NeoRunners

NeoRunners (also written Neo Runners) is a free arcade racing game that runs in your browser. You ride a neon light cycle across a grid arena, and the cycle leaves a solid wall of light behind it. Touch any wall and you are out. The whole game is about forcing the other rider into a wall before you run out of room yourself.

How a match works

Your light cycle never stops moving. Behind you it lays a wall of light that stays on the arena floor for the rest of the round, and your rival is doing the same thing. Hit their wall, your own wall, the arena shell or a piece of arena geometry and the round ends.

Turning is instant, but the cycle leans hard into a corner, so tight turns cost speed. Hold drift to carve a wider, faster arc, and spend boost to close a gap. Pick-ups on the grid give you a shield, a decoy wall, a speed burst or a pulse that disrupts nearby riders. A full match lasts about two minutes.

Game modes

• Quick match: race whoever else is online, one on one or in three and four rider formats.
• Play with a friend: create a private room and share the code.
• Play with bot: practise offline against SENTINEL, a bot that reads your trail and tries to cut you off.
• Map Lab: build your own arena with ramps, blocks and platforms, then race on it and share it with other players.
• Garage: pick and tune your light cycle.

Controls

• Steer: arrow keys or WASD
• Boost: space
• Drift: shift
• Look back at your trail: hold C
• Phones: on screen thumb pad. Gamepads work too.

Frequently asked questions

Is NeoRunners free?

Yes. It is free to play in any modern browser, with no download, no install and no account needed to start.

Can I play NeoRunners on my phone?

Yes. It runs in mobile browsers with an on screen thumb pad, and it can be installed to the home screen as an app.

How do I play NeoRunners with a friend?

Choose Play With Friend, create a private room and send your friend the room code. They enter the code and the match starts.

Can I play NeoRunners offline?

Practice against the bot works offline once the game has loaded. Online matches need a connection.

How it is built

NeoRunners is built with React, React Three Fiber and Three.js for rendering, Rapier for physics, and WebRTC peer to peer connections for multiplayer, with a relay server as a fallback when a direct connection cannot be made. It installs as a progressive web app.