Holy Handbrakes is a chess-themed puzzle game with an emphasis on the racing game twist.

You are a pawn, who has been captured and must break free from the graveyard world you now inhabit by opening the finish line and escaping back to the chessboard as a promoted piece.

It's not much to look at, but it has a bopping soundtrack (see credits), and from the playtesting I have found the racing/puzzly elements fun.

Made by one person (as much as anything can be) for the VimJam game jam.

Browser, keyboard and controller support, with downloadable Windows version also.

IMPORTANT:

- If you do not want to, or cannot, place more tiles, you can press 0 (zero) at any point in the track placement screen to discard your money.

- The Level Editor is available for you to play around with. You can even save strings of text that it exports, close the session, reopen the session later, and press the import button to reimport them. But be warned: it's not a user friendly experience. It's mostly a dev tool.

CONTROLS:

Listed below.

CREDITS:

Low Poly Chess Set from https://lowpolyassets.itch.io/

Road tiles from Kenney Pack 1
https://kenney.nl/assets

Medieval assets from the Synty POLYGON - Fantasy Kingdom pack
https://syntystore.com/products/polygon-fantasy-kingdom?srsltid=AfmBOopRSDbyQoUX...

Colorful chess sprites by Brian Provan
https://opengameart.org/content/colorful-chess-pieces

Trash can icon by Delapouite
https://game-icons.net/1x1/delapouite/trash-can.html#download

Music:

"Le Grand Chase" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

"Crunk Knight" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Use of AI: Minimal use of ChatGPT to support coding, mostly as a substitute for Googling a specific niche thing.

CONTROLS:

KEYBOARD:

Racing:

- Accelerate: Space

- Brake/Reverse: Down arrow, S

- Turn left/right: Left/right arrow, A/D

- Drift:   Shift + turn   (improves turning at the cost of skidding)

Placing track:

- Move cursor: Arrows, WASD

- Swap between track/ramp: Shift + arrows , Shift + WASD

- Place tiles: Space

- Discard money: 0 (zero key)

- Delete track: Place a track on an occupied, editable area, denoted by a red trash can. You get refunded.

- Start racing: P

PS CONTROLLER:

Racing:

- Accelerate: X

- Brake/Reverse: Square

- Turn left/right: D-Pad, Left analog stick

- Drift:   R1, R2, L1, or L2 + turn

Placing track:

- Move cursor: D-Pad

- Swap between track/ramp: R1 or R2, L1 or L2

- Place tiles: X

- Discard money: Keyboard only

- Delete track: Place a track on an occupied, editable area, denoted by a red trash can. You get refunded.

- Start racing: Start

XBOX CONTROLLER:

Racing:

- Accelerate: A

- Brake/Reverse: X

- Turn left/right: D-Pad, Left analog stick

- Drift:   RT, RB, LT, or LB + turn

Placing track:

- Move cursor: D-Pad

- Swap between track/ramp: RT or RB, LT or LB

- Place tiles: A

- Discard money: Keyboard only

- Delete track: Place a track on an occupied, editable area, denoted by a red trash can. You get refunded.

- Start racing: Menu