Neon Drift Mini

A minimalist neon-styled top-down endless car racing mini-game built with pure Flutter. Designed for Android, offline, lightweight, and Play Store ready.

---

✨ Features

• 🎮 Top-down endless racing — dodge obstacles, collect coins
• 🌈 Gen-Z neon aesthetic — drawn entirely with CustomPainter, zero image assets
• 📈 Difficulty scaling — speed and spawn rate ramp up over time
• 🏆 Local high score (offline via shared_preferences)
• 📱 Touch buttons + swipe controls with haptic feedback
• ⚡ Smooth 60/90/120Hz gameplay (frame-rate independent physics)
• 🔒 Fully offline — no internet, ads, or backend required

---

📁 Project Structure

neon_drift_mini/
├── pubspec.yaml
├── analysis_options.yaml
├── README.md
└── lib/
    ├── main.dart
    ├── theme/
    │   └── app_theme.dart
    ├── services/
    │   └── storage_service.dart
    ├── game/
    │   ├── game_controller.dart      # State + game loop
    │   ├── game_objects.dart         # Player, obstacles, coins
    │   └── game_painter.dart         # All rendering
    └── screens/
        ├── home_screen.dart
        ├── game_screen.dart
        └── game_over_screen.dart

The android/, ios/, web/ and platform folders are generated locally by Flutter on first setup (see below). This keeps the zip tiny and avoids stale Gradle versions.

---

🚀 Quick Start (5 minutes)

1. Prerequisites

• Flutter SDK 3.27 or later → https://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/install
• Android Studio (for the Android SDK + an emulator) → https://developer.android.com/studio
• VS Code (recommended) with the Flutter extension

Verify your install:

flutter doctor

Make sure all checkmarks are green for Flutter, Android toolchain, and VS Code / Android Studio.

2. Unzip and open

1. Unzip neon_drift_mini.zip
2. Open the folder in VS Code (File → Open Folder…) or Android Studio.

3. Generate the Android platform files

The zip contains only the Dart source to keep things clean. Run this once inside the project folder to generate the android/ folder, Gradle wrapper, manifest, etc.:

cd neon_drift_mini
flutter create --org com.tharindux --project-name neondriftmini .

This command will not overwrite your existing lib/, pubspec.yaml, or README.md. It only fills in the missing platform-specific scaffolding.

4. Install dependencies

flutter pub get

5. Set the display name

Open android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml and change:

android:label="neondriftmini"

to:

android:label="Neon Drift Mini"

6. Run!

Plug in an Android device (with USB debugging enabled) or start an emulator, then:

flutter run

---

🛠️ Building a Release APK

When you're ready to share or publish:

flutter build apk --release

The APK will be at:

build/app/outputs/flutter-apk/app-release.apk

For a smaller, per-architecture split build:

flutter build apk --split-per-abi --release

For a Play Store upload, build an App Bundle instead:

flutter build appbundle --release

The bundle will be at build/app/outputs/bundle/release/app-release.aab.

Before publishing to the Play Store, you must sign the app with your own keystore. See the official guide: https://docs.flutter.dev/deployment/android#signing-the-app

---

📦 Creating a Zip for Sharing

Before zipping, clean the build cache so the zip stays small:

flutter clean

Then:

On Linux / macOS:

cd ..
zip -r neon_drift_mini.zip neon_drift_mini -x "neon_drift_mini/.dart_tool/*" "neon_drift_mini/build/*"

On Windows (PowerShell):

Compress-Archive -Path .\neon_drift_mini -DestinationPath .\neon_drift_mini.zip

---

🎨 Customizing the Game

Change the game name (visible on the home screen / launcher)

1. Launcher name (Android): Edit android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml:

   android:label="Your New Name"

2. Window title (in code): Edit lib/main.dart:

   title: 'Your New Name',

3. In-game logo (home screen): Edit lib/screens/home_screen.dart — search for the strings 'NEON', 'DRIFT', 'MINI' and replace.

Change the package name (application ID)

The current package is com.tharindux.neondriftmini. To change it:

1. Easy way — use the change_app_package_name tool:

   flutter pub run change_app_package_name:main com.yourcompany.yourgame

2. Manual way — edit android/app/build.gradle (or build.gradle.kts), change applicationId, and rename the folder structure under android/app/src/main/kotlin/.

⚠️ Once you publish to the Play Store, the package name is permanent. Choose it carefully before launch.

Change the app icon

1. Add flutter_launcher_icons to pubspec.yaml:

   dev_dependencies:
     flutter_launcher_icons: ^0.13.1
   
   flutter_launcher_icons:
     android: true
     ios: false
     image_path: "assets/icon.png"
     min_sdk_android: 21

2. Put a 1024×1024 PNG at assets/icon.png.
3. Run:

   flutter pub get
   dart run flutter_launcher_icons

Tweak game balance

All gameplay constants live in lib/game/game_controller.dart:

Constant	Meaning
baseSpeed	Starting scroll speed (px/s)
maxSpeed	Hard cap for difficulty
acceleration	How fast speed ramps up over time
laneEaseRate	Smoothness of lane changes (higher = snappier)

Tweak the color palette

All neon colors live in lib/theme/app_theme.dart. Want a green/orange theme? Just swap the constants — they propagate everywhere automatically.

---

🔄 Publishing Updates

Every Play Store update needs a bumped version. Edit the line in pubspec.yaml:

version: 1.0.0+1

The format is versionName+versionCode:

• versionName (1.0.0) — what users see on the Play Store
• versionCode (+1) — internal integer, must increase every upload

Example progression:

1.0.0+1   → Initial release
1.0.1+2   → Bug fix
1.1.0+3   → New feature
2.0.0+4   → Major redesign

Then build the new App Bundle and upload it to the Play Console:

flutter build appbundle --release

---

🎮 How to Play

• Tap left / right buttons at the bottom to switch lanes
• Or swipe left/right anywhere on the screen
• Dodge red hazards and enemy cars
• Collect yellow coins (+50 score) and survive (+1 score per frame)
• Every 500 score = level up = faster, more obstacles

---

🏗️ Architecture Overview

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              UI Screens                     │
│  home_screen → game_screen → game_over      │
└──────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
                   │
       ┌───────────▼────────────┐
       │   GameController       │  ← ChangeNotifier
       │ (state + game loop +   │     drives every frame
       │  spawn + collision)    │
       └───────────┬────────────┘
                   │
       ┌───────────▼────────────┐
       │   GamePainter          │  ← reads controller
       │  (CustomPainter)       │     each frame
       └────────────────────────┘

       ┌─────────────────────────┐
       │  StorageService         │  ← shared_preferences
       │ (high score, stats)     │
       └─────────────────────────┘

Key design choices:

• Frame-rate independent: physics use real dt, not fixed step counts
• No game engine: just Flutter's Ticker + CustomPainter
• No assets: every shape is drawn in code, so the APK is tiny
• ChangeNotifier: simple, native, no extra state-management dependency

---

📜 License

All rights reserved to TharinduX.exe

---