Reinvent the Wheel

by linus
*CONSIDER PLAYING IN FULLSCREEN MODE OR DOWNLOADING NATIVE VERSION FOR BETTER EXPERIENCE*

A game where the objective is to reinvent the wheel!

Use your mouse to steer the cart and draw the wheels. Pressing "reinvent the wheel" restarts the game, and "submit" will enter your highscore to the leaderboard.

This game was created with the experimental linux port of the unity editor. It crashed every now and then but overall it was stable enough to create a game. If I had more time, I would add a feature displaying your current position in the leaderboard. Please consider downloading the native build for your platform for a better experience.

------------------------

Resources used:
- Infinite terrain generation - http://code-phi.com/infinite-terrain-generation-in-unity-3d/
- Autotracker - https://github.com/wibblymat/ld24/blob/master/autotracker.py
- Tileable image generator - https://www.willmcgugan.com/blog/tech/post/make-tilable-backgrounds-with-python/
- Delauny Triangulation - https://gist.github.com/miketucker/3795318
- Quickhull algorithm - http://www.cse.yorku.ca/~aaw/Hang/quick_hull/Algorithm.html
- How to extrude flat 2D mesh - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3848923/how-to-extrude-a-flat-2d-mesh-giving-it-depth
- Endless terrain - http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/endless-terrain.183638/

Tools used:
- Unity3d
- Mobile camera
- ImageMagick
- Audacity

screenshot

Comments22

peterthehe
peterthehe29 Aug 2016, 14:00
I want able to make a perfect wheel, then again that may be the point of the game :P The physics was very amusing. I'm just wondering where my submissions go after I finish the game...
JK5000
JK500029 Aug 2016, 19:15
A super fun game. The idea is amazing and the music is great. Okay graphics could have been better, but who care about that. well done.
hawkinslance30 Aug 2016, 01:13
This was really fun but it got boring after just going and going and going endlessly... Great game, though. The box looks really nice too.
Elit3dGaming30 Aug 2016, 01:24
Very innovative game, I haven't seen this done before where you design each wheel. I love the physics and the sounds, had me chuckling. Can get boring due to repetitiveness.
ratly30 Aug 2016, 03:43
This was really innovative and perfect for the theme. It was fun to try to make the perfect wheels, although it did get old when I finally got a good steerable set of wheels. Being able to see all the names and add your own is a really neat touch. Also, I loved the humor and sound effects.
KingSlizzard
KingSlizzard30 Aug 2016, 22:25
this has been the most fun game I've played so far. The demon souls drop tag messages are so funny. you should make this even get even crazier procedurally when you get further. I could see it becoming a spectacle in the streaming community like spelunky was. thanks for making this!
Will Edwards31 Aug 2016, 07:24
A leaderboard drawn down one side so you can see how many people you have yet to pass would be great!
Linus123xbbauthor31 Aug 2016, 15:51
@WillEdwards thanks for the tip, unfortunately I ran out of time so I wasn't able do that
Alphish
Alphish31 Aug 2016, 18:32
Loving the concept here! It's quite hilarious when you first sloppily draw your wheels then get your magnificent vehicle running.

What I'd have liked is having controls refined somehow (sometimes, mouse was getting out of the game window, and on fullscreen it was just too laggy). Also, more variety (the terrain with its twists and turns should be definitely randomly generated, and maybe involve some bumps along a way to mess with the vehicle even more) and the leaderboards as @Will Edwards described.

Aside from that, excellent job. I liked the audio here (especially the sound effects when crossing another player's record) as well. ^^
juaxix2 Sep 2016, 19:27
This is a really procedural game, not like that one with the planets from hello games LOL xD
i had a lot of fun with this one!
Geckoo1337
Geckoo13373 Sep 2016, 18:09
Lol. Funny game. It could be improved with other features ++
tedajax3 Sep 2016, 23:36
The shape of my wheels didn't seem to do much or maybe I'm just good at inadvertently drawing good wheels :)

The leaderboard is a nice touch, had fun.
Eggplant5 Sep 2016, 18:03
This is awesome! A simple concept that works very well. I played it for a long time. I like the use of the theme.
GFM
GFM6 Sep 2016, 00:37
Interesting and funny game. :)
Thanks to it, I learned that triangles can make pretty good wheel. (I had to try that... XD)

The web build is quite difficult to play, since it doesn't lock the mouse to the game, and the mouse eventually moves outside the screen... Other than that, I liked the game! :)
Headmade6 Sep 2016, 04:39
I love the idea! It's also well enough implemented but it is a shame that the game abstracts the wheels I draw so much. I drew a star shape, the game makes a circular shape out of it :(

I misused the highscore submit to promote my game :P I hope you don't mind. It would be a great motivation to keep playing if I knew if there were any more highscores ahead of me. Show me something like "only XX more meters to beat 'highscore name'"
bitdecaygames6 Sep 2016, 06:19
Well now... I played that for longer than I thought I was going to. Gameplay is simple, but being able to build your own cart and fight for high scores gives it a surprising amount of replay value.

I played with different wheel sizes/combinations and was surprised how much they actually affect how the kart moves. Nice work!
SnakeXan6 Sep 2016, 08:57
Marvellous game and yet so simple! Played it a few times more than I anticipated. Very neatly done and perfectly in theme!
MrMordem
MrMordem7 Sep 2016, 12:29
Simple game but i dig the concept, it's really fun that you have to draw your own wheels before going down the track.

mouse steering felt ok but not perfect, but then again i suppose it's better in fullscreen,the sound effects made me laugh and i had great fun testing the game out.

Well done :)
Tegu
Tegu9 Sep 2016, 08:23
Pretty unique idea!

There should be a restart button though, as sometimes I made so bad wheels that I just stopped. Had to restart the whole game. Loading a new chunk of terrain made the game lag badly each time for me, which also made the physics glitch. The cart just turned around and I could do nothing to save the situation.

With the lagging, I found that making a bit slower cart was a better idea than making a quick one since the glitching doesn't affect so much on lower speeds. At that point only patience matters, as the game gets quite boring..

This is minor, but there could also be an indicator about which wheel is being done currently. I know that you could just memorize the order, but still. At first, I was also confused that I had to draw multiple circles although no text changed in the screen. I though the wheel wasn't registered or something. But those are for post-compo version if anything.

I really liked that the results of other people are directly visible in the track. There were a few "x got bored here" messages. :D Also, I passed the "you shall not pass!", is this bad? In the end, I went for minutes without encountering any score until the mouse steering glitched somehow and I couldn't steer as usual -> it all falls down..

The concept of drawing your wheels is nice, though, so it could be developed further.
SamuelSousa
SamuelSousa16 Sep 2016, 16:50
Sophisticated. Simple and fun.

Draw a circle to start was a nice idea.
Creating different wheels that really affected the driving was also a nice touch.

The leaderboards Idea just kept me going since everyone gets to submit a score and can write whatever they want there's a never knowing what you'll next effect.

Good job!
g_o23 Sep 2016, 09:55
haha cute!
Uhhh yeah I'm best!

Other games by @linus

Found a bug?
Tell us on Discord