In Match Racer, you race. And you play Match3. And it is turn based. And it is a lot of fun! To gain actions for your racecar, you play three rounds of match3 first. After that, it is time to hit the track and try not to crash into the walls. Once you are out of actions, you go back to the match3 part. Also, there are boosts for the racing part you can get by clearing four or more tiles in the match3.
========= How To Play ==========
The whole game is mouse controlled. In the match3 part, you click one tile in the center of the track, and then an adjacent tile to make the tiles swap places. If after the swap three or more tiles of the same type are adjacent in a straight line, they will be deleted. You will get one car action for three deleted tiles. If you manage to clear four or more tiles in one turn, you will get a boost according to the type of tile you cleared. After three turns, the game switches to the race car. Here, you pilot your car by selecting one of 9 available positions. The car will now drive to this position. To increase speed, select one of the three positions on the far side of the car. To brake, select one the three positions near the car. To steer, select either the left or the right positions. The speed of the car is retained between turns, which means you should brake before a corner to not overshoot it. The game ends when you have completed a lap. There is also a tutorial available ingame, just click the tutorial button from the menu or click the question mark icon in the upper right side of your screen.
======== Music and Sound Effects ========
If you do not like the music and / or the sound effects, you can turn them off in the Options. Press Escape or click the menu icon in the upper right side to open the Menu. Then click Options. You will see two sliders, one for sound effects and one for music. These values will be saved between game sessions.
======== Feedback ========
If you have feedback or found a bug, please leave a comment here or on the itch.io page, or tweet me at @dievo.
======== Versions =======
Windows Versions are available via itch.io. MacOSX version will be available tomorrow. Sourcecode is available as Dropbox Download.
======== Bugs =========
Resolution: If your game is cut off on the edges, please use a 16:9 resolution, for example 1920x1080.
======== Development ========
The game was made in Unity. Graphics were created with Adobe Illustrator. Sound was created with Apple Garageband, BFXR and LabChirp. The weekend was fueled by Rockstar Energy ;-)
========= FUTURE ======
I plan to add more tracks and a real AI. This enhanced edition will be available soon and maybe, if the feedback is positive enough, I'll create a real game out of it. I'm very happy with how the game turned out, this was the first time I did not have any real time problems. I wish I could have added more tracks for the compo version, but I think you'll get the idea of how the game works. In my opinion, this is the best game I've created for Ludum Dare to this day.
A Ludum Dare 41 Compo entry. The game was made by Thomas Diehl in 48 hours. If you like it (or don’t) please leave a comment http://www.dievolution.com
yeah, there is a problem with some resolutions. I tested the game with 16:9 and 16:10 and had no problems, but to be safe, a 16:9 resolution should be used. I've updated the bugs section of the description, thanks for noticing it.
Absolutely fantastic game! Really clever how you've implemented speed, acceleration/deceleration and turning in a turn based setting, and especially how you've linked the match-3 into that in an interesting way. I really like how it adds a layer of strategy to the match-3, because you are looking to get different power-ups depending on where you are on the track. Really nice music and sound too. I suppose the graphics could be polished up a bit, but that's really the only crtiticism it's possible to make.
Really good game and good interpretation of the theme! I wasn't sure about the turn based racing at first, but the way you handled speed and turning is just brilliant. I'm honestly impressed. The music is great, the graphics look good... It's one of the best entry I've played. ^^
You know, I am not a fan of match three games, in fact I would say I am almost AGAINST them... but this was actually good fun :) Nice implementation and solid visuals. Great entry!
Definitely one of the best games I've played in LD41. It has a real challenge to it when you play it on hard difficulty and the racing concept is really clever and well implemented. Great work!
this game is really good. I personally didn't like games like Bejeweled or others like that... but this is definitely one of the LD games that is actually fun to play!
Nice clean UI. Very professional looking. Great match-3 mechanics. I personally dont like reading too much so the tutorial was a tad wordy for me lol. I have a feeling that this game would be gr8 as a multiplayer game.
I love your game! It reminded me a bit of an old board game "Formula D" ^^
The gameplay is top notch, it looks fantastic, love the audio as well... Wonderful for me. If you plan on keeping on working on it, yeah, a multiplayer would be awesome (and other tracks of course ^^)
@mza yeah, I thought about an ingame tutorial, but there is never time for a proper tutorial in the compo :-)
@linky439 yes I'm currently examining the possibilities of creating a real app out of the game, however my last few mobile games tanked in the store, so I'm not that confident anymore unfortunately. And I don't think a PC version would do well on one of the bigger stores.
I liked the combination but I felt like it was a bit slow. Pathing sometimes glitched and I got caught behind the "Racing moves" bar so I couldn't finish it. https://imgur.com/L7W9alp
@croewens yeah, I tried to explain everywhere I could to use the fullscreen button when playing the html version, thats why you unfortunately got behind the UI.
Comments23
I just wish there were more cars in the game and there were colisions and such! That would be awesome!
Very nice game overall! Keep up the good work!
Game works really well and 11/10 for the UI.
The gameplay is top notch, it looks fantastic, love the audio as well... Wonderful for me. If you plan on keeping on working on it, yeah, a multiplayer would be awesome (and other tracks of course ^^)
Congrats! :)
@linky439 yes I'm currently examining the possibilities of creating a real app out of the game, however my last few mobile games tanked in the store, so I'm not that confident anymore unfortunately. And I don't think a PC version would do well on one of the bigger stores.
The puzzling part was really well thought out!