Insect Racing League by mhorth
Buzz through nature at lightning speed! Take control of tiny winged racers and zip through obstacles in this fast-paced racing adventure. Can you outfly the competition and become the ultimate champion?
Helpful hints
- Racing scenes are playable with mouse and keyboard, or a controller (only verified with PS4 controller, but should work with most).
- Different insects have different play styles, try them out to see if you can get a better time.
Showcase


Extra notes
- There are settings to adjust your mouse and controller sensitivity.
- You can also turn off the personal best and world record ghosts if they are distracting.
- Environment art is from an asset pack, all racing graphics are made custom during the jam.
| Link | https://mhorth.itch.io/insect-racing-league |
| Link | https://mhorth.itch.io/insect-racing-league |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/insect-racing-league |
Ratings
| Overall | 33th | 4.25⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 10th | 4.36⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 92th | 3.96⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 16th | 4.5⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 308th | 3.476⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 210th | 3.94⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 38🗳️ | 25🗨️ |

Thank you very much for your comments, glad you had fun!
Also, the cm/s label was a great touch :butterfly:
Keep up the good work !
I think the best thing is the addition of the previous best time and WR time being displayed. It makes it so much more fun to try to beat my times when I know what I am going up against.
There's not that much more to say without being overly nitpicky. Awesome job this time!
The game works well with an xbox one controller, but I really feel that's it's best to play it with a mouse and keyboard.
The only little issue that I had, is that on the menu, if you don't have and ultrawide monitor, the name of the first level is cropped. At first I did'nt understood the bar under the level selection was a scrolling bar:

Great job!
I really appreciated the way the environments look and sound.
This feels more like a fuller game than I was expecting (4 levels wow!)
Anyway congrats, it's a great submission!
It all comes down to the pivot point on the *Content* object. I started with the pivot being at {X: 0.5, Y: 0.5} and that caused the behavior that you see, the track select group being centered. Changing the pivot to {X: 0, Y: 0.5} makes the content start with its left edge on the left edge of the scroll view. Similarly if anyone wanted to start on the far right, I imagine a pivot of {X: 1, Y: 0.5} would achieve that.

There are so many small elements that made everything feel good from the trails showing the direction to the angle of the checkpoints to the HUD display the much needed info, it all felt right. This seems like it has the potential for something much larger. The levels are a bit too same-y making memorizing the "race tracks" a bit difficult, especially since it's a 3D space, however for 72 hours the tracks are still considerably well done and the art style is lovely.
Overall super impressed. Well done!
As a suggestion, i thought it could add difficulty and fun to have some interaction with assets, like colliding with flowers ^^
Well done, good job!
I do have to let you know that there is no AI or bot-racers in the game. The world record that you see is truly another player!
https://www.youtube.com/live/I2NaC9C0rDI?t=12789
Also Wanted to ask if youre fine with me using gameplay from the game in this LDs [score chasers tournament](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/$405421/ludum-dare-score-chasers-qualification-begins) intermission video. (Would play in the breaks of the tournament on my stream). Last year for reference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuddhZScWxo
I'm usually pretty "meh" when it comes to ring flying games, but the extra polish you put into the guiding trail, leaderboard ghosts, and different bugs actually made this a really fun experience that I wanted to keep playing despite the usual 10-minute time limit we usually put on playtests :sweat_smile: Great job!
Otherwise I had great fun, really liked it!
The yellow guiding line is a good addition although it does make me wonder what level design would limit how lost the player got without sacrificing the sense of freedom.
The music had a good sense of energy and urgency without being too overbearing.
The only issue I had was the starting circle confused me a number of times. In my opinion it should disappear after the first checkpoint.
Great game!