Little Racers reviewed on Uhfgood’s Game Reviews
Uhfgood’s Game Reviews has reviewed Little Racers. You can check it out at the original article
Little Racers Update v1.2 status
We’re currently working hard on the v1.2 update, trying to get it available to you in the least time possible. Some of the improvements that this update will bring have been already discussed here, and some of them have been discussed on our Twitter account.
Anyway, here’s a list of the most important improvements since v1.1 :
- Online mode (Both System Link and Xbox LIVE)
This is by far the most important one and also the most time consuming. There is still some work left to do, but we already have a full working version with lobby, championship mode, invites and kicks, host migration, in-game joining (although you’ll have to wait until the next race), etc. Also it has a fairly good anti-lag algorithm that, although not perfect, should be enough to ensure a smooth experience. Also we’ve done some adjustments to ensure fair play, for example cars not following the track path are transparent and can’t crash with other cars. - Dynamic obstacles in track borders
We have designed dynamic obstacles(one that can be pushed and moved by crashing into it), represented by tires, that add some extra fun to tracks and avoids players to go off track when they slide too much. Almost all tracks have now these obstacles in open corners. - Freeze issues solved
Many gamers have reported a freeze issue that happens often when playing for a while, specially if playing long races with many AI cars. It was due to a memory usage problem that has been located and fixed. - Car handling improved
Many complaints have been related with handling difficulty: Cars are way too slidy and most players end crashing on their first turns. We’ve tuned some handling attributes to make the cars handling a grip a bit better, and now cars are slowed more when sliding. That makes an important difference and now the cars are easier to drive ( higher classes will require still a bit of practice ) - Other minor improvements
We’ve also added some extra effects, like intermitent vibration on pianos and outside the track, or the cloud system, and a good number of fixes and minor tweaks to the game menus, audio, etc.
When will the update be available? Our estimations are that the update should be available in about 3-4 weeks. Although almost all functionalities are finished now (The only ones that are still not finished are the online mode and many improvements in the menu system), we need to do a proper testing to ensure the game works flawlessly.
Meanwhile, we encourage you to rate our game in XBLCG.info . You’ll need a Microsoft Passport account to do that.
Little Racers networking decisions
Here are my decisions about the upcoming online mode of Little Racers.
The multiplayer section will allow players to select whether they want to play on System Link or Xbox Live. After that, the player select screen is shown (this screen will only allow profiles able to play in the selected mode: Signed In for System Link game, and Live profiles for Xbox Live game.
After this screen, there are some menu options available:
- Host public game: Equivalent to championship mode. Each player gets points for his position at race finish, plus one extra point if he manages to get the best lap time. This mode allows the host to set some parameters, such as lap number and car class. Everyone will be able to join the game, even at mid-championship (with the handicap that it implies).
- Host private game: Just like public game, but only friends of the host are allowed to join.
- Quick join: This option does a search for available games and, if one or more is found, it joins to the one that offers the best network conditions. If no game is found, a game with some fixed parameters (10 races, 12 max players, random car class, no handicap) is created.
- Find: This mode shows all created games with some info on the creation parameters, and allows the player to join one of them. I’m not implementing a search function since I don’t think there will be so many simultaneous games to make it necessary. If the online mode renders very successful and the need of a search function arises, we’ll add it.
And that’s the behaviour I’ve chosen to add for the LR online mode. I’d like to know your thoughts and suggestions about it. It’s probably too simple, other games such as Gears Of War 2 have more options and more complex quickjoin behaviour, etc. , but I think that for a game that won’t probably get more than 10 public games at the same time (that could mean around 120 players), it should be enough and there’s no need to make this section more complex.
Little Racers sales numbers: April 2009
After almost one month in the virtual shelves, we’re posting here our sales and downloads data:
First, we’d like to note some interesting related facts: Little Racers development started in the late December, so it took around 3 months of development before final release. Although the quality level could be higher in some points, we’re proud of what the game shows (except for bugs).
Also, due to the amount of music in the game, the game size is greater than 50Mbytes and that means that you can’t choose 200 MP as the game price. Even with that handicap, Little Racers has managed to be on the Community Games Top 10 on every week.
Our estimations / objectives for the game were around 1000€ for each month of development, that is, 3000€ net benefits (around $3500).
Now here are the current numbers (as of 04/23/2009):
- Little Racers trial downloads: 37182
- Little Racers full purchases: 1575
- Conversion rate: 4.23%
- Gross earnings (400MP = $5.00): $7875 ( 5946€ )
- Microsoft 30% share: $2362.5
- Our share: $5512.5 ( 4162€ )
We still don’t know the tax rate of our share, so we can’t tell for sure what the net amount is, but it seems like our goal has been met.
The following chart shows the download / purchases amount accross time:
Also shown in logarithmic view, so the relation between downloads and sales is shown more clearly:
Although the sales numbers have reached its minimum these days, we’re still working on the online mode and other improvements proposed by users. After that, we’ll focus on our next game.
We’d like to thank everyone who tried the demo and, of course, those who bought the game.
Games listing and rating on XBLCG.info
Recently a new website has been created on http://xblcg.info/ that allows users to browse and rate all the available Community Games (including ours, of course). We encourage our readers to log in into the website (you’ll have to use a Microsoft Passport account) and rate all their games they’ve played. That should be useful to let other users know what games are worth the try and what aren’t.
Little Racers in Top 9 this week
For 4th consecutive week, Little Racers has selled well enough to make a place in the weekly Top 9.
Also, we’ve finally managed to get a working multiplayer version. It will still take some time until release, since there’re many things to improve and check for stability issues etc, so please be patient.
Little Racers reviewed at My secret online thoughts
My secret online thoughts has reviewed Little Racers. Check it out at the original post.
Little Racers reviewed at Give us our daily game
Give us our daily game has reviewed Little Racers. You can check it out at the original article
Little Racers in Top 8 this week
Although the sales number has been lower than past weeks, Little Racers has made well enough to reach Top 8 sales last week .
For those who are interested, we’ll post our numbers in the near future.
Little Racers v1.1 available for download
Little Racers v1.1 is available for download. The changes from the first release are the following:
- Fixed not-so-rare freeze crash (was due to badly managed memory usage).
- Added 3 tracks (Pennyville,Valhalla,Snakepit) and modified one of the original ones (Ikena)
- Added 6 new cars
- Reduced demo limitations, now the only limitations are time and level number.
- Added reverse, now cars can go backwards
- Added more tips and quotes to the loading screen.
- Improved ingame HUD a bit
- Added an option to repeat the last race (except for championship mode)
- Added a button to go back to the last safe point of the track (if you get lost)
Since the Community Games updates aren’t automatic yet, you’ll have to redownload the game for the changes to apply. You can do it from the Xbox Live Marketplace
The V1.2 version, which should include online multiplayer, is being developed right now. Thanks for your support and interest.