Max Downforce - arcade racer

[Foppy]

A few days ago I completed a new racing game called Max Downforce. It uses pseudo 3d techniques similar to 80s games such as Pole Position and Outrun. I started writing this in 2017 to learn about Lua and Love2d. It has one track, and the goal is to complete 10 laps. For every next lap you get less time to complete it, but part of the remaining time will be carried over. I have not actually completed 10 laps the game in its final form yet, so I suppose it's a bit tricky. In the last couple of laps one mistake can mean game over.

The car is controlled with the arrow keys. The steering mechanic works a bit like Flappy Bird; in the turns, there is an outward force, and by pressing the left/right keys you work against that force. In many classic pseudo 3d racing games you can just keep steering against the outward force and the two forces more or less balance each other out. Typically you would then slowly drift to the outside of the corner. But in Max Downforce the steering force grows until it is quite a bit larger than the outward force, so you have to release the button again to avoid 'over steer', making the controls more twitchy. I like this because it means that even while corrnering you still have the steering freedom to overtake cars left or right.

I like the audio options Love2D offers, such as the echo effect which is applied to the car sound when in the tunnel. The great music is from PlayOnLoop.com.

The game can be downloaded from Gamejolt:
https://gamejolt.com/games/max_downforce/286316

The source code is on Github if you want to have a look:
https://github.com/Foppygames/max-downforce

I also made this video although it is a bit blurry at times:

[gianmichele]

Lovely!!!!

I wonder how this would play on mobile, speed wise. Have you tried?

[Foppy]

Thank you! No I have not tried on mobile. It seems like on the PC it is very difficult to make a game go slow these days! Or a 2d game at least. While I can imagine creating an Android build, the controls would be a bit tricky, with on-screen touch controls. I may have a look into it.

[raidho36]

Typically you would then slowly drift to the outside of the corner.

This is because they're trying to simulate real life physics: cars have a limit on how sharp a corner they can turn. Friction only keeps objects connected up to a point and then they start to slide with no additional motion resistance provided (sliding friction is actually slightly lower than static friction). If tyre grip capabilities are exceeded, one of two things is gonna happen, depending on many variables but chiefly the suspension design, the drivetrain configuration, and the pilot input:
* Front wheels will slide. The car will not rotate any quicker no matter how much extra steering input you give it. This condition is known as "understeer".
* Rear wheels will slide. The car will rotate significantly faster than commanded by the steering input. This condition is known as "oversteer".
Either way, the car is now sliding as a consequence of applying too much steering input, and exceeding tyre grip capabilities does not provides any additional steering force over what was originally permitted by them. It will slide towards the outside due to centripetal force, as keeping the car in the same position requires more grip than the tyres can provide. If you don't exceed this limit, you will also drift towards the outside.

In these old games you work around this the same way you do it in real life: throttle control.

[Germanunkol]

This looks really nice! Well done.
I especially like how "3D" the car looks.

In the video it looks like car parts are clipped a little early when they leave the screen towards the bottom. I think you could clip them a bit later...

Other than that, looks quite cool!

[DwayneDev]

dude the game looks so fast... every time I come back to this post I get sucked in by the gameplay video. Its trans-like.

[Nelvin]

This looks fantastic - triggers my memories for the Lotus Turbo Esprit games on the Amiga. Also it's pretty cool to see how extremely lowres your assets are and how great the game looks even on a typical sized modern display (those games back then had quite a lot of additional "hardware" filtering due to the CRT displays).

[Popolon]

Nice remake of Out Run time pseudo-3d racer game, I really like the sound changes when passing through tunnels.

This works perfectly on Linux on an ARM based (RK3288, 32bits) Asus C201 Chromebook with mesa Panfrost driver . The official ARM Mali driver didn't accelerate Löve at all, as it only managed OpenGL ES, not full OpenGL so games was so slow, nearly unusable.

[farvardin]

it looks very smooth! Well done!

[Foppy]

Thanks everyone! I am in the progress of adding gamepad support and also a second race track.

I am also looking forward to making a new game at some stage, again using LÖVE. Possibly a rogue like, not sure yet.