Okay, so I’ve been messing around with this game idea, “Speed Adventure,” and let me tell you, it’s been a wild ride. I started with absolutely nothing, just a blank slate and a vague idea of wanting to make something fast.
The First Steps (and Stumbles)
First thing I did was grab a simple game engine. Didn’t want to get bogged down in complicated stuff right away. I just wanted to see something, anything, move on the screen. I picked something free and easy, and after some fiddling, I got a little block to zip across the screen. Felt good, man.
Then, I tried to make the block move faster. I mean, “Speed Adventure,” right? It needs to be fast. I bumped up the speed variable, and whoosh, the block just vanished. Turns out, I made it move so fast it went right off the screen before I could even see it. Oops.
Building the Track (and Crashing a Lot)
Next, I needed a track. I started drawing some lines. Just basic stuff. At first, I had the block just following these lines perfectly, like it was on rails. Super boring. So, I tried to make it more… drifty. I wanted that feeling of barely being in control.
This is where things got messy. I spent hours tweaking the movement, trying to find the sweet spot between “totally out of control” and “boring as watching paint dry.” I added some simple physics, so the block would bounce off the walls. I think I spent an entire afternoon just watching the block ping-pong around the screen.
Adding Some Obstacles (Because Why Not?)
A track is no fun without obstacles, right? So, I started throwing in some random shapes. Just basic stuff, circles, squares, triangles. The goal was to make the player dodge these things while going at ludicrous speed.
- Circles: Easy to dodge, just a little nudge.
- Squares: Bigger, needed more precise movement.
- Triangles: I made these spin. Because evil.
The first time I tried to play through with the obstacles, it was a disaster. I crashed. A lot. I mean, a lot. But it was also kind of fun, in a frustrating, “I’m going to beat this” kind of way.
Making it Look (Slightly) Better
At this point, the “game” looked like something a five-year-old drew in MS Paint. So I did make it look a little nicer. Nothing fancy, just some basic colors and some simple shapes that kind of, sort of, looked like a futuristic racetrack.
The Result (So Far)
So, where am I at now? Well, “Speed Adventure” is still super rough. But it’s playable. You can zoom around the track, dodge obstacles, and crash spectacularly. It’s not going to win any awards, but it’s something. And I made it. From scratch. That feels pretty good. It’s a start, and who knows where I’ll take it from here.
