Welcome back to another months update!
The month of May so far has been pretty slow in terms of progress, my PC died at the end of April after someone managed to get water inside of it, frying several components. So I had to switch to a dated laptop which wasn't ideally suited for development.
The upside of this, is that I had to optimize the game to work on the laptop, so there has been some significant performance improvements made. I also spent the time to add some graphical options, so you can disable shadows, unnecessary particles, and certain environmental effects.
As the work I could do on the laptop was somewhat limited, I spent some time on the audio, I added some ambient sounds to the game, as well as re-doing the way engine sounds are produced, which allows for slightly more realistic sounding engines.
New car for the pre-alpha?
Once I had my PC back, I started focusing on adding more items to the game, a bunch of new flooring has been added, as well as a non-functioning phone, the majority of furniture will be non-functional during the pre-alpha and alpha stages, however I plan for most furniture to have some form of purpose.
Because of all these new items, I had to re-do the shop system, now instead of only supporting 4 items per shop, there can now be 24. The layout of the shops was also changed, so everything should be simpler now.
New Shop System.
New Game settings are being added, to let the player have a certain amount of control over the game world, this includes the player's name, as well as number of NPC's in the game world and other options.
A quick update on the pre-alpha I mentioned in the last news post, as my PC was fried, it was delayed a bit more than I had hoped, and I'm unexpectedly moving house at the moment, which is also time-consuming, but by June, everything should be back to normal.
There are also a couple of extra things I'm working on that maybe included in the pre-alpha that weren't mentioned in the feature list. Depending on if I can get them working well enough.
Leave a comment below to let me know if you think a pre-alpha release should happen or not, you can find out more about it in the previous news post here. Thanks to everyone who's already commented on the pre-alpha article. As always, feel free to ask any questions you may have, or suggestions you want to offer.
Cars have finite amounts of fuel, be sure to keep an eye on your fuel gauge.
You can follow me on Twitter and Track This Game to be kept up to date with all the latest happenings with development.
Thanks to all those who are following the game, it really helps boost motivation to see that people are actually interested. Have a nice May and I hope you all enjoy E3 next month! :)
Possible release date? This looks awesome!
If you need testers i would love to be in!
Pre-Alpha I'm aiming for a June 2014 release. But it depends if I'm happy with how the game is at that point.
Full game, hard to say, probably not in 2014, but purchasing the pre-alpha gets you access to frequent updates up to the final release.
I don't really need testers at the moment, I have some close friends who will be testing along with myself shortly before the pre-alpha release, when everyone can have a go with the game.
Could i possibly help test it if i donate?
Great when its in pre-alpha state will there be saving?
Sorry, the testing will be private, when the pre-alpha releases, there will be paid and free versions, so you can still test for free when it becomes public. The time between me giving testers a copy and the pre-alpha releasing will probably be short, unless major issues are found.
The pre-alpha will have saving and loading, supporting multiple saves per computer. Whether or not these saves will be able to be kept up until the final release, I can't say, but I will try and make it so you won't have to restart your game.
Oh alright ill donate anyway if you have a donation site.
Thanks for the answers!
Rather than donating, you can just buy the pre-alpha when it releases, you'll get access to the pre-alpha and all updates up to and including Version 1.0.
Unless by "Donating" you meant buying the Pre-Alpha version. :)
Well like buying the pre-alpha version but with a extra amount.
What about price?
What will you be able to do in pre-alpha?
Price is undecided, but it will be a low amount.
Read this news article for info on the pre-alpha: Indiedb.com
There might be a few extra things added in not listed there, as I'm still working on it and I like to throw in some additions here and there, such as the new car revealed today.
If you have anything specific you would like to know about the pre-alpha, just ask.
Well what ways to get money will there be and what jobs will prob be there?
But i have to say i cant wait for this game i really really want it! Looks so nice!
I removed jobs from the game as I felt the start of the game was too slow and uneventful. Instead you start off with a small business that you manage to earn money.
The market can fluctuate for businesses, to make it so adjustments are necessary.
Businesses will be the primary way of earning money, but I would like to add additional ways. I tested vehicle time trials out, which may or may not feature in the game.
But I do plan for there to be a variety of businesses, not just shops, I'll have to see how difficult it would be to add more business types, but it's something I am looking into.
Given the scope of the game, businesses are probably the only way to earn enough cash to get anywhere, you can't buy a Ferrari working in an ordinary job.
In multiplayer games as well, the target goal would probably be £500,000 worth of assets for a short game, so businesses would be needed. If it started off with jobs, you'd be playing for hours to reach any meaningful sum of money.