Neon Drift
One thumb, one lane, zero brakes.
A synthwave hover-racer built around a single mechanic: tap to switch lanes, hold to boost. Runs at 60fps on five-year-old hardware.
- Released
- March 2022
- Installs
- 1.4M installs
- Store rating
- 4.7 ★ / 21.8k ratings
- Built with
- Unity · URP · C#
The build
Neon Drift started as a jam prototype about how little input a racing game actually needs. The shipped version kept the answer — one thumb — and spent the rest of its budget on feel: 90ms of coyote time on every lane switch, a camera that leans into corners, and a soundtrack that quantises engine pitch to the beat.
The hard part was performance. Endless racers generate geometry forever, so the track is a pool of twelve reused segments that recycle behind the camera, and every neon sign is a single instanced quad. That keeps the draw call count under 40 and lets the game hold 60fps on an Android Go device.
Live since 2022, with a seasonal ladder that resets every six weeks and a garage of 34 unlockable hulls.
What shipped
- Single-input control scheme tuned over 40 playtest sessions
- Object-pooled track holds 60fps on Android Go hardware
- Seasonal ladder with a six-week reset cadence
- Rewarded video and a one-time ad-removal purchase
