Forum ‹ Showroom ‹ Multiplayer Flash 3D Driving Game Test

[moosemouse]

Hi,

I have an early test of a multiplayer flash 3D racing game I am making, and I am very interested in getting some feedback. Specifically, I am interested in people's impressions of the movements of the opponent cars in multiplayer mode. I have been working hard to create an appealing prediction/interpolation setup for the opponent cars, but I am not sure how well it works with various latencies around the world. If you have a moment to test it, and can you please let me know your thoughts and what the "Latency" value is in the top left corner? Much obliged

The game: http://moosemouse.com/mpt.html

Also, I just purchased the "Plus" plan, and I would like to remove the PlayerIO Branding.. but I can't seem to find any info on how to do this. Is it supposed to be automatic, or is there some code I need to change?

Thanks,
Shawn

[Oliver]

Hi,

Well hello there

I have an early test of a multiplayer flash 3D racing game I am making, and I am very interested in getting some feedback. Specifically, I am interested in people's impressions of the movements of the opponent cars in multiplayer mode. I have been working hard to create an appealing prediction/interpolation setup for the opponent cars, but I am not sure how well it works with various latencies around the world. If you have a moment to test it, and can you please let me know your thoughts and what the "Latency" value is in the top left corner? Much obliged

Aiight! We played a little here, and it was very hard to judge the thing you asked for simply because it's very hard to control the car as it drives around the track. So i couldn't stand still and watch Chris drive around, because he was gone so fast... Maybe we were just bad at it and had to shouldn't keep the forward key pressed down all the time.

Latency: 16ms.

The game: http://moosemouse.com/mpt.html

Wrooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom!

Also, I just purchased the "Plus" plan, and I would like to remove the PlayerIO Branding.. but I can't seem to find any info on how to do this. Is it supposed to be automatic, or is there some code I need to change?

Awesome that you purchased a plan, we love it when people think it's worth paying for! Totally sucky that we didn't not deliver as promised though: The branding is supposed to disappear automatically when you purchase a paid plan. I'll get right into fixing it for your account ASAP!

Let us know if you have more questions

Best,
Oliver

[Oliver]

The branding should be gone from your game now. It was a cache not being cleared. I just hot-fixed it for your game and have filed the bug in the bug tracker...

Best,
Oliver

[Benjaminsen]

The extreme grip that the car has makes the game pretty hard to get started with but with a bit of practice its actually quite fun.

My best time so far:


Latency 17-75

[delphicoder82]

Hi, I got between 40 and 105 for latency.

Thanks

[moosemouse]

Thanks for the feedback! And thanks for the quick solution to the branding! I am still trying to tune in a nice sliding drift, but it is a really touchy process. I also plan to have higher end cars and car parts via microtransactions, so the initial free cars will be slow and will slide very easily on turns. Still a ton to do

@ Benjaminsen: Nice time! I just got 56s trying to beat you.

Shawn

[Benjaminsen]

Suggestions & Feedback

Lobby & related
1: When a race is over, give people an option to play again.
2: Let people join games when they are already started. People who joined after the game is started will either be ghosts or just see a "please wait to next round".
3: Maybe allow more than 3 players?

Game interface
An indicator showing where on the track people are (I got overtaken by Oliver several times without knowing so). This view does not necessarily need to be in the form of a level shaped mini-map. A simple progress bar would work as well.

Gameplay
This could easily turn into a flash RollCage / Vipeout. You might look at both for inspiration.

Monitization
If it even have your interest; take a look at how track-mania handles monetization, lots of insights to be had on how to make a fremium racing game can be gained there.

[moosemouse]

Thanks for the suggestions! I will look that stuff over

[jsheppard]

Dude, this game is pretty awesome.

[jak322]

This is really cool, are you using a 3D API to generate everything?

[Benjaminsen]

I think you should just reset the car to the bottom with zero velocity if you touch the edge. Currently it's far to easy to "surf" the edges for random speed boosts etc.

Here is a video of edge surfing.
http://chrisbenjaminsen.com/t/edgebug.mov

/Chris

[moosemouse]

Thanks!

@jak322: I am using Away3DLite for the 3D. It takes advantage of all of Flash's new(ish) 3D stuff.

@Benjaminsen: Yikes, that is a problem! I have just adjusted the edge collisions so that the car slows to 0.25 of its previous speed (but I still have to upload the new swf). The negative g freakout is something on my to do list, but I haven't quite figured out what to do to about it yet I will keep the idea of reseting the car to the center of the track as an option, but I hope to get rid of the problem in the physics solver.

[Tsuken]

50-80 ms Looks awesome, hard to control though.

[moosemouse]

Well, I have been working hard on this driving game, and I think I am in the beta phase. In the final version of the game, players will start with $1000. But I have given everyone $10,000,000 in this beta test so you can easily try out the different cars, customizations, tracks, etc.. Also, the ghost cars in the last 2 tracks are not set up yet, and there are a few other loose ends to tie up.

Please check it out if you have a moment and let me know what you think, or if you find any bugs.

The game: http://moosemouse.com/mpt.html

Thanks!
Shawn

[cjcenizal]

Hey moosemoose! The hard work is really showing man! You've accomplished so much. I'm going to give hard, honest feedback, and I hope you find it valuable.

1. The wild and crazy tracks are SO MUCH FUN! I really enjoyed going around the crazy loops, sliding up and down walls half-tube-style, and seeing this track in 3D space all around me was very immersive. This is the funnest part of your game.

2. On the flip side, none of the beginner tracks were fun. If I were you, I would eliminate all of the beginning tracks, and only have 3D tracks. In my opinion, these 3D tracks are the real strength of your game, and the flat basic tracks detract from the overall experience.

3. I think it will be valuable to try to really fine-tune and simplify your understanding of the ideal user experience. In terms of the series of user events and decisions throughout one play session, I can see a couple place where a user might feel stuck/confused. For instance, when I first started playing, I thought I had to buy a car. This brought me through the car-buying process, which took a few seconds. And then I wasn't sure what to do next... I couldn't find the "Race" button because it is grouped in with the other buttons.

I think it'd be more pleasant to be able to just start racing right away. There could be just a single big button that says "Race". You click it, and start racing... once the race ends, the feedback says, "You won $5,000! Spend it upgrading your vehicle." That type of UX is simple, it gets the player into the fun right away, and it encourages him to move onto the next step ("Spend your money to upgrade your car"), so he is taught the user experience loop that you as the designer are going for (race, win, re-invest in car).

Additionally, maybe it'd be better to unlock tracks through XP or Win Points or something... it seemed really counter-intuitive to have to spend money on a track... as if I somehow am the owner of a track?

I think you've got some really really fun aspects to your game. Keep it up!!

[moosemouse]

Thank you for the thoughtful post, cjcenizal! I think I may be trying to accomplish too much with the user experience right now. My thought was that making everything about money would be a realistic way to allow people to upgrade.. either with skill (winnings) or with money (micropayments). I may change the track upgrades to xp points and then allow a micropayment option for players to buy an "All Track Pass" that will allow them to unlock all tracks.

I also like the idea of starting in with the racing immediately, and saving the buying for a bit later.

Not sure yet about getting rid of the simple tracks. They may be a bit more fun for multiplayer racing.. since you can concentrate on racing strategy rather than just avoiding crashing.

I really appreciate the feedback!

Best,
Shawn

[cjcenizal]

Thanks for taking my feedback so well, Shawn. You're right about the tracks... I guess it comes down to the kind of game you're making. If you want to make it more about realism (e.g http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Drivin'), I agree with you and see the value in keeping them. But if you want to do more of a Mario Kart style game, I'd say they may feel out of place to players. Good luck dude!!

[jsheppard]

Wow! The game has changed a lot since I last looked at it. I love the new lobby system, although it's a shame that there is no one in the lobbies. :3 The driving feels really good. Although, I don't know if there is a possibility to add burning rubber to provide a better indicator when you're about to lose traction.

[moosemouse]

Thanks, jsheppard! I may have to wait for the "Molehill" GPU accelerated Flash player to add burning rubber effects (smoke). I am really pushing the limits of the current Flash player as is, and smoke effects may be too much.. but I will look into it

Shawn

[Benjaminsen]

Woh, great upgrades!

Personally I find the game to hard to get started with. Basically the first time I play the game I should just be thrown into a multiplayer battle without having to first buy a track and a car. From there you can start upselling new items to the players.

[moosemouse]

Thanks for the great feedback!

I just added some in-game instructions to help new players get going. I realize that conventional wisdom says I should get players into the race as quickly as possible, but I am not sure if that is how I want to do this game.

My thought is that if I immediately put players into a race, my game will be compared to all of the Unity, Shockwave, and .exe racing games. Not sure I can compete well with those. Instead I would like to get players excited about the car choice, performance tuning, and wagering aspects of my game. If I go straight to racing, players may never realize those parts of the game exist. Instead they will see that the graphics are not as sophisticated as other racing games.. and judge the game based on that.

So you can say "I told ya so" if my plan backfires, but I am going to try this approach to begin. I still very much appreciate your opinions and ideas

[Peter_Pain]

Great game
here is my two cents:
-when i fly out of the 3d track my car gets reset in a weird position perpendicular to the wall
-when you are not moving and you hold the S button you should go in reverse
-it will be cool to have a handbrake button
-sometimes you can see the wheels not spinning

[moosemouse]

Thanks Peter_Pain! I will probably add reverse at some point, but it will involve changing some physics simplifications that don't allow the car to go in reverse. The simplified physics also causes crashes on the high banked turns to get really funky.. hopefully I will have time to go back into the physics engine when Flash's "Molehill" comes out.

The handbrake is a fun idea! I will put it on the (very long) to do list

thanks