A turn based racing game? How should this even work?
I don't know hy but this is kinda addciting. I could totally see this as some kind of io game on mobile. Just some ads every few rounds, some achievements and voila it's finished^^
I store all games that have been played in a database. From the timestamp of your comment I could determine the two games you played. I watched the replays of those games since I am always interested in how others play my game. What I have seen is that you do not use the possibility of moving diagonal. This would have given you a lot of potential to overtake. In order to move diagonal, you have to play with the numpad or alternatively use the keys [Q,E,Z/Y,C] next to the [W,A,S,D] keys. What I learned is, that my game needs a tutorial to teach the basic concepts since most players will not read the manual nowadays.
I will do a second run on your game Schachkampf soon.
Yes moving diagonal would make some moves way faster.
I really liked the concept. This is one of the most unique game concepts I played in a long time. Like I said in the first post, I could totally see this as a multiplayer game. Something like fall guys but turn based^^
Gave it another try and with diagonal walking I came along way better. But I think, that my overall strategy is still wrong. Maybe it's best to finish on 6 but collect as much as possible and not to try to be as fast as possible^^
Thank you for trying angain. A score of 79 is already quite good! :-)
It depends on the situation and the level you are in. Exploration is more important in the early levels.
Could you please register. Currently you are listed as "Guest#90" in the global rankings. Would be nice to see your name there. Your password will be encrypted do to current standard, and I can neither see nor derive it. If you leave your email and allow email-notifications, I will send you the links, so you can watch the replays of your games.
I'm good enough to get a placement in the rankings? There are replays of the game? Next time I try I will register.
Is there a way to make a downloadable version? Normally I ask the other way around, but this game is something I will definetly play every now and then in the future, so a desktop icon would be far better than going over itch^^
In order to see the rankings, klick "[4] global rankings" on title screen (or press [4]). You are currently listed as "Guest#90". The rankings can be sorted by different criteria. If you register, the games you played as guest will also be labeled with your username. So you do not have to play a new game.
The replays are a beta feature and not released yet. But I already use them to analyze games and they are also useful to detect cheating.
The game is written in JavaScript on the frontend and uses PHP and MySQL for the backend. In the moment it is only playable in the browser.
I was wondering if you'd be willing to share the code for the game? I have almost no experience in Java, but I'm interested in using the game as a test case for training neural networks to make decisions with uncertain data.
That sounds very interesting, since I am also interested in machine learning. Of course I would love to share the source-code with you. Just send a mail to gerhard[dot]wonner[at]runtothestairs[dot]com and I will send you a zip-file with the source-code of v0.9. Please share your results with me. Maybe your efforts may lead to more interesting AI for RunToTheStairs one day. By the way: RunToTheStairs is still in active development. I am currently coding a server sided backend. This takes a while since I do not have much time and have to learn everything from scratch. But I think it is worth the effort since it will allow to provide a lot of interesting statistics.
Wow, was getting a high score on v0.8+ hard. The forest levels makes the upgrades a lot sparser and the AI doesn't make as many path recalculations that slow it down. I got really lucky this run with consistent speed upgrades every level.When going for a top score, I typically reset runs if at the end of any level I have less than (level # * 50 + 100) speed.
It's a great game with original concept, I love it! However one thing that annoys me are the tree tiles. They partially cover tiles next to them, making it really hard to distinguish tree tiles and walkable ground. Other than that, I think the game is perfect.
I am glad you like my game! I am also not very happy with the forest tiles. Unfortunately there are no real wall-like forest tiles in the tileset. And there are also no concave corner tiles. So I only use the fully-filled-forest-tiles together with some treetop-tiles at the borders. But the overlap is too big which makes it a little messy. I will have to rework it one day.
But fortunately there is an easy workaround for this. Simply switch to the ASCII-mode on every forest level. You can do this by pressing [g] on your keyboard. Pressing [g] another time brings you back to graphical mode.
I am currently implementing a server-side backend. Once this is done there will be automatically updated scoreboards and a lot of statistics. An achievement system is also thinkable. But of course this is a lot of work to do. Therefore it will take a while until I have time to care about the forest-tile-problem.
Thanks for the response, I didn't know it's possible to switch between ascii mode and graphical mode during a game! This definitely makes playing more comfortable. Also the new update sounds cool!
Wow, amazing - you have just beaten the record of RantotheStairs which is more than 3 month old! Of course you are leading my high-score-table now! :-) How long have you practiced to reach this incredible score?
I've played since the game first came out, but didn't have an account to post my scores. I can usually get around 200 in a 30-45 minute game session after work. I quit any game that I don't have a speed of at least 200 by the end of level 2.
onemorelevel.com. I like games with interesting/unique mechanics, especially ones I can play in under 30 minutes.
I also went for the deepest dungeon award. This one didn't start very well (exactly speed 200 at the end of level 2), but by level 24, I had 60 nitros stockpiled! Good thing too, I was using almost 10 per level just to finish in 6th!
I fixed the bug shown in your screenshot. Now the game should display the correct character when burning a nitro in ASCII-mode. I also implemented different kinds of forests in some stages. Forest-levels are generated with a different layout to make them feel more organic. So you should notice that you are in a forest, even if you are playing in ASCII-mode. I also added new music to these stages featuring strings.
Should have looked for more ways of using drills instead of just spamming nitros in later levels. Surprising how speed boost is nearly worthless in later levels but crucial in early ones. Really like this game :)
Thank you for playing my game and giving nice feedback! :-) Wow, a score above 200! I included your score into my leaderboards. Congratulations, you are at position 8! You are correct: Spamming a lot of nitros just to stay alive one more level is inferior to using them in order to achieve better positions in earlier levels.
I am sorry to tell you that your record has been beaten! Jmath reached a score of 247 today. But congratulations anyway since your record lasted for more than 3 month! :-)
Thanks a lot for the video. I really enjoyed watching it and learned a lot about my own game! :-) I linked it from the corresponding row of my high-score-table.
I've also got 243 once or twice again and 244 once that's on video so I'll get that uploaded somewhere. Is youtube or vimeo better for these long videos?
Thank you a lot for playing my game and giving so much feedback! I am really looking forward to your video! I have no preference regarding youtube or vimeo. I will update the high-score-table as soon as your video is online since I like to link to your video it from there.
Thank you kindly! Funny enough, I was actually about to leave for a long commute so this was a bit of a speed-run, I'd say about 20min. I wish I could remember my speed after lvl1, it was either 160 or 170, and I used nitros excessively in the first 6 or 7 rounds so I could cover lots of ground. Such a great game. V0.3 is great, drills were a genius next step. Would love to see how high scores would go with a map that you can pan around. That would also take away the luck factor :) Of course, it's your game so I understand if you want to leave it as is. It's still such a great simple game, big kudos.
I am very glad that you like my game! :-) The reason why I do not want to give the player more vision (pan-around or zoom the map) is that I suspect that this would end in a counting orgy, where players spend a lot of time counting tiles in order to find the shortest path. I want it to be a fast-paced game - it is a racing game after all! So I am quite excited that you reached your score in a speedrun. That is exactly how I hoped the game could be played! :-)
RunToTheStairs now uses a graphical tileset and looks much better. The only problem is that it requires WebGL 2.0 which is not supported by all browsers yet. I would be pleased if you could test if it runs on your system. Please name your operating system and browser. Thank you! :-) If it does not run at your system you can still play the ASCII-only-version of RunToTheStairs.
I started logging some levels once I realized I might beat the highscore Start of 17: 204, 840%, 17nitros (n), 4drills (d) Start of 18: 217, 860%, 14n, 3d Start of 19: 233, 890%, 8n, 0d
Just got into this game and would like to show off the high score I managed to attain. Very well designed game, makes it very difficult to make some decisions.
I am glad that you like the new feature! :-) I am also quite happy how well the drills work. They should allow some unexpected moves.
Of course I added your score to the leaderboards in my game description. Your score is currently the top-score that has been achieved with version v0.2 so far!
I was finally able to beat my previous score, grabbing every speed boost I could find helped a lot but it seemed like sometimes they just weren't there or were so far away that I never saw them.
Thank you for trying again. Your new score pushes you up to rank 10! :-) The items are distributed randomly over each dungeon. But the total number of them is always the same. Since the levels are quite big there is a certain possibility to have no items visible on screen. However there are tricks to somehow enhance your field of view. E.g. you can often walk a "V"-shape through rooms. This will not cost you anything compared to moving straight because of your ability to walk diagonal. This allows you to pan your screen and maybe discover an upgrade. I would recommend the video of ToneHack since he explains a lot of tricks.
RunToTheStairs now uses a graphical tileset and looks much better. The only problem is that it requires WebGL 2.0 which is not supported by all browsers yet. I would be pleased if you could test if it runs on your system. Please name your operating system and browser. Thank you! :-)
Thank you for your comment, score and the screenshot to verify it. I added your name and score to the High-Score-Table in the game description. Congratulations, you are currently in position 18! ;-)
Thank you for your score and the awesome comment. Getting a comment like this was always what I hoped for while creating this game! :-) Of course I included your score in the high-score-table in my game-description. Congratulations, you are 5th in the moment. If you had posted this very good score just 2 weeks earier, you would have been first! ;-)
I just had 160% in the fist round. Maybe I should be more patient for restarting it until I have more in the fist round. I think the key to getting a lot of points is also to collect a lot of $ (whenever you can) espically in the fist rounds where you're much faster than the otheres
Looks like it´s InfuriatedBrute's turn to beat that ;D I guess I´m first to reach level 21. I did the Maths... in theory you can get up to around 1400 points by getting up to level 138 and only having permanent speed upgrades spawn. Then in last level only $s. This way you will be first position all the time, you will be at times around 10 times faster than the computer enemies (in level 5-10). But there´s a downside: likeliness of only permanent speed boosts to spawn is low... that low actually that winning the lottery twice per round would be an equivalent... for 138 rounds. In case you beat that I bet you should start playing the lottery instead!
So as for strategy: Always get permanent spped upgrades. Use Nitros in earlier level to gain access to a permanent speed boost and still finish first. restart first level until you have at least 190% permanent speed after first level. This way you have plenty of room in the next 5 levels to get all the upgrades and still easily finish first. On this try I had been 3 times as fast as the enemies on end of level 3. That being said - I´m eager to see who is obsessed enough to get above 500 points or to level 25 first ;D
Steffen, thank you for writing this mathematical treatise about RunToTheStairs. I am sure you meanwhile understand my game much better than I do! I am also quite eager to see if anybody would manage to beat your awesome score! ;-)
I am sorry to tell you that you are no longer at position 1 of my High-Score-Table. :-(
Webmant just submitted a score that is slightly higher than yours!
But at least you have been on the top of the leader-boards for more than one month.
So maybe you just give my game RunToTheStairs another go and get back to the top of the ranking again. This time with the drill music by Dekkanoid! ;-)
I've been playing a lot the last few days, this is my best score so far. It's a very creative take on the roguelike mechanic to not be combat-based, but stays true to the spirit by maintaining all the high points of the genre like resource management, unlimited replayability, and "weighty" risk vs. reward choices - trying to decide if it's worth detouring for a power-up feels meaningful in the context of the game. The gameplay is also a lot snappier than you'd expect from a turn-based game, another departure from the norm that just works really well here. This is what indie games are all about for me; taking some risks, making some less-common design choices, leaving the beaten path and finding a fun little mechanic off in the weeds somewhere. If I could add anything, it'd only be an 'instant replay' feature; to be able to go back after the end of a level and rewatch the race in 'real' time. Thanks for sharing this with us!
I am very glad about your nice review. So It seems that my game just is what I intended it to be and that makes me very happy! :-) Thank you for your score and the screenshot to verify it. I added you to the high-score-table in the game description. Please tell me, if you want me to link your name in this list to a web-page of your choice.
Hello owlmoth, the official reviews of the jam-judges are public now. So I created a "Reviews"-section in my game-description and copied them there. But since I like your review so much I also created a subsection "Non-official reviews" and placed your review there. Thank you again for giving me this awesome feedback! :-)
Here's a video of my latest run, 148 points at level 21. Not the top of the leaderboard, but I'm pretty proud of it. The way I'm kind of mentally strategizing is while I'm faster than the other runners, saving nitros and getting boosts at all costs. Once the other runners are faster than me, I only burn nitros when I'm out of the top 6. I broke my own rules in level 9, though, diverting just before the finish line to pick up a boost that was way off track, and then burning nitros so I'd be able to catch up before the end of the race; I don't know if it was worth it.
Accepting less-than-first in the later races means a lower final point total, and I don't really prioritize coins at all. If I was just going for straight points those would both be mistakes, but I'm really trying more for levels - by playing that way, the nitros last longer and I can pretty reliably get to 20+.
Thank you for the funny fast-paced video. I also like the music. Are you really playing that fast? Of course I included your score and the video in the high-score-table. Congratulations you climbed up to rank 8.
what a fun game. My first try yielded 163 points and 26 nitros left on my first try... I guess I could have gotten further if I had already taken my current position into account and used more nitros ;D
strategy: get all permanent speed boost by any costs.
Strategy: Log stats, nitros -> 2$ is fine at any point, lategame go for $ over position, block enemies if they're faster than you, prefer open corridors as they give more opportunities for items (even if you can't see anything). Oh yeah, and restart until you get an upgrade in the first room.
Hello Steffen, I am sorry to tell you that you have only been at the top of the rankings for one night. InfuriatedBrute just accepted the challenge and has beaten you. But I know you can still do better. Keep going! ;-)
Just made an account to say that I got a score of 135 on level 17. This game is kind of addictive.
Main strategy was to go for any speed upgrade I saw on the earlier levels and most nitros, then I had about 550% saved up for when they overtook me in speed. Then I used up about 20 nitros to make it through the last few levels before I ran out.
Thank you for your comment, score and the screenshot to verify it. I added your name and score to the High-Score-Table in the game description. Congratulations, you are currently 2nd!
Since you do not host your own game, is there any web-page you want me to link to if people click on your name in the High-Score-Table?
Interestingly I had this issue on Firefox, so just the other way around than in your case. I increase the panel-size even further in order to fix this. Could you try it again please?
What an awesome score! I am amazed by how clever people just max out my game way beyond my own skill! :-)
Thank you for verifying your score with the screenshot. You are listed now on my high-score-table. Congratulation, you are first!
The source code can be found on GitHub. But don't expect good code since I used this challenge as an opportunity to learn JavaScript. Check out rot.js since this is exciting.
Thank you for playing my game and providing your score. I added your name and score to the high-score-table on my game-description. Currently you are in third place.
Meanwhile there are more than 20 entries in my high-score-table (5 of them by youtubers). So please consider to give RunToTheStairs another go and see how high you can climb on this table. ;-)
RunToTheStairs now plays music! The music was composed by Dekkanoid. I am absolutely blasted by what this amazing guy created in just few hours! You are invited to play a session RunToTheStairs and enjoy the new music!
Thank you for trying again! Congratulations, you nearly have beaten the developers score and are now ranked 8th. How did you learn about RunToTheStairs?
Thank you for playing my game and providing your score. I added your name and score to the high-score-table on my game-description. Currently you are in fifth place.
thank you so much for playing my game at your Youtube-channel and providing your score!
I added your name and score to the high-score-table on my game-description.
In the moment you are in third place which is better than myself! So your video is a great opportunity for me to get better at my own game since it's the first time I can actually watch someone playing it better than myself! It's interesting to see how you deviate from the proposed route quite a bit in order to get upgrades or to avoid the paths of opponents. I already learned some tricks since you do some overtaking moves I did not considered to be possible! :-)
Glad to offer some insight! It's fun how people approach situations differently. Also luck had a decent factor in mine since I blindly set off sometimes with mental coin flips to choose routes. Never get caught behind someone and was it using the nitros to sneak around corners that you hadn't thought about?
I actually never did it like you did it by cutting two corners at once. But as I saw you doing it a penny dropped inside my head that this is obviously possible when using a nitro!
But I have to say that I did only finished 2 complete games so far. While playtesting I always stopped playing once I saw something I wanted to fix. And after fixing it, I always started a new game from scratch. After the deadline was over I mainly played the other entries of the 7DRL challenge and watched videos about them. And of course I enjoyed to read the comments about my game.
Once the high-score-table has been settled, I will have another try to get listed as high as possible.
This is a fantastically fun idea for a roguelike. I haven't internalized the Vim keys and I'm playing on a laptop, so I don't have a numpad, so it would be really helpful to be able to just remap the keys, but even with my clumsy Vim-key playing, it was pretty fun and compelling. Great job!
Thank you for trying my game! I will try your game Battle Weary soon.
I am sorry that my game did not provide the appropriate controls. The configurable key-mapping is a good idea. But I think it is quite an effort to implement it properly.
What keys would you prefer for playing? Maybe you could use the arrow-keys for the cardinal directions (right hand) and name me your preferred keys for the diagonal movement (maybe left hand). If they would not interfere with the already existing controls I could easily implement them for you. Do you think [q], [w], [a], [s] could work for the diagonal movement?
Do you know if the rules of the 7DRL-Challenge allow me to update my game by additional controls after the deadline?
But I think it is quite an effort to implement it properly.
Yeah, it can be a bit of a pain to have keys be fully configurable. An easy compromise might be to have a set of keysets you choose from at the start of the game, and then you just read those to get the key you want. So, instead of doing something like:
// Checking for moving left:
if (event.keyCode == ROT.VK_NUMPAD4) { move( -1, 0 ); }
...in your code, you would instead do something like:
// Somewhere during startup:
var numpadKeySet = { keySetName: "Numeric Pad Keys", left: ROT.VK_NUMPAD4 };
var arrowKeysKeySet = { keySetName: "Arrow Keys", left: ROT.VK_LEFT };
// When the user selects a keyset:
var currentKeySet = arrowKeysKeySet;
// Checking for moving left:
if (event.keyCode == currentKeySet.left) { move( -1, 0 ); }
Then, you could set a different keySet depending on the type of key bindings you want, and the behavior is abstracted away. Later, you could have a functionality that would let players define a custom keySet.
Do you know if the rules of the 7DRL-Challenge allow me to update my game by additional controls after the deadline?
There's another thread in the 7DRL forums about this you can read for more detail, but the short version is that it's okay to update the game as long as it's clear and feasible how the 7DRL reviewers can play the end-of-compo release version. So you could update it, but be sure to leave the original release version up and clearly marked for reviewers.
Thank you for the very detailed explanation Lone Spelunker. Good idea to have the different predefined keysets to choose from. I will see if I could implement this during the next weekend. What could a possible alternative to the numpad look like. Do you think [q], [w], [e], [a], [d], [z], [x], [c] could be a proper choice? I do not want [s] to skip a turn since a lot of people are use to the [w], [a], [s], [d] controls and therefore would accidentally skip a turn when they want to move southwards. So my choice for skipping a turn would still be [.] as for the vi-keys.
Since my game is playable in browser, I cannot provide two different downloads in order to keep the original 7DRL-version. So I think I will need to host a second game page for the updated game and link to it from the original 7DRL-game-page.
Well, maybe you could do a keyset based around I-J-K-L as the cardinal directions? Or maybe I-J-L-comma? And I think W-A-S-D could actually work if you make space be the pauser.
You know, another option would be to just support screen clicks on the display. That would solve a lot of the issues for people using laptops.
I just learned that you also host a Youtube-channel. I would be pleased if you could record your next attempt to climb back to the top of the high-score-table just like Rogueliker and cubicDisco did.
If you do, I would also link your video and channel from the high-score-table in my game-description, just like I did with the others.
Actually, I first played this on twitch if you want to see a player's first reactions and commentary as I figure the game out :-) (I wouldn't link this to the high scores list, just thought you might like to see it.)
I like how you and that guy (Canight) in the chat are discussing and analyzing what would be the best strategy in different situations. I learned a lot about my game!
The idea behind having a limited view is that you have to weigh your risks in some situations. You always see the distance counters of all runners and know your speed and that of your opponents. So you should always be able to judge if a detour to an item is worth the risk or not. If the suggested path of your navigation system flips tells you that there is no dead end. If it does not flip you can judge that you are getting in trouble, even if you can not see everything. If the player could see everything, optimal play would often just involve a lot of counting of ground tiles in order to judge which way would work best. So I decided against that and implemented the navigation system instead.
Wow! This is surprisingly addictive. I haven't gotten too far, but diagonal movement is definitely key here. I'm interested in the pathfinding mechanics. It looks like the player path to the exit is pretty straightforward, but how are you determining the other characters? Is it based upon where they start in the level?
Thank you for playing my game and providing your score! :-)
I just created a High-Score-Table in my game-description and added your name to it.
The pathfinding of the navigation system as well as that of all the opponents is done with the A* algorithm of rot.js using a topology of 4, which allows only orthagonal movement. So if the player just strictly follows his navigation system, he will not be able to overtake anyone.
But you are right, the diversity of the paths is mainly achieved by a variation of the starting locations of all characters. The player always starts at the very west of the level (y-coordinate is randomized). Runner H starts a few steps to the east compared to the player (y-coordinate is also randomized) giving him a small advantage since the goal is always in the very east of the level (y-coordinate is also randomized). Runner G starts a even more in the east and so on. So the runner with the best starting position should be runner A in most cases. Since the dungeon and the y-positions are all randomized the starting position of player A is not always the best and that of the player is not always the worst, it is just a tendency.
Another mechanism to achieve route-diversity is confusion. Runners get sometimes confused if others in front of them are using the same path. In this case a new path is calculated trying to avoid the paths of the runners in front of the confused runner.
Thanks, this game is fun! I enjoy trying to figure out how to pass the other racers. Some limited wall destruction could be neat if you ever enhance it.
I consider to integrate this. Maybe I could introduce another collectible item called "drill" which enables you to remove one wall element by bouncing it. I think the drill must be consumed when being used. But analog to the nitros the player can collect many of them, allowing him to dig longer tunnels by investing the corresponding amount of drills.
Unfortunately I cannot implement it now since the deadline is over.
I will do the integration after the voting is accomplished.
RunToTheStairs got a new feature - the player may now dig tunnels! For this purpose a new collectible item called "drill" was introduced which enables the player to remove one wall element by bumping into it. The possibility of digging allows the player to take greater risks when taking alternative routes, since this will enable him to rescue himself by spending some resources (drills) if his route decision turns out to be wrong. Please check out the commented High-Score-Table on the games itch.io-page! Meanwhile there are more than 25 entries in this table (5 of them by youtubers). So please consider to give RunToTheStairs a go and see how high you can climb on this table. ;-)
Very nice! I like how the distance counter creates a feeling of tension even though the racing is turn-based, because you know you have to overtake someone as the distance to finish grows short.
RunToTheStairs now uses a graphical tileset and looks much better. The only problem is that it requires WebGL 2.0 which is not supported by all browsers yet. I would be pleased if you could test if it runs on your system. Please name your operating system and browser. Thank you! :-) If it does not run at your system you can still play the ASCII-only-version of RunToTheStairs.
Wow, you made quite a progress! The game is beautiful and really cool. :) And congratulations on the popularity, RTTS seems to be cropping up near the top of games playable in browser.
So far I got to level 15 with score of only 83, but hopefully that will eventually improve. ;)
Thank you for the feedback! I just found out that you are a member of the dev-team of IVAN so I am very proud that you played my game! :-) Of course I included your score in my high-score-table. You are currently 33th.
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A turn based racing game? How should this even work?
I don't know hy but this is kinda addciting. I could totally see this as some kind of io game on mobile. Just some ads every few rounds, some achievements and voila it's finished^^
Thank you for giving it a try! :-)
I store all games that have been played in a database. From the timestamp of your comment I could determine the two games you played. I watched the replays of those games since I am always interested in how others play my game. What I have seen is that you do not use the possibility of moving diagonal. This would have given you a lot of potential to overtake. In order to move diagonal, you have to play with the numpad or alternatively use the keys [Q,E,Z/Y,C] next to the [W,A,S,D] keys. What I learned is, that my game needs a tutorial to teach the basic concepts since most players will not read the manual nowadays.
I will do a second run on your game Schachkampf soon.
Yes moving diagonal would make some moves way faster.
I really liked the concept. This is one of the most unique game concepts I played in a long time.
Like I said in the first post, I could totally see this as a multiplayer game. Something like fall guys but turn based^^
Thank you for the feedback. :-)
Gave it another try and with diagonal walking I came along way better. But I think, that my overall strategy is still wrong. Maybe it's best to finish on 6 but collect as much as possible and not to try to be as fast as possible^^
Thank you for trying angain. A score of 79 is already quite good! :-)
It depends on the situation and the level you are in. Exploration is more important in the early levels.
Could you please register. Currently you are listed as "Guest#90" in the global rankings. Would be nice to see your name there. Your password will be encrypted do to current standard, and I can neither see nor derive it. If you leave your email and allow email-notifications, I will send you the links, so you can watch the replays of your games.
I'm good enough to get a placement in the rankings? There are replays of the game?
Next time I try I will register.
Is there a way to make a downloadable version? Normally I ask the other way around, but this game is something I will definetly play every now and then in the future, so a desktop icon would be far better than going over itch^^
In order to see the rankings, klick "[4] global rankings" on title screen (or press [4]). You are currently listed as "Guest#90". The rankings can be sorted by different criteria. If you register, the games you played as guest will also be labeled with your username. So you do not have to play a new game.
The replays are a beta feature and not released yet. But I already use them to analyze games and they are also useful to detect cheating.
The game is written in JavaScript on the frontend and uses PHP and MySQL for the backend. In the moment it is only playable in the browser.
There ist still this ugly "Guest#90" in the rankings. So please register, so I can see you as "KeyboardKrieger" there.
I was wondering if you'd be willing to share the code for the game? I have almost no experience in Java, but I'm interested in using the game as a test case for training neural networks to make decisions with uncertain data.
That sounds very interesting, since I am also interested in machine learning. Of course I would love to share the source-code with you. Just send a mail to gerhard[dot]wonner[at]runtothestairs[dot]com and I will send you a zip-file with the source-code of v0.9.
Please share your results with me. Maybe your efforts may lead to more interesting AI for RunToTheStairs one day.
By the way: RunToTheStairs is still in active development. I am currently coding a server sided backend. This takes a while since I do not have much time and have to learn everything from scratch. But I think it is worth the effort since it will allow to provide a lot of interesting statistics.
Wow, was getting a high score on v0.8+ hard. The forest levels makes the upgrades a lot sparser and the AI doesn't make as many path recalculations that slow it down. I got really lucky this run with consistent speed upgrades every level.
When going for a top score, I typically reset runs if at the end of any level I have less than (level # * 50 + 100) speed.
Wow, another world record! :-)
Thank you for proving that it is still possible to beat the highscore!
Sorry for the late reply. I was on vacation. ;-)
Hello Jmath,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
It's a great game with original concept, I love it! However one thing that annoys me are the tree tiles. They partially cover tiles next to them, making it really hard to distinguish tree tiles and walkable ground. Other than that, I think the game is perfect.
Hello Ununsept!
I am glad you like my game! I am also not very happy with the forest tiles. Unfortunately there are no real wall-like forest tiles in the tileset. And there are also no concave corner tiles. So I only use the fully-filled-forest-tiles together with some treetop-tiles at the borders. But the overlap is too big which makes it a little messy. I will have to rework it one day.
But fortunately there is an easy workaround for this. Simply switch to the ASCII-mode on every forest level. You can do this by pressing [g] on your keyboard. Pressing [g] another time brings you back to graphical mode.
I am currently implementing a server-side backend. Once this is done there will be automatically updated scoreboards and a lot of statistics. An achievement system is also thinkable. But of course this is a lot of work to do. Therefore it will take a while until I have time to care about the forest-tile-problem.
I hope you will have some fun anyway! :-)
Kind regards!
Gerhard
Thanks for the response, I didn't know it's possible to switch between ascii mode and graphical mode during a game! This definitely makes playing more comfortable. Also the new update sounds cool!
Hello Ununsept,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
Finally got to the top spot! At one point I had over 43 nitros stockpiled.
Wow, amazing - you have just beaten the record of RantotheStairs which is more than 3 month old! Of course you are leading my high-score-table now! :-)
How long have you practiced to reach this incredible score?
I've played since the game first came out, but didn't have an account to post my scores. I can usually get around 200 in a 30-45 minute game session after work. I quit any game that I don't have a speed of at least 200 by the end of level 2.
This was my previous best from late July.
Thank you for playing! :-)
I also included your July-score into my leaderboard.
May I ask how you learned about RunToTheStairs?
onemorelevel.com. I like games with interesting/unique mechanics, especially ones I can play in under 30 minutes.
I also went for the deepest dungeon award. This one didn't start very well (exactly speed 200 at the end of level 2), but by level 24, I had 60 nitros stockpiled! Good thing too, I was using almost 10 per level just to finish in 6th!
Level 33 !!!
That's 5 levels deeper than the previous record holder!
I didn't expect that to be possible!
Hello Jmath, version v0.8 is out!
I fixed the bug shown in your screenshot. Now the game should display the correct character when burning a nitro in ASCII-mode.
I also implemented different kinds of forests in some stages. Forest-levels are generated with a different layout to make them feel more organic. So you should notice that you are in a forest, even if you are playing in ASCII-mode. I also added new music to these stages featuring strings.
Should have looked for more ways of using drills instead of just spamming nitros in later levels. Surprising how speed boost is nearly worthless in later levels but crucial in early ones. Really like this game :)
Thank you for playing my game and giving nice feedback! :-)
Wow, a score above 200! I included your score into my leaderboards. Congratulations, you are at position 8!
You are correct: Spamming a lot of nitros just to stay alive one more level is inferior to using them in order to achieve better positions in earlier levels.
Hello Flooderbenga,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
Thank you for playing my game and sharing your score. I included you into my high-score-table. Congratulations you are at rank 19.
Hello Xylenox,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
Congratulations to your new world record! :-)
I have put you on the list - on first place, of course.
I am sorry to tell you that your record has been beaten! Jmath reached a score of 247 today. But congratulations anyway since your record lasted for more than 3 month! :-)
Here's my highest level/speed run
Thanks a lot for the video. I really enjoyed watching it and learned a lot about my own game! :-)
I linked it from the corresponding row of my high-score-table.
I like the scene where you overtake the entire field within a very few amount of turns so much, that I created an animated GIF of it! :-)
hahaha Yes!!!
I've also got 243 once or twice again and 244 once that's on video so I'll get that uploaded somewhere. Is youtube or vimeo better for these long videos?
Thank you a lot for playing my game and giving so much feedback! I am really looking forward to your video! I have no preference regarding youtube or vimeo.
I will update the high-score-table as soon as your video is online since I like to link to your video it from there.
Finally. Now I can live.
243. Level 20.
Your move.
Absolutely amazing! Did not expect this to be possible. Congratulations you are first!
Thank you kindly!
Funny enough, I was actually about to leave for a long commute so this was a bit of a speed-run, I'd say about 20min.
I wish I could remember my speed after lvl1, it was either 160 or 170, and I used nitros excessively in the first 6 or 7 rounds so I could cover lots of ground.
Such a great game. V0.3 is great, drills were a genius next step.
Would love to see how high scores would go with a map that you can pan around. That would also take away the luck factor :) Of course, it's your game so I understand if you want to leave it as is. It's still such a great simple game, big kudos.
I am very glad that you like my game! :-)
The reason why I do not want to give the player more vision (pan-around or zoom the map) is that I suspect that this would end in a counting orgy, where players spend a lot of time counting tiles in order to find the shortest path. I want it to be a fast-paced game - it is a racing game after all!
So I am quite excited that you reached your score in a speedrun. That is exactly how I hoped the game could be played! :-)
Completely get it! Like I said, great game regardless.
RunToTheStairs now uses a graphical tileset and looks much better. The only problem is that it requires WebGL 2.0 which is not supported by all browsers yet. I would be pleased if you could test if it runs on your system. Please name your operating system and browser. Thank you! :-)
If it does not run at your system you can still play the ASCII-only-version of RunToTheStairs.
I started logging some levels once I realized I might beat the highscore
Start of 17: 204, 840%, 17nitros (n), 4drills (d)
Start of 18: 217, 860%, 14n, 3d
Start of 19: 233, 890%, 8n, 0d
Also, other scores:
V0.3:
206, Lvl20, 820% (16 drills left, whoops)
V0.2:
211, Lvl 20, 1090%
200, Lvl22, 920%
Wow, so why didn't you post your scores earlier?
Because I knew I could beat the highscore eventually XD
And finally you did! ;-)
Funny name, by the way! :-)
How did you learn about RunToTheStairs?
Hahaha thanks I thought so too XD
Onemorelevel website, was posted there on Mar.29
Just got into this game and would like to show off the high score I managed to attain. Very well designed game, makes it very difficult to make some decisions.
What an awesome score! I am amazed by how clever people just max out my game way beyond my own skill! :-)
Thank you for verifying your score with the screenshot. You are listed now on my high-score-table. Congratulation, you are first!
I am sorry to tell you that you are no longer at position 1 of my High-Score-Table. :-(
RantotheStairs just submitted a score that is slightly higher than yours!
But maybe you just give my game RunToTheStairs another go and get back to the top of the ranking again! ;-)
Hello Webmant,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
Sometimes you can really use the drills to your advantage. Nice new feature! I think 220 is definitly beatable...
I am glad that you like the new feature! :-)
I am also quite happy how well the drills work. They should allow some unexpected moves.
Of course I added your score to the leaderboards in my game description. Your score is currently the top-score that has been achieved with version v0.2 so far!
@Gerhard Wonner: So I'm sure if you use a "!" and you bump 10 times to the wall, it's gone...
Thank you for reporting this bug. I fixed it.
That was fast
I do what I can to make my players happy! :-)
I was finally able to beat my previous score, grabbing every speed boost I could find helped a lot but it seemed like sometimes they just weren't there or were so far away that I never saw them.
Thank you for trying again. Your new score pushes you up to rank 10! :-)
The items are distributed randomly over each dungeon. But the total number of them is always the same. Since the levels are quite big there is a certain possibility to have no items visible on screen. However there are tricks to somehow enhance your field of view. E.g. you can often walk a "V"-shape through rooms. This will not cost you anything compared to moving straight because of your ability to walk diagonal. This allows you to pan your screen and maybe discover an upgrade. I would recommend the video of ToneHack since he explains a lot of tricks.
RunToTheStairs now uses a graphical tileset and looks much better. The only problem is that it requires WebGL 2.0 which is not supported by all browsers yet. I would be pleased if you could test if it runs on your system. Please name your operating system and browser. Thank you! :-)
I am running Firefox on Windows 7, apparently my hardware is to old to support WebGL 2.0 though.
If it does not run at your system you can still play the ASCII-only-version of RunToTheStairs.
Hello nobusawa,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
Pretty cool game, I found it cause Nookrium played it on his youtube channel.
Thank you for your comment, score and the screenshot to verify it. I added your name and score to the High-Score-Table in the game description. Congratulations, you are currently in position 18! ;-)
Extremely innovative game! Very addictive and fun. Thank's for the fun. Here is my high score, I made an account just to post it. Thanks!
Thank you for your score and the awesome comment. Getting a comment like this was always what I hoped for while creating this game! :-)
Of course I included your score in the high-score-table in my game-description. Congratulations, you are 5th in the moment. If you had posted this very good score just 2 weeks earier, you would have been first! ;-)
Hello lisan12345,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
I just had 160% in the fist round. Maybe I should be more patient for restarting it until I have more in the fist round.
I think the key to getting a lot of points is also to collect a lot of $ (whenever you can) espically in the fist rounds where you're much faster than the otheres
Wow, you reached dungeon level 22 another time! Quite impressed how constantly you manage to score that high. :-)
Step by step...
I am getting closer...
New level record
Amazing! Steffen1337 cannot feel save any longer! :-)
I tried again - 7th try yielded new highscore!
Looks like it´s InfuriatedBrute's turn to beat that ;D I guess I´m first to reach level 21. I did the Maths... in theory you can get up to around 1400 points by getting up to level 138 and only having permanent speed upgrades spawn. Then in last level only $s. This way you will be first position all the time, you will be at times around 10 times faster than the computer enemies (in level 5-10). But there´s a downside: likeliness of only permanent speed boosts to spawn is low... that low actually that winning the lottery twice per round would be an equivalent... for 138 rounds. In case you beat that I bet you should start playing the lottery instead!
So as for strategy: Always get permanent spped upgrades. Use Nitros in earlier level to gain access to a permanent speed boost and still finish first. restart first level until you have at least 190% permanent speed after first level. This way you have plenty of room in the next 5 levels to get all the upgrades and still easily finish first. On this try I had been 3 times as fast as the enemies on end of level 3. That being said - I´m eager to see who is obsessed enough to get above 500 points or to level 25 first ;D
Steffen, thank you for writing this mathematical treatise about RunToTheStairs. I am sure you meanwhile understand my game much better than I do! I am also quite eager to see if anybody would manage to beat your awesome score! ;-)
JohannesvH is getting closer. He has already beaten your Dungeon Level record!
Okay... did not expect that to be possible... I will try eventually lol
I am sorry to tell you that you are no longer at position 1 of my High-Score-Table. :-(
Webmant just submitted a score that is slightly higher than yours!
But at least you have been on the top of the leader-boards for more than one month.
So maybe you just give my game RunToTheStairs another go and get back to the top of the ranking again. This time with the drill music by Dekkanoid! ;-)
I am very glad about your nice review. So It seems that my game just is what I intended it to be and that makes me very happy! :-)
Thank you for your score and the screenshot to verify it. I added you to the high-score-table in the game description.
Please tell me, if you want me to link your name in this list to a web-page of your choice.
Hello owlmoth, the official reviews of the jam-judges are public now. So I created a "Reviews"-section in my game-description and copied them there. But since I like your review so much I also created a subsection "Non-official reviews" and placed your review there. Thank you again for giving me this awesome feedback! :-)
Awesome!
Here's a video of my latest run, 148 points at level 21. Not the top of the leaderboard, but I'm pretty proud of it. The way I'm kind of mentally strategizing is while I'm faster than the other runners, saving nitros and getting boosts at all costs. Once the other runners are faster than me, I only burn nitros when I'm out of the top 6. I broke my own rules in level 9, though, diverting just before the finish line to pick up a boost that was way off track, and then burning nitros so I'd be able to catch up before the end of the race; I don't know if it was worth it.
Accepting less-than-first in the later races means a lower final point total, and I don't really prioritize coins at all. If I was just going for straight points those would both be mistakes, but I'm really trying more for levels - by playing that way, the nitros last longer and I can pretty reliably get to 20+.
Thank you for the funny fast-paced video. I also like the music. Are you really playing that fast?
Of course I included your score and the video in the high-score-table. Congratulations you climbed up to rank 8.
Hello owlmoth,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
I also finally managed to play it :)
A really nice game :)
Hi Gerhard,
what a fun game. My first try yielded 163 points and 26 nitros left on my first try... I guess I could have gotten further if I had already taken my current position into account and used more nitros ;D
strategy: get all permanent speed boost by any costs.
Hello Steffen,
wow, that's an amazing score - and still 26 nitros left! I wonder what score would have been possible If you just fired them up in time? :-)
I added your name and score to the High-Score-Table in the game description. Congratulations, you are currently first!
I will tell InfuriatedBrute that he is no longer leading. I hope he accepts the challenge and goes for a new high-score.
186 ;)
Strategy: Log stats, nitros -> 2$ is fine at any point, lategame go for $ over position, block enemies if they're faster than you, prefer open corridors as they give more opportunities for items (even if you can't see anything). Oh yeah, and restart until you get an upgrade in the first room.
Wow that score is absolutely amazing and you are also the first one reaching dungeon level 19!
Thank you for providing so much insight into your strategy.
InfuriatedBrute, I am sorry to tell you that your score has been beaten again by your rival Steffen1337!
He has challenged you directly in this post. So carry on and conquer back your place at the top!
Hello InfuriatedBrute,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
again - but less nitro, but a level further...
Wow, you just died while a nitro was burning and you had 1460% speed! I did not know you are such a daredevil!
Hello Steffen, I am sorry to tell you that you have only been at the top of the rankings for one night. InfuriatedBrute just accepted the challenge and has beaten you. But I know you can still do better. Keep going! ;-)
Just made an account to say that I got a score of 135 on level 17. This game is kind of addictive.
Main strategy was to go for any speed upgrade I saw on the earlier levels and most nitros, then I had about 550% saved up for when they overtook me in speed. Then I used up about 20 nitros to make it through the last few levels before I ran out.
Thank you for your comment, score and the screenshot to verify it. I added your name and score to the High-Score-Table in the game description. Congratulations, you are currently 2nd!
Since you do not host your own game, is there any web-page you want me to link to if people click on your name in the High-Score-Table?
Hello tcookiem,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
Side panel doesn't render correctly on Chrome. Works fine in Firefox.
Thank you for your report. I am wondering since I use Chrome myself and it worked for me.
I just increased the width of the panel by 10 pixels in the itch.io-game-settings to prevent this "line-break".
Could you please try if it is now working?
Hmm, still the same. If it matters I'm on Chrome Version 73.0.3683.86 (Official Build) Manjaro Linux (64-bit)
Sorry, I cannot test this since I do not have Linux. :-(
But I am glad you are still able to play using Firefox. :-)
Interestingly I had this issue on Firefox, so just the other way around than in your case. I increase the panel-size even further in order to fix this. Could you try it again please?
Hello "Missingno.",
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
156! Very fun game, very polished and innovative. Is it okay to ask for source code?
My strategy is always go for upgrades, go for nitros that are <10 away (sometimes more), save the vast majority of them for lategame.
What an awesome score! I am amazed by how clever people just max out my game way beyond my own skill! :-)
Thank you for verifying your score with the screenshot. You are listed now on my high-score-table. Congratulation, you are first!
The source code can be found on GitHub. But don't expect good code since I used this challenge as an opportunity to learn JavaScript. Check out rot.js since this is exciting.
Hello InfuriatedBrute,
I am sorry to tell you that you are no longer at position 1 of my High-Score-Table. :-(
Steffen1337 just submitted a score that is slightly higher than yours!
But maybe you just give my game RunToTheStairs another go and get back to the top of the ranking again! ;-)
I got 113 points after 11 Races. Fun game!
Thank you for playing my game and providing your score. I added your name and score to the high-score-table on my game-description. Currently you are in third place.
Meanwhile there are more than 20 entries in my high-score-table (5 of them by youtubers). So please consider to give RunToTheStairs another go and see how high you can climb on this table. ;-)
I updated my score, 156 points after 16 races. Fun, but tough!
Thank you for updating your score. Congratulation you climbed up to 7th place! :-)
With this very good score you would have been ranked first if you had submitted it about 3 weeks ago!
RunToTheStairs now plays music!
The music was composed by Dekkanoid. I am absolutely blasted by what this amazing guy created in just few hours!
You are invited to play a session RunToTheStairs and enjoy the new music!
I got 187 points after 20 races. Maybe highest possible for me!
Thank you for trying again!
Congratulations, you nearly have beaten the developers score and are now ranked 8th.
How did you learn about RunToTheStairs?
Hello Aix0,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
Managed to get to Dungeon Level 12 with 91 points.
Feel pretty happy about that score. Probably could have scored higher if I didn't get greedy trying to go after power ups in the last level.
Thank you for playing my game and providing your score. I added your name and score to the high-score-table on my game-description. Currently you are in fifth place.
Hello Makeyejr,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
55 on level 10!
Hello Patrick Davison,
thank you for playing my game and providing your score.
I added your name and score to the high-score-table on my game-description. Currently you are in fifth place.
I am looking forward to play your game Ellipsis which will be one of the games I plan to play next
Hello patrickdavison,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
I tried. I failed to best Xecutor and Tone: https://gyazo.com/465a61773ab1f5257927513b21e28adf
I did however, record my efforts!
Hello Rogueliker,
thank you so much for playing my game at your Youtube-channel and providing your score!
I added your name and score to the high-score-table on my game-description.
In the moment you are in third place which is better than myself! So your video is a great opportunity for me to get better at my own game since it's the first time I can actually watch someone playing it better than myself! It's interesting to see how you deviate from the proposed route quite a bit in order to get upgrades or to avoid the paths of opponents. I already learned some tricks since you do some overtaking moves I did not considered to be possible! :-)
Glad to offer some insight! It's fun how people approach situations differently. Also luck had a decent factor in mine since I blindly set off sometimes with mental coin flips to choose routes. Never get caught behind someone and was it using the nitros to sneak around corners that you hadn't thought about?
I actually never did it like you did it by cutting two corners at once. But as I saw you doing it a penny dropped inside my head that this is obviously possible when using a nitro!
But I have to say that I did only finished 2 complete games so far. While playtesting I always stopped playing once I saw something I wanted to fix. And after fixing it, I always started a new game from scratch. After the deadline was over I mainly played the other entries of the 7DRL challenge and watched videos about them. And of course I enjoyed to read the comments about my game.
Once the high-score-table has been settled, I will have another try to get listed as high as possible.
Hello Rogueliker,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
Score 124, Level 16
That's more fun and addictive than one might think :)
Wow, we have a new high-score!
I added your name and score to the high-score-table on my game-description. In the moment you are in first place.
I am curious if someone could beat this!
Your game P.A.P.A. roguelike is on my list of games I wanna try next.
Hello Xecutor,
I am sorry to tell you that you are no longer at position 1 of my High-Score-Table. :-(
InfuriatedBrute just submitted a score that is slightly higher than yours!
But maybe you just give my game RunToTheStairs another go and get back to the top of the ranking again! ;-)
Please provide a screenshot for verification of your score (only necessary if your score would take you to first place).
Hello Xecutor,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
This is a fantastically fun idea for a roguelike. I haven't internalized the Vim keys and I'm playing on a laptop, so I don't have a numpad, so it would be really helpful to be able to just remap the keys, but even with my clumsy Vim-key playing, it was pretty fun and compelling. Great job!
Thank you for trying my game! I will try your game Battle Weary soon.
I am sorry that my game did not provide the appropriate controls. The configurable key-mapping is a good idea. But I think it is quite an effort to implement it properly.
What keys would you prefer for playing? Maybe you could use the arrow-keys for the cardinal directions (right hand) and name me your preferred keys for the diagonal movement (maybe left hand). If they would not interfere with the already existing controls I could easily implement them for you. Do you think [q], [w], [a], [s] could work for the diagonal movement?
Do you know if the rules of the 7DRL-Challenge allow me to update my game by additional controls after the deadline?
Yeah, it can be a bit of a pain to have keys be fully configurable. An easy compromise might be to have a set of keysets you choose from at the start of the game, and then you just read those to get the key you want. So, instead of doing something like:
// Checking for moving left: if (event.keyCode == ROT.VK_NUMPAD4) { move( -1, 0 ); }...in your code, you would instead do something like:
// Somewhere during startup: var numpadKeySet = { keySetName: "Numeric Pad Keys", left: ROT.VK_NUMPAD4 }; var arrowKeysKeySet = { keySetName: "Arrow Keys", left: ROT.VK_LEFT }; // When the user selects a keyset: var currentKeySet = arrowKeysKeySet; // Checking for moving left: if (event.keyCode == currentKeySet.left) { move( -1, 0 ); }Then, you could set a different keySet depending on the type of key bindings you want, and the behavior is abstracted away. Later, you could have a functionality that would let players define a custom keySet.
There's another thread in the 7DRL forums about this you can read for more detail, but the short version is that it's okay to update the game as long as it's clear and feasible how the 7DRL reviewers can play the end-of-compo release version. So you could update it, but be sure to leave the original release version up and clearly marked for reviewers.
Thank you for the very detailed explanation Lone Spelunker. Good idea to have the different predefined keysets to choose from. I will see if I could implement this during the next weekend. What could a possible alternative to the numpad look like. Do you think [q], [w], [e], [a], [d], [z], [x], [c] could be a proper choice? I do not want [s] to skip a turn since a lot of people are use to the [w], [a], [s], [d] controls and therefore would accidentally skip a turn when they want to move southwards. So my choice for skipping a turn would still be [.] as for the vi-keys.
Since my game is playable in browser, I cannot provide two different downloads in order to keep the original 7DRL-version. So I think I will need to host a second game page for the updated game and link to it from the original 7DRL-game-page.
Well, maybe you could do a keyset based around I-J-K-L as the cardinal directions? Or maybe I-J-L-comma? And I think W-A-S-D could actually work if you make space be the pauser.
You know, another option would be to just support screen clicks on the display. That would solve a lot of the issues for people using laptops.
Sorry for the delay but I finally managed to implement your idea with the different keysets.
Hello Lone Spelunker,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
Fun game! Made it to Dungeon Level 18 and Score 118 but in the end the other racers were too fast!
Wow, quite an impressive score!
I think I need to get a little more practice in my own game. ;-)
I added your name and score to the high-score-table on my game-description. In the moment you are in first place.
Hello Tone,
I am sorry to tell you that you are no longer at position 1 of my High-Score-Table. :-(
Xecutor just submitted a score that is slightly higher than yours!
But maybe you just give my game RunToTheStairs another go and get back to the top of the ranking again! ;-)
I see the gauntlet has been thrown :-)
Don't worry, I'll be giving RunToTheStairs another go soon. That score was only my second game, after all ;-)
U did this in your second try!! That sounds like you are a quite talented rogueliker and racer. ;-)
Hello Tone,
I just learned that you also host a Youtube-channel. I would be pleased if you could record your next attempt to climb back to the top of the high-score-table just like Rogueliker and cubicDisco did.
If you do, I would also link your video and channel from the high-score-table in my game-description, just like I did with the others.
I was already planning on doing a video for RunToTheStairs, I'll let you know when I upload it :-)
Thank you Tone. I am looking forward to see it! :-)
Actually, I first played this on twitch if you want to see a player's first reactions and commentary as I figure the game out :-)
(I wouldn't link this to the high scores list, just thought you might like to see it.)
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/396112426?t=3h3m55s
Thank you for showing me this. I really enjoyed watching it! :-)
I like how you and that guy (Canight) in the chat are discussing and analyzing what would be the best strategy in different situations. I learned a lot about my game!
The idea behind having a limited view is that you have to weigh your risks in some situations. You always see the distance counters of all runners and know your speed and that of your opponents. So you should always be able to judge if a detour to an item is worth the risk or not. If the suggested path of your navigation system flips tells you that there is no dead end. If it does not flip you can judge that you are getting in trouble, even if you can not see everything. If the player could see everything, optimal play would often just involve a lot of counting of ground tiles in order to judge which way would work best. So I decided against that and implemented the navigation system instead.
Hello tonehack,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
Wow! This is surprisingly addictive. I haven't gotten too far, but diagonal movement is definitely key here. I'm interested in the pathfinding mechanics. It looks like the player path to the exit is pretty straightforward, but how are you determining the other characters? Is it based upon where they start in the level?
My high score: 38 points after 8 races.
Thank you for playing my game and providing your score! :-)
I just created a High-Score-Table in my game-description and added your name to it.
The pathfinding of the navigation system as well as that of all the opponents is done with the A* algorithm of rot.js using a topology of 4, which allows only orthagonal movement. So if the player just strictly follows his navigation system, he will not be able to overtake anyone.
But you are right, the diversity of the paths is mainly achieved by a variation of the starting locations of all characters. The player always starts at the very west of the level (y-coordinate is randomized). Runner H starts a few steps to the east compared to the player (y-coordinate is also randomized) giving him a small advantage since the goal is always in the very east of the level (y-coordinate is also randomized). Runner G starts a even more in the east and so on. So the runner with the best starting position should be runner A in most cases. Since the dungeon and the y-positions are all randomized the starting position of player A is not always the best and that of the player is not always the worst, it is just a tendency.
Another mechanism to achieve route-diversity is confusion. Runners get sometimes confused if others in front of them are using the same path. In this case a new path is calculated trying to avoid the paths of the runners in front of the confused runner.
Hello shaddockh,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
Can you add vi-key support? I don't actually own a computer with a numpad :(
Hello samspot, thank you for the helpful feedback!
I implemented the vi-key support like it is described here. Like suggested I implemented the [.]-key to skip a turn.
Could you please test for me if the implementation is correct since I am not used to these controls myself.
(For QWERTZ-keyboard-layout users [z] can also be used for moving up-left. Don't know if this makes any sense, but it's possible now.)
Perfect! Thank you :)
Thank you for your help!
I will try out your game RERL soon.
Thanks, this game is fun! I enjoy trying to figure out how to pass the other racers. Some limited wall destruction could be neat if you ever enhance it.
Good idea!
I consider to integrate this. Maybe I could introduce another collectible item called "drill" which enables you to remove one wall element by bouncing it. I think the drill must be consumed when being used. But analog to the nitros the player can collect many of them, allowing him to dig longer tunnels by investing the corresponding amount of drills.
Unfortunately I cannot implement it now since the deadline is over.
I will do the integration after the voting is accomplished.
I finally implemented your idea! :-)
RunToTheStairs got a new feature - the player may now dig tunnels!
For this purpose a new collectible item called "drill" was introduced which enables the player to remove one wall element by bumping into it.
The possibility of digging allows the player to take greater risks when taking alternative routes, since this will enable him to rescue himself by spending some resources (drills) if his route decision turns out to be wrong.
Please check out the commented High-Score-Table on the games itch.io-page! Meanwhile there are more than 25 entries in this table (5 of them by youtubers). So please consider to give RunToTheStairs a go and see how high you can climb on this table. ;-)
Hello samspot,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
Very nice! I like how the distance counter creates a feeling of tension even though the racing is turn-based, because you know you have to overtake someone as the distance to finish grows short.
Thank you for your nice comment red_kangaroo! :-)
I would be pleased if you would post your score!
I will check out your game "Quest for Gore and Vengenace" soon.
I will, once I get a good one. :D
Thanks, it's not much but I had fun making it.
RunToTheStairs now uses a graphical tileset and looks much better. The only problem is that it requires WebGL 2.0 which is not supported by all browsers yet. I would be pleased if you could test if it runs on your system. Please name your operating system and browser. Thank you! :-)
If it does not run at your system you can still play the ASCII-only-version of RunToTheStairs.
Wow, you made quite a progress! The game is beautiful and really cool. :) And congratulations on the popularity, RTTS seems to be cropping up near the top of games playable in browser.
So far I got to level 15 with score of only 83, but hopefully that will eventually improve. ;)
Thank you for the feedback! I just found out that you are a member of the dev-team of IVAN so I am very proud that you played my game! :-)
Of course I included your score in my high-score-table. You are currently 33th.
RunToTheStairs got another big update!
Hello red kangaroo,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard
My current high-score is 69 points on dungeon level 10.