Okay, so I’ve been messing around with this idea for a “horse racing cart” game. It’s probably been done a million times, but I wanted to see if I could put my own spin on it.
I started by just sketching out some ideas on paper. Nothing fancy, just stick figures and rough shapes. I wanted to get a feel for the basic layout – how the track would look, where the carts would be, that sort of thing. I pictured a simple oval track, kinda like those old-school horse racing games you see at arcades.
Next, I opened up my trusty game engine. I used a familiar game development program and set up a new project. I’m keeping things 2D for now, to keep it simple.
- Created a basic scene.
- Added a sprite for the track – just a simple oval shape for now.
- Added some sprites for the carts – just colored rectangles, really basic.
Then came the fun part (well, sort of fun, also frustrating): the coding! I started by making the carts move. I wanted them to loop around the track endlessly. I added some basic movement to that and.
I then gave each cart a different random speed, so some would be faster than others. It’s not super sophisticated, but it’s a start. I spent a good chunk of time just tweaking the speeds, trying to get a good balance between them.
Adding Player Controls
It is a good start but a bit boring so I added some very basic player input. Right now, you can press a button to make your chosen cart go slightly faster. It’s not much, but it’s a little bit of interaction.
I also added a super simple “finish line” check. Basically, when a cart completes a certain number of laps, the game just stops. Nothing fancy, no winning screen or anything yet.
I ended up staying with the simple design, which is just a simple endless racing.
So, that’s where I’m at right now. It’s very, very rough, but it’s a working prototype. I can see the carts going around the track, and I can kinda “race” them. It’s enough to prove the basic concept works, and that’s always a good feeling.