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Cart #hovergulch-10 | 2024-01-16 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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You are a futuristic hovercar developed by the trillionaire owner of a stagnant maze-racing circuit. He has loaded you up with special powers so you can embarrass all the league's other cars.

How to Play

  • You must spin out rival cars by ramming them, catching them in your boost trail, or spinning another car into them.

  • Spin out the required number of cars on each level to unlock the checkered flag. Grab the flag to advance.

  • You are invincible while using your powers but vulnerable while you are not. Walls never hurt you, thanks to advanced bouncing science.

  • All your special powers always trigger at the same time. This consumes gel because nothing is truly free.

  • If you run out of lives or gel, the game is over... until you are brave enough to restart.

  • After you clear a level, your leftover gel will convert to flex, which is like a kind of score that measures how hard you have flexed in Hover Gulch.

Keyboard controls

  • Arrow keys to turn
  • X to boost speed, engage your ram, and become invincible, all at the same time
  • Z to skip scenes you've seen before
  • Enter to pause (and to quick-restart)

Hints

  • As a hovercar, you have to complete your turn rotation before you start moving in the new direction. It's just how hovercars work, especially in the future. (Try turning a little on the early side)

  • There's a way to get one extra life per level, but it's risky.

  • There's an even bigger secret, but it's very risky.

Credits

Audio, code, design, graphics, and writing by me, Rob Dubbin.

Thanks to RALLY-X, Rocket League, Alfonzo's Bowling Challenge, and One Must Fall: 2097 for inspiring Hover Gulch in various ways. Thanks to Bennett Foddy for inspiring the project in the first place with a well-timed homework assignment even though I was not his student. Thanks to zep for pico-8 and especially for "The Search for Cosy Design Spaces", a perfect conference talk that should be on the next Golden Record.

Thanks to Kittenm4ster, Cabledragon, Michael Cook, seleb, and 8 Bit Caaz for sharing their secrets of the Fisher-Yates shuffle, ZSPR zoomed-sprite rendering, cellular-automata cave generation, token-saving, and camera-easing, respectively.

Thanks to the pico-8 community for all the brilliant work: games, tweetcarts, and the 100,000 small tricks I looked up on here while making this.

Thanks to everyone who I can remember playtesting this over various points in its history: 0xcafed00d, Adam Miller, Alexander King, Andy Dubbin, Asher Vollmer, Augustus Heagerty, Bennett Foddy, Bijan Stephen, Chris Xu, Colleen Macklin, Dylan Saunders, Frank Lantz, Fred Benenson, Garrett Miller, Greg Wohlwend, Kevin Cancienne, M@ Boch, Nick Sylvester, Patrick McHale, Pen Ward, Sarah Pavis, Sean Vanaman, Stacy-Marie Ishmael, TC Sottek, Xalavier Nelson Jr., and Zach Gage.

Thanks to Sandy Allen for pretty much everything else.

Thanks for checking it out

My finest flex is 398 -- see ya on the road!

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Very nice, really unique concept, love the trashtalk! :D

It's also pretty difficult since the opposing cars seem to move quite unpredictably, but you kind of learn to factor that in over time. 398 is an impressive flex though, haha!

Sweet game! love all the extra touches, dialogue, etc. haven't beaten it yet, but was cool to take it for a spin :)

Just a little bump to say this game's secret ending remains unfound

Just a little update to fix a narrative bug I found!



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