Dear Wreckers,
We hope everyone had a great holiday! We're back in wrecking business, and seeing as the release of the game is only months away now, we're working at full steam to add the rest of the planned content to the game, address the remaining known issues and add as much polish as we can. The feedback on the December Update was very positive and we know we're on the right track, but the game is still not done and there's more of the good stuff to come! Now you're probably wondering what exactly, so let's take a quick look at what we're working on.
Please do bear in mind that not everything mentioned might make it to the next update.
NEW CARS
This is really a no-brainer - who wouldn't want more cars? We know shiny, or in our case not so shiny but awesome nevertheless, new cars are something that everyone always loves so you'll be happy to hear that we have a batch of new ones in the pipeline, including models inspired some very classic American, European and Japanese cars, some fan-favourites too!
CUSTOMIZATION PARTS
Yes, they're coming - we're working on adding customization parts such as bumpers, side protectors and what-not for every car. We're also currently balancing the gameplay effect these parts will have - for instance, a heavy demolition derby style front bumper will make the car withstand more damage to the front but also make it slower due to the added weight, so these parts will add an interesting aspect of give-and-take to the gameplay.
EXPANDED CAREER
Seeing as the December Update only contained a preview of the career, obviously we're also working on expanding it by adding the rest of the championships and tweaking the ones already in the game. Also, series restrictions will be shown in the series selection screen so it will be a breeze to pick up an eligible car. To spice up the career we're also working on special challenge events with some very unique vehicles but more about those later!
NEW ROUTES AND IMPROVED TRACK ART
We're making the final push to make the tracks look nice and dandy. As you've no doubt noticed there are still some proxy assets around, but you'll be relieved to hear that for example those pesky gray prop vehicles littered around the tracks will be soon gone for good. We're also adding a few new routes to the old tracks, including something very special that's going to rival Crash Canyon in the amount of crashes!
MECHANICAL DAMAGE V2
We're working on taking the mechanical damage to the next stage: the effects of the different damage states will be more meaningful, and we'll have new visual and audial effects to add to the immersion. We're also planning to implement a setting to choose between normal and realistic mechanical damage, so those looking for a more hardcore experience can have that.
OPTIMIZATION
Better performance is always high on everyone's wishlist, ours too, and we've been researching ways to improve the rendering performance in particular, so improvements are very likely at some point.
USER INTERFACE
The current user interface is still being heavily worked on, so expect many changes until the final release.
As always, behind the scenes we're also working on a number of important bug fixes and other improvements, many based on the feedback we've received from you. The next update will already contain some welcomed additions, such as a more detailed gamepad vibration effect, track length and surface info in the track selection screen, easier and better-balanced AI on easy difficulty and a new Pause Menu, to name just a few.
And yes, the million-dollar question - when is the new update coming out? We're still working on almost every aspect of the game and while bumps in the road are entirely possible, our plan for now is to have the update out by the end of January. Stay tuned, we'll keep you posted.
If you have any comments or suggestions please let us know by commenting.
Thanks for all the feedback and support!
