It's been a while, so it is time to give you another development update. Bloody Rally Show has now reached a tipping point, where focus will shift towards polishing, bugfixing, balancing and solidifying everything. In other words, there will be less new features, but with each new update the game will get more polished, and one step closer to final version!
That means there could be a little reduction of scope here and there, and some features that I am not happy with (night driving?) could get slashed away.
I'm not going to rush it, but I'm quite confident that public release could happen in 2020 Q1, after two years of development.
Thank you all for being patient, it is a long and hard journey, but the end is in sight!
Development progress update
Hey folks! Time for the update on what exactly is happening behind the scenes.
As you may have noticed, the beta release train is gaining momentum again, and I'm trying to do daily releases, to all OS as always.
The good news is that most of major core functionality is already complete, and before I continue adding more content, I am focusing on fixing bugs, covering every aspect of the game with automated tests, so I can release often with confidence. And, of course - I'm working on performance, which is being taken really seriously. My goal is to have smooth races with 100 opponents in a fairly complex track on a mid-tier hardware, and I'm almost there! Just recently, the whole underlying physics implementation was rewritten from 2D to 3D (Box2D to NVIDIA Physx), which has a significant positive impact on higher tier hardware, and will unlock more possibilities.
Bad news is that there is still a bunch of stuff left to do before official release, such as:
- Fixing all the small bugs and annoyances
- Balancing out the economy, leveling up, etc
- Making opponent AI rock solid, both in races and when shopping for cars and upgrades
- Mods management screen
- Campaign mission and cutscene variety
- Race track object variety
- Some new mechanics and race modes
- Overhaul of Achievements and Leaderboards
- In-game race stats tracking
- Ghost races in workshop
- Track editor overhaul
But as always, I'm enjoying myself doing this, and I hope you will enjoy playing the game when it's out!
See you in next update!
Major beta update out now
Great news, fellow racers. After a long delay, beta build has been updated, with all the new goodness.
Please do factory reset, because all old data will not make any sense anymore.
Also, beware, this build is not balanced, not tested, and you might encounter issues. If so, please report them to Steam Discussions, or on our Discord.
Enjoy!
Welcome to Bloody Rally Show
I've been getting quite a lot of feedback concerning the game name. The "Simulator" part was something that bugged me and many other people, as it seemed as if it was a click bait title. So from now on, aligned with the story line, game will be named "Bloody Rally Show", as you will be taking part in a dystopian reality TV show that is trying to recreate the infamous Group B rally championships from 1980s.
Steam page has been updated with new screenshots and new game description, showing a glimpse of the story line. I hope you like the new direction!
Development progress update
While there are no beta releases and silence on the radar, I am super excited to say that development is moving forward at a rapid pace. Campaign mode has most of the meat on it's bones, track generation is significantly faster, runs in background, and produces more interesting curves.
A lot of effort is pushed towards customization, you will be able to use your own images for car paint jobs and racer avatars.
And finally, there will be a story backing the whole game action, so you will at last figure out why the game is so "Bloody". More on that next time!
New Car Names
Thanks to everyone who contributed to naming the base car set! The final list is a mix of your suggestions, with slight modifications here and there. For the sake of consistency, all names follow *Brand Model* naming convention.
The list is as follows:
Tatsuya Arashi
Tatsuya Nichibotsu
Lionard 125
Akuno Hinode
Fanbreaker Hemi
Nigori Shukai
Mud Western
Kantz Ritter
Nigori Misairu
Kantz Vagabond
For the beta crowd, releases have been on hold for past couple of weeks, because I'm crunching on new campaigns and breaking stuff along the way. Stabilizing the code for making regular releases would take precious time away from development, so right now I'm taking "move fast and break things" approach, at least until new campaigns are completely done.
Meanwhile, if you are curious what to expect, you can find some of the work in progress screens and clips on BRS Reddit.
Introducing the Car Editor with Workshop support
As promised, we now have Workshop support for custom cars, along with an in-game car editor, that will allow you to use custom car graphics and configure a plethora of technical parameters.
It's not perfect or final yet, but it's another important step towards the final set of features that have to be added before official launch.
Beta testers will have to switch to "development" branch in BETAS to try this out.
Can't wait to see what crazy cars you will come up with!
Help us come up with car model names!
Hey folks! We have a final set of base cars for Bloody Rally Simulator, and we need your help in naming them! Nicest name suggestions will make it to the final game, and your nickname (or name, up to you) will be added to game credits!
And of course, you will be able to create your own cars via Steam Workshop. More on that later.
Suggestions should be numbered, and should not use any actual real world car names or other trademarked stuff.
Thank you!
Development progress update: Cars
We have been quiet lately, and there are fewer game builds than usual for the beta crowd. We're not taking a break, it's because we are now working on one of the bigger planned changes in the game - new cars.
They will be detailed, customizable, upgradeable, with custom paint jobs and Workshop integration.
You will be able to see working wipers, engine bay through the glass, driver animations, moving glass reflections, visual car damage and much more!
Stay tuned!
Pssst... Want to follow the development process, and perhaps win yourself a beta key? Hop on to our active and growing Discord server: https://discordapp.com/invite/89amEwP
Bright Future Ahead
Bloody Rally Simulator has went a long way in terms of graphics and UI, and it will keep pacing further, until every bit will be redone, with highest attention to detail.
I am no longer alone in this quest - BRS has a dedicated graphics artist, UI / UX designer and an extensive professional soundtrack (there will be OST available when game is released). I could have never gotten that far on my own.
There are so many updates since last announcement, that there is no point to post a change list. Just letting you know, the game is getting stronger than ever, and when graphics are redone, focus will be back again on gameplay.
