Description
This game uses a simple road generating mapgen to provide a suitable demonstration environment for my vehicle mod 'driftcar'. The vehicle uses some physics modelling to create semi-realistic skidding and drifting behaviour. Tyre grip is reduced on the grass nodes (nodes with the 'crumbly' group). Smoke particles are emitted from each tyre when skidding.
Many existing games are not suitable as a demonstration environment for 'driftcar' as they use intensive ABMs or other intensive code that interferes with the control response of the vehicle.
Earlier versions of 'driftcar' mod
'Driftcar' mod was previously released as a mod for 'Minetest Game' game. The version in 'driftgame' game is an improved version and development of 'driftcar' will now continue in 'driftgame'.
Using 'driftcar' mod outside this game
This mod can be used in other Minetest games. The vehicle's tyre grip is reduced on nodes with the 'crumbly' group, so it is a good idea for road nodes to belong to the 'cracky' group. The vehicle responds best when used in games that do not run intensive code while the vehicle is being driven. If a non-lightweght Lua mapgen is used it is best to pre-generate an area before driving in that area.
Using this game
Due to client->server->client control delay it is recommended that this game is used in singleplayer or in local multiplayer. Generation of new areas of world may slightly affect the control response of the vehicle, the best control response will occur in previously generated areas. Third-person camera mode is recommended when driving for a better view.
How to start playing this game
Start a new world, the game will only allow 'Mapgen Flat' to be selected. The optional features of Mapgen Flat: lakes and hills, should be left disabled.
When you enter the world, if the screen is black you are probably inside a tree, walk in various directions to exit the tree.
Type '/grantme all' to obtain all privileges.
Press 'K' to enable fly mode, and 'J' to enable fast mode.
Fly fast to find a road.
Place the car on the road, enter it. Press 'F7' to use third-person camera mode.
Car controls
Left mouse button = Place car in inventory when pointing at car. Right mouse button = Place car in world. Enter or exit car when pointing at car. Forward = Speed up. Slow down when moving backwards. Backward = Slow down. Speed up when moving backwards. Left = Rotate anticlockwise. Right = Rotate clockwise.
How this game was created
This game is derived from my 'minipeli' game.
Minipeli mods used unaltered: gui hand light player_api
Minipeli mods used and altered: mapgen (Remove sounds folder. Remove sounds tables. Remove river water nodes as mapgen valleys is unused. Alias "mapgen_river_water_source" to "mapgen:water_source" to avoid warnings) media (remove sounds folder)
Drive across the landscape, rip mad skids and do doughies
This one is good in case you get that petrolhead itch and need to scratch it without leaving Minetest, or maybe you just don't have any decent racing games.
3rd-person camera is definitely recommend. The inside of the car isn't a good view of the road. The visuals of the game also change at night, with the edges of the road lit. Put your own music, podcast or whatever you want on as the game doesn't have any sound of its own.
This will fill the world with random curving roads and give you a car to do drifts and doughnuts in. You can go on quite a long trip along the roads, though sometimes you will find yourself going around in circles. The minimap helps find new roads if you're stuck in a loop.
At the intersections of roads, you'll often have a much wider area, and sometimes somthing approximately shaped like a roundabout. Challenge yourself to see if you do a doughnut and keep up a circle while drifting. You'll need to rapidly tap the A or D keys, or use a gamepad if that's an option for you. For extra swag, you can drive backwards as fast you can can forwards, but of course, the steering will be reversed too!
The game does have higher system requirements than you might expect in Minetest. The Lua code that runs the vehicle physics may not run fast enough on your CPU, especially ones with low base clocks like laptops and phones, and your system may also struggle with generating terrain and driving at the same time. It probably won't work very well in multiplayer, due to both network latency and Minetest running all the vehicles in a single Lua thread. But if you have an adequate system, it can be surprisingly fun.
This is also a much more interesting way to view the Minipeli landscape than just flying over it.
For a special trick, you can open upon the game's game.conf and enable more mapgens. Don't get too excited, it will mostly result in a lot of tunnels and road over water (sometimes water over road too). But it has the occasional nice view.
Very interesting but sadly very incomplete
This is clearly quite competently made, the textures are nice, the movement is smooth and the roads are really neat. The issue is there is not an awful lot to do. You can kind of drift around for a bit and then it gets stale within five minutes. I just really wish there was more to it, like being timed on making it between checkpoints or something, anything really. The controls are also not as nice as they could be. For one, the steering takes a while to adjust when pressing left or right. I get this has to be the case or else the controls will feel to jerky, but as is they feel to softened. The drifting itself also leaves a lot to be desired because there isn't any sense of angular momentum, the car still responds to steering inputs like normal, which is odd. The deceleration is also very slow, so some means of proper braking would be quite appreciated. The game has no audio, which is obviously a big problem. Finally, there's a few oddities with the game as a whole, like how you spawn way up in the air and nearly die when hitting the ground or how there's dungeons and caves for no reason. Anyway, I like the game thus far, but it just lacks content.
Inspiring! However...
Let's start with the good, as Drift Game has a lot going for it. The lo-fi aesthetic is pretty, the concept is unique, and I enjoyed being able to drive around on procedural roads. This feels like it could be expanded into a really cool open-world driving sim making full use of Minetest's mapgen. Heck, if I weren't too busy I'd fork this and make it myself!
So, as a tech demo for the 'driftcar' mod I think it succeeds. I played it, the car was neat, I wanted to do something with it. However, ContentDB is a place for users to find content to play and I write reviews with them in mind. On that front, I think this game fares poorly.
Let's start with the car. Put simply, the 'drifcar' handles like it's driving on ice, even when it inevitably slips off the road. If you run into a tree (you will run into many), your screen will turn completely black as you try to navigate out of the mess you've gotten yourself into. Also, I tried reloading my world and had to chase my car as it drove off without me...
The next mark against this game is a lack of variety. The world is a sheer flat plain of grass and pavement (the car has no slope-handling functionality, I presume), dotted with pine trees. The trees are a nice touch but they're not enough. You could imagine that with snowy fields, deserts, oceanside routes, etc. the game would be more interesting to play. Really, just dropping this game into the average MTG mapgenv7 map would likely be enough to last a while. Unfortunately, that's not what we have today.
I should also mention perf. It's hard to say if this was the game's fault or the engine's, but at high speeds you can feel some lag spikes and stuttering that hurt the game's playability. It's not a persistent issue, but it's there.
So in the end, I walk away with both excitement at the possibility, but disappointment at the reality. This is worth poking if you're a dev looking for a project, but if you're a player I see no reason to touch this one.