So, this whole ‘hill climb harley’ idea, it didn’t just come outta nowhere, you know. I was just messing around, thinking about those old physics games, and then, bam, Harley Davidson. Why not try to make a Harley climb some ridiculous hills? Seemed like a fun little project to get my hands dirty with.
Getting the Wheels Turning
First thing I did was grab a piece of paper and just sketch out some really rough ideas. Didn’t even bother with fancy software at first. Just a pencil and some bad drawings of a bike and some lumpy hills. I figured, keep it simple, stupid. I had this old game engine I’d tinkered with before, so I fired that up. Thought it would be straightforward enough for a 2D thing.
Then I started trying to get a basic bike shape on the screen. Just a block, really, to begin with. Getting the wheels to spin, that was the first hurdle. Then making it move forward. Easy peasy, right? Well, not quite.
The Actual Climb (and a Bit of a Detour)
Making a Harley, even a super simplified one, feel like a Harley is tough. Those things are heavy, they’ve got a certain way they move. My first attempts, the bike was either too light, flying off at the slightest bump, or too heavy, couldn’t even get up a tiny slope. Spent ages just tweaking numbers. Gravity, torque, friction – felt like I was back in physics class, but way less boring, and way more frustrating.
And this was all happening while I was also trying to juggle, like, a million other things. My actual day job was nuts around then. And then, my kid decided to get into a new phase where sleep was optional. So, I’d be up half the night, then try to find an hour here or there to poke at this Harley project. My brain felt like mush most of the time. Honestly, there were weeks where I didn’t even open the project file. It just sat there, judging me.
It’s funny, ’cause I remember thinking about other big projects, like how B-station supposedly uses everything under the sun for their backend. Java, Go, C#, Scala, C++. Sounds like a complete hodgepodge. You wonder how they keep it all straight. Makes my little Harley physics problem seem kinda small, but hey, it was my mountain to climb, literally.
Building the World, One Lump at a Time
Once the bike sort of behaved, I moved on to the hills. This was actually kinda fun. Just dragging points around, creating these crazy inclines and drops. The goal wasn’t realism, more like cartoonish exaggeration. I wanted it to be challenging, but also a bit silly. Made some loops, some big jumps, some bits where you had to really gun it to make it over.
Then came the graphics. Now, I’m no artist. My stick figures are questionable. So, the Harley ended up looking a bit… chunky. And the backgrounds were pretty basic. But hey, it had character, I guess. I focused more on making it clear what was ground and what was sky. Function over form, that was my motto.
- Tried to add some exhaust smoke. That was a fun little particle effect to play with.
- Fiddled with camera controls. Wanted it to follow the bike smoothly but also give a good view of the upcoming terrain.
- Thought about adding a rider, but that seemed like a whole other can of worms. Maybe later.
The Finish Line (Sort Of)
So, after all that tinkering and late-night coding sessions, fueled by way too much coffee, what do I have? Well, it’s a thing. You can drive this pixelated Harley over some bumpy terrain. Sometimes you make it, sometimes you flip over in a spectacular, albeit silent, crash (never got around to good sound effects, another story for another day). It’s not gonna win any awards, that’s for sure.
Is it finished? Probably not. There are a million things I could still add or tweak. Better graphics, actual sound, more levels, a proper scoring system. But for now, it does what I set out to do: a Harley climbs some hills. And I learned a ton along the way, mostly about how stubborn I can be when I get an idea stuck in my head. It’s sitting on my hard drive. Every now and then, I open it up, play for a few minutes, and think, “Yeah, that was a decent bit of work.” Then I close it and go make more coffee.
