What is EGGcelerate!?

Tim Beaudet’s EGGcelerate! is a driving game where each level consists of attempting to make it through an obstacle course and past the finish line. Also, there’s an egg on top of your car in a bowl, and you must make sure the egg doesn’t fall out and crack before you reach the end of the level. Sounds simple right?

The main thing is timing, sure this would be a simple task if you had all the time in the world. But, you don’t. Well, you technically do, but of course you want to break those records. And, to break records you must make it from start to finish in as little time as possible.

Here’s my perfect attempt on Track 6 in EGGcelerate! Ok, this one run was pretty flawless, but I did attempt this track many times before. I just happened to start recording right before this attempt.

First Impressions

This past weekend, I purchased EGGcelerate! (on itch.io, it’s now also available on Steam). I first tested out the game using my MacBook Pro’s keyboard since I wasn’t able to get a controller to work. Using the WASD keys to move in this game isn’t ideal. This made it very tough to beat levels (especially in record time), but I still had fun playing this way.

It wasn’t until I got to experience this game on my PC, using my Xbox One controller, that I truly realized how fun and special this game is. For such a silly idea for a game (make it to the finish line without cracking your egg) this game has some serious driving mechanics. I had to use my Gran Turismo Sport training to make it through many of these levels. I also used some of my one semester of high school physics training (which I barely passed).

I thought I was only going to try the game out for a few minutes and a few levels on my PC earlier this week. I ended up becoming hooked on the game beating level after level (taking many, many attempts at each one). I’m now done with 2/3 of the game (20 of 30 levels) and I’ve obtained most of the achievements (which are mostly made up of cracking a bunch of eggs). I’ve also beat the first 20 levels in record time (not the “developer” records that game creator, Tim Beaudet mentioned in my interview with him, those are just insane).

Here’s my attempt at a level with a big jump, over and over again…

Game Highlights

EGGcelerate! has great level design, fun music and the vehicles and tracks are very well and simply designed. It’s colorful and an overall good time of a game. This game will make you laugh and sometimes make you frustrated, but every level I’ve completed so far is beatable for almost any gamer.

There are many small touches that make this game great. Failing in this game is just as fun as making it to the finish line at times. Failing is how you grab most of the in-game achievements. Anytime you crack an egg anywhere on or off the track it stays there throughout your remaining runs.

This sort of reminded me of Super Meat Boy, and how that game shows you all of your attempts in one video after beating a level. In EGGcelerate! you just get to see all your failed runs on the ground as you try over and over again, in the form of cracked eggs. It wasn’t until a few hours in that I realized that each failed attempt in EGGcelerate! is greeted with an Egg Pun.

Check out some EGG-cellent Puns below:

As I said before I am now 20 levels down in just two or three days of playing. I’ve achieved the “goal” records, but zero developer records. The closest I’ve come to a developer record is still 2 to 3 seconds out. I’m very excited to see what the speed run community does with this game and the developer records. Those times are crazy, there must be short cuts or something. Once I finish the normal records I will definitely try to achieve at least one developer record.

I can see this game becoming a big thing in the Twitch and streaming communities too. It’s a fun, silly one-player game that streamers can play through and fail over and over again while people watch them. I think these type of games and spooky horror games are probably the best for streamers.

I see this game being very re-playable, it’s also highly addictive. Anytime I get stuck on a track I keep telling myself, Ok, just one more try. The levels are short with the longest “goal” times being around 30 seconds, but there are no checkpoints so any failure means starting over.

The level design goes into some wild places. New obstacles are introduced throughout and then reintroduced alongside other new obstacles. Some levels have a tough jump plus some other obstacle within them, and failing at any of these means restarting at the beginning of the track.

Big jumps are tricky. You must go fast enough to make the jump, but also your egg will fly high in the sky and you’ll end up being both the quarterback and the receiver trying to complete a tough egg pass.

Here’s me trying to attempt one of those Egg Passes below:

What’s next?

I will most likely buy EGGcelerate! on Steam once I beat it on itch.io. It gives me Towerfall (the game) vibes in the way that I beat that game on PC, then when I saw it on sale on my Switch not too long after I bought it and beat it again. I would really love to see this game on my Switch and other consoles. It’s just a fun, silly time and I would love to play it on my TV with friends. Actually, using a gaming steering wheel might be super fun for this game.

The game design is wonderful. Sometimes you just need a simple game that doesn’t need to have some great big story to it. The music in the game fits with the tone of the game. The sound effects are goofy and funny. Car engines sound like a human is just making sounds with their mouth (bum bum bum bum). Any time you end up with a car with a different sounding engine it feels like you’ve unlocked some secret, but you haven’t it’s just a different car that drives exactly the same.

Even as a one player game it’s a fun game to play with friends, passing the controller around. I see friends competing to see who can complete each course in the lowest amount of time.

Tim Beaudet’s EGGcelerate! is now available on Steam for 7.99 ($5.99 until April 6th).
It’s also available on itch.io for $7.99.

Check out my interview with Tim!