Looking for feedback of the racing game that I'm developing

[DragonJam]

Hi again!

A close-up images of some of the models:

In fact, these are my favorites!

Cobra Atlus

Carelle Monsta

And Paddle Slieben. I chose this one yesterday while testing the game at the studio, and I was nicely surprised how cool it looked once integrated into the gameplay:

 

[DragonJam]

Hey there!

We've received very good feedback on our cars' models, BUT some people have asked us why we were always showing only the front side of the cars.

The truth is that we hadn't notice that! For that reason, we want to show the back side from the cars, and prove that we're also taking care of details there!

What do you think of this new point of view?

 

[DragonJam]

Hello again!

Today we're very happy because we've introduced our latest stage, and so far, everybody likes it so much!

It is called Isla Aventura

"A tropical island environment where you will be able to compete through its 4 different circuits. Driving around a volcanic eruption?, overtaking your enemies in the middle of a pirate shipwreck? Yes, all this and more! Besides, you racers won't be the alone in the island, as you soon will discover...."

Some screenshots!

Hanging Cliffs circuit:

Jurassic Volcano circuit:

Skull Mountain circuit:

Isla Aventura Special circuit:

As always, we'd appreciate a lot if you could give us your opinion on these first screenshots, and suggest your own ideas too, honestly, some of your opinions have helped us to notice some mistakes we were doing.

Ah!, and don't forget that you can still sign up at our site for future closed-beta acess (www.formulawincars.com) and play the game before anyone else. We've also polished the website look, in case you want to have a look and check it. We also make a blog post on a weekly basis, explaining all the problems we encounter while developing the game, and the solutions we make up for overtaking them.

 

[DragonJam]

By the way, Indie DB, home of the best indie games all around the world, has launched the Indie of the Year Awards 2014

So, if based on our progress developing the game, you consider that we deserve to be on the Indie games of the Yeah Top 100, we'd really appreciate if you would vote for us!. It's very easy, just go to our page on the site and click on the VOTE FOR THIS GAME banner. You don't have to sign up or anything.

Our profile at Indie DB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/formula-wincars

(You'll find the banner scrolling down a little bit)

Thanks in advance!

 

[Subyman]

Yup, liking the direction you guys are going in. I'm not a fan of scrunched up looking cars, but yours are looking much more inspired than anything I've seen before in that style. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the game. Are you planning a beta/demo?

 

[DragonJam]

Yup, liking the direction you guys are going in. I'm not a fan of scrunched up looking cars, but yours are looking much more inspired than anything I've seen before in that style. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the game. Are you planning a beta/demo?

Hi Subyman,

Yes, our plan is to launch a closed-beta demo within two months (more or less, still don't have an exact release date). If you want to take part of this, you can get acess to the beta by signing up at our site www.formulawincars.com

It would be a pleasure to count you in!

Thanks for your comment!

 

[mizzou]

formulawincars sounds like one of those free shareware games you got in windows 98. I honestly don't think your finished product is going to be a mega-hit or even a blip on the radar, but it will likely be an amazing learning experience since you obviously have a talented team developing this game.

This is definitely something you can hang your hat on, especially on a resume.

 

[DragonJam]

formulawincars sounds like one of those free shareware games you got in windows 98. I honestly don't think your finished product is going to be a mega-hit or even a blip on the radar, but it will likely be an amazing learning experience since you obviously have a talented team developing this game.

This is definitely something you can hang your hat on, especially on a resume.

Hello mizzou,

Regarding the name, I see your point, in fact some of us inside the studio shared your opinion at first, when we chose the name for the game. The thing is that we've made a lot of work using that name and all that work would be useless if we changed it now. We crossed the point of no return.

The truth is that as time goes by, we get more comfortable with the name. If you pay attention many hit games has names that may sound ridiculous or even like "cheap-game" if you heard of them now for the first time.

To sum up, we'll maintain this name!

About being a mega-hit: Well, obviously our intentions are humble, we aspire to be successful in our own terms, which would be at least earn some money to make the game financially solvent.

Will be able to do this? Well, time will tell.....all I can say it's we're doing our best and it feels damn good to spend so much time and efforts in something you love.

Thanks a lot for your comment, we really appreciate honest and direct feedback!

 

[sxr7171]

Thanks for introducing yourself and your project here. While this may not have anything to do with your project I miss the sensation of speed that the Gamecube Fzero had. If a game came out on PC with a similar sense of speed I would buy it.

 

[DragonJam]

Thanks for introducing yourself and your project here. While this may not have anything to do with your project I miss the sensation of speed that the Gamecube Fzero had. If a game came out on PC with a similar sense of speed I would buy it.

Hello sxr7171,

Thanks for your welcome

I completely see your point. I never got to play FZero on Gamecube but I spent thousands of hours playing the SNES version.

I think that the sensation of speed reached on Fzero will always be remembered and was one the title's greatest feature.

Our game, Formula Wincars will be a fast-paced title indeed, but please, don't expect us to be that fast!!

 

[DragonJam]

WE MADE IT TO THE FINAL TOP 100 LIST!!

In fact, YOU made it happen. Your votes helped us reach the Top 100 at Indie DB and now we're in the final.

It was over 55.000 votes and more than 22,000 games submitted, besides, we're the only racing game nominated to the Awards.

The new votation is now open!

Same rules than the first one: no need to sign up or anything just click the link below, then go to Upcoming game>Racing and there we are! Formula Wincars and its Vote button.

The link: Vote for Best Top 100 Indie Game

Thanks from the bottom of our hearts for all the support, you're the best!

 

[DragonJam]

Exciting news!

We're thrilled to introduce two new game's songs including our main theme!

Here, you can listen to “Burning Wheels” by Javi Diez from Mägo de Oz. This song will be our main theme from now on!

https://soundcloud.com/dragonjam/formula-wincars-burning-wheels-teaser

Next one: “Dark Night” by David Miralles. This song will sound while drivers compete in a circuit from Castelul Bûna Moartem stage, a spooky and frozen land where you’ll race through a ghostly graveyard, a destroyed church or even the dungeons of a mysterious castle.

https://soundcloud.com/dragonjam/formula-wincars-dark-night-teaser

Awesome, right? The truth is that we had a blast when we heard them for the first time, we couldn’t be more happy with this.

We'd really like to hear your first impressions on the songs!

Thanks in advance!

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

are the tracks on rails? meaning only one path through the course.

You should think about adding some tracks with multiple paths. one path might be quicker but more risky.

 

[DragonJam]

are the tracks on rails? meaning only one path through the course.

You should think about adding some tracks with multiple paths. one path might be quicker but more risky.

Hello M0oG0oGaiPan,

Yes, there are not only shortcuts, but also alternative paths. And they work exactly like you explained. The longest path is normally safer and the quicker is more risky, or needs to perform an specific special skill in order to take advantage of it.

We realized that doing this brought us another issues, how do we know which player is in each position if they are running through different paths?

In this post we explain how we solved this situation:

http://www.formulawincars.com/content/checkpoints-20

Besides, even though you are in one only path, there are several choices of going through it. Like for example, assuming a little bit of risk and try to get a floor boost near of wall which could make you slow down, or taking a close curve instead of picking the coins spread through the opposite part of the same curve....

Coins re-charge your Special skill, that's why you should think very well what you want to do in situations like this!

Thanks a lot for your comment!

 

[cbrunny]

looks promising. I'm nostalgic for the Diddy Kong Racing type game. Hoping this draws inspiration from that. DKR was among my favourite games on N64.

Is FormulaWinCars supposed to be a play on "Formula One"?

Are the "type" of cars "Wincars"? Is there anything that sets them different from a non-"Wincar"? (e.g. the way a Formula One Car is really only useful in formula one racing...)

 

[DragonJam]

Hello cbrunny,

looks promising. I'm nostalgic for the Diddy Kong Racing type game. Hoping this draws inspiration from that. DKR was among my favourite games on N64.

Yes! We love Diddy Kong Racing, and also Crash Team Racing and of course Mario Kart series.

We took that basic gameplay, added a little bit of Arcade Racer a la Crazy Taxy/Ridge Racer and lastly put some strategy on it.

Is FormulaWinCars supposed to be a play on "Formula One"?

Nope at all. In fact, we're seriously considering to change the game's name before releasing it.

Are the "type" of cars "Wincars"? Is there anything that sets them different from a non-"Wincar"? (e.g. the way a Formula One Car is really only useful in formula one racing...)

Every Formula Wincars car is a Wincar. I mean it's not a "type" of car, just some kind of trademark.

We do have types of cars in the game!

Concerning gameplay our cars will be sorted into four different kinds: Gran Turismo, Sport, Off-Road and Competition, all of them offering great possibilities. Gran Turismo cars will be easier to handle. Sport cars will be faster,a good option for those aiming to burn out in secondary roads. Off-Road cars will be the right choice when dealing with different terrains. Finally, Competition cars will be the fastest, with the highest acceleration rates, requiring of a finer driving.

Thanks a lot for your comment!!

 

[reallyscrued]

This is a really neat concept, and I know of one surefire thing that will ruin it.

Make it goofy and playful if that's your vision, but make it competitive at the core.

The better player at your game should always win. Always.

Don't add external balancing. Don't average out how good or bad you can be at the game. Give the players something to strive for, and that's to *beat* the guy that keeps winning.

If the bad players keep getting a leg up, and the great players get punished for being great, you're artificially normalizing how good anyone can be at your game.

It's Mario Kart alright, but don't be Nintendo.

 

[cbrunny]

This is a really neat concept, and I know of one surefire thing that will ruin it.

Make it goofy and playful if that's your vision, but make it competitive at the core.

The better player at your game should always win. Always.

Don't add external balancing. Don't average out how good or bad you can be at the game. Give the players something to strive for, and that's to be *beat* the guy that keeps winning.

If the bad players keep getting a leg up, and the great players get punished for being great, you're artificially normalizing how good anyone can be at your game.

It's Mario Kart alright, but don't be Nintendo.

This is great advice. I support these comments.

Also a name change is a good plan. Formula Wincars sounds far more childish than I think what you're intending here. A name should capture the essence of the game - Modnation is a great example. I don't know what Formula Wincars means - I had to read this thread and look at pictures to understand the concept.

 

[DragonJam]

This is a really neat concept, and I know of one surefire thing that will ruin it.

Make it goofy and playful if that's your vision, but make it competitive at the core.

The better player at your game should always win. Always.

Don't add external balancing. Don't average out how good or bad you can be at the game. Give the players something to strive for, and that's to *beat* the guy that keeps winning.

If the bad players keep getting a leg up, and the great players get punished for being great, you're artificially normalizing how good anyone can be at your game.

It's Mario Kart alright, but don't be Nintendo.

Hello reallyscrued

I completely agree with you,

I love many Nintendo games, but yes, I hate when they do that.

For example: Super Smash Bros, I really like the game and how they managed to make that newcomers are able to enjoy the game from the very start, but there's also a massive amount of knowledge on mastering the fighting tecnique to hardcore gamers.

But then, you go to its online side and there are no rankings, you're not able to chat with other players,etc..... they completely cut-off the competitive side of the game.

I understand why Nintendo does so, they don't want to be seen into competetive gaming, because that could jeopardize their "family-approved" public image.

Same goes with latest Mario Kart, you can't even have a look at global rankings or something like that.

We thought that this could be a good opportunity for us, make the game we'd like to play and put lots of option on competitive features in a game like this. I still haven't played a kart-racer which went for this before.

Besides, we're developing it for PC, so we don't depend on any first party owner of the hardware (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo...) to get an approval for it.

First thing we did was get rid of the random thing that comes with the items in Mario Kart.

We've assigned a Special Skill to each driver (and the option to upgrade it within a race by using it repeteadly). This way, you don't depend on a random factor like the items, you can build your strategy and this ensures that best players will have more winning chances, and competitive gameplay will be possible.

So, don't worry, we share your same point of view on this. Thanks a lot for your comment!

 

[DragonJam]

Hey there!

We're taking a two weeks vacation, so please, forgive me if it takes me a little bit longer to answer any question you might leave in this thread. We'll rest well and prepare a powerful comeback after christmas!

By the way, we'd like to express our grattitude to everyone here at Anandtech and wish you a merry christmas!!

 

[Rakehellion]

It looks really generic. Even the name sounds like it was pulled from a 9gag meme.

Tell me in one sentence why I should play this instead of the thousands of other racing games out there.

 

[DragonJam]

It looks really generic. Even the name sounds like it was pulled from a 9gag meme.

Tell me in one sentence why I should play this instead of the thousands of other racing games out there.

Hello Rakehellion,

First, sorry for the delay in my response, we were enjoying our christmas vacation.

Regarding your question....

The truth is that it would be very ambitious to say to anyone why they should play our game. I mean, I believe (just as in any other art expression) in the "personal experience" of players when going through a game.

Of course, as game developers, we work hard on trying to provide the best gaming experience possible, properly implement new and exciting game mechanics and pur out personal style on the product.

In my opinion, Formula Wincars has a great potential for achieving this. I don't know any existing PC racer, which mixes up arcade racing and karting games the way we do. Besides, there will be tons of online gaming features and this is hard to see on other PC title where the usual thing are sim racing titles. Finally, I'd like to highlight the strategy twist add-on we've put in the genre.

Our co-op Teams Mode is really an innovative feature never seen before in a PC racing game, for example.

Thanks a lot for your comment!

PD. We're currently working in the game's name thing, and will come up with news shortly!

 

[DragonJam]

News!

It’s been a tough month full of intense work, but it also brought highly gratifying results. In this update we will show you some screenshots which illustrates our progress, don’t hesitate to leave a comment expressing any thought you may have on this. Feedback is much appreciated!

Drivers:

Menu Screens

Circuits

At the moment we are implementing each car's final handling, this means that soon we'll be able to make a new gameplay trailer (our current trailer is waaaay too old).

Besides, we've decided that finally, we will change the game's name. We took into account the feedback received (some of you didn't like the name at all) and there also was a risk of some legal conflict because of using the word "Formula"....so we decided to change the name. We'll announce the new one soon!

Thanks for the support!

 

[DragonJam]

screenshoots of maps are beautiful. I hope you will have alots of maps in the game.

When player drive car, will he see driver in the car? I would hate driving cabriolet without driver inside

Hello huskystafford

So far, we've got finished 12 circuits divided into 4 different maps. And there are plans of keep on adding more to the game.

Yes, you'll see both, the driver and the car. The camera will be placed behind the vehicle.

Thanks a lot for your comment!

 

[Rakehellion]

Hello Rakehellion,

First, sorry for the delay in my response, we were enjoying our christmas vacation.

Regarding your question....

The truth is that it would be very ambitious to say to anyone why they should play our game. I mean, I believe (just as in any other art expression) in the "personal experience" of players when going through a game.

Of course, as game developers, we work hard on trying to provide the best gaming experience possible, properly implement new and exciting game mechanics and pur out personal style on the product.

In my opinion, Formula Wincars has a great potential for achieving this. I don't know any existing PC racer, which mixes up arcade racing and karting games the way we do. Besides, there will be tons of online gaming features and this is hard to see on other PC title where the usual thing are sim racing titles. Finally, I'd like to highlight the strategy twist add-on we've put in the genre.

Our co-op Teams Mode is really an innovative feature never seen before in a PC racing game, for example.

Thanks a lot for your comment!

PD. We're currently working in the game's name thing, and will come up with news shortly!

I said tell me in one sentence. If you need a wall of text explaining the subtle nuances of why this game is better than the competition, it isn't. Even the explanation you did give is vague and noncommittal.