“Helium” in Spanish is “Helio.” And Helios was the most powerful AI in the Deus Ex universe… Coincidence??

Please check my HTML5 3D racing game :), it's an Arcade racer with dreamcast / PSX aesthetics and async multiplayer.

https://gamesnacks.com/games/52v00umba6lko#eids=95379098&sc=...

Right now, we’re limited by what the Gamesnacks API allows us to do, which makes it difficult to fine-tune certain aspects.

Even with those limitations, it’s great to see players enjoying the game. The leaderboard is highly competitive, and I keep seeing the same players battling for the top spot, shaving off just a few milliseconds each day.

I love how accessible HTML5 games are, but I’d also love to see our next racing game running on the Steam Deck. maybe we’ll build a Unity wrapper and release it ad-free on Steam for a few bucks.

In any case, the ideal solution would be if the API allowed us to send the player’s average time as a parameter, so we could fetch opponents at a similar skill level, that would greatly improve the gameplay experience. I’ll mention it again to the backend team, and if we’re lucky, maybe they can prioritize that feature.

Cheers, and thanks again!

We wanted the racing experience to feel as frictionless as possible, but I agree that for new users it can be unclear that creating a profile is even an option.

From what I understand, Gamesnacks is targeting the game primarily at their existing player base, so they expect most players to already have a profile (since it’s the same one shared across all their games). Still, I think this game has the potential to attract new users to their platform, so making the profile creation option easier to discover would be a good idea.

Thanks for your feedback!

Yes, selecting 1000 and then cherry-picking would be a great idea in theory, but ghost data is quite heavy (around 300–400 KB per ghost). We are already compressing it as much as possible: saving only about 10 frames per second and interpolating the rest, reducing decimals to a minimum, and storing rotation only on the Y axis. We also keep only the ghosts of cars that complete a race in under 4 minutes to avoid excessively large files.

Because of this, loading 1000 ghosts and then picking a suitable set of 7 close to your skill level would make the process too slow. Currently, we have a maximum load time of 10 seconds for the ghosts, and we are aiming to ensure the game works smoothly even on slow connections.

For the other players you see in the race, we’re currently picking random players from the database. It would definitely be nice to select a mix of fast, average, and slower cars for a more balanced distribution (that was our original plan), but unfortunately the GameSnacks API doesn’t support that feature yet. Since some hardcore users play a lot, their ghosts tend to show up more often in the pool.

Right now you can already see your own ghost car in the Daily Challenges, but being able to see your “best time ghost” in the standard races is also a really cool idea!

I built a 3D arcade racing game in HTML5 using PlayCanvas.

It features arcade-style physics inspired by OutRun, with PS1/Dreamcast-style graphics. The multiplayer is asynchronous: you race against the “ghosts” (replays) of up to 7 other players, and after finishing a run you can share a link with a friend so they can race your ghost 1v1. The game currently has 20 tracks, plus a “daily challenge” mode with procedurally generated tracks.

We’ve tested it on both desktop and mobile. It supports touch and keyboard controls, though I personally prefer playing with a keyboard in landscape mode. I’d love feedback on the controls, performance, and overall fun factor. And I hope to see your names on the leaderboard!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45490844

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