Race the sun: arcade, fast-reflexes, procedural game

RPS indicated me the other day the existence of this game.

It’s an indie, arcade game of fast reflexes in a stylized world. The concept is very neat, you are in a sleek, sun-powered very fast vehicle and the sun is setting down, so you have to race towards the sun at ridiculous speeds, lengthening the time you are in the “sunny” side of the planet, with the sun out-speeding you as it falls on the horizon little by little. As it sets down, the shadows growth larger which have gameplay implications (you need to stay on the sunny area to run or you power down). The trick is also in collecting special powerups that rewind the time of day, raising up the sun a bit in the sky.

The worlds where you run about are procedural, but if I understood it correctly, there is a twist, in that it only changes the world one time each day. In other words, you can “learn” the map to reach high scores during a day, and after that the world resets and is randomized again. It’s a interesting way to have the best of both worlds (random worlds so it’s never the same, but staying the same for a time).

It has also a interesting “level up” system, where the game has tons of goals/achievements (reach 15x multiplicator bonus, jump 10 times, reach sector 4 without dying, etc), with only three active at the same time, when you get one you level up and obtain a new goal of course and unlock something in the game, like a jump powerup, a passive ability, a new type of ingame portals that make you travel to another world, etc, making the game richer in consecutive runs (it reminds me a bit to Rogue Legacy system, though not as much focus on it).

The game has also a world editor and a system to share them online.

The game will cost $10 and it’s on greenlight right now. You can try the beta freely here.

Scooped by Teiman! This game is soooo cool. Really slick, super relaxing, eerie, bright. What a clever variation on the usual endless runner. I’m delighted that the San Filippo brothers who made Race the Sun will be on the Qt3 podcast next week.

-Tom

The video looks outrageous. When it first started, I was thinking “eh, okay” then it got nuts!

Slanderous lies! I’m clearly the superior spanish here! :P (and I searched in the forum before doing the thread)

Glad you like the game.

I read something about a “relay race”, a kind of asynchronous race mode. But I don’t see any option in the game about that??

Gah, sorry. You Teutonic types all look alike to me. :)

When you hit a certain threshold and die, you can generate a link that lets another player pick up where you left off. There’s a big “share” button next to your distance you can click to get the link. It only works once, but you can hand it over to a friend, who then starts at the point you died. When he dies, he can then generate a link and hand it back to you. So you and a friend can tag team your way forward. I’m not sure what this does to the scoring however. The feature isn’t fully implemented yet, according to the beta notes. In fact, it might not be in the public beta. I believe they’ve given press folks a different build.

-Tom

I just tried it, it said it would send me a link to my email, but I didn’t receive it (checked my spam folder, nothing). Well, it’s a beta and all that. Pity, because I reached stage 5 in that race!

http://playracethesun.com/?gameID=gaHPfhLxhg

788k, someone should continue!

I am sorry, very very sorry.

I loaded the game, but it was not rendering correctly, so I crashed into a wall really quickly.

http://playracethesun.com/?gameID=gaHPfhLxhg

Ah, so the relays are working? Cool. Since this is a scoring game, and partly a leveling game, I’m kind of reluctant to spend too much time with it until it’s final. But if Teiman’s link is still available later (the links are one-use only), I might grab it if no one else has had a go.

 -Tom, who's never gotten past region 4

Here’s my relay for Region 3 in today’s race: http://playracethesun.com?gameID=x9LUpftZNx

EDIT: a few more in the later regions (I think the farthest I got was Region 6)

http://playracethesun.com?gameID=58xZjou5Ju
http://playracethesun.com?gameID=oixi0fngXg
http://playracethesun.com?gameID=gNCbMT2ZPD

I’m going to take the Region 3 one!

EDIT: Well, that went… okay. http://playracethesun.com/?gameID=x9LUpftZNx

Tom’s latest podcast is with the developers.

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2013/08/07/qt3-games-podcast-racing-the-sun/

Sweet. I really like the look of this and want hear more. I’m thinking this will end up being a day one purchase.

I have a question: is there some procedural generation thing that creates fewer powerups and you move further to either side of the level (laterally)? It seems that if you stray out there, there are fewer obstacles but no powerups.

Also, what is the “action button” I have to hit to jump? It isn’t any of the mouse buttons. EDIT: Never mind, I found the “Input” menu and found that the action button is mapped to [Space]. Of course you jump with the spacebar!

I’ve never made it past Region 3, which I think is Thailand.

Anyway, I paid these guys $15 for some pre-order or other, because I’m a sucker for the “we’re indie game developers and we need funds to make our game!” thing.

Its a great interview, particularly their admission to how the gameplay – the basic concept of racing toward the sun – came during development, and was not there at the start. Also cool (and sad) was their reminiscing about not owning a console when they were kids (I won’t spoil the tale here).

version 0.90, (8/9/13 )

NEW FEATURES:

- All versions: TONS of bugs fixed, especially in the GUI.
- Now you can navigate all the UI with keyboard/controller.
- All versions: lots of visual polish on the player ship, etc.
- All versions: added “stats” panel to “configure ship” page.
- FULL VERSION: all 25 levels of upgrades unlocked!
- FULL VERSION: new game mode, unlocked at level 11: Apocalypse!
- FULL VERSION: Decals you can apply to your ship!

My actual record
http://playracethesun.com/?gameID=v0oBZyZNOZ

For me, the game lack some kind of checkpoint system. I hate having to start from the beginning each time. At least once you reach stage 4, 8, 12 etc you should be able to start from that point.

This is a great time killer. Glad I saw Tom’s Tweet!

Glad you’re digging it. There’s also a review on the front page and a few weeks ago I did a podcast with the brothers who made the game.

-Tom

I got to number 29 on the leaderboard today!

Read the review and I think you’re spot on on this one. Good read as usual.

Here is a link to a decent game, I think 600,000+: http://playracethesun.com?gameID=tlcyZONFvY