Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Magna Karter Was developed for the 72 Hour Game Development Competition, November 2006. After being supplied with the theme “magnets”, we had 72 hours to design and develop a game, including all code, graphics, and sound involved. Teams were allowed a maximum of three developers, which could be any combination of programmers, artists, or designers. Our team consisted of three programmers, though Luke Nockles is also a very experienced level designer, and I have some experience with composition, so we also contributed art and sound content respectively.A summary of the storyline and the rules of the game follows. Since the end of the competition we’ve added support for the XBox 360 controller as well as the Wiimote (via the WiiAction Input Library). The game is available for download on the downloads page.
In the not-too-distant future, the world’s oil supplies have been depleted. Vehicles can no longer run on ordinary gasoline, and new methods of transport have had to be developed. People tried electricity but decided it was rubbish. Eventually a radical solution was posed by Dr. Von Aderläufer: Utilise the power of magnets!
He developed and patented a magnetic transportation device called a Magnetorunner. Unfortunately this device had a few flaws and was not very commercially successful. Dr. Von Aderläufer was committed to a mental institution having been diagnosed with severe (near-fatal) narcolepsy.
His Magnetorunners were soon forgotten as a popular mode of transportation; discarded in favour of the horse and kart and the bicycle. However, it did appeal to a niche market of idiots, who eventually formed the Magna Karter – a deadly tournament racing Magnetorunners across blocks that have been carefully laid out in the vast vacuum of space.
The two finalists in this contest are Harry Johnson and Juanita Dark. You play one of them. Let the games commence!
Controls (keyboard):-
- WSAD: Move the kart; increase and decrease velocity.
- SPACE: Jump
- CTRL: Change vehicle polarity.
The Magna Karter racetracks are composed of four different tile types:
 |
Normal Tiles, which contain only enough Magnetic Energy to power the Magneto Runner as originally intended. |
  |
Polarity Tiles, which have a boost in positive or negative magnetic power. This will affect the Runner in different ways depending on its polarity. If the ship is of opposite polarity to the tile on which it currently rests, it will stick to the tile, unable to jump. If it is of the same polarity, the tile will repel it and the Runner will fly above it. |
 |
Death Tiles, which will destroy the Magneto Runner. These have been a controversial feature of the Magna Karter tournaments for some time, and many liberal vegetarian student types have tried to see it removed. However, so far the Magna Karter Decisions Board has stayed strong and paid no heed to their whining. |
A week after the final submission for the competition, we got back together to discuss what we thought our strong and weak points were during development of this game. I compiled those opinions into a post-mortem which you can read here:
