Lessons from Steam Next Fest

Last week's Next Fest games festival told me a lot about you, your expectations, and where to focus my efforts on improving MiLE HiGH TAXi. Given the massive numbers of festival demo players, I can see the game attracts a larger audience than I expected. This is fantastic! But given all the constructive feedback, there's still lots to be added or improved. Here are just some of the things I've fixed-up, changed, or improved in these last 2 weeks.

Changes I've Made or Am Working On

Tutorial Section

Yes, I hear you. You don't like being forced into the tutorial, you don't like its pacing, or you feel it's completely unnecessary for a veteran gamer. And you're right! What I've Done: I have changed the game so that the tutorial must explicitly be selected from the main menu, rather than automatically starting. Once the tutorial has started you can now skip out of it by pressing Start. What I'm Working On: The tutorial needs a bit more work, like referencing the elevation indicator! (how did I miss this?) I'm also looking at ways to make the tutorial quicker to get through - more concise.

Game Controls

"The controls are too sensitive", "controls suck", "controls need work". Yes, I hear you and agree with you! The controls in the demo left many of you frustrated. I'm fixing that! What I've Done: There are two things I've already changed to improve the controls (not yet in demo builds). [olist]

Changed the camera movement to allow the player to perform better, meaning less time bouncing back and forth off walls. It also helps when going around a blind corner.

Improved the controls. Things feel a little less loose now, more responsive to intent and less sensitive overall, faster reverse, and better speed control at close proximity to name a few. [/olist] What I'm Working On: [olist]

Ongoing adjustments to the controls and how they feel.

I'm going to re-map the controls. Plenty of you have said the control mapping is too different from other driving games you've played - which mostly use the same mappings. I'm following suit.

A few other controls I took off the table a long time ago are back. If I can get them right, they'll be in the game. Barrel rolls* are one example.

Keyboard/Mouse. A bunch of you let me know that if it doesn't work with your keyboard and mouse you won't touch the game. While I personally refuse to play any game that requires keyboard/mouse, I'm not you - nor the average gamer. So I'm going to be adding in keyboard/mouse support! [/olist]

"Where Am I Supposed to Go???" - Navigation

I watched a few live streamers play and noticed a lot of confusion about where to drop passengers off. Some people repeatedly smashed into the same wall, expecting a different result, relying exclusively on the direction arrow to navigate. It lead to a poor experience.

What I'm Working On: [olist]

Adjusting the NavCom AI at the bottom-left to serve two purposes instead of just one [olist]

Indicate the position of potential passengers (already present)

Minimap that shows a GPS-like path to the destination[/olist]

Route-based navigation arrow instead of direction-based. In other words, the arrow will point like a car GPS to the next street the player should take, based on their current position. Only once the player gets close enough will it then point directly to the destination. [/olist]

Other General Enhancements

Here's a few other random things I'm improving on. [olist]

More vertical space and a more friendly notification when the player is leaving their vertical employment zone

Ability to fly at a steeper vertical angle when heading both up or down

More hovercar traffic

Cleanup to the voice dialog volumes. It can be hard to hear the passenger, player, or dispatcher when there's a lot of background pedestrians talking. [/olist] There's more in progress beyond this list. It's a lot of work and if I need to delay the game release a little in order to get it right I'll be sure to provide you an update. I look forward to implementing more of these and other improvements to make this game as fun as possible! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1366560/ * Some enhancements may not make it into the final game if they don't deliver better game play.

[ 2022-10-16 02:11:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

MiLE HiGH TAXi is The Fifth Element meets Crazy Taxi.

In this 24th century scifi game you're the driver of a flying taxi cab in a race against time to transport as many paying customers as you can before the meter runs out. Earn enough cash, experience and respect to work the upper floors and skywalks. The higher you work the cleaner the air, richer the customers, and the more cash you can make!

You'll play as Kyle, Emma, or Skyler, a down-on-your-luck citizen relegated to the polluted airs of the city's sub-100th floor level. Your new career as a taxi driver is an opportunity to get out of the slum, the smog, and the eternal shadows, earn money and promotions, and make it to clean air. As you drive through 24th century Toronto, pick up passengers from mile-high super skyscrapers and deliver them to their destinations as fast as you can. Do it fast enough and you'll earn bonus time and make happy customers. Happy customers are well paying customers. Use the GPS to help you navigate, and Driver App mode to find hidden customers. But keep your eyes on the sky - especially when using your Hyper Drive Boost! You're not the only one driving the Skyways and other cars and traffic obstacles will slow you down. Once you get a handle on your new job and learn the city, start using narrow back alleys to navigate the city faster. As you progress, expect to be promoted to the city's higher floor levels where you can earn more money. Become an expert and experience sunlight for your first time as you blast through Skyways at the 600+ floor levels.

MiLE HiGH TAXi is a single player, game controller or mouse-keyboard arcade game that you download and play on your PC (Windows, Linux) or Mac. It isn't about customizing your car or public achievements. There are no save points. Just start it up and get playing!

MINIMAL SETUPOS: LinuxMemory: 8 GB RAMStorage: 10 GB available space
Memory: 8 GB RAMStorage: 10 GB available space
Storage: 10 GB available space
Memory: 16 GB RAMStorage: 10 GB available space
RECOMMENDED SETUPStorage: 10 GB available space

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