GridRacer

Turn-Based Momentum-Based Racing-Game

Inspired by Racetrack and Phantom Spark

Race to the goal in the fewest number of moves that you can, touching all checkpoints along the way!

Originally made for the Thinky Puzzle Game Jam 4 (theme: "Extreme Sports")

After the jam, I made some visual tweaks and added:

  • checkpoints
  • online leaderboards


Thank you to mino, Rokonuxa, paulby, Geegaz, JohnLee_Erg, and more for playtesting. Thank you to droqen for helping me figure out leaderboards.

Controls:

arrow/wasd/ijkl to adjust momentum
space/x to move 
z to undo, r to restart
hitting a wall gives a momentum penalty to your move count

Note: some keyboards have hardware limitations on simultaneously pressing arrow keys with other keys. If you can't move while trying to offset in a certain direction, try using wasd or ijkl instead of the arrow keys.

Online Leaderboards:

Enter your name to see top scores and automatically submit your scores after each race.

Leave it blank to stay offline - the game will still track your Personal Bests locally.

Custom Levels:

You can create a custom level by creating an image file where:
black pixels are walls
blue pixels are checkpoints
red pixels are goals
and a green pixel for the start tile

Each connected set of checkpoint tiles forms a single 'checkpoint'.

You can have more than one green pixel in the image, but the racer will always start at the most top-left one.

Click the button at the bottom of the level select screen to upload your image, and it will add it to your level list. Your file must have a unique filename, or it will be ignored.

Share your level image with friends! Each custom level will have its own leaderboard too!

StatusReleased
PlatformsHTML5
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(6 total ratings)
AuthorJack Kutilek
GenreRacing, Puzzle
Tags2D, Level Editor, Minimalist, Top-Down
Average sessionA few minutes
InputsKeyboard

Development log

Comments

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Outer place has a 7 way tie??

Yay I made top 10 on them all :D

I made a pathfinding course to experiment with the new checkpoint feature. It's called Green Eye Grid

author time: 93.16

(1 edit) (+1)

I don't want to strategy hoard, and I'm pretty sure this only comes into play in custom levels: The order the game checks you hit things is not based on distance along the step. Instead, it's checkpoints, then goals, then walls. So in a level like this (or ) you can, in your last step, slam into a wall as long as your step line also hits all remaining checkpoints and the goal.

Edit: Okay so thorn and cobra venom both have shortcuts with this strategy.

A fun game to play for a few minutes to pass the time. Would be cool if there was an option after getting to the finish to watch your attempt in real time (like a replay of what happened)

great game!! I like to drive real fast

(+1)

yes!!

my game wont load :^(

oh no! If you can share a screenshot of the browser devtools console, I might be able to help

(5 edits)

This? other browser games on itch are working fine.


If the image keeps not working.

Error: value is not defined

    at P (index-B2UyTWX-.js:1:953)

    at Tt.getSingletonEntity (index-B2UyTWX-.js:20:6787)

    at jt.getSingletonEntity (index-B2UyTWX-.js:1:7286)

    at jt.init (index-B2UyTWX-.js:73:375)

    at jt.loadLevel (index-B2UyTWX-.js:73:130)

    at ii (index-B2UyTWX-.js:85:3099)

    at ni.initializeLevelsList (index-B2UyTWX-.js:82:136)

    at new ni (index-B2UyTWX-.js:80:597)

    at new ri (index-B2UyTWX-.js:85:4427)

    at new li (index-B2UyTWX-.js:85:5915)

thanks yeah. I just pushed a possible fix, let me know how it goes

that worked! thank you so much

(6 edits) (+1)

The yergicol leaderboard benchmarks have been set. Somebody beat me.

On a less confrontational note, here's my quick level (My best is 148.63.): And here's a little tiny puzzle level, my best is 56.53
Also I lied about my best on that first one, it's actually 92.
edit: and 29 on this even smaller one

Excellent scores! I will do my best to beat them :) And this looks like a nice level, thanks for sharing!

just seeing these other levels... lol, I was wondering if you were playing at that with your first one! just managed to finish the smallest one, very tricky.

Mmmm thats some very tasty cheese

(+1)

I suck

(5 edits)

29, 53, 71, 104, 171, 114, 83, 19, 42
I grinded these pretty low, at least to the point where there wasn't any obvious time save...turn save? Anyway, when will there be leaderboards?

Edit: I've been updating this as I improve.

(+1)

 

Leaderboards would be nice! I am looking into it.

You are insane... HOW???

(+1)

I thought I wouldn't play much more, but then I saw these scores...

Nice!!!

Wow, this is insane

(+1)

Ping since there's leaderboards now!

(+1)

Having the functionality to upload your own tracks is really impressive. Good job.

(+2)

Thanks, I'm really glad I was able to get that in!

Deleted 157 days ago

This is genius! And totally nostalgic of all those high school free hours :)

Thanks Marcos! :)

(1 edit) (+2)

On the topic of FranchuFranchu's suggestion of curvature radius, maybe there could be a "cone" visualization of all the possible positions on the next 2-3 turns to help with visualizing your turning radius?

Maybe the camera could also zoom out based on velocity so I can see the upcoming corner rather than careening into it.

Grateful for the generous inclusion of an undo button.

Nice ideas, thanks! and yes... undo is critical :)

Great game! Very simple but very deep!

Here's some ideas to add depth to the game:
- A panel with data which shows your velocity and average acceleration (and maybe curvature radius), which would help players get better at it.
- Power-ups which either decrease or increase your momentum.
- Bouncy walls, which make you bounce away!

But I think it's very good as it is right now.

Thanks! good suggestions!

I'd like check points, both to make loops like in bramble happen and to see how the segments of each run compare. I'm basically doing that second one all the time anyway.

Me too! I hope to add them soonish

There is a bug for me - if I'm holding left and up, I am unable to move when pressing space. This doesn't happen with right + up, or any other key combination. This considerably affects my ability to play. 

This aside: Very enjoyable game! You can get surprisingly out of control even going turn by turn on a grid! Frantically holding down + right to try and turn in time.

Some keyboards have weird simultaneous key limitations at the hardware level... Try using x to move instead, or wasd instead of arrow keys. Hoping that will help you play 🤞

But glad to hear you enjoy it!

WASD does the trick! It indeed seems like a hardware error. Thank you.