Hyper Racer by X_Pilot
You race on the insides of a tube in the depths of space! Compete against yourself for space and master the curvy nature of the tracks. How many laps can you complete?
THIS GAME IS BEST PLAYED ON A CONTROLLER, SITTING DOWN, WITH A FORWARD LEANING STANCE FOR MAXIMUM COMPETITIVENESS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gD1PWeWvR0
This game is a basic prototype made within 72 hours by 3 brilliant artists and 2 programmers! The game is by no means complete and contains a few features that we weren't able to fully implement due to the nature of game jams.
Here's a rundown of what we managed to achieve and what we were aiming for!
The game contains a few maps for you to explore, namely an easy and a medium one. We had so many ideas for tracks and track segments, but the poor art team already had so much on their plates that we decided to bite off more than we could chew.
Our character drives around the tubes in a fashion very similarly to the way mario runs around the planets and stuff in Mario Galaxy, but we just flip the normals so that you drive on the inside of a mesh (well it was modeled as our outside).
The music was intended to get more intense and groovey with each lap, but we weren't able to get proper bopping dynamic music in because none of us are musicians and 72 hours isn't long enough to learn the ins and outs of music. We made an attempt and after a few laps, it switches to some much better tunes to please your ears!
We weren't able to stop the player from turning around and going the wrong direction, which means that you could just go across the start finish line a billion times, but we really don't recommend that, because that's not fun :(
Progression
As you complete laps, a new ghost spawns where you first started your race! This means, the new ghost will be really slow but will eventually get up to speed many laps later. During this time, your speed will increase with each lap meaning you get a chance to overtake the ghosts with sheer pace, and not just driving ability alone.
Here are some GIFs to explain (Speed not 100% accurate):
Credits:
Music by:
Purple Planet Music
Our Music Box
Spline Mesh tool we adapted for our game:
Benoit Dumas
Quick note about the levels. We'd recommend playing on the standard stage, because you can't fly off and it's really good for getting used to the game.
Changes Since Deadline
We've worked on fixing bugs with the end scene, the advanced level and some colision issues we were having.
| Youtube | https://x-pilot.itch.io/hyper-racer |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/hyper-racer |
Ratings
| Overall | 191th | 3.994⭐ | 85🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 89th | 4.079⭐ | 84🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 682th | 3.446⭐ | 86🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 204th | 4.149⭐ | 86🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 118th | 4.375⭐ | 86🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 173th | 3.935⭐ | 86🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 1240th | 1.692⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 422th | 3.741⭐ | 83🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 56🗳️ | 30🗨️ |
Amazing game, one of the best I played so far!
I usually don't download games just aiming to test WebGL entries but the screenshots for this game made me do an exception. :)
The music was fitting the game and the graphics amazing. No lag at all on my 12 year old computer. You should aim for a VR release for the ultimate motion sickness feeling :laughing:
One way to stop the player to just turn back and cross the finishing line would be a few checkpoints along the level and if the player hasn't run trough them in order that lap is invalid.
I'm not sure if I experienced some glitches or what, as for the most part I only saw a single ghost every lap, and it was moving really slowly? I think the first time I got to, like, lap 4 there were a bunch of ghosts, but then I usually only saw 1, and even restarting the program didn't fix it... (I did download the "Latest" version FWIW)
In terms of the racing aspect, I think I would really like some sort of speeding up / braking like in Mario Kart, or maybe a jump feature, or just *some* additional controls for the car. I had fun playing the game, but I think it felt a little non-racing-game-ish because I didn't have any way to speed up.
But that said the game fits the theme very well and has superb music and graphics! Well done!
Really good job. I would suggest that the direction line always show the fastest path.
Beautiful entry.
Can get difficult with many ghost riders but that comes with scaled difficulty.
I think I would have more fun if there was a variety of loops and levels to try
Innovation:4
Follows the standard design for racing games, and the space aspect is very much a bonus... although race cars probably don't drop in space lol. Having different levels or procedural design would very much increase it's replayability.
Theme:5.0
Fits the theme for stuck in a loop
Graphics:5.0
Very very pretty, nice use of emissive textures, the artists really know what they were doing
Audio:5.0
dynamic music, changes each time a loop is completed.
Mood:3.5
very upbeat, like a rave. The gameplay can get dizzying after a while but can be improved with changes to gravity, friction and physics design.
Overall:4.5
I was first attracted to this game from it's look.
The artists and programmers worked well as a team and clearly has done this before.
I usually don't play racing games but this one really kept my attention for about 20 minuets. I think the replayabiltiy can be improved with more levels, procedural design, and tweaks to the physics engine.
Overall it's a well done, polished game.
Here is my playtest:
https://youtu.be/LaNp-y_wWLg
And boy, I'm IMPRESSED. You guys did amazing! The audio was perfect, and the graphics looks a lot like some retro games. A lot of talent was involved here, congratulations to your all. Thanks for the experience, had a lot of fun! Will keep this game on my computer.
I played the deadline version and I loved glitching out and trying to get some freeform loops.
Well, played it on stream guys, got 735
##### Am I good enough?? I can go up to 800 probably :D
I have a video if you want to use it for promotion. I'm going to go puke hard somewhere now.
Pretty on the eyes (and stressful after a while) and great music design. Really nice work!
Only feedback I can really suggest is to improve the menu to make it feel less static, the game supports gamepads except in the menu and it looks like you could breath some life in it by having the camera travel through the course in the background.
If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/767497194?t=0h52m08s
Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D
💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady
https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin
I would have liked buttons to accelerate and slow down though, I don't know if it's on purpose that you didn't put them but that'd only be for gamefeel that would be great.
Great audio too, really works well, I get huge wipeout / F-zero vibes but with your original ways and fitting really well the loop theme, the loop is on the shape of the track, the track itself and the stuck in the endless accelerating in it with ghosts of you you should not touch thing, well done!
Please improve it and make it a full game