0.8 will be adding two new gamemodes to the game, with more to come in future updates. So without further ado:
New Gamemodes
Knockout
Knockout is like standard racing except the ship in last place will be eliminated once every other ship has passed the start line. This gamemode is particularly challenging on higher AI difficulties as you will need to be on the top of your game to stay out of last place.
Target
Target is a time-trial derivative where you can shave off time from the clock by piloting as perfectly as possible. Boosting decreases the time at which time ticks and scraping or entering the pitlane increases it. When you finish a lap, how much time you have been shaved will be displayed.
Coming Gamemodes
Eliminator
Many have asked for it and in a future update you will get it! In eliminator the goal is to inflict as much damage to other ships as possible. Everybody respawns and weapons deal a lot more damage. Once a target score has been met, the event will end.
Last Man Standing
Last Man Standing is an eliminator derivative, instead of trying to get to the target score first you instead have to eliminate everybody else and be the last ship on the track.
Detonator
Detonator is a Survival derivative where you must shoot explosives on the track, crashing into explosives will quickly deplete your shield energy. Each lap more explosives are added to the track and you will increase in speed. The objective is to obtain the highest score before you die.
Blockade
Blockage is another Survival derivative where you must avoid an increasing number of obstacles on the track. To aid in avoiding obstacles, sideshifting will be enabled regardless of physics mode in this mode.
It is worth mentioning that all non-time trial derivative gamemodes will be getting full splitscreen support!
Other Features
Brand new campaign target HUD
The campaign now has a new target HUD which shows you all of award targets and which you are currently at. Here's a gif of the Time Trial award UI in action:
HUD notification system
All notifications that you recieve during a race are now sent to a single location, they stack up in a list to the side and swipe off after a few seconds.
New leaderboard interfaces
The leaderboard interfaces have been revamped. Ingame you can open/close the leaderboard anytime and it will show you the leaderboards for the current event.
Other Changes
2280 Improvements - Massive improvements to 2280 mode which make the ships feel much nicer to pilot. Track chase camera has also been rewritten and now feels much more fluid for both normal and 2280 physics.
Elimination Physics - When eliminated your ship will now continue flying for a bit after setting fire and will then eventually fall to the floor.
Huge Optimizations - To get the game running well with 16 racers (that's an option now!) many large CPU optimizations have happened. The increase in performance scales by how many ships there are.
And many more... All of the small details and various other features will be listed in the changelog when 0.8 is released.
The downside
The new gamemode system meant completely breaking multiplayer, and because multiplayer isn't on the todo right now it has been stripped from the game. However, there is currently a multiplayer branch up on Steam and it will still be available when 0.8 releases if you want to still play on it.
Multiplayer will come back post-release of the game as the game's development focus is on the singleplayer experience at the moment.
Note: Multiplayer does not mean splitscreen! Splitscreen is still in the game
0.9 and 1.0
And to finish this announcement off, what's in store for the future after 0.8?
0.9
0.9 will be focusing on adding the remaining content to the game. The final gamemodes, 3 more drift and drag tracks and the hellstorm weapon. More information on that at a later date.
1.0
1.0 will be focusing on making the final version of the campaign which incorporates all of the gamemodes and includes new grids specific to the drift and drag tracks. Layout Creator (the successor to the Track Creator currently in development) will also be available. The rest of the update will be improving user experience, enabling C# mods and polishing everything up.