LudumData

Loop Back to the Future by Lex

[raw]
made by Lex for Ludum Dare 47 (COMPO)

You're stuck in a stot car racing loop until you can fill your Flux Capacitor gauge with perfect turns and teleport you to the next level.

Instructions

Press any button to accelerate. Release the button on the on the red marks before curves to slow down and then press it again on the green marks to charge the Flux Capacitor bar. The better your timing the faster you're going to fill your gauge.

F1 to change the camera perspective.

There are three short levels, enjoy!

race.gif

race2.gif

Good luck and have fun!

[EDIT]

I made a little update today that had nothing to do with gameplay. You can still download the Compo submission version if you will.

The only changes were related to mobile support, changed key for switching the camera mode, and a minor change in the ground colors of all levels to make it more apparent for players that there are more than one level.

Youtube https://lextatic.itch.io/loop-back-to-the-future
Youtube https://gitlab.com/lextatic/ld47-stuck-in-a-loop
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/loop-back-to-the-future

Ratings

Overall 191th 3.643⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 202th 3.524⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 252th 3.429⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 118th 4⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 259th 3.548⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 372th 2.875⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 21🗳️ 9🗨️

Feedback

🎤 Lex
05. Oct 2020 · 02:27 UTC
I just realized that the first gif is an almost perfect loop... and that was totally unintentional!
tulipekoni
05. Oct 2020 · 02:31 UTC
Didn't expect to be that fun to be honest! It took me a minute to realize what I had to do but after that I really enjoyed it. solid entry, good job!
cookie042
05. Oct 2020 · 02:34 UTC
Nice simple, and plays well. I like the 88 mph effect you did, turned out really nice.
rex64
05. Oct 2020 · 02:37 UTC
A love letter to Back to the Future!
Cool mechanics!
For the people playing this game: be sure to read the instructions!
FallingFlatStudios
05. Oct 2020 · 02:42 UTC
This reminds me of those electric cars the ones where have two and you would race them, this brings back memories. Really great game with solid controls. Great Job.

Edit: It was these toy cars.
![car.jpg](///raw/2fe/72/z/3624a.jpg)
joonamo
05. Oct 2020 · 16:16 UTC
Now this brings back memories! My father had to modify my slot car controller to limit the maximum speed so I wouldn't just continuously crash my car. Now I was able to continuously crash cars again on my computer! :joy: I love the simple instructions of "Press any key to play". Fun game and I managed to finish all the tracks.
pekuja
06. Oct 2020 · 19:44 UTC
This is pretty cool! I used to have one of these. :smiley: It got a bit frustrating at times though, but I guess that's authentic. :laughing: I kind of like the simplicity of the control, but it also frustrated me that sometimes I was trying to go slow while approaching a green mark and it would get registered as a miss as I was trying to fine control my speed. I did eventually realize the right groove I needed to get into.

I think the game could really use a better camera mode. The default mode sometimes obscures a part of the track, particularly on the third track when passing the starting line device, where you can't quite see where you're going. On the behind-the-car camera you can't really see the marks on the road because the camera is so low.
rhoff95
06. Oct 2020 · 23:02 UTC
This is an awesome game. Was not able to figure out just by playing, which I prefer, but once I did I really enjoyed it. Might suggest having the sections of track where you hold down the mouse green, and the others red, rather than indicating only the transition. This might indicate better what you need to do since red/green is a common symbol for gas/break.
Eugenik
07. Oct 2020 · 06:30 UTC
Awesome art!
squimmy
07. Oct 2020 · 13:34 UTC
Scalextric simulator 2020! I love it. I really like the idea of using the DeLorean and charging the flux capacitor as a way to escape the loop (without having to do any other modelling or physics or anything :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:).

It's such a pity there was no music, it really feels like this would lend itself to being a rhythm game. But I can fully understand how much more effort it would be to not only compose music, but to then wrangle the whole game to always be in time with that music...

My only other complaint is the use of the default skybox. I think it would have looked a lot better with even a fairly low-effort skybox with maybe a treeline or something like that, instead of just a vast, empty horizon.
m.dam
07. Oct 2020 · 14:46 UTC
Could't figure out how to play :/
WongKongPhooey
07. Oct 2020 · 19:21 UTC
Awesome job! Was a pleasant surprise to see multiple levels, I wouldn't have been mad if there was only one. Genuinely fun and plays smooth.
🎤 Lex
07. Oct 2020 · 23:45 UTC
Thanks for the feedback guys! I see that some people are having trouble trying to figure out how to play it. I'm really sorry about that, I really wanted to add a tutorial but wasn't able to.
Rhoka
15. Oct 2020 · 02:28 UTC
Very interesting idea. The only major criticism I have is that maybe a different camera would've been nice. I think a traditional 3rd person cam could work here. II just found the last level much more difficult because I was unable to judge timing as well based on certain angles. Anyway great job!
🎤 Lex
18. Oct 2020 · 16:56 UTC
@rhoka There is a 3rd person camera! Just press C to toggle the camera :)
Rhoka
18. Oct 2020 · 20:20 UTC
@lex Oh cool. I see the on screen prompt now, I'm just dumb haha. Just played again with that camera and that felt much better. One note on it though, it could be a touch higher and angled down to the car to give a little more aerial view rather than directly behind the car to allow a player to take in a bit more of the track. Every game needs a unique camera for different circumstances. We also made a driving game and our camera is quite high because we needed the player to see a lot of the track. You wouldn't need to go quite as high but just enough to see a bit more. Sorry for the rant lol :)
Roolow
27. Oct 2020 · 19:35 UTC
Great concept! Like someone else mentioned, this also remind me of slot car racers. It's really satisfying to land a bunch of "perfects" in a row. And I love the behind the car camera mode. this is some "serious s**t!".