[RELEASED] 2D+3D Infinite Runner Engine - new v1.6 : Downhill!

I’m very proud to announce the release of the Infinite Runner Engine on the Asset Store.

It’s a highly customizable, optimized and easy to use solution that will provide you with everything you need to create your very own endless game. It comes with a bunch of complete game examples, in various gameplay styles (platformer, lane runner, etc…). Completely mobile and other touch devices ready, it’s never been this easy to create endless games.

You can check a full list of features, a demo, and more over there.
CREATE YOUR OWN GAME

The idea behind the Infinite Runner Engine is to allow you to create the game you want. With that in mind, it supports both 2D and 3D gameplay, and will give you everything you need to create games with a gameplay ranging from Flappy Bird to Temple Run. You could even use it to create shoot-em-up games, or basically any game where stuff comes at the player.

  • Spawners : at the heart of the engine are spawners, that will allow you to spawn platforms, enemies, bullets, obstacles, buildings, while keeping your game optimized
  • 2D or 3D : a dedicated interface allows you to create both 2D and 3D games (or a mix of both) using the same classes
  • Infinite gameplay options : the engine allows you to implement your own gameplay, by tweaking the spawners and other core objects easily via the inspector.

The asset comes packed with ready to use assets : character animations, spritesheets, 3D models. Everything you see in the demo or videos is included and ready to use in your game or prototype.
BOOTSTRAP YOUR GAME

While the asset aims at empowering you to create your own gameplay, it includes a lot of ready-to-go classes to handle the most common gameplays encountered in classic endless runner games.

  • Run and jump : as you would in the amazing Canabalt, run and jump (and double jump, or more) over holes and obstacles
  • Platforms : spawn platforms of varying sizes, shapes and angles to jump on
  • Enemies : spawn enemies or obstacles that will kill your characters if they touch them
  • Pickable objects : grab coins (or whatever you want) to increase your score!
  • Multiple characters : instead of having one character running endlessly, why not have more ? The engine handles any number of playable characters you want.

BUILT-IN EXAMPLES

The asset comes packed with examples, so you can see how it all works. You can also expand on these examples to get started even faster.

  • Backwards Dragon : have your dragon breathe fire to avoid flying electric sharks. See, you can really create anything you want.
  • Lane Runner : a top down, 3D runner where you have to avoid obstacles coming at you by switching lanes left and right.
  • Flappy Cloud : an homage to the classic Flappy Bird, but this time with a cloud and penguins.
  • Jelly Forest : run through a forest, jumping from platform to platform.
  • Minimal 2D : a very basic, barebone 2D endless runner, where the more you survive, the faster (and harder) the game gets.
  • Minimal 3D : basically the same thing, but in 3D.
  • Multiple Characters : run and jump with not one, but 3 little cubes. Lose em all and you’re done.
  • GUI : in game menus, pause, start screen, level selection, instructions, countdown…

MOBILE FRIENDLY

The whole engine has been thought with mobile as a primary target device, and the asset includes support for touch controls, gamepad and keyboard. You can even try a demo of the asset, available on Google Play.

HANDLES ALL THE HARD WORK

The asset includes tons of classes that will handle all the hard work for you, so you can focus on your own features.

  • Spawners and object pools : spawn anything you want : obstacles, enemies, background stuff, the engine will recycle them for you so your device’s memory never gets crammed.
  • Parallax : implement and tweak parallax backgrounds super easily.
  • Camera controller : a super smooth and customizable camera, that does exactly what you want : follow the player, constrain movement on a certain axis, zoom in and out depending on the level’s speed, and more!
  • Game Events : trigger events from any class to sync your different objects.

EASY TO USE

Although you’ll still need to have basic Unity/C# knowledge to properly use it, the asset aims at simplifying level design.

  • In-scene helpers : easily visualize recycle and death lines, managers, spawners, camera bounds, etc…
  • Built to be extended : all the classes included in the asset are meant to be extended, so you can code without wondering if the next asset update will break your project (it won’t).
  • Inspector : control the engine via the inspector, so you don’t have to dive into code to change the core values of your level/spawner/manager/etc… You can also check what’s happening in the inspector as your game runs.
  • Helpers : the asset comes packed with helper classes to help you draw gizmos, debug stuff, schedule object destruction, and more!

COMPLETE DOCUMENTATION

The asset comes with a complete documentation of all the classes, the entire codebase is commented, and there are already video tutorials available.

You can check a full list of features, a demo, and more over there.

– RESERVED SPACE –

I love the video, purchased and will have a good look.

@reuno is it possible to make an runner from top to the bottom like in downwell?

@josker > Thanks! Hope you’ll like it.
@meapps > It’d take a few code changes, but yes, you could. Great idea for the next game example btw.

Great seems you have a sale soon;)

Hi,

Kit looks great.

What about the possibility of curves ? for example, tiny wings ( 2D ) / galaxy dash ( 3D ) ?

Also, are you planning on implementing turns ? i.e. the ability to go left or right at the end of a corridor, like in temple run ( it’s not just a straight run ) ?

Regards

@ > Curves are on my todo list, and should come within the next 2 updates.
Not sure about turns yet, seems pretty specific, but I’ll think about it.

Cool, glad to hear.

I wouldn’t have thought turns to be quite specific though, they are in most of the top 3d runner games !? But, if I’m in the minority here, that’s fine ! :wink:

Regards

Update 1.0.1 is now live !
It fixes a few minor bugs and adds a namespace to all classes.
So from now on if you want to use any of the asset’s classes from another package/class, you just have to add this at the start of each class :

using MoreMountains.InfiniteRunnerEngine;

Let me know what you’d like in the coming updates!

Well, I’d like to reiterate your current list in the order I’d like them :stuck_out_tongue:

Highscore save system
In-game shop
Achievements
More demo levels

And

Character Select ( ties in with In-game shop )

Curves, in both 2D and 3D for games like Ski Safari or Skiing Fred, or Star Skater.

Left / Right movement, so I can give the player pathway choices in a 3d runner

Left / Right movement, as in Cliffy Run

Enemies, that I can interact with, shoot, hit with a sword, etc

Obstacle variation Movements, not just coming at you, sideways movements too, imagine the cars in frogger, you progress up the screen, but the obstacles are coming in from the left and right

Air time, see Fishy Bits, one of my favourite parts is when the player get’s air time outside of the underwater environment. Also, when you get huge air time in a game like Tiny Wings.

Interesting player control types, for instance, Flip Hippo, or Power Hover.

Gravity based planets ? for instance, Jump Nuts.

A to B, not always Endless, so that levels can be made up ( and selected ).

I’m sure I have a lot more, but they’ll do for now off the top of my head ! :smile:

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@ > Thank you! That’s a lot of great ideas. I guess I’ll get to work then :slight_smile:

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Good news everyone!
I’m almost done with v1.1 of the Infinite Runner Engine!

It’s quite a heavy update. Based on the feedback I’ve received from everyone, I’ve greatly improved mobile performances, it’s now extremely fast, everywhere. I’ve also greatly improved the object pools and spawners. The possibilities are now virtually limitless.
I’ll post a video detailing all the changes and explaining how to use them. In the meantime, here’s a small video of a new demo level I quickly put together to showcase how you can now spawn entire level chunks without affecting performance. I can’t wait for you guys to get your hands on this new version, I’m sure you’ll like it :slight_smile: Plus it opens the door to so much fun stuff!

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I forgot to mention this : v1.1 will include a bunch of bugfixes for everything that’s been mentioned to me since release (minor stuff), but if you’ve ran into a bug and haven’t mentioned it to me yet, now’s the time!

Your tools is simply fantastic.

Well, I have a question: I am studying working with multiple assets in a game 2.5D (full 3D scenarios but in platforming style). The game would be basically a not-endless runner (multiple levels with X minutes of endless running with the end after a certain action), with enemies and custom obstacles appearing randomly according to the music rythm (I have another plugin to “read” the music). The player eventually can shoot the enemies if he wants.
This is just an extra, but the scene probably will use a parallax scrolling effect with the camera…

With all this knowledge, it is better (or easily) to use Infinite Runner or will be better if I use the Corgi Engine, implementing the “infinite running” action to the player and some of the other things on my own?

Thanks!

@SimStm > That’s a very good question, and you’re not the first to ask it. It’s hard to give a universal answer, as of course it really depends on what game you want to make.

To make things easier, I’ll explain the strengths of both engines :

  • The Corgi Engine is really good at platforming. It handles collisions in the same way as (good) platformers do, will be great to create games like Mario, Megaman, Metroid, stuff like that. By default it works with levels built in the editor, platform by platform, and you get a “static” layout, like a Mario level for example.
  • The Infinite Runner Engine, as the name implies, is really good at Infinite/Endless Runner games, where you “run” (or fly or whatever) forever, and “stuff” is spawned at you. It can be enemies, platforms, background clouds or whatever. The great strength of the asset in my opinion resides in the fact that it handles all the hard work for you, optimizing performance, and making it really easy for you to tweak everything.

That said, you could modify the Corgi Engine to handle procedural levels (that’s actually a fun idea), or have the Infinite Runner work with pre-built levels (basically all the demo levels start with some pre-built platform, you’d just have to add more and you’d have a static level).

So it’s really a matter of how much of each engine would you actually use. If you need moving platforms, AI, tight collisions, then go for the Corgi Engine. If you need random generation, recycling of objects, go for the Infinite Runner Engine.

In your case, and from what you describe, I’d definitely go for the Infinite Runner Engine. You’d have to code the “end of level” part yourself, but you already have a lot of built in methods to detect how much you’ve “run”, how long since you’ve started, so it should be no trouble, but plugin music data onto random generation would be easier than with the Corgi Engine.

Oh and by the way, I forgot to mention that in my previous post, but I prioritize work on both engines based on the notes both assets get, so if you want faster releases of one or the other, and if you like the assets, don’t hesitate to leave a good note/review on the Asset Store :slight_smile:

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Thanks @reuno , I opted to try the Infinite Runner and for what I’ve seen for now, looks what I want.

But I have a question. I’ve tried to put a prefab (empty GameObject with some objects inside) of a building in my scene, but the code uses the Mesh Renderer bounds attribute to define the size and where should be spawned the object, so it gives me an error when I try to use a prefab instead of a model with a Mesh Renderer.

Is there a “detour” to use prefabs instead of a model with Mesh Renderer?
(btw, I thought about use the “model base” as a primary GameObject and the other objects inside of him, but I really don’t know how this will work)

Another thing, I changed the “Distance Spawner” Z-Axis (from Minimal3D scene) but the first object from Spawner is always starting at Z-Axis zero, and the other objects spawning correctly. Is there a way to fix that?

Thanks.

@SimStm > No, right now there’s no “detour”. But don’t worry, that’s the main thing I improved in v1.1. Now you’ll be able to have empty top level objects, everything is much more customizable. As a workaround, you can use a transparent renderer on the top level of your object, but yeah, next version will be much more convenient on that particular point. Same thing for your second question, it’s fixed in 1.1. I plan on submitting it this weekend, next week max, so hopefully you won’t have to wait too long.

@SimStm > If you really can’t wait and want to try a not completely finished update, just send me an email with your invoice number on the support email address and I’ll give you access to it. But be aware that there may still be a few quirks here and there.

Thanks!
I’m gonna wait for the finished update then. Meanwhile I will do more tests of another things (like enemies, etc) and learn more about the tool. :slight_smile: