Pizza Farm Tycoon

How to play Pizza Farm Tycoon

Four racers go up a giant ramp, and the surface under you keeps changing. At each gate you choose a form by steering into it - left, right or drag: a car for road, a climber for wall, a swimmer for water, or a runner, which works on anything and is slower than the right choice everywhere. Pick the form that matches the ground ahead and you pull away; pick wrong and you watch three rivals go past while you struggle across a surface you are not built for. The gates come quickly enough that you are choosing for the next section while still crossing the current one, which is the actual skill. You can race the computer, or open a room and take on three real people instead.

Tips

• •Look past the gate, not at it. The form you need is decided by the ground after the gate, which is already visible when the choice arrives.
• •The runner is a fallback, not an option. It works everywhere and wins nowhere, so choosing it deliberately means you have already lost that section.
• •Recover by looking further ahead, not by rushing. One wrong form costs a few seconds; two in a row because you were flustered costs the race.
• •In multiplayer the rivals make the same mistakes you do. Holding a clean line through a section where everyone else guesses wrong is worth more than any burst of speed.

About Pizza Farm Tycoon

Transform Race takes the transformation-racer idea - the one where the vehicle morphs to suit the terrain - and makes the morph a decision instead of a cutscene. Because the form is chosen at a gate rather than applied automatically, the race becomes a sequence of small reading tests, and the lead changes hands on judgement rather than on top speed. All four mounts are separately modelled and separately handled, so a car really does behave like a car and the swimmer really does have to swim; that is what makes picking wrong feel like a mistake rather than a penalty. It supports both a single-player race against three AI rivals and a real-time room for three other people.

What you need

Graphics

WebGL, which every browser from the last decade has switched on already

Controls

Keyboard or touchscreen

On a phone

Yes

Install

Nothing. It runs in this tab.

Questions

How do I choose a form in Transform Race?

Steer into the gate you want as you reach it, with the arrow keys or by dragging. Each gate is a fork, and the side you pass through decides what you become for the next stretch.

What happens if I pick the wrong form?

You keep going, badly. Every form can cross every surface, but only the matching one is quick, so a wrong pick costs you distance rather than ending the race.

Can I play against real people?

Yes. As well as racing three AI rivals you can open a room and race up to three other players in real time.

Can I play Pizza Farm Tycoon on a Chromebook, at school, or on a phone?

Yes on a Chromebook. Pizza Farm Tycoon draws with WebGL, which every Chromebook has had for years, and it is built for integrated graphics rather than a dedicated card. On a school or office network there is nothing here for a filter to object to on the usual grounds: no download, no installer, no browser plugin, no account, no chat and no user-generated content. Whether your particular filter lets it through is its decision and not something any site can promise. It plays on a phone with touch controls, and it is built wide - turning the phone sideways gives it the shape it was designed for. A keyboard works too.