Red Hot Overdrive (MAGS SEPTEMBER 2014)

[AprilSkies]

Rally on public roads like it was 1990!

Run your shiny Ferrari 430 "Scuderia" through ever-changing tracks and through 5 different scenarios.
Beware though, the roads are full of other cars, turns and hazard;  you got to be an Ace at the Wheel to complete them on time!
Note: This game was made for MAGS (September 2014, theme "Cross-country").

FEATURES:

5 Different scenarios
3 Difficulty levels
AMIGA vibes
Ever-changing random tracks
Gas station before each checkpoint
Car Stereo with 4 different tracks to play
(Stunning tracks by Jonas Thiem, Dualnames, FSi and Peder)
Spacebar to honk at other cars
Totally NOT playable with mouse
Customizable controls
Cows (please don't crash on them)
Snowmen (please crash on them)
Green German Cars (Courtesy of selmiak)

COMING SOON:
Abducted Cows from A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. (Courtesy of Ghost)

DOWNLOAD LINK:
Click here

SOUNDTRACK:
The amazing soundtrack of the game, by Jonas Thiem (www.homeofjones.de), Dualnames, FSi ad Peder, can be downloaded here
It also includes a Bonus Track: Jonas Thiem Dubstep Remix of Peder's chiptute!

Screenies:

[embed=425,349]http://youtu.be/xFdu4PzwCLs[/embed]

This game would not have been realized without the cooperation of Jim Reed that made stunning GFX and helped me in designing it.

[Adeel]

Reminds me of those old racing games which I used to emulate on my Pentium II. Going to give it a try!

[CaptainD]

Really enjoyed testing this.  Took me back to my childhood days, playing Outrun in the arcades...

[shaun9991]

wow!!! getting huge amiga vibes from this. going to play tonight. amazing use of AGS!!

[Mandle]

This game was amazing fun to playtest in my break-times while making my own MAGs game this month...

Like I already said in another thread: It was a great feeling to know who I would already be losing to and why...A feeling I know AprilSkies can appreciate:

Spoiler

ahem...Donald Dowell VS. Heroine Quest...ahem...

[close]

That being said: AprilSkies selflessly devoted a LOT of time while developing this marvel of a game to help me out with the amazing GUIs you will see in my undeserving-of-such-pure-beauty project...

Now I must get back to work and resist downloading the finished product right now...

DAMN YOU APRILSKIES!!! COWS??? I NEVER SAW ANY COWS!!!

[Stupot]

Damn! Looks great. Hope to play it soon. Well done :-)

[Hobo]

Good work, this is a great MAGS release. The graphics and music are lovely and the car controls and feels just like in an old dos game (in a good way). Reminds me a bit of Lamborghini American Challenge. Also, I would have gotten a totally awesome high score, if there weren't for those meddling roadcows and pesky snowmen.

[Gurok]

What a game! I got 820 (on baby mode)

My thoughts: Even on baby mode, the bonus time should scale down to 0:45 after 20 or so laps. It just gets tedious racing for that long, grinding out 1-2 sec advantages here and there.

All in all, an excellent game though. Serious nostalgia over the graphics. Well done!

[AprilSkies]

Thanks Guys!!!

@Hobo! YEAH loved Lamborghini A C! Also inspired by Lotus, out Run and Jaguar XJ220

@Gurok.. it's time to try at higher difficulties levels.....

Just added in the first post a video of me getting 10 checkpoints in Chuck Norris Mode!

[Gurok]

Oh yeah, I see the scoring scales too. Nice! I just got 2438 in Chuck Norris mode!

[CaptainD]

My thoughts: Even on baby mode, the bonus time should scale down to 0:45 after 20 or so laps. It just gets tedious racing for that long, grinding out 1-2 sec advantages here and there.

Sorry, he had to make it easy enough for me to keep playing for... um... play-testing purposes.  Yeah, that was it.  Not because I found the game too difficult to begin with.  Not that at all.


Edit - scored 1010 on Chuck Norris mode, despite my little girl deciding to take over for a short while (NO, she was NOT better at it than me!  Give that a couple of years, until she's 5...).  Who's laughing now, AprilSkies?  WHO'S LAUGHING NOW?!?!

Er... sorry.

I can also honestly say, I never hit a cow during testing.  The fact that I never had a test build with cows in it is irrelevant.

Still can't believe this was made inside a month...

[arj0n]

WOW, congrats AprilSkies & Jim!! Awesome job!!

[AprilSkies]

Thanks Arj0n Glad to see retro-gamers comments

Btw... After MAGS, should come out with a deluxe edition with a "GUROK" difficulty level!

[selmiak]

Great release!

[Cassiebsg]

Congrats on the release!
Looking forward to try it once I return home.

Gurok, lets face it... been a long time since you were a baby...   

[Billbis]

Amazing!
Congratz AprilSkies and Jim Reed !
I'm really bad at it.

[Retro Wolf]

Reminds me of an old Amiga game I played as a kid!
Great job AprilSkies and team! I'm bloody jealous!

[Ubel]

Well done! I am thoroughly impressed! It looks great, has an amazing retro vibe, the music is sweet, there's a lot of variety so it doesn't feel repetitive for a good while. Those other drivers are assholes though.

[miguel]

Really impressive game considering it's running on AGS. It truly emulates the classic arcade racing games!
It's also really well polished and runs smoothly through menus and options. During races the controls run really well and things like acceleration, braking  and drifting are all part of the experience making it exciting to play. Well done.

[formica]

This is amazing, what a good feel. I love that everyone else in this world is a giant asshole, up to and including building snowmen in the center of the highway. I love the music and the weather too.

[abstauber]

Incredible that you (+team) managed to pull off such a polished game in just one month.
Sure, the physics aren't as accurate as Lotus Challenge, but I bet they had more than a year - unthinkable what might happen if you continue working on this

It looks amazing, has a considerable AI, it's fun to play and the music is great too.
The only thing I'm missing is shifting gears between high and low - but that's nitpicky as hell considering that you guys even hit the deadline for MAGS.

Now excuse me, I need continue the race

[AnasAbdin]

Really amazing work! I love it when AGS is used to develop non adventure games and the tracks are awesome
Now next step please: Space Harrier

[CaptainD]

Hehe, my 3 year-old daughter now calls this "The Driving Game Where We Find Bugs" after she helped me with testing once and found a bug that I hadn't!

[Jim Reed]

=O

[NotJimReed]

=O

[eye strain]

=O

[Gurok]

Red Hot =O verdrive

[AprilSkies]

Oh guys, thank you all for nice words.
@abstauber: thanx so much! For sure we planned to go on working on it! A lot of ìmprovements have to be done. But after mags voting, of course.
@anas abdin: space harrier? LOL! Jim Reed! You see??

Note, Dave's little one found a bug impossible to spot! One of the best testers!

[Ali]

Thanks for a lovely reminder of Wec Le Mans on the ZX Spectrum!

A tiny issue: when disabling sound and music using winsetup.exe, the game crashes at startup:

Spoiler

An error has occurred. Please contact the game author for support, as this is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS.
(ACI version 3.21.1115)

in "GlobalScript.asc", line 78

Error: Error running function 'game_start':
Error: Null pointer referenced

[close]

[Stupot]

Great fun. Well done April and co.
I'm pretty rubbish though. My highest score so far is 882 on Chuck Norris Mode.

[AprilSkies]

Since the game has a stunning sundtrack, I updated the first post, with the soundtrack download link!
The Soundtrack that can be downloaded also includes a Bonus Track: Yarcanox Dubstep Remix of Peder's chiptune! It's brilliant!

[selmiak]

That Dubstep remix is cool!

[m0ds]

Good bit of fun! Those lorry drivers are utter w******s! grr road rage! Where is the fire missile key!

[shaun9991]

this is amazing and actually really fun to play. i cant even begin to understand how it was programmed! great work

[CaptainD]

Good bit of fun! Those lorry drivers are utter w******s! grr road rage! Where is the fire missile key!

Unfortunately that was rejected at the testing stage.  I did suggest it... several times.  Really hate those lorry drivers!!

[selmiak]

My vote went to turtle shells but all we got is a car horn. And it is as effective as IRL.

[AprilSkies]

My vote went to turtle shells but all we got is a car horn. And it is as effective as IRL.

LOL! CaptainD and selmiak indeed suggested rockets and Turtle-shell But all they get was the spacebar to honk...
and as IRL.... horn don't affect anyway the traffic

btw.. after MAGS I'd like to improve physics and also add a shop in the gas station (Gurok's brilliant suggestion) where you can purchase some weird stuff.... Nitro of course, but also (maybe) something to use against other cars

[Mandle]

Geez, I suck at this game even worse than during testing!!! AND...totally agree: Those damn lorry drivers should all go suck my tail-pipe, swallow my exhaust, and DIE!!!

Spoiler

I almost made the tunnel on the last try and a damn lorry kept blocking me and time ran out. That was YOU driving it Andrea...WASN'T IT?!

[close]

[sergiocornaga]

This is an impressive effort! I liked the graphics (and associated coding) a lot. I think difficulty needs to scale as time goes on, though, as I quickly reached a point where I can play endlessly and it isn't much fun. Early on I kept expecting the race to end, but eventually realised that would never happen. I wound up driving over 100km with a score of 3626 on Chuck Norris mode, and boredom was probably the main reason it didn't reach even higher (though I did also get stuck behind two lorries on that last fateful lap).

[AprilSkies]

Thanks a lot sergiocornaga.

I also think that I should probably give more challange to the player and also make more scenarios while the game goes on.. or even give more that one game mode, but... it was made within a month for the MAGS competion and time ran fast out for the development

I'd like to improve it after the comp the is complete (it will not be fair to upgrade it while the voting time is still active).

[Myshkin]

Hey AprilSkies, you might already have seen it, but you got a write up on Rock Paper Shotgun:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/10/09/freeware-garden-red-hot-overdrive/

Now just sit back and wait for the thousands of downloads to roll in...

[AprilSkies]

HEy thanks Emont

I'm really surprised and happy at the same time.

This is great! And this answers my question of the week: Why so many people are downloading my Mags Game?

As Mandle noticed and told me, one of the funniest comment to the review is:  It's like making Castle Wolfenstein 3D in Klik 'n' Play kinda level

[Monsieur OUXX]

Really cool polished and professional feel. Everything is clean and trippy. The gameplay is awful, but that's how it's meant to be in every Outrun clone. The genre demands it   -- in its category, this game is excellent!

[kconan]

Nice!  Both looks and plays old school.

[Creamy]

Nice little game. I bump every obstacle, like in the good ol' days.

[AprilSkies]

Thank you so much to everyone who voted this game for the awrds <3
To win best non-adventure game and best programming was like .. boom!
Thank you really <3

And JimReed, my good friend, those awrds belongs to you too! Your amazing gfx made this game so good!

[splat44]

and me as well! LOL!

Thank you so much to everyone who voted this game for the awrds <3
To win best non-adventure game and best programming was like .. boom!
Thank you really <3

And JimReed, my good friend, those awrds belongs to you too! Your amazing gfx made this game so good!

[AprilSkies]

Of course Splat ^^
you and all the kind guys who helped out me^^

[[delete}]

What stunning arcade game you made, Andrea!

Reminds me of the Bleifuss/ Screamer racing game series from Milano (~1996-99).

[AprilSkies]

Ahahah! ^__^
Thanks Amélie!

I know some guys who worked in Milestone (formere "Graffiti") tho
And yeah! Screamer was a masterpiece! Even if I was inspired by Lotus and OutRun

[Mandle]

Congratz you RED HOT OVERDEVELOPED DEVELOPER

[Ghost]

A red hot congratulationdrive from me too. Well deserved, that game sure made me wonder just HOW you guys did it.

Seriously. How *did* you do it?

It's witchcraft, isn't it? You have half a broom, one honeycomb, and a woodruff leaf in your cellar and you're doing really mystic things with that.
I *knew* it.

[AprilSkies]

Thanks Mandle, my red hot overtetser!

@Ghost: Hahaha, well I'd rather call it duct-tape coding style than witchcraft

[Mandle]

Thanks Mandle, my red hot overtetser!

I am not a tetser! I am a free man!!!

[AprilSkies]

ROFL!
I meant Overtester!

[RetroJay]

Hi AprilSkies.

Congratulations.
You truly deserved to win with 'Red Hot Overdrive'... It's Awesome!

[AprilSkies]

Thanks a lot RetroJay ^___^

[Ghost]

I am not a tetser! I am a free man!!!

No, Jonny. You are the testermandle.

[selmiak]

absolutely deserved win for this code magic trickery. Of course this wouldn't have been possible without the green car and the mean driver behind it

[AprilSkies]

Indeed!
Also, there are some useless awards, such as Best Game created with AGS, and no one thought of a Award for the Best Green German Car in a AGS game!