Let’s kickstart this 2023! The year really started with a bang (and with a killer promo image), a lot has happened already on my side, and today I have unexpected news too. Oh, and please don’t mind if I updated the title of all previous blog posts!
What’s up?
This is something I shared already with our Discord aficionados, and it’s time to report it here for everyone. I often mentioned how I was searching for a rent, and the reason is that our family will be evicted soon due to long standing issues, for which I will spare the many details. This process started last summer and things seemed to have recovered a bit around last December (I even wrote “ Overall this was a good month” in the previous post), instead we got more bad news exactly on December 31st, what a way to end the year.
But the good news is that I finally found a rent and I got the keys just today! It took me around seven months to find a valid apartment, this whole ordeal really took a toll on me. Today is finally a happy day, after a bunch of really depressing moments and a breakdown I had in the past weeks. It’s time now! I will start to move there in the upcoming days.
Anyways, I’d like to remind you all to check out the Global Game Jam! It’s starting right now and it’s a great chance to work on a small game project within a few days. I will attend the physical location here in Rome, open during February 3rd-5th!
Downtown Club
Despite the adversities, the work on DTC continued. First and foremost, the internal Alpha version is online! Remember that one? I mentioned it a bunch of times earlier on. A small number of collaborators are testing it these days and I hope it gives out a good impression. This Alpha will be updated over time until it reaches a more advanced stage, which will be later accessible as a closed Beta. More details in due time.
Right now my focus is on getting content into the game. Here’s a list of the major updates for this month:
- All car paints and liveries have been imported in the game. In DTC, each paint is available for a specific car version. For example, race liveries will only be accessible to track-prepared versions of the cars.
- All driver suits have been imported too. You will be able to mix and match between helmets, gloves and suits. All suit parts are available in sets, both with flat colours and full liveries.
- The artist improved the driver model proportions and the suits quality, but these have yet to be finalised and added to the game.
- I’m working on the final car dashboard system. While all cars have their custom dashboard behind the wheel, they will all run the same “DTC app” in their center screen. Older cars without a screen (available later in the game) will come with a tablet running that app.
- Further testing on performance. All graphic settings have been rebalanced once again, but I feel this is something that will be truly finalised only the day before the release.
- More stuff: various small improvements to the UI, improved reliability of the save system, rewrote some shader parts to make them lighter on GPU, managed to get sharper road textures.
- Last but not least: the next three cars are being worked on right now- get ready for the JDM set reveal later on!
This is most of DTC development for this month. I feel like I managed to accomplish enough, despite the first weeks were all about searching a rent. Me and the artist are working more closely in the last few days and if everything goes as planned, I will have some pretty good screenshots to show you next month.
Wrapping up
This has been an eventful month, and honestly I hope it will be the last one putting me under this much stress, at least until the day DTC is released to the public.
But wait, where’s the unexpected news? Well, almost under your nose!
I know what you are thinking! No, this will not really get time away from DTC, and yes, this makes Commuter Games step into publishing territory! More details on this will follow soon, so don’t miss out!
Danjel Ricci “SkyArcher”