Road trip!
October 24, 2022 8:55 AM   Subscribe

Let's take a drive in the country
Slow Roads is a casual, procedurally-generated driving game which lets you disconnect from life for a while and run endlessly toward the distant horizon. Set the scenery to suit your mood, throw on some music, and
just drive.
From the developer.
posted by device55 (43 comments total) 35 users marked this as a favorite
 
(On MacOS, I recommend Chrome over Safari.)

It's delightfully low-res.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:59 AM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


I got a little stressed trying to stay in my lane, so I went off road. Eventually found a lake and drove underwater for a while. That got oddly stressful too. But just zipping across hills and plains was a hoot.
posted by martin q blank at 9:06 AM on October 24, 2022 [8 favorites]


Neat! I saw it on Twitter but couldn't try it at the time as it doesn't yet support mobile, but this was a good reminder when I was back at my laptop. I love just leaving the road and driving for a few minutes and then trying to find my way back to the road.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 9:08 AM on October 24, 2022


I keep hitting the guardrails, even when I turn on autodrive. I am very bad at this game, but I love the scenery!
posted by headspace at 9:09 AM on October 24, 2022


martin q blank, I was doing it that way too. Then I drove off the edge of the world . . (and got an achievement for it!)
posted by dannyboybell at 9:15 AM on October 24, 2022 [6 favorites]


I got a little stressed trying to stay in my lane
I keep hitting the guardrails

The controls seem a little... sensitive? I drive 40 on gently curving roads all the time without hurling myself into the guardrails. Driving with a keyboard is always a little bit terrible, though.

Chrome over Safari
doesn't yet support mobile

Worked for me, iPadOS 15.7, plain old Mobile Safari, Apple Magic Keyboard. Don't think it supports non-keyboard mobile platforms.

Okay, so I need more games like this. Just do a pleasant thing for the sake of doing a pleasant thing.
posted by majick at 9:38 AM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


Oh gosh that's stressful - driving endlessly on a curvy road with no reward? no thx
posted by RajahKing at 9:39 AM on October 24, 2022 [2 favorites]


I'm so old that I remember Drivey, from back in 2005 when it was a Windows EXE and not a web toy.

Slow Roads is nice, too. Thanks!
posted by Western Infidels at 9:40 AM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


I tried. I don't want to float behind the vehicle. I don't want to have the auto-drive vehicle crash into things. Stay in your lane! I don't want it to go so fast. This is all too stressful.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:41 AM on October 24, 2022


Isn't this just desert bus?
posted by AlSweigart at 9:42 AM on October 24, 2022 [6 favorites]


A less sadistic version it seems, AlSweigart
posted by dr_dank at 9:45 AM on October 24, 2022


This is beautiful. I wish it were a little easier to drive but I really love the scenery. FTR, seems to for fine on Safari.
posted by bondcliff at 9:45 AM on October 24, 2022


Hah, I came in to say the same thing, AISweigart. That said, I turned autodriving on and still briefly spun out, so, y'know, approach even virtual mountain roads with caution.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 9:46 AM on October 24, 2022


Is there a flying or boat version of this?

Also, how long did it take y'all to start going offroad?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:56 AM on October 24, 2022


driving endlessly on a curvy road with no reward? no thx

I thought that WAS the reward...
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:57 AM on October 24, 2022 [2 favorites]


Also, use Q and E to switch weather conditions and try the snow one!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:58 AM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


This is more robust than I was expecting, though I totally want the option to pick from a bunch of goofily-named knockoffs of real-world vehicles like in Grand Theft Auto.

The option to switch to mouse control says something about a first-person view, but I'm not sure how to turn that on.
posted by box at 10:01 AM on October 24, 2022


The "C" key will toggle between various camera views, including first-person.
posted by bondcliff at 10:05 AM on October 24, 2022 [2 favorites]


The buttons in the bottom left let you pick from car, bike (a very blocky sort of bike) or a bus. You can also toggle between driving on hills on earth (pick a season) or the moon, Mars or Venus (there are a surprising number of roads and guardrails on other planets, it would seem). And you can toggle how windy the road is (Casual, Normal, Hard) though that may or may not help you to not drive off the road. I haven't figured out how to toggle to first-person view though.

on preview: thanks Bondcliff!
posted by mstokes650 at 10:08 AM on October 24, 2022


Oh man driving a bus on Mars was surprisingly rewarding. The e-bike is also fun but quite finicky.

My one wish: cruise control, so I don't have to keep poking W to maintain speed. It's not like pressing a key equates to throttle, because I can't press the key halfway.

Oh. Mouse steering, maybe, because that would be much preferable to nudging A and D to stay in the lane.

But really. All of this for a hobby project for free? These are wishes that don't at all take away from the pleasure at seeing this drop!
posted by caution live frogs at 10:12 AM on October 24, 2022


Yeah I was swerving all over with the default camera, and in first person I can keep it on the road pretty safely. But to steer steadily you have to like intermittently tap the AD keys, it seems to me, which is completely different ergonomics from turning a steering wheel.
posted by grobstein at 10:13 AM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


My one wish: cruise control, so I don't have to keep poking W to maintain speed. It's not like pressing a key equates to throttle, because I can't press the key halfway.


Click the lock next to the spedometer for cruise control (but watch out because it defaults to 60 no matter what speed you start it at).
posted by grobstein at 10:14 AM on October 24, 2022


grobstein: "My one wish: cruise control, so I don't have to keep poking W to maintain speed. It's not like pressing a key equates to throttle, because I can't press the key halfway.


Click the lock next to the spedometer for cruise control (but watch out because it defaults to 60 no matter what speed you start it at).
"

OOOOOH MY WISH IS GRANTED
posted by caution live frogs at 10:15 AM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


grobstein: Yeah I was swerving all over with the default camera...

When I slewed to left lane I just pretended I was in the UK, and when I swerved to the right I pretended I was in America. UK...US...UK...US... Look out, tree!
posted by wenestvedt at 10:16 AM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


I want there to be lower gravity on the moon so I can do sicker jumps.
posted by grobstein at 10:18 AM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


Even lower.
posted by grobstein at 10:21 AM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


This, to me, is the metaverse
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 10:41 AM on October 24, 2022 [2 favorites]


I drove right off the edge and into the water.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 10:43 AM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


> It's not like pressing a key equates to throttle, because I can't press the key halfway.

Pulse-width modulation
posted by genpfault at 11:09 AM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


That was a little fussier than I wanted it to be, but I like it anyway.

I used to play Forza5 on XBox1 and choose a VW Beetle, set it to the longest course, no competition, the highest laps possible, then just tool around at 55mph. It was nice.
posted by Caxton1476 at 11:31 AM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


Man, the controls are touchy. Hold down AD it's really easy to oversteer, but you have to tap a LOT to steer with just tapping.
posted by Quasirandom at 11:59 AM on October 24, 2022


Given that it is procedurally generated, I'm a little surprised there's an edge.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 3:06 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


I guess it doesn't generate more than a margin around the road, even when you're off it. There may be some efficiencies to just generating the road, cuz you can predict where the player will go next and different stretches of road can re-use terrain by bending. But doesn't seem like that would make a big enough difference for generating off-road to be impractical, idk.
posted by grobstein at 3:12 PM on October 24, 2022


For a toy purporting to be about zen and relaxation, it's pretty damn hard to stay on the road. Maybe I'm just blessed by Subaru AWS but my sedan doesnt have nearly as bad a problem with traction.
posted by pwnguin at 3:43 PM on October 24, 2022


This scratches an itch I didn't realise I had, and it makes me want to go for a very long motorbike ride this weekend.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 4:09 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


Just on autodrive, I was uncomfortable with the vehicle being on the 'wrong' side of the road, whichever side that was.
I was happier on Mars where there was no center line.
posted by MtDewd at 5:11 PM on October 24, 2022


For a toy purporting to be about zen and relaxation, it's pretty damn hard to stay on the road.

This was totally my feeling until one of my roadside collisions turned into a slow-motion floaty video of my car flying through the air, slowly flipping and spinning.
posted by bendy at 8:51 PM on October 24, 2022


I drove right off the edge and into the water.

If you end up underwater, keep driving and you might come up on land on the other side.

(After a few minutes driving underwater, my hard disc was spinning like crazy.)
posted by ovvl at 9:30 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


How do I turn on autodrive?
posted by bendy at 9:35 PM on October 24, 2022


Looks like a high res version of Night Driver on the Atari 2600.
posted by autopilot at 12:23 AM on October 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


Switchback immediately to the top of the highest peak I can find. Straight down the hill at 100MPH into the sea.
posted by lostburner at 3:21 PM on October 25, 2022


There's a Desert Bus playthrough video on YouTube that's over 8 hours long.
posted by neuron at 5:39 PM on October 27, 2022


Excitebike 64 had a pretty sweet procedural generation desert mode where you raced to a set of ten randomly placed markers on the map. Was kinda bland given the limitations of the platform, but was just one of many minigames you could try out beyond the core races. Others included:

- Soccer basically Rocket League
- Hill Climb Getting Over It but with motor bikes
- Stunt Course discount Tony Hawk
- an emulated NES Excitebike, and a polygonal 3D remake
posted by pwnguin at 9:31 PM on October 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


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