Rollercoaster Breakdown

The rollercoaster is breaking down. How far can you get before falling down?

The funfair is in town and presents its newest maglev-powered rollercoaster. But they wanted to save money, so they have chosen the cheapest option and now it is starting to break down.

And someone is still on the rollercoaster!!

You are the rollercoaster operator and you control the magnets. You can either turn them on or off and you can accelerate and brake the car on the track only if the magnets are switched on. Sometimes you will be in a dilemma and will have to decide whether or not to disable the magnets to let the car jump over missing tracks.

CONTROLS
SPACE - enable/disable maglev/maglock
A/D or left/right - accelerate/brake if the car is on the track and maglev is active

Voting results

Overall
19th
39%
6.182
Graphics
25th
52%
5.000
Gameplay
19th
39%
6.000
Originality
21st
43%
6.545
Theme
29th
61%
6.636

This game entered in the Solo competition (46 entries).

Comments (8)

Talia
 • 5 years ago • 

It's quite addictive. I like the simple art style and the nice particle effect on the car. =)

TheKillerFly
 • 5 years ago • 

Quite good idea and execution, but it seemed that the best solution was to just keep accelerating with the magnets on.

Nanukk Luik
(@NanukkLuik) • 5 years ago • 

I love the coaster physics you put into this. It's fluid and works well.

psevrain
 • 5 years ago • 

Very funny, with incredibly long jumps (the landing is an other problem…).
Good idea and good realization. If I may give some hints for upgrade :

  • give a better indication (bigger? centered?) of the total distance you rolled
  • try to always give an information on where is the rail
  • bit shorter jumps ? ^^
  • … loops ? (ok, v2!)
HuvaaKoodia
 • 5 years ago • 

Clever idea. Rollercoasters, let alone maglevs, didn't even cross my mind! Using themes from another jam? Another clever idea!

The visuals do the part, clean and effective. A rail grinding sound effect would have been enough when it comes to audio… Maybe an impact sound too, and one for the falling track… Ahh, forget it.

It seems deceleration isn't too useful, the destruction will only catch on faster. The randomness of the rail, limited view when jumping, and sometimes deadly ramps (plumets directly after leaving the ramp) hamper both reacting to hazards and planning forward.

Here are a few ideas:

  • More powerful magnet. Will pull the car back to the track if in air, accelerating at the same time. No other way to gain speed.
  • Two rails, one above the other. Can change between the rails by jumping or using a separate input.
  • Rotating the car in air, matching the direction of the surface on impact conserves/boosts speed. Failing to do so has a negative effect of some sort.

Good work!

KayZ
  • 5 years ago • 

Thanks for the comments.

@TheKillerFly You are probably right. The track is getting generated randomly only based on the previous tile, so it will (at least most of the time) not generate something tricky. You just have to try not to land with your velocity vector perpendicular to the track, as you'll lose all speed.

@psevrain Yeah, the camera isn't perfect. Should have changed position and zoom based on the position of the track, instead I'm only doing it based on position and velocity of the car. I thought about loops when I got the idea for the game, but opted out of it for the sake of finishing the game ;).

@HuvaaKoodia While the rail grinding sound isn't in the game, it was in my head all the time :D. The magnet already pulls the car brack to the track (twice the force of gravity), but its only a vertical acceleration, so no speed up on the horizontal, just getting down faster.

Oat
(@OatMealPal) • 5 years ago • 

This game was really fun. It reminded me of the good 'ol days of playing linerider on a crappy desktop computer.
Good times, and a good job to you, good sir…
ma'am?
you.

M2tias
 • 5 years ago • 

Nice game. I liked the insane jumps :D
Super clean graphics too. Sometimes I died and I didn't quite understand why :/

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Author

KayZ

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#UserScore
1@Tegu2913 
2@voxel2730 
3@Thrainsa2599 
4@TheKillerFly2535 
5@jcochet2471 
6@toasty2417 
7@Wan2399 
8@dollarone2259 
9@Tijn2213 
10@Talia1487 
Total submitted scores: 10
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