3 ms·

Hard Road – A beautiful procedural post-apocalyptic game

45 points by getbutterfly 3mo ago

teaearlgraycold 3mo ago
Seems I can’t control it on mobile?
- taneq 3mo ago
  Same (iOS), looks pretty though I guess? Edit: The ‘Controls’ button takes you to a help screen which only mentions keys (eg. WASD) so I guess it’s keyboard only.
avaer 3mo ago
What's procedural? The meshes? Textures? I'm impressed that I wasn't able to drive into a void, a lot of times I see things like this and it's a single generation pass that ends after 2 minutes of walking. Is it infinitely generating in chunks? Also what is the goal of the game? Is it a driving simulator, like ETS?
- anigbrowl 3mo ago
  The landscape, I assume.
peyloride 3mo ago
Seems like a vibecoded not finished game.
- Conscat 3mo ago
  I was able to upload hacky unpolished amateur game demos long before LLMs existed.
  - p-e-w 3mo ago
    Sure, but it’s easier to slander someone with unfalsifiable accusations of “vibecoding” than to engage with their work on any substantial level.
- anigbrowl 3mo ago
  I liked it a lot as an engine. Game-wise the first things I'd add would be car/tire damage, fuel use, and scattering replacement parts nearby. Perhaps off-road tire tracks could sometimes lead to wortwhile loot, but often into danger. Since it's post-apocalyptic, a geiger counter or wild-animals seem like natural extensions. I don't care that it's vibe-coded, the author has clearly invested time and effort in tuning the feel and controls, as well as getting a natural feel for the procedural landscape which makes up for the low-poly visual. The driving experience felt much better than most other games I've played, where steering and acceleration involve distracting levels of over-correction.
  - soco 3mo ago
    Randomly scattered parts or other valuables always irk me. Better let the player find a ruin, or a wreck (if we're talking tire tracks) where parts can be salvaged - it makes more sense to find stuff in such places.
    - anigbrowl 3mo ago
      They irk me too, and yet I see lone car wheels and other debris quite frequently in the real world.
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
cjkaminski 3mo ago
This demo makes a good first impression, but the lack of technical details makes this post feel more like an advertisement instead of a topic of discussion.
riidom 3mo ago
Some suggestions, if I may: You should mention on the help screen that the scroll wheel lets you zoom into first person/ engine hood view. Before you do that, those should be fixed though: The front shield is black, not transparent, so I could use only engine hood view. This is a bit too "dynamic" though, in lack of a better term. When you drive upwards, the camera descends below the engine block and I see the front suspension. When driving downwards, I look in the sky and can't see the car at all, makes avoiding obstacles difficult. For the roads: To make driving a bit more challenging, add obstacles close to the road, e.g. guard railings. For the generation: Right now it feels like a very even distribution of item scattering. Defining some types of areas and how these get populated with scenery may give a sense of "overall structure". As a fan of Slow Roads, I do like this approach! Climbingin the mountains and jumping down was kinda fun. Maybe add a second car that is faster? Well I hope you sell a lot of plugins so you can keep working on this :) Bookmarked and looking forward to updates.
trinsic2 3mo ago
Failed to load TypeError
dwd 3mo ago
Nicely done. Going offroad I discovered some nice physics like hitting a small rock at speed and it bouncing along beside me for a few seconds, or nearly getting stuck on the lip of something resembling a volcano. Only suggestion would be somehow making finding the way back to the road easier when you get the other side of a block like a mountain range.
Evidlo 3mo ago
Why was this flagged? This is cool
vivzkestrel 3mo ago
- stupid question: how do you go about building something like this from scratch - what are the processes involved - what skillset / knowledge is actually required - which libraries or game engines are needed for making this kinda stuff - how long does it take?
cush 3mo ago
Can you drive on mobile?

45 points by getbutterfly 3mo ago

teaearlgraycold 3mo ago

Seems I can’t control it on mobile?

taneq 3mo ago
Same (iOS), looks pretty though I guess? Edit: The ‘Controls’ button takes you to a help screen which only mentions keys (eg. WASD) so I guess it’s keyboard only.

avaer 3mo ago

What's procedural? The meshes? Textures? I'm impressed that I wasn't able to drive into a void, a lot of times I see things like this and it's a single generation pass that ends after 2 minutes of walking. Is it infinitely generating in chunks? Also what is the goal of the game? Is it a driving simulator, like ETS?

anigbrowl 3mo ago
The landscape, I assume.

peyloride 3mo ago

Seems like a vibecoded not finished game.

Conscat 3mo ago
I was able to upload hacky unpolished amateur game demos long before LLMs existed.
- p-e-w 3mo ago
  Sure, but it’s easier to slander someone with unfalsifiable accusations of “vibecoding” than to engage with their work on any substantial level.
anigbrowl 3mo ago
I liked it a lot as an engine. Game-wise the first things I'd add would be car/tire damage, fuel use, and scattering replacement parts nearby. Perhaps off-road tire tracks could sometimes lead to wortwhile loot, but often into danger. Since it's post-apocalyptic, a geiger counter or wild-animals seem like natural extensions. I don't care that it's vibe-coded, the author has clearly invested time and effort in tuning the feel and controls, as well as getting a natural feel for the procedural landscape which makes up for the low-poly visual. The driving experience felt much better than most other games I've played, where steering and acceleration involve distracting levels of over-correction.
- soco 3mo ago
  Randomly scattered parts or other valuables always irk me. Better let the player find a ruin, or a wreck (if we're talking tire tracks) where parts can be salvaged - it makes more sense to find stuff in such places.
  - anigbrowl 3mo ago
    They irk me too, and yet I see lone car wheels and other debris quite frequently in the real world.

deleted 3mo ago

[deleted]

cjkaminski 3mo ago

This demo makes a good first impression, but the lack of technical details makes this post feel more like an advertisement instead of a topic of discussion.

riidom 3mo ago

Some suggestions, if I may: You should mention on the help screen that the scroll wheel lets you zoom into first person/ engine hood view. Before you do that, those should be fixed though: The front shield is black, not transparent, so I could use only engine hood view. This is a bit too "dynamic" though, in lack of a better term. When you drive upwards, the camera descends below the engine block and I see the front suspension. When driving downwards, I look in the sky and can't see the car at all, makes avoiding obstacles difficult. For the roads: To make driving a bit more challenging, add obstacles close to the road, e.g. guard railings. For the generation: Right now it feels like a very even distribution of item scattering. Defining some types of areas and how these get populated with scenery may give a sense of "overall structure". As a fan of Slow Roads, I do like this approach! Climbingin the mountains and jumping down was kinda fun. Maybe add a second car that is faster? Well I hope you sell a lot of plugins so you can keep working on this :) Bookmarked and looking forward to updates.

trinsic2 3mo ago

Failed to load TypeError

dwd 3mo ago

Nicely done. Going offroad I discovered some nice physics like hitting a small rock at speed and it bouncing along beside me for a few seconds, or nearly getting stuck on the lip of something resembling a volcano. Only suggestion would be somehow making finding the way back to the road easier when you get the other side of a block like a mountain range.

Evidlo 3mo ago

Why was this flagged? This is cool

vivzkestrel 3mo ago

- stupid question: how do you go about building something like this from scratch - what are the processes involved - what skillset / knowledge is actually required - which libraries or game engines are needed for making this kinda stuff - how long does it take?

cush 3mo ago

Can you drive on mobile?