As some of you may know we've been focusing on short jam games here at QCF for the last few weeks. In an effort to be more open about what we're working on and also get some of that sweet community feedback, we're going to try and post more builds here. So this is last week's prototype:
Fireboats - A local co-op game about high-speed boat drifting and extinguishing fires in a floating city.
The objective is to use the water spray from your jet powered boat to extinguish as many fires as you can before the timer runs out. Putting out fires will extend the timer, but allowing boats to sink will remove valuable seconds from it. That's pretty much all their is to it, press A to boost, but try not to crash into things too much.
Downloads:
Windows Build
OSX Build
Controls:
We highly recommend using a gamepad to play:
Left Analog - Steer
A - Boost/Revive
If you really must use the (frankly awful) keyboard controls:
Arrows - Steer (Player 1)
Space Boost/Revive (Player 1)
WASD - Steer (Player 2)
Left Control - Boost/Revive (Player 2)
Design questions:
We're really happy with how the controls turned out. The lack of friction combined with high turning speed allows for really fun drifting around obstacles and through gaps. The best moments are when you pull off sweet turns to narrowly avoid collisions. In an effort to to try and create those situations we went with a mechanic not dissimilar to Crazy Taxi. We were hoping that the urgency of having to reach fires would have players taking risks and slaloming through narrow gaps.
I personally don't feel like this worked out as well as we hoped it would. The excitement curve is not what I'd like it to be and those rewarding moments of skilful piloting are too few and far between. Perhaps these controls should be used with a racing mechanic or a combat mechanic instead?
So we'd love to hear any feedback you have, in particular here are some things we'd like to hear opinions on:
The timer mechanic. Did you feel like the timer mechanic increased the intensity of the game? Did you find yourself under pressure to zoom to the next fire? Do you think something else could have made better use of these controls?
The extinguishing mechanic. Were you able to get the hang of putting out fires? Did you have any of those moments where you pull up to a fresh fire, flip around, and blast away extinguishing it one go? Or was it mostly frustration with fires that won't quite extinguish?
The multi-player. If you played with a friend (or three), did you work together nicely and achieve some jolly cooperation? Did the camera force you to stick together? Did the co-op element add anything to the experience?
How did your game end? In a frantic rush to reach the next fire? In an uncontrollable blaze due to an explosion? Or in a disappointing fizzle because you ran out of fuel and couldn't find a buoy?
What was your funnest moment? Did you pull off something cool? Did something hilarious or unexpected happen?
What did you think of the player select screen? Did you use it to get used to the controls and experiment with some of the mechanics? Or did you just jump right in and start the game?
And of course any other bits of feedback or ideas are greatly appreciated, thanks folks!