Finside Out

Race to the finish with 1-4 players in a canoe that can only peddle left or right.

Steer clear of the rocks, don't get caught in the water currents, and use powerups to your advantage. Or your canoe might break and you end up having to swim.

In multiplayer, it's a race to the finish and the best time wins. In single player, you are chased by a piranha and must not get eaten by it before you reach the finish.

It's incredibly easy to learn because you only need two controls: left and right. Mastering the wavy motion of peddling, though, might take some time ...

In short: A high stakes canoe race to the Fin-nish.

About this game

This was one of my submissions for the Do you Wanna Jam 2024!?

Upon hearing the theme Inside Out, I first had several ideas about "conversion": putting something inside a machine or character, wait a bit, then something else comes out. 

While working on that idea, however, my brain suddenly saw a different approach: players would sit inside vehicles, but if you steered too wildly, you might break it and land up outside of it---swimming in the water. Those "vehicles" quickly became canoes, because peddling one is akin to doing inside and outside strokes (alternating).

This game was my attempt to merge the two things (pick up stuff from the water, which converts it into powerups; move in and out of a canoe, trying to master the wild course before you).

I think the random river generation became far better than I could've hoped for, and these two simple controls actually do reward good timing and flow to your peddling. It's been a blast quickly playtesting it with a few family members.

At the same time, it's obviously unpolished and lacking quite some content. But I found it promising enough to also submit to the jam and perhaps turn into something bigger once the jam is over.

You can find the entire source code on GitHub: Finside Out (Source Code)