Games Hill Climb Racing game

[melonZgz]

Hello gamedevs!
This is a project I wanted to make since I started to make games, but it's a complex one and I was afraid of it (advanced physics, shaders, customization of the vehicles...) I think at this point I can do a good job.
So here's a video of what I have at the moment:


I've tweaked the physics a lot until I find it plays well (suspensions, grip, speed, also head and body movement...) All car related characteristics will be upgradeable in the game, as the default car will have almost no grip and speed. So you'll need soon or late to upgrade the car to be able to complete some levels. Of course there will be more vehicles that you will able to buy at a shop (maybe also motorcycles)
The terrain is a mesh, in Tiled I draw a polyline and having all the vertices I make all the quads to be able to render it through a very simple shader
This is how it looks in tiled

This way it's very easy and fast to make levels.
Also I've made a new parallax effect, more efficient than the one I was using, horizontal and vertical as you can notice. BTW the background is not the definitive one, I'll upgrade it at some point of the development.

EDIT
Public beta version released!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ninjagames.hill

 

[An Schi]

Either the driver or the car seem to be a little drunk
I like it

 

[melonZgz]

Yep, it's bouncy!
I don't want the game to be easy, so the default car will bounce a lot, to complicate things

 

[LucaMs]

Please, add a roll bar to the car: I can't think of the poor guy's vertebrae!

 

[andymc]

Any update on this? I love these sort of games, and they can do really well on the app store, like fly dragon fly, and risky roads.

 

[melonZgz]

Any update on this? I love these sort of games, and they can do really well on the app store, like fly dragon fly, and risky roads.

Yeah, I have something to show...


I have added a lot of things:
Now I can move the car in the air (just like in hill climb racing)
New static and dynamic objects (boxes, that wood/stone combination...)
Started to make some GUI
Fuel management
Coin points animation
Special moves (air time multiplier, flips and backflips, next will be the wheelie)
New graphics (new background and pedals)
Particles when skidding (this needs more work, as I'm not happy at all with the result)

Of course there is A LOT to do. I'd like to make a stable prototype before starting to add all the vehicle configuration stuff. This game will take long, but I'll try to make my best game here

 

[andymc]

That looks really good! Please release it early then add more levels later. It works for angry birds, just release the game as soon as there's a playable game then tweak it over time.

 

[melonZgz]

Yeah, I'm thinking about it. Google play is crazy, sometimes you develop a great game and have absolutely no downloads. After my 2 last failures (the UFO game and the platformer) I'm thinking about that estrategy: Launch a game as is, and if it becomes popular then upgrade it.
Hill climb Racing was launched with 3 levels and one vehicle, if I remember well, and when it became popular the developer started to add more vehicles and levels.

 

[eps]

Excellent!!

It's got really good potential.

 

[wonder]

It looks (and hopefully feels) fantastic!!! Great job!!

 

[melonZgz]

Hello there guys.
At this point I'd need an advice, as I really din't know how to procceed.
I don't know how to focus the game. I wanted to make a level based game, like I did with all my games before. I mean, first world, and then a limited number of levels (made with tiled), then second world and so.
But, taking a look at the original (Hill climb racing and some clones), I see that each "world" or stage is an only and endless level. I like this approach because everytime you play you try to make a better result, you want to go further, and upgrade your car...
So I'd have to investigate on how to create levels proceduraly to achieve this kind of levels
What would you do? and what kind of game do you prefer?

 

[wonder]

Use Google stock market data.

Bam!! An infinite level being updated in real-time!

Name of the game: "Stock Rider"

 

[melonZgz]

Not a bad idea
BTW, I'm starting to use simplex noise from @Informatix (here it is), and I'm allready able to generate random terrain!

The idea I have now is generate little pieces of terrain on the fly. Let's say 50m or 100m each, and varying parameters (scale, octaves and persistence ) I just go making them everytime harder. I just alternate the perlin noise generated ones with some prefabs, with objects like bridges, boxes and a lot of little things I've allready made. So everytime I have only 2 active terrains, and each time I add a new one I delete the first one. This way I have an infinte terrain, everytime harder, with fuel cans and coins randomly placed, but everytime further away from each other
I like this approach, one thing I really hate is making hundreds of levels for a game, as at some point I just run out of creativity and I'm not in the mood of making new levels...

 

[melonZgz]

Ok, I have something to show. So say hello to "random" procedural levels (infinite levels):


I'm using allways the same seed, so each level will allways be the same level.
What I've done is alternate automatic perlin noise terrains with some prefabs I've made (the windmill, boxes, bridges, and a lot I've made). The difficulty is increasing as you go further, so the terrain will be everytime harder and the prefabs will be also harder. Same with fuel cans, everytime further from each other, but the coins will be better as you progress.
So if I want to make a new level, I just have to change the seed, maybe some parameters and that's all!
I've also started to make some GUI and also working on music and sound effects.
A very important thing of this game will be the vehicle customization, it will be time consuming to handle everything, but will be worth the effort, as this is very important to keep the user playing again and again to get more coins and customize the car. Not only physical things, like deposit, grip, engine... but also colors, driver (male or female, maybe even the hair color), tires...

 

[wonder]

It looks fantastic and I believe it should have a great feel as well! Congratulations!!
My wife's gonna love it once it's out!! She's addicted to this kind of games!!

 

[ilan]

looks really awesome and professional @melonZgz. i like it a lot!

It looks fantastic and I believe it should have a great feel as well! Congratulations!!
My wife's gonna love it once it's out!! She's addicted to this kind of games!!

you are married? i thought you are single. do you also have kids?

 

[wonder]

you are married? i thought you are single. do you also have kids?

You'll have to start a new thread for that question...
Yes, but no kids yet...

 

[Sandman]

driver

This might be a bit weird, but I must say I really like the rubbery feeling to the driver. To the point I'd like to replace him entirely. I just can't stop imagining having an octopus in the driving seat, with head and arms flopping about madly as one drives. (Perhaps also put some more animals in there? I imagine a giraffe would make for some very challenging gameplay for several reasons )

Here's a bit of inspiration from another floppy octopus in games: Octodad.


Edit: The quote I pulled from @melonZgz was exceptionally poorly chosen, sorry about that. Leaving it as it is for humor reasons.

 

[LucaMs]

Hi @melonZgz, how is the process of your hill climb game going? Have you already released it and become a millioner?

If it was this one... yes
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fingersoft.hillclimb&hl=it


100,000,000-500,000,000 downloads!

 

[melonZgz]

Hi @melonZgz, how is the process of your hill climb game going? Have you already released it and become a millioner?

Sorry, but I stopped the development
I'm thinking about making first another simple game I have in the queue...

If it was this one... yes
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fingersoft.hillclimb&hl=it


100,000,000-500,000,000 downloads!

You know that it was only one guy who developed that game? And yes, I think he became very rich after that...