driftline

Play in your browser: https://bborbe.github.io/driftline/

Trackmania-like browser racing game: short tracks, a lap timer with checkpoints, instant respawn and a ghost of your best run.

Features

• Grippy, drifty handling with handbrake slides and stable landings after jumps
• Campaign, style and test tracks, the campaign and style tracks with author / gold / silver / bronze medals
• Checkpoints with split deltas, and instant respawn at the last one
• A ghost of your best lap that drives alongside you, plus gold and author medal ghosts with name tags (Settings → Race → Ghosts)
• Challenge links: Results → Challenge a friend copies a link with your time and ghost for a friend to race
• Turbo pads, effect pads, ramps, gap jumps, banked turns, loops, wallrides, bridges and decks
• Asphalt, dirt, ice and grass, each with its own grip
• 1–10 lap races, a top-10 board per track and a records panel (PB and medal times), kept in this browser
• Keyboard and gamepad, with rebindable keys (Settings → Controls); no touch controls
• Settings for graphics quality (Auto / Low / Medium / High), time of day and weather, HUD scale, camera effects, frame cap and colour-safe / reduced-effects modes; a link carries your settings

How to Play

Open https://bborbe.github.io/driftline/, pick a track on the start screen (↑/↓ switches group, ←/→ picks a track) and press Enter or Space to start. Press H at any time for the full key list (also Esc → Controls).

Controls

Driving

• W / ↑ - Accelerate
• S / ↓ - Brake / reverse
• A D / ← → - Steer
• Space - Handbrake

Race

• Enter / Space - Start
• Backspace / R - Respawn at last checkpoint
• Delete - Restart the run (Mac: fn + delete)
• Esc - Pause menu
• L - Top-10 board (this browser)
• T - Records panel (PB, medal times, top 5)
• F - Fullscreen
• M - Mute
• H - Controls

Camera

• 1 / 2 / 3 - Close chase / far chase / in-car
• C - Free-fly camera on / off
• W A S D - Fly: move
• Mouse drag - Fly: look
• Space / Ctrl, E / Q - Fly: up / down
• Shift - Fly: fast
• O - Fly: orbit the track

Gamepad (Xbox / PlayStation over Bluetooth or USB, Chrome or Safari; a "Controller connected" toast shows when it is picked up — press any button if it is not)

• Left stick - Steer (analog, with a dead zone)
• RT - Accelerate (analog)
• LT - Brake / reverse (analog)
• A - Handbrake
• B - Respawn at last checkpoint (menus: back)
• Y - Restart the run
• Menu - Pause menu
• View - Next camera view
• X - Leaderboard (top 10)
• D-pad / left stick + A - Move and select in menus, track select, results and settings; in Settings ↑/↓ move the yellow focus ring, ←/→ change the focused setting, A presses it
• LB / RB - Settings: previous / next tab
• After a top-10 finish: A saves the name shown (the last one used), B skips the board

Keyboard and pad work side by side: whichever you touched last drives.

Debug

• ` - Debug overlay on / off (pose, fps, build label; hidden unless the URL carries ?dev=1 or ?debug=1; the build label is also in Settings → About)
• P - Copy this view as a URL

Tracks

Campaign, in rising difficulty:

• A01 crossover - figure-eight with a bridge over the start straight and a gap jump
• A02 tower - a long climb into a steep banked 180 high up, then a big drop
• A03 plunge - climb onto a deck and plunge two levels into a banked 180
• A04 knot - figure-eight over the start straight, then dirt and a hairpin switchback
• A05 leap - a high gap jump onto a deck, ice, a red turbo and dirt
• showcase - every set-piece in one lap: loop, spiral, deck crossing, gap jump, wallride and all three corners

Styles, one per Trackmania map style:

• S01 switchback - Tech: ten tight turns on asphalt and dirt
• S02 flatout - Fullspeed: throttle held all lap, wide banks and drops
• S03 dustbowl - Dirt: asphalt with short dirt sections
• S04 glacier - Ice: asphalt with short banked ice sections
• S05 washboard - LOL: a red turbo straight into five bumps
• S06 looping - Loop: a turbo straight into a full vertical loop
• S07 velodrome - Wallride: two velodrome walls, a left-right spiral pair between them

Test, short tracks that check one thing:

• test1 - the original first lap
• test2 - the original second lap
• test-flat - grip, acceleration, top speed, hairpins; turbo pad into a ~140 km/h S-bend
• test-ramp - ramp jump and landing, 120 m run-up to ~135 km/h
• test-bank - banked 180° turns
• test-surfaces - asphalt, dirt, ice and grass
• test-turbo - yellow and red turbo pads
• test-effects - every effect pad in a row
• test-checkpoint - four checkpoints: splits and respawn
• test-loop - one full vertical loop
• test-wallride - two velodrome 180s whose outer edge curves up into a near-vertical wall
• test-spiral - a corkscrew loop that exits two road widths over
• test-pad - free drive on a 400 × 400 m walled asphalt pad: painted r 15/40/80 m circles and a 300 m lane marked every 50 m, for feeling drift, grip and steering; no finish
• test-kit - a lap of track kit pieces
• test-kit-all - every track kit piece in one lap

Next track on the finish panel stays inside the group.

Gameplay

• Drive through every checkpoint gate, then over the finish line
• Each checkpoint flashes a split delta against your best run
• Backspace (or R) respawns you at the last checkpoint; Delete restarts the run (Trackmania's keys; rebind in Settings → Controls)
• Beat the bronze, silver, gold and author times to earn medals (single-lap races)
• Your best lap comes back as a ghost that drives alongside you on every lap
• Yellow and red turbo pads give a boost
• Effect pads change the car until a reset pad: no-steer, cruise, fragile, engine-off, slow-mo
• Pick 1–10 laps under Laps in the settings, or add &laps=3 to a track link

Future ideas (on hold)

• Online leaderboard: experimental server in server/, not deployed
• Live multiplayer rooms

Credits

Models from the Kenney Racing, Car and Nature kits; sky HDRIs and the grass texture from Poly Haven. All CC0; the full list is in assets/LICENSE and assets/LICENSES/. Engine and audio are original code; sounds are synthesized, no audio files.

Development

make run       # local dev server
make test      # fast test tier
make test-all  # fast + slow tiers

Details: docs/development.md; agent instructions: AGENTS.md.

License

BSD 2-Clause, see LICENSE.