so I know that it is not likely that the performance concerns are all my fault. :-) I agree that I hope the GS engine is tuned a bit more for performance to allow for more action oriented games with lots of actors. I find it funny that I can break things in my projects just by changing the order of behaviors that are not even dependant on each other.

    Let's keep our fingers crossed.

    I'm going to focus on games with less moving parts and definitely less constrain behaviors.

    I remember reading you use overlays...not sure how many you use and whether or not they are animated but maybe that is one area you can trim to eak out some more FPS!?
  • synthesissynthesis Member Posts: 1,693
    [ UPDATE ]

    SUCCESS!!!
    Over the last couple of days we been able to shave over 25% off of the memory use of BDX. The game now runs well on an iPod Touch 2nd Gen. and does not crash anymore (like it had been due to out of memory dumps). The key optimizations were a more efficient course design (reducing containment actors), consolidating the collider behaviors and assign them to as few a number of actors as possible, and game mode partitioning into different scenes (which reduced our graphics demands in each course scene...with the tradeoff that we will have 4 times as many scenes...the game was previously 10 scenes and it will now balloon to about 40...UGH!).

    We are still running about 13-18 FPS on an old iPhone 3G...so we still have some more optimization to do...but we are getting closer. Our goal is to at least get 20-25 FPS on the 3G. Hopefully we will have a fresh Beta update sometime soon. For now...the 4.1 version is still available (linked above).

    Still though...the GS engine is using over 2/3 of the total resources being used...seems way too inefficient to me...but what do I know.

    More feedback anyone?
    (Thanks to those who have provided thus far...it is quite helpful!!!)
  • synthesissynthesis Member Posts: 1,693
    [ UPDATE ]

    MORE SUCCESS!!!
    We have completed our full overhaul and optimization of BDX. You will find a freshly updated Beta version on the GS web now...version 0.5.1.

    This new release has several updates to it including:
    + More stability
    + Much more reliable switch firing
    + More optimization and smoother game play
    + A redesigned course with more open space for game play
    + Car Type activation
    + Game mode improvements
    + New splash page art
    + And MUCH MORE!!!

    Please do give it a test drive for us and let us know what you think. We are nearing our completion of the game design phase of BDX and getting ready to expand it out to the other course designs. If you spot any bugs or think any of the game play settings, game feel, or game physics need improvement...PLEASE TELL US!!!

    We hope you like the new update!!! It seems to work REALLY well!

    Thanks,
    Synthesis

    PS:
    Here is the link to the game if you missed it above:
    http://gamesalad.com/game/play/46197

    Here is our website for a few keyhole shots of the other course designs to come:
    http://www.furiousapps.com
  • JamesZeppelinJamesZeppelin Member Posts: 1,927
    Wow i missed it 3 days ago when you first posted it.

    Ok so.....
    I assume you want some honest opinions.

    FIrst off let me say this is quite a game and really shows what you can do with GS if you put a a lot of time in it. Reading other forums and seeing discussions many think GS only makes simple little cut and copy games. This along with a handful of others proves that wrong.

    If you don't mind some helpful criticism Here is my take.
    Technically speaking it is near perfect and the game at its core is fantastic however, representing the average gamer and not someone who built the game there was a lot of info jammed in there that i just skipped. Mostly because everything was just kind of all over the place.
    That being said I'm not the only one who does that. (skips around)

    When i fired up the game i clicked right through and started the game. I think what caused trouble for me was that the playing field all had so much going on that it took me minute to find my car... then it took a little longer to realize what part was the joystick.

    It may sound like im being over critical but i always test peoples games without reading everything because it think thats how people often give a game a "shot" and unfortunately that shot is all we get.

    In short I think if you can clean up the UI and some of the clutter it is one of the best games i have seen.

    As a suggestion I dont think you can really cut much out but maybe try use more contrast to define different elements of the game.

    Srry for so much info but i know you are putting a lot of time into your game so i thought that might be helpful.

    Edit...

    One more small thing i forgot. Now i dont play many top down racer games but the physics felt a little lose. If there is a way to give the car a little more "weight" that would go a long ways.
  • synthesissynthesis Member Posts: 1,693
    Great Suggestions Tiny...I appreciate it very much. I will be sure to work those suggestions into the game. Thanks for taking the time to review it.

    We want to improve it...so far we've been focused on the technicals (FPS and RAM issues) and less on game play tweaking. But now that the technicals are starting to get under control, we really need to fine tune the GAME elements!!!

    Thanks again for the great HONEST feedback. Check back later for further Beta test updates!!!
  • 8x8n88x8n8 Member Posts: 73
    This is a repost from the comment section since I didn't realize this thread existed until afterward (the link you posted on my fade/in/out thread was broke for me for some reason).

    Pros:
    -Great bounce physics.
    -Good AI.
    -Well done graphics.
    -Addictive gameplay.
    -The game is very stable and smooth running, no crashes for me so far.

    Cons:
    -I agree with tiny on the "cluttered" aesthetic of the levels itself. This will take a lot of graphic tweaking.
    -I like Tiny had trouble finding my car for a minute, and then discovered the joystick. Perhaps a big red arrow that blinks and says "joystick" running for the first 5 seconds would help.
    -It took me a while to understand why I was winning bumps or not. The graphic for when the enemies are "charged up" isn't that apparent. Changing them to yellow or red would make it easier to get it quicker I think.
    -Camera doesnt follow me close enough so I can actually aim myself, especially when I'm using the "speedy" car. Tightening the camera tracking would help make the game more playable in my opinion.
  • synthesissynthesis Member Posts: 1,693
    I am thinking that I may drop the 321GO graphics but keep the delay. This will give you a few seconds to get ready rather than obscure the car. Plus the 321GO animation appears to have added about 2-3MB of graphics RAM overhead...which is inexcusable (IMO) for the game engine to be impacted that much by it...since the images are only about 5-10KB in size....probably due to the fact that it accelerates off screen before destroying itself.

    We continue to improve the course design and have simplified it since the beginning quite a bit (mostly to make the game "lighter"). We went with more clutter/color on this course to make our app store screenshots look more appealing. We may need to simplify the HUD a bit...but still thinking about things to do there. We do plan to have 6 course designs in the final version.

    As far as joystick...not sure about that. We stuck to standard protocol there and I think after about 10 seconds...you figure it out and then you know for life how to play. Adding the timer and animated arrow would just damage our optimization...as we are razor thin right now on the 3G as it is.

    I will give your suggestion a try with tightening the camera tracking...but its pretty tight already...only about 25+/- pixels of buffer on each side of the player car. We also plan to continue to tweak the bumper car physics to try to get the "feel" better as you an Tiny both suggest.

    I agree we haven't quite got the shocker car intuitive enough yet...but he's only 1 day old (since his last rebuild...which BTW is much more reliable now) and we still have to optimize him and try to get it more understandable visually. Our first goal was to get him 100% reliably functional. Currently I am running 4fps when he is in shock mode and that right now is crashing the 3G. DAMN THAT BLOATED GAME ENGINE (you're like a really fat big brother...you need to lose some weight but we still love you immensely!).

    THANK YOU so much Homeless for taking the time to review it and offering the valuable feedback.
    -Synthesis
  • synthesissynthesis Member Posts: 1,693
    For those of you keeping track or are interested:
    Version beta test 0.6.1 has been posted (at the same link above).

    This version update was mainly optimization of the bumper cars and some graphics modifications. Nearly all bugs are cured and the gameplay seems to be fairly solid now. We also worked on improving the intuitiveness of the game play as well. The bumper cars are more "intelligent" now and seem to get stuck less with the new rebuild of their AI.

    Still trying to figure out how to get it to run on a 3G though.
    Let me know if you find anything buggy or if you have some feedback...good or bad.

    Thanks,
    Synthesis
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