Show HN: SimDrive – a browser racing game with your phone as the controller:D(simdrive.xyz)
simdrive.xyz
Show HN: SimDrive – a browser racing game with your phone as the controller:D
https://simdrive.xyz/
18 comments
Nice job. A few years back I saw a Reddit post/game about using a mobile phone’s accelerometer to control a browser-based racing game on a separate monitor, we need more games in this space.
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedevscreens/comments/suwgqi/i_am...
https://www.collisio.club/game
Feedback
- The pink trees on Sakura really need to be fixed. The leaves themselves are offset in a strange way, they’re not centered on the actual trunk.
- It would be helpful to have a way to detect if the phone isn’t in landscape mode and prompt the user to rotate. It’s a small thing, but it would be a nice quality-of-life improvement.
- The sausage fingers hands are... distracting. I’d consider remodeling them.
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedevscreens/comments/suwgqi/i_am...
https://www.collisio.club/game
Feedback
- The pink trees on Sakura really need to be fixed. The leaves themselves are offset in a strange way, they’re not centered on the actual trunk.
- It would be helpful to have a way to detect if the phone isn’t in landscape mode and prompt the user to rotate. It’s a small thing, but it would be a nice quality-of-life improvement.
- The sausage fingers hands are... distracting. I’d consider remodeling them.
wow i had no idea, thanks! tried collisio too, i love the tiny cars haha
> pink trees it was supposed to be a tunnel sorta things but that was bad - fixed!
> landscape mode prompt also added; yes that's a good quality-of-life improvement
> sausage hands lmao yes this is a little tricky but i think i'll leave the default to no hands for now
thanks a lot for trying it out and giving useful feedback, much appreciated and means a lot! :D
> pink trees it was supposed to be a tunnel sorta things but that was bad - fixed!
> landscape mode prompt also added; yes that's a good quality-of-life improvement
> sausage hands lmao yes this is a little tricky but i think i'll leave the default to no hands for now
thanks a lot for trying it out and giving useful feedback, much appreciated and means a lot! :D
I finally had a chance to check this out; sorry to only have bugs and usability issues to report. Iphone with safari.
I opened the link on my phone and saw that there was a room code. I finally figured out that I had to open up a second screen so I went to my computer and I typed in that room code and it said that no phones were available to join, but my phone was sitting there in that same room. I tried creating the room first on my computer then joining that same room as typed on my phone and that also didn't work.
After some time, I realized I needed to take an actual photo of the QR code that was on the website from my phone and only then was I able to actually get into the racer.
Already having spent more time than I would've wanted to I was happy to see the Formula One race on the screen! I accelerated and promptly drove off the track as I apparently cannot steer. Nothing I can do to figure out how to steer.
If this worked, it would've been really neat
I opened the link on my phone and saw that there was a room code. I finally figured out that I had to open up a second screen so I went to my computer and I typed in that room code and it said that no phones were available to join, but my phone was sitting there in that same room. I tried creating the room first on my computer then joining that same room as typed on my phone and that also didn't work.
After some time, I realized I needed to take an actual photo of the QR code that was on the website from my phone and only then was I able to actually get into the racer.
Already having spent more time than I would've wanted to I was happy to see the Formula One race on the screen! I accelerated and promptly drove off the track as I apparently cannot steer. Nothing I can do to figure out how to steer.
If this worked, it would've been really neat
Thank you very much for trying and taking the time to give feedback :D
I'm sorry about the issues
I've made it a lot more clear that it's a computer screen + phone controller
And the safari browser was a little tricky and needed an extra permission, so now users on safari will see a big button to enable tilt steering
I hope you find it a lot better and I am also planning a much better tutorial screen to test the tilt steering and controls before the game starts
I'm sorry about the issues
I've made it a lot more clear that it's a computer screen + phone controller
And the safari browser was a little tricky and needed an extra permission, so now users on safari will see a big button to enable tilt steering
I hope you find it a lot better and I am also planning a much better tutorial screen to test the tilt steering and controls before the game starts
Nice project! I'm working on something similar, but I have different kind of games: https://padlessbox.com/
The downside is that that kind of games where you have separated joystick and the "projector", you need to have multiple servers to reduce latency for players. So if the game is for multiregion you need to have multiple servers.
The downside is that that kind of games where you have separated joystick and the "projector", you need to have multiple servers to reduce latency for players. So if the game is for multiregion you need to have multiple servers.
Yo that's cool nice work! Snake is my favourite one :D
And hmm I think not really; try having on one server and see how it goes
Right now I'm hosting on just a single server but could also be that I don't have issues because I don't have a lot of concurrent players but personally I think easiest to stick with bigger server unless I run into problems where I really need to
And hmm I think not really; try having on one server and see how it goes
Right now I'm hosting on just a single server but could also be that I don't have issues because I don't have a lot of concurrent players but personally I think easiest to stick with bigger server unless I run into problems where I really need to
I've seen several of these 'party games', either standalone or platforms, but they all seem to use phones as controllers.
Are there any that can use browsers as controllers? For schools for example? Also something like the star-trek bridge-sims.
Are there any that can use browsers as controllers? For schools for example? Also something like the star-trek bridge-sims.
Yes there's quite a few! Check out vibej.am for a bunch of single screen browser games
And I'm also working simdrive being mobile only if players want but that won't work for schools (unless...)
And I'm also working simdrive being mobile only if players want but that won't work for schools (unless...)
There need to be better instructions that you have to open the web page on your computer first, opening the link on the phone directly appears useless as it just displays a qr code on the phone.
My bad thank you for the useful feedback, I've added this :D
Now when you start a game in mobile, it'll explain clearly this is a two screen game and it should be opened on desktop/tablet
Btw, I am working on a single screen mobile only version too now thanks to yours and a few other comments
Now when you start a game in mobile, it'll explain clearly this is a two screen game and it should be opened on desktop/tablet
Btw, I am working on a single screen mobile only version too now thanks to yours and a few other comments
When I open it on my phone it just gives me a QR code, but I’m already on my phone and I can’t find another way to start. What am I doing wrong?
My apologies, the instructions I had were not clear
This is currently a two screen game where a desktop/tablet screen is the main screen where one would start the game and then use the QR code to pair the phone as a controller for the car (no installs, all in the browser)
I've updated the instructions now so that if you start on mobile it'll explain this clearly :D
This is currently a two screen game where a desktop/tablet screen is the main screen where one would start the game and then use the QR code to pair the phone as a controller for the car (no installs, all in the browser)
I've updated the instructions now so that if you start on mobile it'll explain this clearly :D
Motion control doesn't seem to work on iPhone / Safari.
Fixed, sorry about that; it was a regression bug :(
Bug was live for about a day before a friend caught it. I thought her phone was out of date lol but then someone else said it too so I double checked
Bug was live for about a day before a friend caught it. I thought her phone was out of date lol but then someone else said it too so I double checked
And it moved to online games as more of us moved to other places and party games became our go-to
Love jackbox and gaming couch (that I discovered here on HN)
I saw the vibej.am for this year and I couldn't think of a good enough idea till about the 3rd week but here I am!
This is a game made for me and my friends and it's also very inspired by what I thought the PS3 6-axis controller would be when I first heart about it
Thanks for reading this and I hope you and your friends enjoy playing
You can play either split screen or on separate screens with the room code or even have two split screens play too (max 8 players for now)
It started with F1 cars but working on go-karts, trucks and tuk tuks :D
I've tried to include a lot of "simulation" in the game. There's decent physics that include down force, grip etc and it even changes with/without the rain
Ideally you have an android+chrome phone so you can "feel" your driving with vibrations/haptics but otherwise you'll have just sound as feedback
Oops long post, bye