Trike Dash is older than it looks. It started as an old Godot project called Big Ran Dino. We played it, we laughed, and then we put it away in a folder and forgot about it.
The dinosaur never really left, though. One day we opened that folder again and decided to start over in three.js. Somewhere along the way the dinosaur turned into a little triceratops, and the game turned into a story: the trike got lost, and his mom and dad are waiting for him at the end of a very long road.
Just a trike and a road
For a long time the game was only the trike, running down an empty road. to change lanes, Space to jump. That is still all you need. Then we added a log. Then a cactus. Then a log right after a cactus, just to see who would crash first.
At some point we noticed we were playing instead of testing. That is usually how we know a game is starting to work.
Five worlds between him and home
Home is five worlds away, and every world tries to stop you in its own way.
Each world has its own obstacles, not just its own colors.
- The tropics. Palm trees lean over the road, and some of them do not wait for you to pass. Watch which way they fall.
- The forest. A storm rolls in, the sky goes grey and the thunder starts. Then the wind picks up the leaves, and the logs start coming down.
- The snow. Snowballs roll at you, and the ice does not stay up there forever.
- The desert. Cactus everywhere, tumbleweeds bouncing across the lanes, and a sandstorm that shows up exactly when you need to see what is coming.
- The mountain. This is the last one, and the hardest. Look at the ground. If a dark shadow starts to grow there, something is about to fall out of the sky. Meteors, and fireballs that keep rolling after they land.
We wanted every world to teach you something new, so that by the time you reach the mountain you have seen a bit of everything, just never all at once.
Apples and star power
Along the road there are apples. Every apple you eat fills the star bar a little. When it is full, the bar starts to glow, and that is your moment.
Press and the trike turns red, roars and charges. For three seconds you can not steer and you can not jump, but you do not need to. Logs, cactus, rocks, meteors: anything in front of you breaks into pieces. It is the best part of the game, and you have to earn it every time.
Our own tools
Moving a cactus by editing code got old very fast. So we made a level editor where each world is a list of short pieces of road, and each piece is a little grid of three lanes. Put a log here, a palm there, press play and run it.
Seconds instead of an afternoon.
When an idea costs a minute to try, you try a lot more of them. The falling palms, the rolling fireballs and the storm in the forest all came from "what if" ideas we would never have tried if each one had taken a whole afternoon.
Tips to get the trike home
Here is what we learned after a lot of runs together:
- Do not miss an apple. Eat five in a row and your points start to multiply, up to five times. Get hit and the streak is gone.
- Wait for the last second. Dodge or jump right before an obstacle hits you and you get bonus points for the close call. Risky, but worth it.
- Save your star power. Do not use it the moment the bar is full. Keep it for a part of the road where there is no way through.
- Watch the shadows on the mountain. The meteor is invisible until the very end. The shadow is your only warning.
Bring him home
Five worlds, a lot of apples and one little trike who wants to see his family again. Eat, dodge, charge, and put your name on the leaderboard.