Hey everyone! As most of you know, Switchcars launches on Steam Early Access today! I just wanted to say a word or two about it prior to release.

Launch time

The specific time of release is 13:00 EST / 19:00 CET, which is in about 3.5 hours from now.

Price

The game will cost 8,99 USD/EUR (or other Steam-suggested localized price, depending on your location). Make use of the -10% launch discount, which will be active for the duration of one week! The price will not change when the game leaves Early Access, apart from occasional special offers like this release week or Steam sales, so now might be the best time to get it, provided you'd like immediate access. Other than on Steam, the game will be available for purchase on the Humble Store and Playfield (via Steam keys).

Bug reports

I've been working day and night for this launch, and with amazing help of my friends, spent months ensuring the game will run as smooth as possible when it comes out. However, I want to emphasize that Switchcars is in alpha after all, and some issues should be expected. If you experience any issues with the game, please report them either to Bug Reports on Steam, or to the official issue tracker. I will look into these regularly.

Known issues

As bugs get reported, I will do my best to add and sort them to the issue tracker, with appropriate priority. Here you will be able to see all the issues (or suggestions!) and track their progress. - Note the potential screen size issue: Currently the game requires a screen that supports 1280x800 resolution on a 16:10 screen. On most screens we tried it there were no problems, but on those that don't support this resolution, the game appeared stretched or cut off. It is still playable, but doesn't look as intended. We are looking into fixing this, but if you encounter this issue, for now it may help to run the game in windowed mode (disable Fullscreen in options and restart the game).

Suggestions

As noted in Early Access information, please post your suggestions and just any feedback you have! You can do so on the General Discussions forum. It will greatly help shape up the upcoming updates. Just note that due to Switchcars being made by a single person for the most part, only so many suggestions can make their way into the updates. That said, all the suggestions will be taken into consideration, and if the revenue allows hiring more developers to share the load, so will the development speed increase. It's also important to note that many systems in the game have been made in such a way so that the project would be finished in time by a single person (and I was not even a programmer when it all started). For the last year more or less, due to lack of resources, I had a specific deadline by which the game needed to be released, and while I've done everything that I intended for Early Access, some compromises had to be made. Some solutions had to be rushed, and there's generally plenty of room for improvement. This mostly reflects in having certain limitations that will prevent immediate implementation of many "obvious" suggestions. I am hoping that during Early Access there will be more time and resources to fully dedicate into improving the specific bits of code that cause these limitations.

Gameplay

Despite being full of content, Switchcars has many layered emergent systems that stir up the gameplay. It's fun and highly replayable, and as someone who has been playing it nearly every day for over three years, I put a lot of balancing effort into it. You may find it difficult. If beating it is your only goal, it may even be frustrating at times. But, to some, losing is fun too.

Updates

So far I've been making a new build approximately every month, for my own development needs. In Early Access I will be looking into making them more frequent, currently aiming at biweekly. Currently considered future updates include more powerups, more music, more types of lanes, more backgrounds, more animals, Steam features such as leaderboard and achievements, perhaps new game modes (some have been in the plans for a long time), and of course, hundreds of new vehicles (it's already got a thousand)! Depending on the revenue and feedback, the scope of the game might change as well. Also please note that some of those things will take time! I'll keep you updated regarding their progress through the forum or the website.

Final word

It's just amazing that the game I've been working on for over three years will come out in only a few hours! For any questions or information please get in touch via the Switchcars website, or on Twitter and Facebook. I'm sorry that I cannot reply to all of the mail I get due to time restrictions, but I do read it all. I hope you will enjoy the launch, have fun, and have a great weekend! Thanks!

[ 2016-03-04 14:35:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Switchcars is a vehicular roguelike arcade set in a broken spacetime. Escape alien beasts through procedural environments, using more than 1,000 vehicles. All you need to do is reach the year 2055. In theory.

You are probably not going to make it. Not the first time, not the second, but perhaps the 100th? Every round is different, and you'll get better over time, so crack your knuckles and show those alien beasts who's the master of vehicular arts, the ultimate escaper of Earth, the unintended interdimensional time traveler scientist-man of pure vehiculative efficiency! Or, get struck by a bus and try again.

Features:

• New kind of gameplay

  Switch instantly between vehicles in your inventory to move as fast as possible.
  
  

• 1,000 vehicles

  Nearly all kinds you can imagine, all driveable, with different behaviors. There's a bit more than a thousand actually, and more is yet to come.
  
  

• Procedural environments

  Forests, streets, ice plains, outer space, train yards, minefields - Around 100 unlockable types of terrain, diverse traffic to dodge, as well as more than 150 static scenery objects.
  
  

• Time travel

  The playable years are 1950 to 2055. The point in time dictates available vehicles and environments, but also difficulty. Can you make it to the end and get an interstellar spaceship, the ultimate vehicle?
  
  

• Vehicle upgrades

  Rocket-propelled motorcycle with caterpillar tracks and machine guns? Yes! There are 40 powerups that can be used on any vehicle, altering their performance and appearance.
  
  

• Content browser

  Browse vehicles, lanes or powerups you've unlocked. See how many you haven't seen yet.
  
  

• Immensely replayable

  Due to agile gameplay and procedural nature of the game, the rounds are always different, relatively short and unpredictable - in classic action roguelike manner.
  
  

• High fidelity

  Crunchy crashes, distinctive and colorful pixel art, highly detailed sound and original adaptive music.