LightSpeeder
LightSpeeder is a modern day update of a classic light cycle survival racing game. This Unity title features impressive visuals, dynamic cameras, and the ability to jump over light walls as you face against three AI opponents. You can also play against a friend simultaneously in split-screen.
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Lightcycles?
Well, so much for my plans of doing anything else today.
Not BAD...but still inferior to the pinnacle of the genre, Armagetron Advanced. Points for the creative cycle design, and the "jump" ability adds an interesting new dimension. Lag is a killer, but that's true with any game like this. Will definitely take me some time to learn how close I can grind walls, and just how close a close call can be.
In Armagetron Advanced, they built in a mechanic known as "rubber" which, to make it short and sweet, momentarily adds a time buffer when a direct approach is made to a wall. It's not really perceptible (except on some servers where it is raised to ridiculous quantities,making a collision almost impossible), but it defeats low framerates by allowing a few beats for the image to catch up to what the computer is tracking. As far as I can tell, there is no such mechanic at work here? But then, I'm on my WWII-era work compy - I'll have to see how it plays on the macbook later.
The ability to customize controls would be a plus, and the indispensable ability to look left/right (again, as in Armagetron Adv.) is missing.
They really need to add visibility to the exterior walls. How can you possibly avoid crashing into something you can't see? Serious detractor to gameplay. I'm out.
[You might want to adjust the brightness/contrast of your monitor. I can see the exterior walls just fine. -Jay]
LightSpeeder Tips and Tricks
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You get points for distance travelled, higher speeds mean more points. You also get bonuses for surviving when enemy players die, and for winning overall. After then end of the game, you continue driving whilst slowing down, and you seem to be able to accrue extra points for a few seconds.
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Grind close to walls to accelerate faster. You'll see lightning arcing between your bike and the wall if you're close enough. This also works on the arena walls as well as bike trails.
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Generally, you want to trap other players in small areas, without being trapped yourself.
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You have a jump, allowing you to hop walls. It's best used as a last resort to escape traps, as it takes good timing to use.
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If you find yourself in a large but closed off area, and the AI in a similar situation elsewhere, often the best tactic is to just stay alive as long as you can. The AI is fairly mistake prone, especially when dealing with large areas.
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Bike trails of one colour disappear when the matching bike is destroyed, so you may be able to escape a trap if you're lucky.
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If two bikes crash directly (even if one hits the other in the side) both are destroyed.
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Tournament Mode: You play a series of games with increasing speed each time. You get to set the jump speed. You also get 3 chances to retry, after which the game ends.
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Quick Play Mode: You play one game, and you get to set all the options including game speed. You can also play 2 player mode.
Thanks to Max for the tips!
I keep getting an error that says "Content was stopped because a fatal content error was detected."
[Try updating your Unity Player. -Jay]
Slick, simple, Unity. You just can't beat light cycles.
I like it, not a bad representation. Teh camera did get ahead of my Unicycle once so that I could not see my bike. oh yeah, and what is with the unicycle?
I have one slight issue with this - that happens to make this one virtually unplayable for me: the Hungarian keyboard-mapping swaps the keys Y and Z (don't ask) - so, for me, the key Y is in the middle of the top letter key-row of the keyboard. So, I should use that button, plus the X to turn and space to jump - everything but easy...
Of course it would be more than unfair to expect the developer to think of issues like this, so I'm not blaming them at all, and, of course, I could also set my keyboard to English - but I think it would be a nice move from the developer to let me set the control keys.
@bioLarzen, I consider it generally unfair from developers to use letter controls and make them unconfigureable. Surprisingly often they are US, and surprised not whole world has the same keyboard. Use arrow keys and/or make them configurable.
Generally I play this game better by watching the 2D perspective only. Except for jumps. I know, tron is all about cool animations and the such, but this one example where 3D doesnt actually add to the gameplay itself.
Btw. my Y and Z keys are also exchanged. But I configured dual keyboards to be switchable with alt-shift already, because many online games do exactly that. Normally I just stopped complaining about it :)
@bioLarzen/fuzzyface: Yes, allowing for keyboard reconfiguration is a big priority if people want their games to get played in an international market. For example, "WASD" controls may be fine if your first nine letters are [QWE, ASD, ZXC], but if they're [AZE, QSD, WXC] then that's going to be extremely counterintuitive.
@Menschenjaeger: Yes, Armagetron is pretty much the ultimate lightcycle game :-) Many hours waste on that, once upon a time...
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LightSpeeder Tips and Tricks
You get points for distance travelled, higher speeds mean more points. You also get bonuses for surviving when enemy players die, and for winning overall. After then end of the game, you continue driving whilst slowing down, and you seem to be able to accrue extra points for a few seconds.
Grind close to walls to accelerate faster. You'll see lightning arcing between your bike and the wall if you're close enough. This also works on the arena walls as well as bike trails.
Generally, you want to trap other players in small areas, without being trapped yourself.
You have a jump, allowing you to hop walls. It's best used as a last resort to escape traps, as it takes good timing to use.
If you find yourself in a large but closed off area, and the AI in a similar situation elsewhere, often the best tactic is to just stay alive as long as you can. The AI is fairly mistake prone, especially when dealing with large areas.
Bike trails of one colour disappear when the matching bike is destroyed, so you may be able to escape a trap if you're lucky.
If two bikes crash directly (even if one hits the other in the side) both are destroyed.
Tournament Mode: You play a series of games with increasing speed each time. You get to set the jump speed. You also get 3 chances to retry, after which the game ends.
Quick Play Mode: You play one game, and you get to set all the options including game speed. You can also play 2 player mode.
Thanks to Max for the tips!
Posted by: Mike
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March 8, 2011 2:27 PM