I am building a top-down racing game in GDevelop
using physics-based car behavior. The game has a
fixed camera (the camera does not follow the car
— the entire race track is visible on one screen).
The car movement, AI racers, and lap counting are
all working correctly.
The only remaining feature I need to implement
is skid marks. Here is exactly what I want:
Skid marks should appear at the rear tires
of the car.
They should only appear when the player presses
Up or Down key together with Left or Right key.
The marks should smoothly follow the car’s
turning direction — so when the car drifts,
the skid mark should curve naturally.
The marks should fade out and disappear
over time — they should NOT stay permanently
on the road.
The overall effect should look smooth and
give a realistic drifting feel.
My question: Which method is best for this
in GDevelop?
Shape Painter
Sprite Stamp (creating sprite objects)
2D Particle Emitter
Which one gives the smoothest and most
professional result for a top-down racing game?
And can someone guide me with the correct
approach or events setup?
I would start by placing particle emitters on each rear wheel, adjusting the emission until the desired effect is achieved. If that doesn’t work, I would study the other options mentioned.
Thank you for the suggestion! I have already tried
the particle emitter method, but unfortunately it
did not give me the result I was looking for.
The problem with particle emitter is that the
particles appear smoke-like and scattered, and
there are visible gaps between them — so it does
not look like a smooth, continuous skid mark.
It does not give a realistic drifting feel.
What I am looking for is a smooth, continuous
tire mark on the road — similar to what you see
in professional top-down racing games — where the
mark follows the curve of the car naturally and
fades out over time.
Could anyone suggest a better approach for this?
For example, would Sprite Stamp or Shape Painter
give a smoother result? If so, could someone
guide me with the correct setup in GDevelop?
I had a play with one of my old test projects where the car goes round the track automatically so I created the tyre tracks by pressing space. My skid object is just a square sprite, yours will probably be nicer. It doesn’t give a smooth line though, at least not with my car speed. You can also experiment with different tween easings, I used the default linear. My track is quite small so your tween times might be different.
The events are on key press, create skids at appropriate position on the car. Then in the same event, tween the opacity to a small number or to 0. Change the destroy setting to Yes.
