Run To The Stairs
Run To The Stairs - a dungeon racing game with roguelike elements - a turn based racing game
Attention: This game needs a browser supporting WebGL 2.0 to run properly! If the game does not run, try the following:
- Make sure WebGL is activated in your browser.
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- Try another browser: Chrome (works best), Firefox and Opera should also work. MS Edge is not recommended!
- Play the ASCII-only-version of RunToTheStairs.
Please report in the comments if the game works on your system naming your operating system and browser. Thank you! :-)
Controls
- Move your character with the numpad.
- Pressing [.] skips a turn.
- Trigger a nitro with [space] or [enter] if you have one.
- Toggle digging mode with [ctrl] or [0].
- (If the game does not react on keyboard inputs click on it and try again.)
Alternative controls if you don't have a numpad
- Use [w], [a], [s], [d] for cardinal directions.
- Use [q], [e], [z], [c] for diagonal movement.
- (For QWERTZ-keyboard-layout users [y] can also be used for moving down-left.)
If you prefer the Vi keys you can press [v] to switch to the Vi-key-mode. In this mode the Vi keys are used for movement. Hitting [v] another time brings you back to WASD-QEZC-mode.
Music volume {new in v0.3}
- [+] increases music volume
- [-] decreases music volume
- This does not affect sound effects.
Graphic-mode {new in v0.4}
Use [g] to toggle between Graphic-mode and ASCII-mode.
How to play
- The game is very well explained in this video by ToneHack.
- (The version played in the video did not feature drills.)
- This game is about racing to the exit (the stairs) of a dungeon floor.
- Your goal is to reach the stairs before your opponents do.
- You loose if your rank is 7th or worse.
- Better ranking gives better score.
- There is no combat.
- You can pick up the following items:
/ $ : Coins give score
/ * : Permanent Speed-Upgrade by 10%
/ ! : Nitro - Doubles your speed for 10 turns, when ignited.
/ ~ : Drill - Allows you to destroy a wall. {new in v0.2}
- At the beginning you and your opponents all move with the same speed.
- The speed of your opponents increases with every dungeon-level.
- Your opponents can only move in 4 directions whereas you can move in 8 directions (including diagonal movement).
- Diagonal movement enables you to cut corners and use shorter paths when traversing rooms!
- There are 4 possibilities to overtake opponents:
- Take advantages of your diagonal movement in rooms.
- Find a shorter path.
- Increase your speed by speed-upgrades or nitros.
- Dig your own shortcut using a drill. {new in v0.2}
- You are supported by a magic navigation system:
- One possible path to the stairs is always indicated by a colored trace.
- Be aware: This path is calculated considering 4-way-movement!
- Therefore it is by no means ideal when you are capable of 8-way-movement!
- Always consider alternative routes in order to take advantage of your ability to walk diagonal.
- How digging works: {new in v0.2}
- You need at least one drill "~" in order to be able to dig.
- If you have a drill, you can press [ctrl] or [0] to start digging-mode.
- When in digging-mode, the @-sign representing the player is displayed in yellow and the walls are displayed as "#"-signs to allow better counting.
- Just bump into a wall to remove it.
- The removal of every wall-tile consumes one drill.
- You automatically leave digging-mode when you move towards an empty square.
- You can collect as many drills as you like. This allows you to dig long tunnels by investing the corresponding amount of drills.
Examples how overtaking works
Overtaking by diagonal movement
See how I manage to overtake 2 other runners by moving diagonal.
This was very close but it worked since I could cut the corner! :-)
Overtaking by taking another route
Here I am overtaking runner H by taking another route so Runner H does not block my way (shown in ASCII-mode).
Overtaking by igniting a nitro
Here I doubled my speed by igniting a nitro in order to overtake 2 opponents. My character turns into a fireball while the nitro is burning!
Overtaking by digging a shortcut using a drill {new in v0.2}
Here I am overtaking 3 other guys by digging a shortcut using a drill. My character turns into a drill while digging.
How to have fun in your first games
- Play fast and don't worry too much about perfect movement - it's a racing game! ;-)
- Just follow your navigation system.
- Don't forget to move diagonally when possible.
- Only pick up Items if they lie directly on your way.
- If you are stuck in traffic, just follow the other runners until there are larger rooms which allow overtaking by diagonal movement.
- Don't worry about score too much.
- Just focus on overtaking in your first games and watch yourself climb the rankings shown at the right side of the screen.
- Just race like this (shown in ASCII-mode):
How to get a high score
- In this game you get points in the following situations:
- When you pick up coins.
- When you finish races (when you reach the stairs).
- The points you get for finishing races depend on your ranking:
| Ranking | Points |
| 1 | 12 |
| 2 | 9 |
| 3 | 7 |
| 4 | 5 |
| 5 | 3 |
| 6 | 1 |
| 7-9 | 0 |
- Getting no points in a race also means Game Over for the player.
- Picking up many Speed-Upgrades and Nitros may help you to survive later levels when your opponents move faster.
- But be aware that surviving 12 levels ranked 6th gives you as many points as one time finishing 1st!
- So there is always a trade-off between taking the shortest path and making a detour in order to pick up an item.
- I'm very curios to find out what scores would be possible in my game. So I would be pleased if you could post your high-scores in the comments below! :-)
Balancing
- This is a score-based game with an infinite number of levels.
- If you do not know how speed can work in a turn-based game:
- I implemented the speed-mechanic using the "Speed scheduler" of the rot.js library.
- In each new level the speed of all opponents is increased according to the following table:
| Dungeon Level | Opponent Speed | Increase |
| 1 | 100% | |
| 2 | 110% | 10% |
| 3 | 130% | 20% |
| 4 | 160% | 30% |
| 5 | 200% | 40% |
| ... | ... | ... |
- As you can see, this is an nonlinear function since the increase of the speed also increases!
- The increase of the players speed is on the other hand limited by the amount of Speed-Upgrades he finds.
- Since the number of Speed-Upgrades does not increase from level to level, this means that the player will at some point no longer be able to catch up to the opponents and will eventually loose.
- The better the player performs, the farther he gets and the higher his score will be.
- In order to prevent all opponents from using the same path they sometimes get "confused" and take alternative paths which are inferior to the shortest path.
- This lowers the difficulty and enables the player to get ahead of them even with lower speed.
- Confused opponents change their color to magenta (only in ASCII-Mode).
- The items are somehow automatically balanced due to the game mechanic:
- E.g. if I decided to double the bonus of a certain item this would only affect the maximal length of a detour an optimal playing player would take into account in order to get this item.
- 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. {new in v0.2}
Roguelike elements
- Procedural generated dungeons
- Permadeath since Game-over means Game-over
- The whole game is around an implicit hunger-clock since you inevitably loose if you lurk around too long in one level.
- Turn-based
- Grid-based
- Resource management: The player decides when to use his nitros or drills. They can be taken to the next level.
Credits and links
- This game was created during the 7DRL Challenge 2019.
- I was inspired to take part in this challenge by Roguelike Radio.
- I used the JavaScript roguelike-library rot.js by Ondřej Žára.
- {new in v0.3} The music was composed by Dekkanoid. I am absolutely blasted by what this Australian guy created in just few hours!
- Check out this playlist to hear how versatile this guy is!
- The sound effects have been taken from the following sources:
- {new in v0.4} The graphical tiles are from Oryx Design Lab.
- The idea of having an 8-way moving character outmaneuvering 4-way moving characters is stolen from "Ananas aus Caracas". This is a game one develops when doing the rot.js-tutorial. My game is based on my own version of "Ananas aus Caracas" which I kept extending after finishing the tutorial.
- The animated screenshots where created using the software ScreenToGif.
- RunToTheStairs has been covered by the following youtubers:
- ToneHack: A quite long video which explains the game very well and discusses strategic and tactical decisions.
- Rogueliker: This video by a very experienced and quite popular roguelike player gave RunToTheStairs a huge boost in popularity.
- cubicDisco: Funny video from a very relaxed Australian guy who plays RunToTheStairs blind and learns the game while playing.
- astroskag: Short but fast-paced video with great music.
- Nookrium: The shortest video and at the same time the one with the most views. It's fun to watch since you can see Nookriums reactions because he is using a facecam.
- Nookrium: A newer video covering v0.9.
Statistics
I have to apologize that the following text will have an accumulation of the word "amazing" in it. The reason for this is, that what happened yesterday (25.03.2019) was just absolutely ... AMAZING! So I want to share it with you! :-)
As I checked the most popular web games on itch.io I found my game RunToTheStairs on first place out of 55,563:
And as I checked the most popular games without any filter it was listed 7th out of 157,274:
I just could not believe this and thought that my browser was fooling me and somehow biased my game to the top. So I asked some nice guys from Discord to check it and they just saw the same screens as I did. Isn't this amazing? I don't know exactly how this popularity ranking works. The best source I found is here. I just want to thank Rogueliker since he boosted the popularity of my game with his nice video about it. Just see the huge step the click-rate did after he posted it:
I also like to share with you some geographical data I got from Google Analytics about the countries the users came from (the data also comes from 25.03.2019):
Someone on the Maldives probably played my game. I just can't believe it. Go out and enjoy the sun at the beach... and then come back and play RunToTheStairs again! ;-)
Since most of the players came from the USA I will give a little more detail here:
Hey why is nobody in Alaska playing my game? Somebody has to tell them to do so! ;-)
How clicks evolved since then
Meanwhile RunToTheStairs reached the milestone of 3000 views.
The visitors came from 84 different countries!
Reviews
What the judges think about RunToTheStairs
Following you find the 3 official reviews of the 3 different jam-judges who reviewed my game for the 7DRL Challenge 2019:
- "This one is quite original. And addictive. And not as simple as you might thing from the description. The only feature that is IMO absolutely required, but missing is the ability to pan the view around. The game is technically all about finding an optimal path that short enough and have number of collectibles maxed. But you can only rely on the very restricted field of view and pathfinder. I wouldn't mind at the very least have some kind of predicted pathfinder, see where it will path if I'll go there. Right now deviation from the main route is always a gamble. There can be different path from that nook, then you are fine, or it can be dead end and then you are screwed. There were roguelikes without combat, there were roguelikes about getting from point A to point B as fast as possible, but in this format, probably not. Let's call it moderately innovative. But I think there could be much more to the game. More upgrades, some way to hinder AI players... As much as the game tries to squeeze into formal rouguelike definition, I think it is too shallow to be called true roguelike."
- "Run to the Stairs is a tidy, small game that adds some nice gamifications around a simple central mechanic. And a quick note up front before discussing the game proper, the author has done a lot around the central game to add to the experience of play: there is a long and interesting description of the mechanics on the game’s page, there are clear information panels in the game itself, and the author has also implemented a sort of bespoke leader board on the itch page, all of which add to the experience. The core mechanic of this game really worked for me – using diagonal movement and player decisions to outsmart pathfinding AI. I also think that it was wise of the author to focus on refining this central premise, rather than trying to add too many bells and whistles. The inclusion of the “fastest” line, the granular calculation of racers’ speed, and the simplicity of the power ups all contribute in a clear way to the central experience of racing. I did find myself wishing for slightly more visual polish. The choice of typeface for the ascii-characters I found particularly sharp and vertical, and the colors could have been chosen with more care. More substantially, because the game hinges so completely on moving across corners, some visual indication of the grid would have helped ease the eyes, rather than having rooms and walls exist as just large contiguous sections of black and grey. Regardless, this game is definitely worth a play. "
- "An interesting take on the RL genre, and a well executed one. Little techniques and tricks here and there to get the advantage and good use on the nitro makes it very fun and interesting to play. I would say that it feels overwhelming the more you play by placing the enemy units way ahead and also giving them an increased scaling speed over you that can be really hard to beat. Strategy can take you so far, since you can't see far ahead to calculate better paths and if upgrades worth your position investment. Overall I had a great time playing and it's a concept I would love to see improved on and grow into an actual game."
I wanna thank the judges for the detailed and constructive feedback!
The reviews of all the exciting games in the challenge can found on http://roguetemple.com/7drl/2019/. I want to congratulate dungeonyak for winning the challenge with his imaginative game Inner Life - a well deserved victory!
Non-official reviews
This comment from the dev of Dungeonmans I am very proud of:
I also wanna share with you this very nice comment by owlmoth about which I am very happy:
"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!"
Post challenge development
| Version | Description |
| v0.0 | Submitted version for the 7DRL Challenge 2019 |
| v0.1 | - New alternative controls for people lacking a numpad (WASD-QEZC-mode) - The probability of opponents getting confused has been decreased. - Opponents now change color if they get confused. - Opponents already start with some grand-prix-points in order to make it more challenging for the player to climb up the rankings. - Some colors have been changed. |
| v0.2 | The player can 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. |
| v0.3 | - The game now plays music composed by Dekkanoid. I am absolutely blasted by what this Australian guy created in just few hours! - The game now emits one out of 3 burning sounds (random choice) on each step the player takes while burning a nitro. - I moved the players position on screen towards left in order to increase the field of view since the player mainly moves from left to right. - Some fixes regarding sound effects. |
| v0.4 | - I now use a graphical tiles by Oryx Design Lab.
- It is still possible to play in ASCII-mode. |
| v0.5 | EVERY level (until level 22) now got a different tileset!!! |
| v0.6 | - There are now more than 300 character-sprites in the game. The sprites of your opponents are randomly chosen at each new game.
- The character-sprites and some obstacles are now animated by simple two-frame-animations. - All sprites were drawn by Oryx Design Lab. |
| v0.7 | - The AI opponents recalculate their paths whenever they did not move during their last turn. This prevents opponents from blocking each other into a deadlock.
- The AI now does a better job evading the player. It is now very funny to block opponents and see how they take different routes. This, however, is only possible if there exists an alternative route. - The AI is now more likely to use tunnels that have been dug by the player. - Fixed a bug where the game crashed before a new level started. - Fixed a bug where the false character was shown in ASCII-mode. - There are currently no more known bugs! :-) |
| v0.8 | - There are now forest-levels of different types. - EVERY level (until level 27) now got a different tileset!!! - Forest-levels are generated with a different layout to make them feel more organic! - New music featuring strings which is explicitly played in forest-levels. (The music has been composed by Dekkanoid.) - The players sprite is now also randomly drawn out of a pool of more than 300 sprites whenever a new game begins. (All tiles have been designed by Oryx Design Lab.) - New graphical layer in the foreground. This is for example useful for displaying spider-webs. - Simple egg-cracking animation in egg-cave. - Fixed a bug where the wrong character was displayed in ASCII-mode while burning a nitro. |
| v0.9 | - The game loads much faster now. - Not all music tracks are loaded on startup. Additional tracks are loaded while others are playing. - JavaScript has been minimized using Google Closure Compiler. |
| v0.10 | - The game now has a server-sided backend wich is hosted at GreenGeeks. - This allows to generate automatic high-score-tables which are accessible from within the game. - Players can register accounts in order to keep their progress. - High-Score-Tables can be sorted by different criteria. (e.g. "Score per Hour" which should be interesting for speedrunners) - Balancing changes towards shorter games. - Less unfair: The players position is newly calculated if the distance to catch up would be to large. - More versatile pathfinding-algorithm with better performance. |
| v0.11 | - RunToTheStairs now has a Tutorial - There are now 4 short lessons introducing the concepts of the game. |
Plans for the future
I consider to implement the following things:
- Providing different music-tracks fitting the themes of the levels.
- Implementing an achievement-system.
- Particle effects for nitros and when digging.
Old High-Score-Table (v0.1-v0.9)
There was no automatic High-Score-Table before v0.10. Until v0.9 players were encouraged to post their score in the comments. The following table was therefore manually created from these posts.
Be aware: These scores are no longer comparable to v0.10-games due to balancing changes towards shorter games (v0.10-games will yield lower scores in general).
| Rank | Version | Who | Score | Dungeon Level | Video | Comments / Strategy / Great Moments |
| 1 | v0.9 | Jmath | 266 🏆 | 24 🥉 | "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." 🏆 Current world record of RunToTheStairs! 🏆 Achievement 🥉earned for 3rd best dungeon level result! | |
| 2 | v0.7 | Jmath | 247 | 23 | "Finally got to the top spot! At one point I had over 43 nitros stockpiled." | |
| 3 | v0.3 | RantotheStairs | 244 | 21 | see video | A neat maneuver where he overtakes two guys by digging trough a wall can be watched here. |
| 4 | v0.3 | RantotheStairs | 243 | 20 | "Finally. Now I can live. 243. Level 20. Your move." "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." | |
| 5 | v0.4 | Jmath | 240 | 22 | "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." | |
| 6 | v0.3 | Webmant | 229 | 21 | "Very well designed game, makes it very difficult to make some decisions." | |
| 7 | v0.0 | Steffen1337 | 220 | 21 | "Looks like it´s InfuriatedBrute's turn to beat that ;D ... So as for strategy: Always get permanent speed upgrades. Use Nitros in earlier levels 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" I really like how Steffen1337, JohannesvH and InfuriatedBrute maxed out my game! Steffen has even written a mathematical treatise about RunToTheStairs in this post! | |
| 8 | v0.0 | JohannesvH | 213 | 22 | "I am getting closer... New level record" "I just had 160% in the first round. Maybe I should be more patient for restarting it until I have more in the first round. I think the key to getting a lot of points is also to collect a lot of $ (whenever you can) especially in the first rounds where you're much faster than the others." | |
| 9 | v0.1 | RantotheStairs | 211 | 20 | 1090% speed! | |
| 10 | v0.2 | JohannesvH | 204 | 20 | "Sometimes you can really use the drills to your advantage. Nice new feature! I think 220 is definitely beatable..." | |
| 11 | v0.4 | Flooderbenga | 202 | 19 | "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 :)" | |
| 12 | v0.2 | myself | 188 | 21 | I achieved this score while playtesting v0.2. | |
| 13 | v0.3 | Aix0 | 187 | 20 | "I got 187 points after 20 races. Maybe highest possible for me!" | |
| 14 | v0.0 | InfuriatedBrute | 186 | 19 | "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." | |
| 15 | v0.0 | JohannesvH | 180 | 19 | You have improved a lot compared to your first try. Keep going Johannes! :-) | |
| 16 | v0.0 | lisan12345 | 173 | 20 | "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!" | |
| 17 | v0.0 | Steffen1337 | 163 | 17 | "strategy: get all permanent speed boost by any costs." Wow: Steffen had still 26 nitros left at the time he went Game Over!! I wonder what score would have been possible If he just fired them up in time? | |
| 18 | v0.4 | gim | 158 | 20 | "best run so far (and deepest), level 20" | |
| 19 | v0.1 | Aix0 | 156 | 16 | "Fun, but tough!" | |
| 19 | v0.0 | InfuriatedBrute | 156 | 16 | "Very fun game, very polished and innovative. ... My strategy is always go for upgrades, go for nitros that are <10 away (sometimes more), save the vast majority of them for lategame." | |
| 21 | v0.4 | gim | 154 | 20 | "heh, was close to previous best" | |
| 22 | v0.4 | RantotheStairs | 149 | 28 🥈 | see video | "Still love the game. Was a tough adjustment at first, but a few minutes of playing and I was used to it. My newest thing is trying to get as far as possible rather than high score." Achievement 🥈earned for 2nd best dungeon level result! A great maneuver where RantotheStairs manages to overtake the entire field by using a nitro and a drill can be watched here. From last to first place - what a huge shortcut! :-) |
| 23 | v0.0 | owlmoth / astroskag | 148 | 21 | see video | "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." |
| 24 | v0.3 | xyncht | 144 | 17 | "Game is very fun! Given your current leaderboard, may come back for a second playthrough and see if I can get top 10 ;) Boosts are a big deal, of course, but the exponential enemy speed growth means that past level 14ish it doesn't much matter if your speed gets another ~2% improvement-- nitros (and maybe drills, haven't used those effectively yet) are the only things keeping you alive. Also for the last several levels of a run, when you're barely making it each time, coins are where your points come from. And when you know you're dead, it's time to fetch coins till the ref calls the game on account of everyone else finishing." | |
| 25 | v0.4 | Xylenox | 137 | 20 | ||
| 26 | v0.4 | gim | 137 | 17 | "this time I was trying to reach higher in terms of level, but at some point it becomes pretty complicated" | |
| 27 | v0.4 | gim | 136 | 21 | "trying to get deeper, but it's really hard. would "almost" reach 22, but was I was one nitro short" | |
| 28 | v0.2 | nobusawa | 135 | 17 | "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." | |
| 28 | v0.0 | tcookiem | 135 | 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." | |
| 30 | v0.0 | JohannesvH | 132 | 18 | "A really nice game :)" | |
| 31 | v0.4 | gim | 130 | 17 | "few random ideas: * some bonus that either permanently or temporarily changes nitro duration and or multiplier * jump-over-jet-boots - say a) your speed is 2x other runner (or during boost) b) you both go in same direction c) you use boots (for 1 turn) == jump over him - could be handy especially in tunnels near the end * nuke - blow up all walls in some visible region" | |
| 32 | v0.7 | Jmath | 128 | 33 🥇 | "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 like games with interesting/unique mechanics, especially ones I can play in under 30 minutes." Achievement 🥇earned for best dungeon level result! | |
| 33 | v0.4 | gim913 | 127 | 23 | see video | A nice maneuver where gim913 worked himself up from position 7 to 3 by digging a 3-tiles-long-tunnel can be seen here. |
| 34 | v0.0 | Xecutor | 124 | 16 | "That's more fun and addictive than one might think :)" | |
| 35 | v0.0 | Tone | 118 | 18 | "... but in the end the other racers were too fast!" | |
| 36 | v0.0 | ToneHack | 117 | 15 | see video | A daredevil overtaking maneuver where ToneHack manages to overtake "Runner A" just in the last possible moment by igniting a Nitro can be seen here. |
| 37 | v0.0 | Aix0 | 113 | 11 | "Fun game!" | |
| 38 | v0.4 | gim | 111 | 13 | "dead with 8 nitros and 8 drills :-(" | |
| 39 | v0.0 | Rogueliker | 102 | 14 | see video | A smart move where Rogueliker gets past "Runner C" by overtaking him with a double diagonal move at a junction can be seen here. |
| 40 | v0.4 | io | 95 | 23 | ||
| 41 | v0.0 | Makeyejr | 91 | 12 | "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." | |
| 42 | v0.0 | nobusawa | 90 | 14 | "Pretty cool game, I found it cause Nookrium played it on his youtube channel." | |
| 43 | v0.0 | owlmoth | 89 | 15 | "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." | |
| 44 | v0.4 | red_kangaroo | 83 | 15 | "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." red_kangaroo is a member of the dev-team of IVAN so I am very proud that he played my game! | |
| 45 | v0.8 | kriptosporidium | 77 | N/A | "Well that's neato I got 77 before getting screwed by a complete lack of speed upgrades" | |
| 46 | v0.0 | myself | 69 | 10 | I must admit, my score is not that good. So maybe I need a little more practice on my own game! At the moment I just enjoy playing the other games of the 7DRL Challenge 2019. All 7DRLs I already enjoyed can be seen in this collection. Currently my favorite games are Pocket Dimensions RL by Lauren H, Ars Moriendi by simonasker and Inner Life by dungeonyak. | |
| 47 | v0.9 | Nookrium | 67 | 10 | see video | A nice move where Nookrium advanced from position 4 to position 2 by digging a shortcut can be seen here. |
| 48 | v0.0 | patrickdavison | 55 | 10 | "55 on level 10!" | |
| 49 | v0.0 | cubicDisco | 53 | 9 | see video | A spectacular overtaking maneuver where cubicDisco overtakes 2 runners at once can be seen here. |
| 50 | v0.0 | shaddockh | 38 | 8 | "Wow! This is surprisingly addictive. I haven't gotten too far, but diagonal movement is definitely key here." | |
| 51 | v0.0 | Nookrium | 20 * | 2 * | see video | * Game has not been finished in the video. A nice sequence of moves resulting in two overtakes by cutting corners can be seen here. |
Development log
- RunToTheStairs now has a TutorialJul 24, 2023
- Server-sided Backend (v0.10)Nov 12, 2022
- Optimized loading times (v0.9)Dec 02, 2019
- Forest-levels of different types (v0.8)Oct 30, 2019
- AI-improvements and fixing of all remaining known bugs (v0.7)Sep 08, 2019
- 300+ animated sprites (v0.6)Sep 04, 2019
- EVERY level now got a different tileset! (v0.5)Aug 18, 2019
- "Run, you fools!"Jul 21, 2019
Comments
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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.