Something you by no means hear about in recreation improvement is the problem of capturing footage for a trailer or some quantity of publicity.  Few video games, significantly these with any sort of randomness or procedural era, look 100% good at each second throughout improvement.  Even if there aren’t bugs, you are making an attempt to take a slice of time, a single picture, the place the sport shines as what you envision it to be.  It can take weeks and weeks and on the finish of the method you’re feeling an odd combination of pleasure in what you’ve gotten created and despair over all of the issues you’ve gotten left to do.

So over August and September as I’ve been catching snippets to be used within the Seattle Indies Expo, I obtained a face filled with the driving expertise at instances after I wished to really feel the Drive Magic.  However, as you drive and shoot there are stalls (put in there deliberately) as the sport resolves projectiles and impacts.  That form of flip decision is fairly frequent in techniques video games, it permits you to see the outcomes of your assault (or assaults towards you) and course of the end result earlier than transferring on.  I initially set the system up that manner as a result of “that is what Roguelikes often do“

However, the frequent halts throughout my drivin’ and skiddin’ began to bug the crap out of me, particularly when there have been plenty of enemies close by. Of course I do not pause the sport when one thing occurs offscreen, however when there are plenty of enemies it may well occur typically, particularly within the enviornment the place enemies have been attacking one another.

So, to the experiments!  I made a decision to attempt a pair issues:

• I eliminated the projectile pause totally and let assaults simply resolve whereas the assorted autos moved to new positions. 
• I adjusted the pace at which the flip performed out based mostly on the participant pace, so turns (together with these of opponents) simply play out quicker when the participant car is transferring at larger pace.  Turns at 25 MPH play out quicker than turns at 100 MPH.

The outcomes have been attention-grabbing.  Keep in thoughts that that is nonetheless 100% turn-based.  The solely factor that has modified is how flip outcomes are represented.

You can particularly see the dearth of a delay when the participant fires machineguns and rockets.

Yes, the end result wants a bit of labor, particularly:

• Bullets do not but “lead” their targets so they’re hanging behind the car.
• Some gradual weapons like rockets that take longer than a typical transfer length (typically between 1 / 4 and a half second) should be transformed to take a number of turns to achieve their vacation spot.
• (…however hey that is gameplay, y’all!)
• I nonetheless want to ensure fight decision is as readable as attainable, comparable to:
• Armor impacts and harm numbers are nonetheless getting obscured.
• The armor facet that will get hit is not as apparent accurately
• And in fact, particular strikes will nonetheless have to stall the sport, however that is effective for one thing that does not occur typically.

However, in all it did enhance the general really feel of driving and smoothness.   This was a worthwhile experiment and I’m all in on ensuring the sport feels nice and nonetheless has a transparent turn-based fight decision. Not positive the place this may lead, and I do know {that a} sure phase of the viewers will need to be crystal clear on what is going on on in fight, in the identical manner that one other phase will need to reduce free and skid round fluidly.  Possibly I’ll go away a toggle for the roguelike flip decision if the participant desires that (must be attainable).  

More to come back as the sport continues to evolve and enhance!