3 Years on Bike!

See how the Hall of Fame evolved during that time:
Part 1 (2004-2005) Part 2 (2005-2006) Part 3 (2006-2007)

Congratulations to everyone who appeared in top 50 this year! (I didn't make it, my best rank was 54

)

And later this week I'm going to announce my new plans for the further development. (In short: this is going to be the best game ever

)

124 comments on 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >>>>

Vega

"further development" ! awesome !

BoD Mania!

Kristopher

Wow, there were so many changes in ranks 20-50 after Next Generation was released!

But this already is the best game ever; you need higher expectations.

Vega

BoD already rules.... but there is always room to make it better Kris. Sz is thinking right.

Here are some ideas:

Be able to face the bike right or left on start up.

Possibly have an "underwater" effect where the rear tire has 'fins' or something. (I admit that seems really difficult to develop though).

Larger variety of images for level design

Ability to use more than 2 colors

Somehow fix the "Phantom Flag" problem. Way too often my tire goes straight through a flag without capturing it. This seems to be more of a game glitch that needs fixing than a design upgrade.

Ability to create a level on the computer

Ability to see / play BoD on the computer or TV. Mike Flips and I were discussing this.... Like maybe being able to view your games and play while viewing it on a big screen.

Use a 'special' made for BoD controller that would allow players to be more precise while playing without hitting the wrong button (Treo 650's buttons are so close together).

Create a special BoD game consol - able to play BoD only.

"Hot button" to view "Replays for this level" instead of having to click on replays and hit the dropdown for "Current Level".

Available stats in the dropdown menus instead of having to handtype the word stats while playing.

A "Next Levels" section of the main BoD website that opens up whenever a new levelpack is being created. Kris worked very hard to create from scratch a fully integrated "Next Levels" page and it was great. I just think having something like this on the site would be helpful.

Medals Club for all 3 medals (as thoroughly discussed in the forum on several occasions)

Ability to organize levelpacks in order of date added to HoF so it's easier to find them when trying to switch to a diff levelpack.

A re-vamped Freestyle game section (again as previously discussed in the forum). Or perhaps a "favorite games" section instead.

A multiple game submission page where you can upload maybe 5 or 10 at a time or something.

A Gold medal history link for each individual level that shows either who has held the longest gold for that level or a timeline of all golds ever held for that level.

Isn't it funny that even if NONE of these ideas are ever even considered for implementation, this is still an awesome game

For all those who read this post an have an opinion on some of these items, please keep in mind that what I did here is rattle off a bunch of ideas / suggestions. Of course for Sz to try to implement all of this would be complete insanity. Maybe we can all vote on the top few that we would like to see first. This would at least give Sz an idea of where to put focus first. I have seen this done in other companies and it worked very well....... Or maybe Sz has his own ideas of what "further development" means and it is nothing close to any of this

That's okay too

Just food for thought.

-Vega

Kristopher

Those are good ideas, but some of them have been suggested before.

I think Sz should decide because he knows how long each one will take to add. He might be able to add five small features (like easy-to-access stats) 5x faster than other features.

mike flips

Congratulations on 3 years Sz.

A lot of those ideas are great (Vega did you go through all the previously suggested ideas? or is that just what you remember from them).

Vega

Just started typing away off the top of my head. Didn't research or look up anything.

Henoch

Also don't forget to add the ability to pause and resume the game after some silly phone call (which make the game play in the dark for miscalled). Game like bejeweled has this ability.

Vega's idea is more then enough then just food for thought. I ate too much for that

Anyway congratulation to BoD

PMD

SZ, I think it would be great if the further development were on an additional platform (like DS or Wii). BoD is a game that deserves a broader audience and the gaming platforms of today would allow you to use your creativity to expand it's capabilities (particularly the Wii with the motion controller). I would go out and buy a DS or a Wii just for BoD.

You have built such an incredible community and game.

Anyway, if by further development you mean add additional features, that's great too! You always over deliver.

Thanks for a great game!

thank you for the ideas!

changes in the version will mostly affect the visual side of the game (the graphics was not changed since v1.0, which was developed for 33Mhz Palm OS 4 devices, now it looks a bit old).
but i'm also experimenting with new gameplay elements (in case we run out of ideas for new levels

), hopefully they will bring as much fun as the updraft did

and some ideas on the vega list are simple user interface enhancements - i think i will implement them right now to give you the taste of the new version before the real new "bike or die" comes!

new in v1.5: sticky surface!

see how it changes the way you move in this animated example

Kristopher

Looks fun! I'm sure that will inspire another 100 levels from me.

Kristopher

While your here (

), I have a suggestion that is very easy to implement. Every game.php and game2.php should have a clickable link to the movie.php SWF file, so we can see the movies full-screen without manually changing the URL.
I.E.

http://bike.toyspring .com/movie.php?g=52806& g2=13027

Vega

That would be great! Ever since Kris showed us how to see them big screen, I have been changing the URL every time now. It's better

Lee

Vega - Great list of ideas - and it's great to day dream, even if only some of these ideas make it...
BUT - can I make a plea NOT fix the "Phantom Flag" problem.
I know what you are saying, but if you do this, and alter the sprite collision system in any way, then it will totally mess up all of the times on levels to date.
Please don't change the phsics, or basic "laws" of BOD from this point... they work more than well enough as a general rule.

today's new feature: editable bike orientation (including left vs right facing)

Kristopher

It looks great, Sz!

-> [Quote Vega] Ability to use more than 2 colors

Wasn't this used in Olympic Rings?

i agree with lee that the collision rules should not be changed (to preserve the historical best results).

the "phantom flag" problem probably comes from different object shape used by the simulation vs the display (it only looks like a flag but "in fact" it is a circle

). this would mean that it can be partly cured by changing the flag bitmaps to more rounded shapes. such trivial change would not influence the game in any way (except for the players habits). we will see...

"more than 2 colors":
yeah, "olympic rings" has the custom palette, but this method is very limited because whatever colors you choose, they are always global. i'm going to add the ability to attach individual textures to polygons - this will change things dramatically (and i guess this is what vega meant

)
but this will be in "stage 2".

"stage 1" is adding new gameplay elements (sticky surfaces and one more thing i'm currently testing

). then i will release the "beta" version and the editor, so you can make new levels using these features

during the testing/levelmaking i will be working on "stage 2" - graphics improvements. it will not affect the level compatibility so we will be able to enhance the visual side of our older levels by releasing the "extended" versions of the levelpacks (with additional backgrounds, textures and colors) - and those new versions will be compatible with the hall of fame. the independence from the graphics enhancements also means that the user can choose between the exdended vs "plain" version of the levelpack (because of the free space, performance or other reasons).

this is a lot of work (especially "stage 2") so i'm not setting a deadline yet

but the "stage 1" beta version should be ready before august

Lee

Jeez Sz... you set yourself some hard work!
I'm pleased to hear that you are still setting Game play ahead of visual enhancements... I have a T3, and WONT be upgrading for the foreseeable future, so it's important to me that the "feel" of the game is held paramount.
If you're saying that the new version will still have "options" to switch off the visual enhancements (like I already do with the sound and "dust") then that's fine with me.

Vega

Cool bike level start setup!!!