#racing development

I’ve been building a fast-paced arcade racer in GDevelop with tight drifting mechanics and competitive opponents. The goal is make a game that feels challenging enough, where skill matters, but beginners aren’t left in the dust.

Adding steering system for the Player Car

Press "WASD" to move around. Vehicles lean at a certain angle when turning left or right.

Adding Variables for timing our spawns

Variables reflecting left or right directions spawn your rivals at the random positions.

Adding road barriers to elevate challenging level

Players have to dodge the assaulting hazards, including their opponents and spiky traps.

Adding Camera system for the Player Car

While moving forward, the camera will concentrate on Player Car, and the X positional screen width is also half of the original one.

The traffic cars coming from opposite directions were the most difficult mechanics for me to catch up with. I felt lost in chaotic variables, which is annoying when things don't work as expected.

Development posts

What have you been trying to achieve in GDevelop?

Implement a win screen for high scores.

Restart the game immediately after a crash.

Reduce the size of the car's collision box to make the gameplay fairer and more fun.

What have you learned?

How to build a basic racer game using GDevelop's scene and behavior tools.

How to group objects like obstacles for easier control and event handling.

How to simulate motion using background elements like trees.

How to fine-tune the collision box for better hit detection and game balance.

Showcasing design ideas and concepts from/inspired by readings:

The game draws inspiration from arcade game design principles, especially the use of tight feedback loops and escalating challenge.

The tree animation effect follows the concept of “implied movement” to make a static camera feel dynamic.

For this workshop, I developed a top-down infinite racer game using GDevelop. The player controls a car driving along a multi-lane highway, avoiding randomly spawned traffic while accumulating points.

I implemented smooth lane-switching using left/right key presses and added slight car rotation for visual feedback. Top-down movement behavior provided acceleration, while timers controlled the regular spawning of traffic cars.

To manage car spawning, I used scene variables and arrays to define lane positions. Traffic cars were grouped using object groups for streamlined movement and control.

A collision with traffic triggers an explosion animation and removes both the player car and the traffic object, ending the game. I also added a scoring system—each time a traffic car exits the screen, 100 points are added, and the car is deleted to save memory.

To enhance the environment, scrolling trees simulate background motion. The camera remains centred using screen width expressions, and player movement is restricted within road boundaries using force-based conditions.

Games like mario kart and fzero have visual and audio feedback for doing drifts and give you a small boost of speed.  Mario kart rewards you with extra speed boosts but are not necessary to complete the game and act as a skill reward.  F-zero relies on drifting and using them with very specific timing to simply complete story levels and compete in the higher difficulty races.  If time permitted I would love to add drifting, more sophisticated AI and a full set of courses to complete.