Improve My Game Jam #5

The initial prototype I submitted for the 'So Bad It's Good' jam was quite simple and the gameplay was not very challenging. Since the Jam ended I've been experimenting with some ideas for improving the game based on suggestions from reviewers. It's still very much a prototype, but hopefully by joining the 'Improve My Game' jam I'll be able to get more feedback and suggestions.

The basic concept is to race a tiny radio controlled toy around a course made up of household items and collect all the flags before the machine's battery runs down. Colliding with objects uses up the battery faster so players must try to avoid hitting them while searching for the flags.

I originally styled the game using a retro effect to go with the theme of the jam, but I've decided to remove that and try and experiment with a different look. This was how it looked before:

And this is the new style. (I've remodelled the car to look more toy like and tried to highlight their small scale)

I've added some info popups to make it easier for the player. When colliding with an object a power gauge appears over the machine to show how much power was lost. And when collecting a flag a count floats in it's place informing the player of how many have been collected out of the total.

In terms of gameplay, originally the battery didn't run down when the machine was idle, so there wasn't any incentive for the player to move quickly around the course to collect all the flags. To make it more challenging, I've implement a suggestion that the battery should run down even when idle which limits the time the players has to collect all the flags.

I created two additional playable models, and added a screen for selecting which machine to use on the level. 

I think I want to bring more of this graphic style to the rest of the game. Let me know what you think.