Review: Red Bull Soap Racer

A while back I got demoralized when I saw how Papervision3D slowed down when building complex scenes. After taking a look at this racing game, I realized that's any slowness I noticed previously in other games is due to unoptimized/inefficient use of Papervision3D.

The game is a cartoon-ish kart racer where you can fully customize your kart and then race with other friends online. Even race tracks can be customized too. While the game concept is not new, this may be the first time that it has been done using flash.

Our friends at Less Rain have set once again the benchmark for 3D games in Flash, using the powerful combination of Papervision3D and Box2D. Check out their blog for more info.

[Source: papervision3d.org]

FYI, they used Box2D for physics as Papervision3D does not include physics.


Another thing worth mentioning is that it is brought to us by Red Bull. This is what I call a good advertisement (and something that I will "watch" repeatedly).

Concept: Customizing Games for Donations

Daniel Benmergui, has released several Flash games that can be downloaded and played for free.
The unusual thing is that he also offers to customize two of them: Today I Die and I Wish I Were the Moon if you donate to help him build his next game.

• $27 … and you become an silver sponsor of my next game and your name will appear in the credits, including a link of your choice [17 available]


• $75 … and I’ll make a “pixelated”, moon-style version of yourself or whoever you want [5 available]


• $497 … and make you a custom version of I Wish I Were the Moon or Today I Die, creating both characters after whoever you want, making the game the most original gift ever [2 available]


• $995 … including a new ending of your liking! [Only 1 available]

[Source: Ludomancy.com]

That is a very interesting idea. An interactive gift in the form of a game.

And, people who donated get something nice and special.


By the way, I found "Today I Die" (puzzle) game play where it uses words as part of the game to be unique. Substituting words cause the background and certain object to change allowing to progress further. Really requires thinking outside the box.