Inspiration
What it does
How we built it
Challenges we ran into
Accomplishments that we're proud of
What we learned
What's next for Terokand
Magic Carpet Ride: Silk Road Adventure is a side-scrolling endless runner where you pilot a magic carpet through the historic cities and landscapes of the ancient Silk Road. Set across iconic locations including Samarkand, Khiva, and the surrounding deserts and mountains of Central Asia, the game challenges players to navigate through increasingly difficult obstacle courses while collecting coins and discovering hidden cultural artifacts along the way.
The game features 10 hand-crafted levels, each with a unique background, obstacle set, and difficulty curve. Players must dodge arches, minarets, birds, clouds, and balloons — often arranged in tight Flappy Bird-style wall formations with shrinking gaps. Starting from Level 4, a snake lurks on the left edge of the screen, punishing players who fly too far left and adding a persistent spatial pressure to the challenge. Power-ups including a Shield, Coin Magnet, Speed Boost, and Extra Life tile appear rarely throughout each level, rewarding risk-takers who chase them.
Coins can be chained together for a combo multiplier up to 10x, encouraging aggressive play rather than pure survival. At key distance milestones within each level, players silently unlock Discovery Cards — short cultural facts about Silk Road history and architecture — which are revealed on the level complete screen as a reward. The game tracks high scores, level stars, and a personal artifact collection across sessions.
Built entirely with React, TypeScript, and a custom HTML5 Canvas game engine, then packaged as a standalone Windows desktop application using Electron, Magic Carpet Ride was developed as a Game Jam 2026 project with the goal of making Central Asian history engaging and accessible through interactive gameplay
