Independent game · NASCAR-inspired, 2026
A whole racing game. Right in your browser.
Fourteen circuits. Solo racing and multiplayer grids. A complete arcade experience, from the 3D garage to the finish line.
- Role
- Game and full-stack engineering: Three.js rendering, driving physics, multiplayer transport, progression and responsive controls.
- Stack
- Next.js, TypeScript, Three.js, Node.js / WebSockets, Convex, Clerk, Railway
- Status
- Playable browser game
Sign-in and camera features work best in the full app.
Context
Ignition explores how a sports fan experience can become something people actively play. It combines the immediate feel of an arcade racer with a connected product: choose a driver, build a career, meet other racers and return for another circuit.
What I did
- Built a Three.js racing experience with 14 authored circuits, a 40-driver garage, solo opponents, drafting, boost, drifting, cameras and keyboard and touch controls.
- Developed a walkable multiplayer paddock, scheduled departures, private race codes, ready checks and authoritative four-player races.
- Implemented persistent driver progression, race history, rankings, earned credits and owned equipment, with signed server results and duplicate-award protection.
- Moved live presence and simulation from frequent database calls into a dedicated Node WebSocket service, while keeping durable account and race records in Convex.
Engineering decisions
Driving needs immediate feedback. Race results need an authoritative source. I separated the fast simulation from durable account records so each could do its own job.
- BrowserKeyboard or touch input, local prediction and Three.js rendering.
- Race serviceNode and WebSockets own the live race and send snapshots for reconciliation.
- Account recordsSigned results pass through a durable retry queue into Convex progression.
- Tradeoff
- Prediction makes controls responsive, but the browser must reconcile with the server. The current service owns rooms in one process; scaling live rooms across processes remains further work.
- Result
- A connected arcade game with solo racing, four-player grids and persistent progression. Result settlement is idempotent: retrying a completed result does not award the same credits twice.
The car has to feel like a car.
Steering changes the car’s heading in world space; releasing the controls does not auto-follow the track. Track projection measures progress, while braking, contact, drafting and recovery shape the driving experience. A shared model keeps local and authoritative race rules aligned.
Keep the fast loop out of the database.
Live movement and simulation run in a dedicated WebSocket process. The browser predicts between snapshots and reconciles to the server. Convex handles accounts, equipment and completed results, so every physics tick does not become a database operation.
A finish should be recorded once.
The server registers the starting roster, validates driving inputs and signs results. Completed results go through a durable retry queue; the account backend applies each result once. An interrupted race does not invent a finish or award credits.
Make the whole experience playable.
The work includes a responsive garage, searchable circuit selection, touch steering and a compact mobile race HUD. Progression, car customization and return-to-paddock flows make it a product beyond the rendering demo.
Scope
An arcade engineering experiment inspired by NASCAR, not a claim of an official commissioned game or surveyed simulator accuracy. The current multiplayer service has one room-owning process; horizontal scaling and uninterrupted recovery across process failures would require further work.
Reviewed Danny-authored implementation history, game and realtime-service source, and documented local and browser validation. The public game page and circuit inventory were checked for this portfolio.