Hog Havoc - Free Combat Racing Game (Single & Local Multilayer "Party" Game)

[slidegrass]

https://slidegrass.itch.io/hog-havoc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvSlw99FCQ4

Just uploaded Alpha to Itch.io - looking to get some feedback. Right now it’s single player + up to four local players split screen - peer 2 peer networking coming later in beta. Supports keyboard and controller input, with a really cool (at least I think so) spectating / play viewing system - 20+ cameras, drone & camera network, picture in picture mode - all with auto tracking / following, plus an optional CRT overlay for the retro look and more.

The standard store spiel:

Hog Havoc is the FREE low-poly combat racing hybrid that lets you play the way you like, alone or with friends (up to 8 players / bots) with split screen local or peer-to-peer multiplayer - no servers or live service required!

For the party gameplay experience, pick from two different courses: Survive an obstacle course with jumps, mud pits, map-fired balls and bizarre, unstable barrels - or brave the frenetic oval with hazards at every turn. Or combine both in epic free-range mode!

Dodge chaos balls or be set ablaze, slowed in mud, or sent sliding on ice. Grab balls that do the same to opponents or barrels - creating areas of mayhem with no escape.

Balls power your shooting and shield. Trick shot? More points. Careless? Hit a Checkpoint Chicken or the Big Pig guardian and get zapped - or face a ball barrage as revenge.

Multiple modes keep it fresh: pure races, knockout, collection, combat, speed runs, and hybrids. So do multiple environments: Race in the bright and colorful day, experience the spectacle of midnight pig racing, or add fog to either for more unpredictability!

Long for retro console gaming? Turn on head-to-head mode for up to 4 players on screen at once - and even add in a retro CRT overlay!

Spectate from your drone or the broadcast quality camera system you’ll wish your favorite AAA games had. While watching, you can command unique bots mid-race. Later on in phase two you can take on your friends in RTS mode, and in phase three you’ll be able to relax in tycoon mode, customize the park, and build your own Pig Racing Empire!

And it’s all optimized to run on older and lower-end hardware - so you don’t have to break the bank to play a free-to-play game.

Thanks for checking it out!

[phoenixdk]

There are a lot of features packed in there already, and I quite like the boxy hogs. They have a lot of character for being just boxes on boxes

While the menus are pretty dense, I like that they’re a bit like racing game menus (Grid / Dirt come to mind, among others)… it’s like a little design joke.

My notes:

• I’m not sure the gameplay is quite on track. I assume it’s a partygame kind of experience, with a lot of unpredictability, but that only feels good to the player when you unpredictably get bonuses / advantages - in this game, it feels like something new is going wrong every other second (being shot by others / bumped / being shot by the environment / sliding on ice / missing a jump / losing your way / hitting hazards / …), and there are no positive surprises.

• The high difficulty favors more skilled players, so players that know the game well will always beat a new player - not ideal for a partygame, where the purpose is to level the playing field so anyone can take part and have fun.

• Resetting the player when touching the ground (?) is pretty harsh and frustrating, especially when the controls go slidey. It encourages the player to move carefully and slow, which seems at odds with the nature of the game. I played for about 15 minutes before it became too frustrating to keep trying to reach the end, even after the opponents were gone

  • Jumps feel comically short and small, which adds to that frustrating feeling. Might do with a bit more height / air time, even with the current level layout - it’s certainly not too easy at the moment.

• Music would really help the atmosphere, and would be an easy feature to implement.

• The info texts are very long. The text below could be shortened to “Press F11 to toggle CRT mode”, and the player might actually read it

  

[slidegrass]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, the Nascar / F1 style graphics were sort of a design joke “here’s a racing pig game where they spit and fart balls at each other, combined with Broadcast style graphics”.

I agree, there can be a lot going on at once, especially if you’re not used to the flow. The balls fired by the course come every second and the timing can be punishing if you’re not in sync.

One thing I have to balance is bot ammo usage / conservation. To keep players from getting frustrated that they could not pick up balls if they were late in the pack, I added a per checkpoint ball bonus right before the alpha, which just gave the bots more ammo to shoot with, so I need better ammo conservation in the bot programming, which was based on scarcer ball availability.

My big worry was being “too easy” which can translate to “too boring” if there are no challenges, so balance is the tough part. The “positive” pickups right now are split between offensive and perks like speed boosts and the portable checkpoint, and one I plan on adding soon is a pickup for "hazard” immunity, meaning you if you get hit by an ice / mud / fire ball, or enter into a temporary zone with those effects, you still move as normal. When I do I can bump up the distribution of those to provide more relief. That should help with movement when affected. I’ll check my un-affected friction values to see if I can ease it up a bit more while still providing a need for control. Since I went with arcade style strafing movement, 100% friction combined with that can make it a little too easy to handle twists and turns.

Jumping had to be tweaked around how bots perform - too little they don’t make it, too much and they can overshoot the next jump. My goal was that every intended jump be reachable with a bit of precision - going back to the classic “too easy” balance issue. It’s one of those values I’ve switched back and forth countless times. I’ll see if I can mump it up a bit and not have them overshoot.

The info cards that pop up on pause were meant to do a few things - basic info (like the one shown, press F11 to trigger) - which I could probably switch to a rich text label to bold that part. Others goal is to give some info behind the mechanics, and finally to explain to people that some options can hurt performance, (like if you’re wondering why having a 4 cameras on screen at once is hurting FPS). But agreed, I will probably do something like have a highlight box behind the most important thing they should know as a start.

I’ll be doing music myself when I have time, that’s just a bit down the road as an enhancement.

Thanks again for taking the time to play it and give feedback.

[phoenixdk]

I’m looking forward to seeing more! Another (simpler) track might be a good place to put in some time

@slidegrass

My big worry was being “too easy” which can translate to “too boring”

This only applies to a single player game - if the players have equal skill in a multiplayer game, then the game is always equally balanced. I’m talking about the difficulty of just getting around in the game - I found the track too difficult to get around even without competitors, and I imagine a lot of other players might have the same experience. If you don’t like the idea of changing it, you could consider having the current level represent a very late and difficult track, which is not suitable for new players.

@slidegrass

pickup for "hazard” immunity

This removes a big feature of the game for other players, temporarily - it might be good to make it dependent on hazards hit rather than time, so even if a player hazards an immune player it has an effect (ie -1 hazard immunity). That mechanic would encourage players to hit an immune player (a negative feedback loop that levels the playing field), while a timer would encourage players to hit each other but avoid the immune player.
Speaking of immunity, you could have powerups that make the player immune to the ground for a short time, allowing a shortcut. Just a thought. Shortcuts seem very appropriate for the game

@slidegrass

Jumping had to be tweaked around how bots perform - too little they don’t make it, too much and they can overshoot the next jump. My goal was that every intended jump be reachable with a bit of precision

The precision part is fine, the distances correspond to the jump lengths etc… I was talking about how it feels to jump for the player. I find it frustratingly shallow, giving very little air control time, which makes it less forgiving. It would be a shame to let bot AI dictate how the controls feel, especially in a real-time control-based game.

@slidegrass

But agreed, I will probably do something like have a highlight box behind the most important thing they should know as a start.

We all know it’s harder to cut than to add, but I’d suggest trying. Bolding a few words in a wall of text is the equivalent of putting a “wet floor” sign on a wet floor, rather than mopping it up