Boats on Rails Final Presentation

By on December 8th, 2014

Boats on Rails is a boat-racing game where the player races against enemy AIs and evades obstacles. To these ends, primary gameplay mechanics (besides accelerating and steering) include drifting, and strafing via cannon fire.

Group Members: gglppi, npai, shyp

The game is designed to be “fast and forgiving” — we want to keep players in the action as much as possible. Achieving this goal required several iterations and playtesting feedback; the exact mechanics of the drifting motion, and the collision physics were continually refined over the course of development. In particular, drifting was changed from a toggle-activated ability to a key-holding paradigm, and was successively modified to be less abrupt and more smooth. The collision physics was continually refined to be less punishing — much more bouncy and elastic than is strictly realistic. Recoil from cannon-fire was made to be stronger to aid in the strafing mechanic, as alpha play-testers found strafing to be more useful than trying to hit things.

After final playtesting, we made some minor tune-ups to the game, including:

  • Re-balancing the AI (to make it easier to recover if you get in last, and harder to stay in first),
  • adding more directional arrows to aid navigation,
  • fixed bugs in the minimap, and
  • made it more clear where the player was on the minimap,
  • reduced the duration of the “spin-out” animation to make it less punishing, and
  • added minor polish effects (like flying woodchips when getting hit with cannon balls).

Note that the video below is “dubbed over” with the background sound track, because it was edited to be below 2 minutes and leaving the original sound in would have been choppy.

Playable game for those interested.

Categorized under: Boats on Rails, Final Presentation (G6), Group Project.
Tagged with: no tags.

One Response to “Boats on Rails Final Presentation”

  1. gglppi says:
    Dec 8, 2014 @ 3:44 pm at 3:44 pm

    CREDITS

    [Asset Store/Bundles]
    Medieval Environment
    https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/25602
    Rocks
    https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/19288
    wooden fence
    https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/19236
    light house
    http://archive3d.net/?a=download&id=6d7bd1f9
    Palm Tree
    http://tf3dm.com/3d-model/palm-tree-88806.html
    Island with a Village
    http://tf3dm.com/3d-model/island-with-a-village-13512.html
    Old Farm House
    http://tf3dm.com/3d-model/old-farm-house-91130.html
    Fence
    https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/71
    Picket fence
    https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/2630
    Well
    https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/4477
    Flora
    http://u3d.as/1qQ

    [SOUNDS]
    Music
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke8mhtFFtLw
    Wind Sound
    http://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/sounds/146914/
    Gravel sound
    http://www.freesound.org/people/Pfujimoto/sounds/14371/
    Ambient Lake
    http://www.freesound.org/people/Benboncan/sounds/67884/
    Waves
    http://www.freesound.org/people/xserra/sounds/161700/
    Waves2
    http://www.freesound.org/people/Owl/sounds/195294/
    BoxHit
    http://www.freesound.org/people/110110010/sounds/66396/
    Wood
    http://www.freesound.org/people/kbnevel/sounds/119833/
    Menu select
    http://www.freesound.org/people/killkhan/sounds/150222/
    Fog horn
    http://www.freesound.org/people/tec%20studios/sounds/99630/

    [TEXTURES]
    Water Ripple (test)
    http://www.4freephotos.com/Water_rippling-image-d3f960b62948cb4124f00e141b341ddc.html#.VFwzW_nF-1g
    Rough Wood
    https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0CAQQjBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftexturez.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Ftextures%2Ftexturez_3980.jpg&ei=bylgVNnjEoWZgwTQlISoDA&bvm=bv.79189006,d.eXY&psig=AFQjCNGMG5dB5sYpnYy7AXlaiLIZa1kJrg&ust=1415674585059139
    Rough Wood Planks
    http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=0CAUQjBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftexturez.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Ftextures%2Ftexturez_4697.jpg&ei=iSlgVKvTHsOaNpevgsAK&psig=AFQjCNFdQYQ-ihT_PKYC9N0-xTJR8Bs5bw&ust=1415674633592060

    Sail Texture
    https://www.google.com/search?q=sail+texture&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=728&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=PS9qVI7TCcScNqnBgPgG&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&dpr=2#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=8nKff1BoSJV08M%253A%3BsdNF4wVpH-rvsM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252F3.bp.blogspot.com%252F-XB22gvud_eI%252FUCVWW9-PL6I%252FAAAAAAAAApI%252F5aOWBFkTX7Y%252Fs1600%252FSailTexture.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ftexturenlight.blogspot.com%252F%3B612%3B792

    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XB22gvud_eI/UCVWW9-PL6I/AAAAAAAAApI/5aOWBFkTX7Y/s1600/SailTexture.jpg

    Pirate Sail Texture
    https://www.google.com/search?q=black+pirate+sail&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=684&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Y-JsVIf4HYGdgwSXmYTgAw&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&dpr=2#tbm=isch&q=pirate+sail&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=e5MZUQgwut_RLM%253A%3BDHUPywTLItckoM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fdiscworld.starturtle.net%252Flpc%252F~Waterways%252Fpirate_flag.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fdiscworld.starturtle.net%252Flpc%252F~Waterways%252Fplan.html%3B1200%3B900
    http://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/~Waterways/pirate_flag.jpg

    Ship Texture
    https://www.google.com/search?espv=2&biw=1280&bih=684&tbm=isch&q=wood+texture&revid=1650495706&dpr=2#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=ASls-WT_q3ajWM%253A%3B4xJJTMsKnob-0M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Floadpaper.com%252Flarge%252FTextures_wallpapers_331.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.pinterest.com%252Flucywonderland%252Ftexture%252F%3B1552%3B1415

    http://loadpaper.com/large/Textures_wallpapers_331.jpg
    =======
    Stone Masonry
    https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m4hYQlDLgnw/Tt0vajcZQMI/AAAAAAAAAaE/0NsvEk_AwrA/s1600/Stone+wall.jpg
    Bumpy normal map
    http://i48.tinypic.com/351e4y0.jpg