Permutation Racer

Permutation Racer is the excellent result of Tom Betts’s journey through research on ‘procedural and permutation based game ideas’. To simplify, it’s a game in which you engage in an endless against the clock race through an infinite procedurally generated world. You have to see and experience the whole thing to see just how wonderful it is.

Permutation Racer is something worth having in an interactive museum as a visual installation. In that department, the game features a world that’s made out of low poly graphics that, like previously mentioned, are procedurally generated as you play. Moreover, the race track changes colors between a palette of rather elegant and relaxing nuances, all while you enjoy a great soundtrack which obviously is a generative mix.

Nothing is set in stone, apart from the fact that you get 12 distinct algorithm-implemented regions to wonder through with your racer. And even those, although you can distinguish between which are splitways, causeways, caves, arches and so on, are randomized.

Permutation Racer’s gameplay is the part that is not so original but brought in this packaging, seems to reinvent itself. Your goal is to travel as great of a distance as you can without running out of time, crashing into glitch bombs or falling off the track.

The controls are simple, very responsive and since visual design demands so little of your hardware, it runs extremely smooth. It’s a game with which you can kick back for hours on end and not feel battered and abused by its gameplay mechanics. You simply enjoy the ride.

Permutation Racer, with it’s arcade core, doesn't rob you of the pleasure of facing a true challenge. As you race, you know two things: that you have no idea of what’s coming next, and, that whatever it is, it’s going to be more and more complicated to navigate through.

The above might seem to be a bit over the top praising but it’s hard to find bad things about it when you feel that there really aren’t, or aren’t worth mentioning. Sure, after a few hours with it, after you master the controls and gameplay you might want to be able to change the look of your racer, or have the option to race just through one type of region. Even with that in mind, it’s top notch.