Brain dump
29/08/2010 20:41
beep,
beep,
beep...


Windows Phone 7 is coming in October and I’d like to have Wheelz ready to ride the launch wave. Huge opportunity there, it’s a whole new market that opens up and being among the first developers to have a product on it can only be a good thing.

Which also means that I need a complete game with a full set of features... Not just an episodic web game, I need the whole thing now.

Good news is that I got much of the needed features figured out. For once, I know exactly what Wheelz is. On paper at least...

Thing is, with the Phone 7 there are a lot of uncertainties. Almost nobody has a device in their hand to test their game. I work on an emulator and there’s no way to know if the performance will be the same. Also, the current version of Wheelz is very memory inefficient. I need to improve it a lot so it runs smoothly on the device. Good news is that all improvements will be reflected on the online version (at some point).

In short, Wheelz should be coming to the Windows Phone 7 in October, but there are huge challenges in front of me before it gets there. It should be a fun month =)

Now the online version...

There are a few things that don’t satisfy me with the current state of the online version.

First, challenges were a good idea but I’m not sure where I’m heading with that. On one side, I’d love to have new challenges every few weeks, on the other side, I can’t just make a new upgrade that fast. I need to figure out a way to easily make new challenges (whatever that means) while giving a reward that is satisfactory to the player. I juggle with a few ideas but nothing stands out yet. Any suggestion is welcomed.

The stars... Let’s face it, the stars are pretty but aren’t very useful for anything other than getting a better score. I’ve been thinking a lot about what do to with them. I want them to be a more integral part of the gameplay.

One idea is to use them like a currency. Upgrade like the Flaming Haircut would cost a certain amount of stars. You could have different quality of upgrades that cost a different amount of stars. I’m not dropping the idea but I got a better one.

The other idea is the one I’ll be using in Wheelz Mobile(the Windows Phone 7 version). It’s pretty cool actually. In short, your buggy has 4 improvable upgrades: the jetpack, the Flaming Haircut, the “wheels on fire” and the buggy’s resistance to damage. While you play, you gather stars which fills your pool of available stars. At the end of a level, you can customize your buggy by emptying your pool of stars into your upgrades.

I think this idea is better. It’s fun to play around and figure out which configuration will give you the best results for a level. Some levels might need a little more jetpack power and less speed, while some other might need more speed and no jetpack at all. Add to that a leaderboard for the competition and I think people will have a good time figuring out the best setup for a level.

That’s the idea anyway, we’ll see how well this works out when I implement it in the coming months...
At last, the new Forest 2 level is here!
27/08/2010 13:28

Forest 2 is here!

This is a darker version of the forest, there's a desolated feeling to it. I hope you like it.

Summer being the summer, it took me a bit more time to make it. I'm also working on a version of Wheelz for the coming Windows Phone 7 so it's taking a bit of my brain power.

On a side note, the great folks at Farseer Physics Engine just released a new version of their engine. I'll be migrating Wheelz to it in the future. There are some very nice features I'd like to play with, like destructable objet, moving platform, and curvy terrain.

Enjoy the ride =)

Wheelz trailer!
16/08/2010 05:08
Wheelz got a trailer!

What I tried to do with the trailer was to get people interested not just in the game but in the whole episodic web game project. Feel free to share it around and thanks to the people who gave me their nice feedback, I think it adds a lot to the trailer.

Youtube:


GameTrailers.com




A new level has arrived, Mountains 2!
10/08/2010 19:21

Here it is, the new level has arrived, Mountains 2!
(I have no talent for naming levels...)

Actually it's more of a lake, and it features the new underwater gameplay!

It's quite common to hear from gamer that the worst level are the one underwater. They're said to be hard to control, feature complex maze with deadly enemies and you'll often drown if you stay too long. So I tried to avoid all that. There's no maze nor enemies, the controls are relatively tight and you can't drown. I've gone through quite a few iteration to get the controls responsive while still giving a feeling of being underwater. At first, it was behaving like a slingshot and falling into the water projected you miles away into the sky. Quite funny at first, but a little nauseating over time...

It's also more of an exploration and less straight forward then the previous ones. No worries though, I used a little trick to show you the way to go.

Here's a teaser:

mountains2_screenshot.PNG

Difficulty: Hard
Stars:48

I'm curious to hear your feedback on this one and like everything else, I'll be tweaking its gameplay overtime.

Talking about tweaking the gameplay, you might feel like you have a better control over the buggy. In fact, I added a damping effect. Before, the buggy was moving like it was on the moon, without any air resistance. Now it moves like on earth, where air resistance stops you from continously accelerating. The result is a control that feels less slippery.

Happy diving!

Fun with statistics
10/08/2010 05:39
Since the first of August Wheelz had:
  • 496 game sessions. 
  • 326 levels completed.
  • 144 "Old City 1" completed.
  • 88 "Moutains 1" completed.
  • 56 "Forest 1" completed.
  • 37 "Sunset 1" completed.
  • 2394 deaths from which 2187 were from falling in a hole and 207 from excessive damage.
  • 376 235 of cumulative score.
  • 67 Flaming Haircut challenge unlocked.
  • 33 saw the credit screen.
The most popular hole is this one from the "Old City 1" level with 340 deaths:
mostPopularSlope.PNG
(I think the 3 little max speed boosters on the left have something to do with it...)

Followed by this one from the "Forest 1" level with 250 deaths:
secondMostPopularSlope.PNG

I'm not sure what to take from that yet but it's fun to see what's happening in the game. At some point, I'd like to integrate those numbers in the game to give a feeling of "you are not alone"... 

Oh, and the next level should be coming out tonight, it features a nice little new dynamic with a few gameplay tweaks =)

Have a good day.

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