25 replies to this topic

[Bl@ckSp@rk]

© 2009-2010 Sascha Swiercy, version 1.02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Hey everyone!

I want to show you my new game SWERVE which is a top-down racing game. The races are located in capital cities in Europe as Paris, London, Rome and Berlin. So you might notice some popular sights as the Saint Peter's Square within Rome and the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Try to beat your opponents in the three championships to unlock new cars and tracks. Therefore choose out of 10 cars all together but at the beginning there are just the first three cars available. There are three different tracks in each of the four cities.

The game offers also a single race mode for practice or to race against the clock. You can also submit your best time of each track to an online highscore. And what would be a racing game without a multiplayer mode. So you can challenge up to five other players over network by TCP/IP.

The development took me more than 2 years and fortunately I never lost motivation.

I hope you enjoy it! And of course feel free to post any comments.

(Cheat: press and hold ctrl in the main menu and type "unlock" to unlock all cars and tracks. Note that this will be saved to the current profile.)

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Screenshots

More: 0001, 0002, 0003, 0004, 0005, 0006

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Changes in version 1.02

• added motion blur (and an option to switch it on and off) (thanks to amd42)
• corrected collision bug in tracks B and C in London (thanks to ramses12)
• reduced the tire squealing and tire marks

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Download

• from YoYoGames (version 1.02)
• from MediaFire (versions 1.02, 1.01, 1.00)

Edited by Bl@ckSp@rk, 16 August 2010 - 11:09 AM.

[Newly Discovered]

Wow, I loved 90% of it. The graphics were great, the sounds worked, and the tracks were very well designed. Congrats on such a good game!

I was in a race and all of a sudden it froze, no errors, no nothing, just froze.
A couple things I'd love to see, the building/tree shadows go OVER the cars, not under, and possibly motion blur.
I have a motion blur link in my signature if you're interested. Also, maybe a night race? Rain? Snow?

Good luck, I can't wait to see what this game ends up being.

And thanks for the cheat, I've gotten 1st in highscores a few times now.
I like this game so much because has a lot of potential. Another thing I'd love see added is to create custom cars, not so much body kits and tuner car crap, but more tuning the car, changing performance parts, and paint jobs.

I also noticed that the tiremarks appear to be on the same surface as the shadows, and it erases the shadows when drawn over.

Edited by Newly Discovered, 31 January 2010 - 09:35 PM.

[Bl@ckSp@rk]

Thanks for your nice comment!

I was in a race and all of a sudden it froze, no errors, no nothing, just froze.

I know this bug. Other people reported me the same issue. Unfortunately, it never happened to me even though I did a lot of tests. But I think this bug occurs very rarely so we can live with it. But anyway thanks for reporting.

... and possibly motion blur.
I have a motion blur link in my signature if you're interested.

I have seen your motion blur example. But as I can see you use surfaces which work well in 2d mode. But in 3d mode it is not possible to use them as you can read in the manual. So I think there isn't really an efficient way to realize motion blur in 3d mode.

Thank you for all your other suggestions. That are all common features in racing games, of course. But I haven't planned to add new features because that would be a lot of work and I don't want to spend more time on this project except for correcting bugs.

[Newly Discovered]

surfaces do work in 3D. haven't you seen SurfaceFix?
click for topic

surface fix is simply a gex you install, and that's it. no more code or anything.
there's also a motion blur example when you download it.

[NamelessHero]

Very nice game, good car steering mechanics, nice levels, very smooth AI, overall 9.8/10, very good job! And the music is also enjoyable, for me at least

[Bl@ckSp@rk]

surfaces do work in 3D. haven't you seen SurfaceFix?
click for topic

surface fix is simply a gex you install, and that's it. no more code or anything.
there's also a motion blur example when you download it.

Sounds interesting. Thank you for the note. I'll check it out and maybe I'll use it in the next version.

[Scyler_27]

Wow, very well done. This is the most impressive racing game made with Game Maker that I have come across so far. The physics were very well done and I found them quite challenging, but not so that it became frustrating. I thoroughly enjoyed the AI, they were a perfect match keeping me on the edge and smart enough to do some creative moves. (I don't know if it was just luck, but one squeezed me against a wall and ran me into traffic)

The 3D aspect to the game certainly added a great deal, I don't think this game would be half as good without it, if not just for the more enveloping and city-like feel with various levels and bridges etc.

The sounds were good, graphics were quite decent and well put together, some of the music I wasn't too fond of, and the AI was marvelous.

Engine/Physics: 10/10
Sounds: 8/10 - Were good, but sometimes made me want to grit my teeth, for example the tire squealing after a while. Though I guess that can be a good thing.
Music: 6/10 - I honestly loved the music on the menu, and some of the racing music was pretty good. But the songs which included the singing were quite obnoxious as to where I would have to mute it. The nice thing with instrumental is you can get away with many styles, even to those who aren't fond of that style. But when you add singing it certainly narrows the flexibility and the kind included just rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe it's just me, though that was my impression.
Graphics: 9.8/10 - Very good graphics, fit the game pretty much perfectly, my minor criticism is the buildings could have used a little more detail on their textures. Many of them simply looked like walls of windows, no doors, no verity, perhaps a little unique tweak to each wall would have done it. But pretty much great, and it isn't that big of a deal anyway.

I only played a few single races, then through the beginner tournament (of which I got 1'st. ) but I think I got a good feel for the game. I am certainly saving this one and plan on playing it some more later. Great job.

[Bl@ckSp@rk]

Thanks for your nice words and the very detailed review!

I agree with you in many points, but I don't feel like working on this game much longer. I call it finished even though I know there are some things I could improve.

Edited by Bl@ckSp@rk, 15 February 2010 - 09:33 PM.

[ynspyred]

Well done, Bl@ckSp@rk. As ever, your game is excellent in presentation, gameplay, audio, and polish, and highly immersive. One of the greatest racing games THE greatest racing game made with Game Maker that I have played. It's funny to think that those who spend less time bumminga round on these forums are those who get work done and produce quality games. I would even go so far as to suggest that you make a compact shrunk down version to enter into Competition 05.

The one niggle I have with it is that it tasted a little like Forza 3, in that I got the same sense of space that I did with Forza playing this, the smooth clean graphics remind me of Forza, and the cars seem to behave similarly. Was Forza an inspiration for this? I personally would be a little more lenient on the physics side to change the gameplay - it's hard to get around those corners at speed, and I'm one of those very clever people who have the accelerator constantly pressed (and boost if there is one). Also, the cars skid out easily, which is annoying at times. What's more, it goes against the title!

Another great thing about this game is that unlike 99% of other games, the menu was decent. I don't know when people are going to realise that menus ARE important, they are the first thing the player saw. As soon as I saw this menu, I thought 'ah, this is going to be good'. And it was.

You've really gone to town with the extras as well, I see - online leaderboards and multiplayer, well that's just oozing class.

A shame that you are laying this project to rest - you could work wonders. Night time racing? Road Rage? (a la Burnout?)

[ramses12]

Impressive. Very impressive.

I found this game about 3 weeks ago and still playing.
To bad that you don't want to continue developing it, 'cause it would probably become something really cool.

[PhiL Blunt]

have to say downloaded this the other day and enjoyed it... its a keeper for me. thanks

[ramses12]

Found a bug in the London Track B. You can enter through a wall:


And some other screenshots
http://cdn.solidfiles.net/i/Xo1V.jpg
http://cdn.solidfiles.net/i/Xf5Z.jpg

[Bl@ckSp@rk]

Thank you for the note! I'll fix it in the next version.

[Bl@ckSp@rk]

I finally finished version 1.02. There are not many changes. The major new feature is motion blur. Other changes are listed in the first post.

Edited by Bl@ckSp@rk, 21 March 2010 - 03:12 PM.

[ramses12]

I can't get it working. First, the archive was corrupted, then I've downloaded it again and it worked but when trying to play it said "Failed to use 3D mode." and frozen (well not actually frozen, but it couldn't display anything).

Edit: Actually I've got it working.
The motion blur is very nice although it can get a bit annoying at very high speeds.

Plan on updating?

Edited by ramses12, 27 March 2010 - 10:38 AM.

[Bl@ckSp@rk]

Thanks! If it gets annoying just turn the motion blur off in the options.

Plan on updating?

No plans yet.

I can't get it working. First, the archive was corrupted, then I've downloaded it again and it worked but when trying to play it said "Failed to use 3D mode." and frozen (well not actually frozen, but it couldn't display anything).

Sounds like there was something wrong with your pc. Where did you download the game? From yoyogames or mediafire?

[ramses12]

Sounds like there was something wrong with your pc. Where did you download the game? From yoyogames or mediafire?

Both. But now it works just fine.

[kalzme]

great game, i really like it

[Jiggidy]

great game, i really like it

Sick game!! I love the physics!!! And the Graphics, and the speedometer and the ai and pretty much everything else!!!!

Is it Possible that u could possibly make a tutorial or example for the car physics, cause U did such a good job with them!!!

[icuurd12b42]

It is a good game... However, I would personally do without the blur effect. I suggest you tone it down a little or have an option for us to tone it down or not have it at all.