For the past year I've been working on Geo Racers, a free to play web game where you have to race from one side of the world to another just using public transport. It's inspired by the BBC show "Race across the world".
It's early stages but any feedback on the game it's greatly recieved.
Really like the game so far. Here's what I noticed and what I'd like to see after my first play though:
1. There should be an 'easy mode' where your money goes into the red, but you're still allowed to spend whatever to get to the end. It would be nice to see I'm $-14,952 in the hole, but I made it (with the ultimate objective to get to the destination while in the black).
2. The bottom overlays overlap. I was taking a ferry from Dublin, and tried to queue up walking to the hotel. The hotel overlay popped up under the "Skip this Ride" message. I don't really care if I can queue up actions, but the stacked overlays were unsightly.
3. I would say LEAVE THE SURPRISES. It was enjoyable to get blind-sighted by having to change my currency in the UK and the fact I lost an hour due to time zone changes.
One of the best constraints of the TV show is the limited budget (along with the lack of mobile phone). It's frequently the case that teams panic spend in order stay ahead, but are hurt by those decisions later in the race.
Over the series people have also developed strategies within those constraints - so it's quite frequent to see teams earning money in the penultimate leg and taking the time hit in order to splash out in the final leg.
It's a great show if you're able to get hold of it.
I think an easy mode is a good idea, I will explore that. I'm glad you like the surprises, I do think they add another layer to the game and makes it more stategic.
I actually really liked the current mode - for me it was a more fun and exciting challenge wondering whether it was even possible to get there on €500.
Maybe leave it as is, but once you run out of money it could then give you the opportunity to keep playing on sandbox mode or something.
Hi! I got stuck in London. I walked around to a bunch of train stations at around 10PM on Monday night and there was nothing showing up in the timetables. Same for the next morning. I then walked to Portsmouth and the Portsmouth harbor also showed no boats. The API call was https://geo-racers.com/api/boats?from_id=43128&time=07:02&da... seems odd to me?
I love this, but I'm thwarted. Apparently there are no trains from London Waterloo (one of the UKs busiest railway stations) at 1902. I've been stuck there waiting for trains for so many years I can tell you that's not the case :)
I'm not sure that's what the article says (there was disruption on some lines because of a problem further down the line.) There certainly would have been trains leaving some platforms.
But, interesting that the game is based on live transport info, not schedules. Adds a new twist to it, thank you!
Would love to be able to change to a transit map. The map display is in "car mode", which makes it hard to use. There is no rail diaplay at all. In apple and google maps I normally use the transit mode.
Worried it gives the wrong impression that using trains is hard, when it's super easy in real life. I am actually sitting in a train right now.
Or if you want to double down on making it harder, you could use a satellite image view.
I do wish I could do some in-game research—like show just train/bus stations that have international lines. Perhaps identify hotels with general affordability (€, vs. €€€).
I had a lot of fun :) . Cleaning up the leader board would be appreciated though. Seeing adolf hilter everywhere is ... something.
There also seem to be a bug where the game doesn't always spawn you where it should. Selected Galeway to Roma and was put in scotland with only euros and no banks around. Probably how some people manage to get was seems to be impossible score
So cool! Couple of minor bugs - I can click banks / hotels and use them without being near them, also many hotels in ex Paris do not show up as usable, neither does the Paris metro. Still, super fun to play.
Yeah I didn't implement that as in the show they don't let you look anything up but quite a few people have mentioned it would be useful. I think I will add
- A minimap to all the timetables that show visibly where the transport goes
- A tourist information center in town and city centers you can use to find out other information
For the past year I've been working on Geo Racers, a free to play web game where you have to race from one side of the world to another just using public transport. It's inspired by the BBC show "Race across the world".
It's early stages but any feedback on the game it's greatly recieved.