Update #5 2014-07-03
July 3, 2014/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Team Bugbear
(tl;dr – Build updated! New car, new track, LAN support)
And here we go! The new and much-awaited build of Next Car Game is finally out there.
What does this mean in the end? Well, it all boils down to why it took so long between the updates in the first place: we upgraded the game’s engine. In its old iteration, we weren’t sure that the engine could handle all the features we want to include in the game, so, to play it safe, we took the long route and fixed the engine. In essence, we tore it apart. We cut off clumsy clusters of code, with each cut paving way for a more streamlined and more robust iteration of the engine.
It was a lot of work.
As it’s our own engine, we had a pretty good idea how long it would take, but in the end, the amount of effort it took was much more than even we ourselves had anticipated. But, it did pay off in the end. Now we can be certain that the engine can withstand all the nifty we have planned.
The bad news is that, despite the work we’ve already put in, the engine is still far from finished. It’s a rickety contraption that’s bound to buckle and crash and sway and stagger, so expect Next Car Game to give you a constant supply of trouble.
And now the good news.
Next Car Game will soon run more smoothly, thanks to the new engine. What is now purring under the hood will also power a more complex, more detailed and more all around awesome damage model, meaning that all kinds of things can break, bend and tear in your motorized steel bullet. What you now see in this build is just the beginning.
We have also added a second American muscle car to the mix! This baby is difficult to handle, but the power it commands is definitely something to be reckoned with. Again, this is just the beginning – we have many more cars lined up, but one banger at a time, folks, one banger at a time
We have also included a very early prototype of a new track! And take note of the word “prototype” — it lacks pretty much all the nice bells and whistles, meaning that it’s our ugly duckling, but we thought it’d be cool to show you how the track looks and feels like before it’s finished. This new sand pit course should provide you with clever ways to swerve, careen and crash, but what makes the track special is that we’ve done something we have never tried before: the surface of the road has “noise” and it affects your handling! The surface noise simulates the uneven surface of the road, affecting the suspension of your car and giving the steering some sweet, sweet feedback effects. We hope you like it.
As a cherry on top…
Ladies and gentlemen, Motor City madmen and crazy girls of Crash Country…
Next Car Game now supports LAN gaming!
Yes, that’s right. After getting so much requests and wishes and messages hoping that the game would support local area network gaming, we went and did just that. After all, we’re doing this game for our fans, to whom we owe a great deal more than just a car game. We owe you all our honest friendship, our sincere love, and our utmost respect.
The LAN feature supports 12 players at a time, and while a real deal online mode is still missing, this is an important step towards that goal.
But please, do remember that Next Car Game is still ways off from being a final product. It will crash. It will stutter. It will not work the way you want it to, and it will piss you off. And if you’re LANing your heart out, expect lag, especially if your server isn’t robust and you want to keep all graphics settings to the max. But, as said, it’s a work in progress, and we’re working real hard on making it a better game, one line of code at a time.
You can be of great help and immense importance to us by giving us some solid feedback. Feel free to be direct, and no need to be nice, but be detailed in what’s bugging you. That’s the best way for us to know what’s wrong with our game, as that’s how we’ll know what we need to address next.
Thanks for your time, and for your support, good folks!
Enjoy
-Jori Virtanen, game designer, Bugbear Entertainment Ltd.