Hello Night Drivers!
Another month, another update!
Today, I bring you the LAST DEMO UPDATE in this form. I’m gradually approaching the release of the game. I initially planned to release it in December, but due to the launch of another game I’m working on at my company, the release will likely be delayed until January 2025.
This month’s update mainly focuses on the Main Menu, Tutorial, and game performance.
Changelog
- Improved tutorial: From now on, players are encouraged to start the game with the tutorial. The tutorial itself has also been updated and adjusted depending on whether the player is using a controller or keyboard. It has also been enhanced with a short cutscene.
- Added Ghost Rider car plates for every Ghost Rider.
- A new option to display your profile with stats and title has been added to the Main Menu.
- FPS and VSync settings can now be adjusted in the options menu.
- Quests have been improved, including their rewards and the values associated with them.
- Full Steam integration has been implemented (Steam Cloud, controller integration). However, this will not be available in the demo version of the game.
- Added 13 new achievements, which will also not be available in the demo version. (However, if you purchase the game, achievements that should have been unlocked will automatically unlock.)
- A significant amount of time was spent improving the game’s visuals at full HD and lower resolutions. This also improved game performance, which now uses approximately 30% fewer resources.
Future changes
- The next major planned update will involve optimizing maps so that a single map variant will use about 50% fewer resources than it currently does. However, this is a time-intensive process, so it may not be ready next month.
- Another iteration of the vehicle mechanics rework. After many months of gameplay and feedback, I’ve finally decided on the final approach for vehicles.
- Vehicles will be divided into three categories: Slow, Medium, and Fast. Each category will have fixed stats and will differ in perks. Slow vehicles will focus more on earning MB. Fast vehicles will focus on increasing score gains. Unique perks will still be available in each category, but their specifics will remain a mystery for now.
- The addition of more vehicles and missing skins for existing ones (these will no longer be available in the demo).
These changes will essentially finalize the base version of the game. Once the above changes are complete, I’ll release the game. While I’m aiming for December, due to my work and the upcoming launch of our game, it’s unlikely I’ll be able to manage both.
As mentioned above, this will likely result in the release being postponed to January 2025.
As always, thank you so much for your support and interest in the title. Stay awesome, Night Drivers!