Aerial Driving: A racing game. In a Sci-Fi environment

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#1

Note: The project is still at the Pre-Alpha state. While the core systems are ready, this is still quite far away from becoming a playable game!

Hi fellow developers!

I believe I told to the Developer Relations (well, in my application of course) that one of the reasons I wanted to be in the Developer Forum is that I want to learn. To become better than what I am now.

On my introduction post, I stated that…

It’s time to grab said opportunity and to use that golden tool. And what is better than having the best reviewing my work?

Ok, so let’s to the game/project!

I believe that you guys like to see new things.
Before I thought in making a Sci-Fi battle game. But no thanks, that idea is very common.

So I decided to add the component of racing. There, you have two tasks (win the race and stay alive - or win the race and leave a lot of debris behind), and two main ways to win the round (be the fastest or shoot down the opponents). That’s the concept of my project.

I was not as comfortable with scripting when I started more than a year ago, neither I thought that I would get to this point. Hence, it sounds pointless to me to stop now.

So, as a pre-Alpha state right now, what do we have?

  • Choose between five vessels to drive;
  • Customize (right now, paint) the vessel to your like;
  • Drive it! I made a sample track;

I also have:

  • In game Update Logs! (yeay…)
  • Mouse Controls! Great!
  • A nice Control Editor, so that you can control the ship the way you feel the most comfortable.

Features that I want to make in the future (from top to bottom, from short term goals to long term goals):

  • Create a dedicated tutorial to make the experience even more immersive;
  • Make the camera react more dynamically to direction and speed changes;
  • Create artillery and hull health systems;
  • Matchmaking and racing rounds;
  • Currency and progression system;
  • (Perhaps?) Create a Track Editor!
Ship Controls

These are the ones set by default!

Control the ship: Press the right mouse button and drag. Q and E to roll;
Control the speed: For the cruise speed. either drag the speed bar or use the mouse wheel; For the afterburners, press the spacebar or click the button in the middle of the panel.
Emergency Brakes: X
Move Camera: Left mouse button and drag it.
Zoom: Shift + mouse wheel
Reset Camera to original Position: C

Please enjoy. I’d love to hear your feedback!

3 Likes
#2

The aesthetic for the game is really cool. I have a few points of feedback though:

  • I didn’t notice the “Return” buttons at first because they’re tucked away in the corner in a non-obvious way
  • UI to customize ship color was pretty difficult to use. I would recommend having a list of components that showed all at once instead of a slider, and when you moused over the entries in the list, it highlighted the component. Clicking the entry would bring up a color picker.
  • Ships felt pretty underwhelming to use because I’m staring at their rear the whole time. All the detail to the front/sides/top/bottom go to complete waste. Just seeing the rear de-personalizes the ship as well, making it look super generic. IMO a camera angle closer to what Star Conflict uses would work a lot better
  • Not a fan of the control schemes. I know niche communities adore it, but you’re going to have trouble attracting a wide audience if you use it. Again, Star Conflict (F2P) might serve as some nice inspiration for similar controls that are more adaptable to a broad audience
  • Camera rotation seems bugged where if I move my mouse down while facing the rear of the ship, it looks upwards, while moving my mouse down while facing the front of the ship it looks downwards. Probably a math error.
  • The map I played on looked really bland and it was hard to tell the difference between parts of it. You might benefit from adding landmarks / references

Edit: Survey GUI was pretty cool too

4 Likes
#3

Thank you dude. This is the kind of feedback I like to live for, though I would like to adress some points:

  • The Return button was, some time ago, even harder to spot (only the icon). But, given that the issue still persists, I will give it a bigger contrast. I am planning to overhaul the garage building in the Main Menu, so that can solve this by itself.
  • For the camera issue where you only see the rear, that is already going to be adressed:
  • For the controls, you can refer to the control editor. You can use the WASD scheme to control the ship if you wish. I just set the mouse control as default because it is WAY easier to control.
  • The camera is working just fine. It only uses an inverted vector (Multiplier -1, -1) - using a non-inverted vector would make the camera movement look kinda akward imo. You can change that on the control editor aswell.

(To get to the control editor: Main Menu > Settings > click on the button Next near “Update Logs”)

For the remaining points, I’ll take your feedback in consideration when doing my updates
Thanks for your feedback again!

#4

Could this eventually help solving the problem?

#5

Kind of, but I still feel really disconnected from the ship. The problem isn’t camera coverage – it’s that the default view has me looking at one of the most boring/indistinguishable parts of the ship the majority of the time I’m playing. The default view would be better if it was looking at a part of the ship with more character (e.g. like in the Start Conflict screenshot I linked earlier)

1 Like
#6

This is quite unintuitive when I see Update Logs immediately after I select settings, the first thing I think of is that I pressed the wrong button. When I see a next arrow in Update Logs, I just think that it goes to older logs.

I’d recommend making the actual changeable settings the first thing that you see when you select settings, as well as either using a settings menu or a Tab based settings menu so people know where they are going.

2 Likes
#7

Yeah you’re right. I corrected it.

1 Like
#8

This deserves fame and attention! :open_mouth:

Great looks, scripting, concept… So smooth. :slight_smile: