Up-Run

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.65
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.56
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.31
Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.58
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.37
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.68
Humor★★★★★★★★★★1.92
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.10
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★74%
Why do you care so much about winning? Second place is good enough. In fact I'm challenging you to get second place in all of these 10 races to the top of screen.

Use left and right keys to move your ship to touch the arrows. Touch an up arrow and it takes you up. Touch a down arrow and it takes you down. You can't be damaged by your 2 opponents, but the other strange creatures in this neon world will stun you for a moment.

Created using Scratch; music: Caustic sequencer; Sound effects: sfxr; Graphics: Doodle toy.

To run the game click on the green flag in the Scratch window.

screenshot

Comments22

Xgor
Xgor26 Aug 2013, 12:34
Quite different concept.. But it felt like a waiting because you always have to wait for another ship to get to the goal and they are quite slow to get to the finish line.

...Also it dosn't really have anything with the theme.
X-0r26 Aug 2013, 12:34
A racegame with the goal to finish second - ten times. Now that's something new to me. It's totally win-able, but you depend quite a bit on luck, once you reach the upper border of the screen, since you can't evade anymore...
Rave Radbury
Rave Radbury26 Aug 2013, 12:35
Interesting concept. I'm not quite sure how the scoring works, but what's to stop me from waiting up at the top for someone to pass me and take 1st? Also, the races seemed to take a while to complete, with some sections of relative inactivity that were maybe a bit too long.

I'd like to see more expansion on the concepts in this game.
sirtetris26 Aug 2013, 12:36
Oh boy, it took ages until I realized the top of the screen is the finish line. :D I though "lol, the leading one is out of screen, just chill in front of the other one and wait for the finish to arrive."
alwaysinbeta26 Aug 2013, 12:37
Good theme idea. The music is really cool. It was kinda spoiled for me by really low frame rate and occasional freezes.
Wertle26 Aug 2013, 16:09
I was hoping to see people do the "10 times in second place" interpretation! It definitely adds a new mental layer on an otherwise very intuitive game. I love the shameful music that plays when you accidentally get first place :)
Hegemege
Hegemege27 Aug 2013, 20:22
Really nice soundtrack! I understood the game mechanics pretty fast, but was still unable to get 2nd place in the five matches I played because I would always get boosted by up arrows and couldnt evade them :( Would've been better if the AI moved faster/picked more upwards arrows. Nice concept though
doonay2128 Aug 2013, 19:35
Original idea. Good job!
PaperBlurt
PaperBlurt28 Aug 2013, 19:38
But this game was real fun, didn't get the theme to 100% but the idea on NOT winning I liked. One of the games I've played the most during LD27
garygreen
garygreenauthor28 Aug 2013, 19:41
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I agree the stages are a bit long. I really should have worked on the ratio of up/down arrows and speed and the opponent AI, but I ran out of time. I'm going to work on it again over the weekend and hopefully come up with an improved version that freezes less too (I think that was caused by my needlessly generating lots of arrow clones.
ashdnazg30 Aug 2013, 16:03
It's a cute game with a fine idea behind!
RoseNinja30 Aug 2013, 19:36
interesting game fun and simple good job
Misfit31 Aug 2013, 17:37
Nice concept. It would be great if you could push other drivers etc...
loxo31 Aug 2013, 17:42
Great and unique game concept. Indeed, to be first is easy in this game, but to keep between the two opponents is tricky sometimes.
The Evil Cult31 Aug 2013, 17:44
Interesting. Pretty fun but felt a bit punished by plain bad luck. Also did feel like the AI took a bit too long to get to the top.
Afal
Afal3 Sep 2013, 22:38
Really liked the tactical aspect of this one
motty
motty6 Sep 2013, 01:17
Really good idea, nicely implemented, love the sideways interpretation of the 'ten seconds' theme. Wish the game was more fun than it actually was though. Suspect that it could be so with a bit of tweaking to parameters - the distance moved each time is so small that winning each round is just a matter of meticulousness and concentration. Perhaps with greater moved distances a bit of challenge could be introduced and some element of fun brought in. Alternatively, it's possible that the game is indeed fun as it is, but it's just not a game for me :)

Couple of minor quibbles - at the beginnings of rounds once or twice the game was telling me I was '2nd' when I manifestly was not. Secondly, the non-arrow non-competitor items didn't seem to have much if any noticeable effect (disclaimer - I only played three or four rounds).

All that said, a fine effort.
Almax278 Sep 2013, 18:49
Funny game but no idea why as soon as the first ship reached the finish line, I had major slow down and I couldn't play anymore =/
jomomomo
jomomomo12 Sep 2013, 20:25
Very neat concept... and thanks for posting what tools you used to make the assets. I'll be checking out caustic and doodle toy.

If you like making things with scratch you might want to check out stencyl.
namuol
namuol13 Sep 2013, 11:00
First entry I've seen with Caustic-made music; cool!
01rafael16 Sep 2013, 19:30
Where 10 sec?
garygreen
garygreenauthor17 Sep 2013, 19:26
Thanks again for all the comments. The scoring system is a bit hit and miss & for those who didn't get my take on 10 seconds it was... you have to get 10 second places in the race to get the best score ie a huge bonus score.

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