Open source racing

Yorg 0.6.0

Super Skidmarks was one of the best racing games on the Commodore Amiga. It was essentially 2D, but cleverly used an isometric angle for the background and car sprites, pre-rendered in 3D. With the undulating terrain of the tracks you raced around, you'd feel part of the 3D environment as you jostled for position alongside your friends. It was ridiculously addictive, which is why it's great to see another open source game driving across similar terrain. Yorg is a driving game built using the Panda 3D game engine and in many ways it followed on from Super Skidmarks. It takes a similar visual perspective, but instead of 2D sprites and backgrounds, everything is in 3D, with the camera and cars smoothly negotiating the road, the view, and the other drivers. And many of the courses are far longer than those single screen tracks of something like Super Sprint or Super Skidmarks.

Super Skidmarks was also unique because it was built using something called Blitz Basic, a BASIC-inspired language that aimed to give anyone the power and the abilities to create professional-looking games quickly and easily. Yorg has the same feel, with lovely design and audio, despite what's obviously a small team. There are three different tracks, six different cars, and eight different drivers, with this new release making your opponent's AI more aggressive and dangerous. The driving feels excellent and succeeds in making you want to have one more go. It's still unusual to see open source game development, and the small team behind this are attempting to fund their project while at the same time making the code (and binaries) available to anyone. If you find enjoyment playing through a few laps of Yorg with your friends, it's definitely worth some small outlay.

Project Website

https://github.com/cflavio/yorg

Yorg is a top-down racing game with a lovely driving mechanism and excellent AI – plus it's multiplayer!