Today marks one year since the launch of Downtown Club, so what better moment to start the Multiplayer Test? Happy birthday, my dear game!
About the Multiplayer Test
I’ve started working on the multiplayer features somewhat recently, but I can say it’s been mostly a breeze so far. Maybe because I already had knowledge on how it works, maybe because I’m using industry leading tools, and sure because there’s a ton of resources out there, but I didn’t encounter any blocking issue- so far. I’ve managed to test multiplayer with only few devices locally, so it’s time to bring it to existing players and see if it’s going to hold up or crash down!
Please read carefully!
CORE INFO: this is a Test version with limited functionality exclusive to Meta Quest, with the objective of getting early feedback. We don’t have precise info on how long the Test will run, but we expect it to be at least a couple of weeks. The Test is open to every player who owns the game already: simply change the game release channel from “LIVE” to “Multiplayer Test” and you are ready (check this guide if you need help). Please note the Multiplayer option will be available starting from level 5, as a simple measure to limit early server flooding.
FEATURES AND LIMITATIONS:
- Global server: to test the most common scenario, only the Global server will be available during the test.
- Quick Free Ride: join the first available public room in Free Ride mode. If all rooms are full or no rooms are available, a new one is created.
- Private Room: create or join a private room using a 6-digits code. Limited to Free Ride mode with customisable scene settings.
- Multiplayer Custom Race not available yet.
- Voice chat and character syncing not available yet.
- Work in progress UI menu layout with various untranslated elements.
- Maximum 100 concurrent players online and 8 players per room.
- This is an early test so there might be bugs and issues.
FEEDBACK: since this is an early and limited Test, our preferred feedback platform will be Discord. Regardless if you are new or not in our official server, remember to get the @Tester role to access the dedicated test channel where to send feedback and bug reports specific for this version. We also prepared some public chat and voice channels in case you want to organize multiplayer games with other users. Remember this is only a test, so we kindly ask you to not leave game ratings based on this test yet!
That’s everything about the Multiplayer Test for now, have fun and respect the community!
Looking back at the past year
It’s crazy to think a year flew by already since launch. Honestly I feel like I’ve done so little for the game, despite working on it almost night and day, but at the same time I don’t have to forget that I was stuck on rewriting a single feature for the Core Update for nearly seven months, from July 2024 to January 2025 (for those who don’t know, it was opponents AI that caused me all these problems). If anything, Core Update was a very big one with tons of fixes and improvements, and after that we had full localization in 14 languages, Ghost feature, and other small updates in between. Being stuck so much also made me barely able to follow up the artists working on the cars, because we were in the process of updating our workflow, we needed to work tightly, and I wasn’t able to do so. That’s ultimately why you are still driving the same three cars in Downtown Club, for now.
So yes, I look back at what this year has been and I feel a gut in my stomach because I wanted to conclude the Early Access phase within a year, and instead we’re just past the beginning. But on the other side I feel remarkably happy because as a 100% independent developer I found a way to make this a sustainable reality. I’m extremely far from getting rich (looking at you, Localthunk) and also very far from being able to assemble a small company and hire people with stability, but this doesn’t matter because this is how I want to make games, and I am happy. I mean, as long as I don’t have another Core Update-like moment, everything will be good. And of course as long as Meta doesn’t lose the plot, which is very much happening right now- but that’s a rant for another time.
Closing notes
This is not a Dev Diary but rather a short post to launch the Multiplayer Test and of course to celebrate one year of Downtown Club. I actually started writing the new Dev Diary last month but didn’t have the chance to continue yet, but I will do that at some point, there’ so much to talk about in it.
So once again, happy birthday Downtown Club! Looking forward to the upcoming 365 days, with the hope that DTC will finally grow up more, and who knows, eventually land on other platforms. To all you players, thank you so much for being part of this ride and for believing in our team and in the game. Enjoy the Multiplayer Test!
Danjel “SkyArcher” Ricci