Devlog 03: Adding Progression

Devlog 3:  Adding Progression

After the last playtest, I got some more feedback about the driving.

The most common feedback was that the game felt too slow. Acceleration was too slow, spinning in the air was too easy, and you stayed in the air for too long.

At this point, I also felt like the game needed more than just driving. I started thinking about systems that could give players more reasons to keep playing.

I brainstormed a lot about what to add, since I got the feedback that the game needed a goal a lot. I thought of hazards, objectives, and many other things but ultimately landed on an upgrade system.

Progression

The first thing I added was a start screen and a vehicle upgrade bay.

You can upgrade:

• Base speed
• Max speed
• Speed gain
• Air control
• Downforce

This gave the game some customization and progression, and most importantly, a goal.

I also noticed during playtesting that some of the stats weren't clear. To fix this, I added a ? button in the upgrade bay that explains what each stat does.

A playtester said that they weren't going to upgrade downforce, becase they liked doing flips.

That gave me an idea: instead of having one "best" way to upgrade the car, I want different playstyles to be useful and rewarding.
So now, if you upgrade air control or downforce, you can choose to make it higher or lower.

More Extreme Terrain

Another problem was the terrain. The hills were small and repetitive, which made the game feel boring.

I changed the terrain generation to create much bigger differences in height instead of the smaller waves.

This made the levels more interesting, but it also created a new problem: sometimes the car couldn't get over a mountain easily.

My first solution was to let the player drive backwards to build up enough momentum. I removed this almost immediately, because with the downforce mechanic you can already drive up steep hills. Having to reverse first just made the game slower and more tedious.

I wanted the game to stay fast-paced.

More Fixes

There were also a few smaller problems found during testing.

When you jumped very high, the camera would follow the car so far up that you couldn't see the ground anymore.

I also fixed an issue where landing on the front of the car would make it flip over too easily.

I also made the terrain lines only, no fill under there, I like the neon asthetic. 
The car now also looks a little nicer with neon colours.

Summary:

This version was mainly about expanding the game beyond its basic driving and starting to figure out what kind of progression and playstyles could fit the core gameplay.