I've come a long way since beginning this game just one week ago. Of course, it's based on the Soundscapes engine I have been designing, but the whole idea of driving is quite new to the engine pardon the pun. Driving with the mouse or keyboard was easy. I wasn't yet panning the position of the car to indicate whether and when it's in the center of the lane, instead checking my angle every now and then. Also, the angle didn't really change, because I didn't hit the turn keys. Now though, I've implemented support for joysticks and, my fave, driving wheels. Now driving is a whole new challenge. Next up I'll be adding positional panning so I can hear where on the road I am. Here's where some user input comes in. I think I know how I'm going to play it, but we'll see what thoughts you have. One thought I was that if the main character is a cop, people would just naturally get out of his way. The problem is though that the water supply has been laced with a powerful psychoactive chemical, and nobody knows it. All anybody knows is this incredible urge to speed, and they don't care if they crash into a cop. (Also that would just be boring.) The second thought I had is to give the player a special lane which, as long as you were centered properly, you'd be safe. It would be a safe lane, true, but also very narrow. Finally, and this is what I'm thinking of doing, is just centering the car's sound on the right lane, just like in American driving--and if you're not paying close enough attention and crash, you crash. Also, I'm thinking about doing something that was done in Need for Speed Suburban. In that game you had a fuzzbuster, (radar detector,) that went off when police were near. The closer they were, the faster it would beep. Once they pass you and catch you speeding they turn on their sirens and come after you in earnest. That alone made NFS worth playing. There are some problems with this though. First, a lot of cars are speeding in all directions, so why would an officer single you out for speeding? Second, you're on a vigilante mission to catch bad guys, and even though the cops don't exactly approve they aren't trying to stop you either. I have story lines a'brewin' that might solve this too, but what do you think? Anyway, I'm actually surprised about how far I've gotten this game already. It's no where near a done game of course, and if I decide to learn VB.net I'll have to redo the whole thing from scratch... But first things first--going to bed. It's late. Then, tomorrow, God willing, positional audio for the car--oh yes, and brakes! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
