Hi everyone! Before I dive into some of my thoughts on this past month of development, I want to highlight some of the latest and greatest community levels! The main menu has been updated to feature the following amazing tracks:
- Abandoned City (by ~HarrisoN~)
- Assimilation (by Deadlock)
- BIOPUMP (by benhall8800)
- Core (by Deadlock)
- Hemoglobin (by Otze)
- I'm a box (by TenTo)
- Lava_Whatever (by Fork)
- Lion's Sandbox (by FREDDY)
- Mario Raceway (by NekreS)
- #Meme Monday Basic Version (by fzeroman)
- Panic Paroxysm (by CyclopsDragon)
- Parallax (by snowstate)
- Sector 77 (by Falcon)
- Trackmania Trials (by PPPaul)
- Zer0 bin0pse - Hapax (by Sperzieb00n)
Development Update
So much cool stuff happened this month, and I can't share a lot of it... yet. As you may have noticed we've gone a bit quiet to dive into the mysterious depths of Adventure mode. We originally planned on just using January to go 100% on Adventure mode, but things were going well so we pressed on through February. We've gotten into a pretty good groove that looks like this:
- Create new level content
- Realize you need a new editor feature to pull off your crazy level idea
- Create new feature, stumble across an existing bug
- Fix bug, remember that you should be working on level content...
- GOTO 1
The particles are great example of this. Andrew originally worked on the particle system as a solution to poor performance from Unity's particles, while simultaneously giving us new options for level designs. As his system grew, I got super inspired and created a new Adventure mode level that goes insane with particles. Based on feedback from the team and the community (many thanks btw!) he's continued to improve the system and it's dramatically expanded our design possibilities. See the GIF above for a look at some new options.
We're getting darker and more mysterious with every iteration. I'd love to talk about the specifics of what we're creating, but with a short campaign it's really easy to spoil the coolest moments. I've been developing a couple levels, but my primary focus has been on crafting memorable story moments and audio design. For example, here's a short preview of new music:
Forge (music preview): https://soundcloud.com/torcht/forge-preview/s-oqkxs
While our options are limited in terms of developing characters, I think we're finally finding some clever ways to generate a satisfying sense of mystery through minor exposition. At the end of the day (with the path we've chosen) it would be tough to get across a deep narrative, but that's never really been our goal. Instead we're aiming to take you on a minimalist adventure that prompts some interesting questions.
Kyle, Eddie, and Laura have been tackling new level content and pushing our editor to its limits. Here's a taste of the new content created this year:
We've also been a doing a great job of distracting Jason from his work on the replay system with our editor feature requests. Here's a few of his new features:
(add a preview camera marking position/rotation)
(swap road types of selected roads)
(added extrude tool to the move gizmo)
(added tool for moving a track node along the track)
We're getting close to releasing a stable build with these editor features and some bug fixes. There are just a few more things we want to finalize in the particle system and track system before then.
As we creep toward our launch window there's so much stuff we want to pack into the final version. It's rapidly approaching the point where we have to make some hard calls as to what makes the cut. Until GDC (mid-March) I believe our primary focus will remain on creating level content, and afterward we'll take a break to finalize arcade/multiplayer modes and features. It's always been our goal to prioritize quality over quantity, and that will remain our mentality as we approach the intense final months.
Check out all of the highlighted Workshop levels and let us know what you want to see highlighted next. Stay tuned for news about another experimental build leading up to the next major stable release!
- Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)