Yo!

As the month of April nears its end, I am reminded by the bomb setup to explode in my room if I don't upload another Devlog this month... that I should upload another Devlog this month. So for the interest of both your potential curiosity on what's going on in the development of this game and my own survival, I present to you:

[h3]Rocket Launcher Car: "Abe"[/h3]



Rocket Jumping as a form of movement has been known for years now, whether it be to climb stairs or assault people on their way to the supermarket to buy groceries. However, recent developments have shown that you can also attach a rocket launcher to a car and assault people buying groceries while driving, too.

The "definitely-not-inspired-from-that-one-game" military Eagle, Abe is a character that sits in a middleground in weight class and general attributes between the likes of JC and M.A.L.L. In other words; Not quite that heavy, healthy, and slow, but a bit healthier, heavier and slower than your average driver.

Embedded straight into the vehicle, aimed directly backwards, is the Special: The Rocket Launcher.
Doing what you'd expect a Rocket Launcher to do, it shoots out a fast and homing Rocket that explodes on impact, at the cost of some HP.



The uses of this are fairly straightforward - anyone behind you? Blast them into pieces. Groups of vehicles behind you? Even better - one rocket explosion is all you need to take them out together.

As all player-explosions in this game however, you can also use these explosions to drastically and quickly propel yourself forward. All you need to do for this is to position yourself tightly right in front of someone and off you go!



Legends say you can go truly fast if you manage to combine a strong boost jump with a rocket jump, but I've yet to see it happen with my own eyes...

[h3]General Update on Development[/h3]

Yesterday I managed to finally get done with most of the major, planned systems for the game! Done with a bit of an asterisk because all of these still need to be thoroughly tested and scrutinized and/or polished to its best quality. Still - quite an awesome Milestone to hit! More on these systems, hopefully, later, as I'll work to give them a bit of a better introduction.

[h3]Incoming Demo Update[/h3]

While I can't give an ETA, the Demo of the game will get another Update soon-ish. This update will come with two features to improve the accessibility of the game.

1. Mouse Support + Mouse Control Style
Replacing the second Keyboard "Turn Style", the "Mouse Control Style" will allow you to control the vehicle based on your mouse location on screen, instead of having to turn left/right with key strokes. This also comes with letting you bind M1, M2 and M3 to functions.
Alongside this will come the ability to navigate the game's UI with your mouse. So if you are a true mouse warrior, I'll have to ask you to just be a little more patient as I work on it!

2. Vehicle Speed Setting
One of the most common points of feedback I have received so far is that the pace of the game can be very overwhelming for some - too overwhelming! While chaos is engrained in the game's DNA and very much intentional, how much everyone can process is different from person to person, especially depending on how much experience they have with games like this.

As such, I am planning on implementing an accessibility setting that will let you control Vehicle speeds - kind of like "Engine Classes" in games like Mario Kart. The Tutorial will also lead with this, hopefully making for an easier learning curve, essentially offering a sort of "Beginner Mode" for people that feel overwhelmed. Whether you stick to the lower speed or slowly make the jump to the normal one is obviously up to you.

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And that's it for this one.
I know that last time I said I wanted to do these more frequently... but I kinda ended up going hermit mode working on all the big systems because I really, really wanted to get them out of the way. Lots of cool stuff to look forward to! So I'll try my best to get another Devlog up sooner than later.

Thank you for reading!

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- Alexander

Hello again!

While I'm still busy working on 30 things at once, today I'd like to take a moment to highlight one of the new characters I've been working on.

[h3]Boat On Wheels: "Big Tuna"[/h3]



Years of Evolution have passed until Boats developed wheels to let them roam the lands and leave the waters, mirroring the process of man. Who knows when they will develop wings and take to the skies?

A fugitive caught for his aquatic crimes, a Big Shark in a Big Boat, Big Tuna is a character that starts out with somewhat mediocre stats, but comes with a super powerful and flexible special: The Harpoon Gun. Automatically aiming at targets in front of you at the cost of some HP, the Harpoon Gun shoots out a nimble Harpoon, homing onto the target vehicle.



Upon contact, the Harpoon will get stuck on them.
Hold the SPECIAL button down, and you'll not only slow down the vehicle you've pinned, but you'll also rapidly pull yourself towards it!
Release the SPECIAL button, and you'll break the connection - pulling the vehicle you've hit backwards, and you rapidly forward, letting Big Tuna deal massive ramming damage if close to someone, or simply letting you quickly move forwards.



This special can be used in a ton of ways:

• You can tap fire, skipping the pull-phase and immediately going for a damaging ram; Speed, at the cost of not building momentum.
  
• You can hold, then release, letting you build up some devastating speed and momentum to take the lead and deal even more damage on release.
  
• Or you can simply hold it down for a minute and let yourself be pulled forwards when you are too lazy to drive yourself. Enemies are too fast, and you don't have enough HP to boost? Don't sweat it, let them do the work for you.
  

[h3]V.0.1.3 is here![/h3]

While I originally thought the previous update would be the last one, I just couldn't help myself to freshen the Demo up a bit with some content and QOL changes.

The major changes include:

[h3]Alternative Desert Area: Mesa![/h3]



As teased in the previous Devlog, this patch brings the Mesa to the Demo as an alternative Area to the Desert, acting as an appetizer to this whole feature for the full release. It acts as an alternative take on the area featuring a different color palette, some quirks and a new enemy.



This area has a 50% chance of appearing instead of the Desert.

[h3]3 new Upgrades & General Upgrade Balancing[/h3]

Upgrades in the previous version of the Demo felt a bit lackluster sometimes. The game's Upgrades are generally ordered in 3 tiers; Cheap, Medium and Expensive, with the goal being to allow me to design a variety of Upgrades and keep it all balanced with the price tag attached to them. The problem was that some expensive upgrades felt rather weak, and that the game in general was a bit shy with letting Upgrades truly have a massive impact. Especially when it comes to letting upgrades destroy enemies.

We're taking off the limiters for this one; Upgrades have generally been rebalanced; Some made more Impactful, some moved into more-fitting categories. This includes stuff like Carlos & Blast Processor now being able to fully destroy vehicles instead of dealing 50 damage and more.

To make up for the lack of impactful, expensive upgrades, 3 new ones have been added to fill the gap:

GUISE OF SAFETY



A maybe-familiar-looking angelic scarf. Once fully charged by dealing damage, it will grant the player temporary immunity to any non-melee attack, such as bullets. A defensive item to survive the chaos of 13 gunners on screen.

PUZZLING JIGSAW



A saw. Also charged by dealing damage. Once fully charged, releases a ring of damaging saws around the player, each powerful enough to knock out a vehicle on their own. A very powerful, offensive item.

STUNNING SKYROCKET



Obligatory roguelite firework item. Destroy an enemy, and it might launch a homing rocket, ready to explode on a near enemy, dealing enough damage to knock them out entirely.

Other changes include JOYFUL BUZZER being able to deal damage, ENHANCED GRIPPER straight up exploding whatever victim you side-slam into and much more. Overall, upgrades should feel a lot better now, whether that be from an impact standpoint or their general balancing.

[h3]A Ton Of Quality Of Life[/h3]

Enhanced Pause Menu



The Pause Menu has received a bit of a do-over, pushing the options to the left with a more stylish looking backdrop instead of just having them hover in the air. The main new feature here, however, is that you can now navigate to the right side of the screen and check what each of your upgrades are doing. Forgot what an Upgrade does? Think you got a good combo? No problem!

Improved Upgrade Visuals & Audio



In the Quest to make Upgrades more impactful, the game has also been equipped with a variety of new SFX and visuals to make Upgrades stand out a bit more. This includes:

• The "Upgrade Icons" on the left now being replaced by a 2D sprite of the Upgrade, rather than a generic icon for the effect.
  
• A ton of Upgrades now have a more in-your-face visual effect instead of just relying on the icon, such as ENHANCED GRIPPER coloring your vehicle in a different color, MOUTH FOAM actually having your vehicle foam, or ANCIENT CARTIFACT displaying a halo when the effect is still up.
  
• Whether it be a vulnerable hit, dealing increased damage, taking decreased damage, all of these interactions are now equipped with a fitting sound effect. Really something that should've been there from the get go, but better late than never.
  

Hey!

I just recently finished a pretty big milestone regarding the game's zones, so as per usual, here is the government mandated blog post in which I show off some of the new goobers & more.

[h3]Alternative Zones[/h3]

This was something that wasn't originally fully planned, but made it in regardless. The game was originally envisioned with exactly 4 Zones, with an average run duration of 12~ ish minutes, depending on how fast you are putting the pedal to the metal. The idea was to hit a similar spot Nuclear Throne hits, very quick and impactful, short runs, where deaths don't feel particularly bad due to run-length being short anyways.

Ultimately, when reviewing the game something didn't feel quite right - I personally felt there was a bit of a lack of variety. There were plenty of enemies, but visually you did kinda come across the same few tilesets over and over. Adding 100% entirely new areas was out of the question due to dev time constraints - what wasn't out of the picture was "Alternative Zones", however. More simple color adjustments alongside some generational changes and a small subset of new enemies would offer some visual variety, even if just in color, while also giving these alt. Areas their own identity with their own area-specific enemies, while keeping the cop enemies of the stages shared.
Alt. Areas have a roughly 50% chance of appearing whenever the game would take you to the usual area, offering a bit of extra variety to each run, or even Loop.

So I went to work, which took a while, but finally got done! So let's check 'em out.

Alt. Desert: Mesa

The alternative desert features these generational "stamps" which appear around the road occasionally.
Designing an alternative Desert was a bit challenging. Since it's the first area of the game, I can't really afford to throw much crazy stuff at the player. Additionally, I didn't really want to make an alternative version of the Desert Bandit, considering it basically serves as a Tutorial. As a result, other areas feature an additional switched up enemy, while this one only has 1.



This vehicle roams the Mesa and takes up the spot of the big enemy. At a set interval, it will switch to its spiked form, damaging you on touch. The augmented version of this enemy will even try to tackle you!

As an additional sidenote, the normal Big Cop has been retired as the flagship big enemy of the Desert. For variety's sake, having the Desert essentially have two identical enemies, but one a lil bigger, felt like a cop-out (hah). The Big Cop will now simply appear 10% of the time the game would spawn a normal cop, and in its stead, this Big Bandit will appear:



It has a big assault gun that shoots 3 close range shots. Hopefully this doesn't raise the difficulty of the first area by too much, while making it much more interesting to go through.

Alt. Countryside: Meadow

You'd never guess the inspiration for this one. The generational quirk of the Meadow is that it has circular-bits sticking out the wall on occasion. Unlike the desert, which was kept simple by-design, this one can have an actual impact on your driving. I definitely didn't accidentally break the one in the picture above...

Enemies for this area are themed appropriately. For our flagship small-fry, we've got this fancy, wooden fish mobile:



In-game, it comes equipped with a close range burst-shotgun, similarly to the current Countryside enemies. Unlike them, however, they just blast you at close range, with no bullets to be shot. This offset is made up by a generally higher fire rate and bigger damage on hit.

As far as the big one goes, we have this honorable warrior:



When getting close, it will start to charge up a sword attack in a random pattern around it. Getting hit will tumble you, so don't get sliced.

Alt. Factory: Foundry

A much darker look, the Foundry features square protrusions and intrusions, oscillating.

The smaller enemy of this area keeps the Industrial theming of the one before, but comes with a very interesting bullet.

Always shot at a sideways angle, the bullets by this enemy will follow the path of the track for a bit, creating hazards that actively follow you, but without being homing towards you. These will fizzle out after roughly 2 seconds though, and are generally harmless if you are behind the gunner.

The big one comes with a big rocket launcher.

There isn't much to be said here. This dude shoots a rocket at you, and it explodes. Considering the getup, it would be more accurate to say it's two dudes...

Alt. Nearside: Farside
How does the farside of the moon look like? Scientists have asked this question for years. Don't look it up on google or you will spoil the surprise.



In true cheese fashion, the generational quirk of this alt. Zone is circular holes and protrusions.

To keep in line with the absolute insanity that was the Nearside's UFO, this area's smaller enemy shoots a black hole that sucks in not just the player, but also enemies alike. It also deals damage over time while you stay inside of it, so you better invest in that weight stat.



Depending on the situation, this enemy legitimately causes absolute chaos once the black hole is out. I'd stay wary.

The big one features a similar getup to the Nearside's sniper, except instead of shooting a deadly hitscan explosion blast, it has a long-lasting, slowly turning & burning laser.



Being in close range, taking cover, or throwing their aim off by taunting is key to avoid getting roasted.

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This was quite a mountain of work, and I originally wanted to move onto other things (like upgrades or new characters!), but I think the added variety will add a lot of value to the game in the long run. Please look forward to it! With this, the game is enemy and zone gameplay content complete. A very cool milestone to hit!

I am planning an update to the demo soon, and the demo will also feature the first Alt. Zone, Mesa. However, I am also planning to include a variety of QOL and some upgrade changes in said patch, so it will still have to stay in the oven for a bit. More on that when it's all ready - which is hopefully very soon!

Thank you for reading!

Join the Discord
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- Alexander

V0.1.206a! Small patch that does 2 things.

CHANGELOG:
- Increased Civ. spawn rate in the second Tutorial
- Increased Loop difficulty scaling dramatically. Previously difficulty would scale by 10% for each Loop, now it increases by 40%. This should make early Loops a bit more challenging, instead of feeling like a slog if you are already decently experienced.

Thanks!
- Alexander

Hey!

Back at you with some dev news! Been working on Area 4 of this game, The Moon. This one's been fairly rocky to work on due to the amount of unique mechanics packed into the enemies of this area, so let's take a closer look at what's coming up!

[h3]The Moon[/h3]

The Moon is the forth Area the player encounters after the rigid Factory. The stage features a faint, blue color-scheme and is defined by straights which will rapidly change into drastic, tight corners. This area's special effect civs will apply a speed-buff to everyone surrounding them, so you could consider it some sort of intergalactic highway.


Let's take a look at the enemies in this area!

UFO
This area's signature enemy, and also an enemy that took a lot of development time.
The first enemy that is able to outright switch into a flying state, even flying over the game's terrain without issue. While it's flying, it will zap the area below it and target the player, and is also completely unable to be damaged. Pretty scary, but is also quite weak while not flying.



Rover
This area's big enemy. This enemy takes the role of a sniper, with a dramatic red laser pointed at you. Its shots are explosive, so even if you take cover behind walls, you'll have to dig in fairly deep. Their aim isn't perfect however, so if you move rapidly and strafe around it, it will also miss its shot.





Flame Cop
A cop variant with a big flamethrower. It'll continue to track the player even while firing, and can deal rapid damage if you stay within its range for a prolonged amount of time!



Quad Gunner
A cop with a familiar gun on top. I wonder where they borrowed that type of gun from? Shoots 4 bullets a piece in a rotating fashion. Does not come with a fashionable spin attack, though.



Harpoon Gunner
A very fun to develop enemy, and one I look forward to the most to see in action.
This enemy shoots a harpoon that isn't aimed at the player, but rather at fellow enemies. This harpoon carries with it an electrical cable, setting up a sort of "no-go" zone for the player that will actively shift based on the spacing and location of the enemy that shot the cable, and the targeted enemy.

Dislocating the two enemies using taunts or abilites is key to not get caught inside the wire!



Area Boss
The boss for this area has been an absolutely massive undertaking to develop for, and has taken about as many development resources (art, sfx, programming) as a whole area, really. It's very different compared to the other bosses of this game, to the point where I really don't wanna spoil it. Please look forward to facing it yourself!



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And that's it for today!
I'm very slowly moving towards much more "shareable" stuff to work on (such as Upgrades, Characters etc.), so expect more frequent updates in the future than once a month.

I'm also planning to do a Playtest for the new areas in the near future, so keep an eye open for that if you would like to participate.

Thank you for reading (and/or watching!).

Join the Discord
Follow on Twitter(X)

- Alexander

[h3]V0.1.206 has arrived![/h3]

This is a very small patch that originally wasn't planned. Kinda wanted to leave the Demo in the state it was already, but was inspired to do some additional changes in reaction to some tutorialization problems some players were experiencing when learning the game.

The biggest addition are Control Prompts which are exclusively shown when you are new to the game/character.

There has been a pattern, when watching people learn the game, that they'd end up forgetting about some buttons and/or mechanics. This change is trying to work against that issue by simply reminding you of the button to press depending on the situation.



Additionally, these control prompts act as a sort of "micro tutorial" for certain, "more complicated" characters.

These prompts are only shown a maximum of 3 times provided you actually follow them. After that, they vanish forever, never to bother you again, since you hopefully by that point know the drill by now.

Other than that we have minor additions, changes, and some minor asset changes.

[h2]Full Changelog:[/h2]

• Added "Control Prompts" for the following Actions:
  
  
  
  • Slamming (Appears when you can slam someone)
    
  • Boosting (Appears when you never boosted despite being very high in HP for a prolonged amount of time, and/or when you're about to run out of time and seriously need to catch up)
    
  • Deadlift Grab/Throw
    
  • Mr.Kill Detonating of placed bombs
    
  These prompts are only shown a max of 3 times when followed. Experienced players will not get these when updating to this build.
  
• Added "NO BOMBS" Pop-up when pressing Special as Mr.Kill despite no bombs being placed
  
• Self-Destruction due to boosting too far out of the level boundaries now has a proper cause in the game over screen instead of "UNKNOWN"
  
• Changed Mr. Kill's Special wording to "BOOSTING INTO" instead of "RAMMING" to more clearly communicate how to use the special.
  
• A bunch of minor asset changes.
  

Hey, been a while!

After adding Auto-Steering to the Demo, Development took a bit of a hit as I got very busy. However, these times are over for now, and I finally got to work on the third Area of the game, the Factory!

[h3] Into the Factory [/h3]

The Factory is the third Area the player encounters after the lush Countryside. The stage features a red and blue color-scheme with a more industrial and sleek look, opposed to the more natural one of the previous stages. Walls tend to be very flat instead of all wobbly, too.


Father p per usual cooked up an insanely cool track to go with this area as well, you can listen to it here!
Let's take a look at the enemies of this area.

Rubber Gunners
Similar to the Desert Bandits of the Desert these are this area's signature enemy.



They shoot an assault of bullets with a special quirk; They bounce off walls! Combined with the often flat walls of the area, and this can make it very fatal if you let them shoot their barrage.



Wrecking Ball
This area's big, melee enemy. A large vehicle that tries to hit you with a wrecking ball. Getting hit sends you into tumble, and they will spin just by getting close. You should hope to not come across these guys with any elite traits on!



Shocker
One of this area's special cop variants. This one is equipped with a special device that sends blasts of electricity at you, pulling you backwards as well as dealing damage. Breaking the connection by outmaneuvering them is key!



Timebomb
Also one of the area's special cops. This one shoots a very special projectile that homes towards you. Upon hitting you, it'll get stuck and after a set amount of time blow up for some extreme damage.



The catch is that while the bomb is stuck on you, you can pass it onto others!



This explosion can even be "jumped" off. Turn your mistake into an opportunity to get ahead!

Mancer
This area's loop specific enemy, and the first enemy in the game that does not directly attack the player. Instead, they will make a nearby enemy fully invincible. And yes, this includes Bosses and other Mancers.



While the augmented versions of the enemies presented so far follow the usual process, such as increasing the amount of bullets shot, attack rate, for Wrecking Ball, the amount of spins, the hard version of the Mancer is very special. If the enemy is in range and the Mancer has someone connected, it will grav-gun style push the invulnerable enemy at the player!



Area Boss


This area's boss is a huge Bulldozer. This model was very complicated to make, and was originally a lot more ambitious, but I think the endresult is cool regardless. The brand embedded at the front seems familiar.

[h3] Youtube Videos! [/h3]
Starting today, I will try to make Youtube Videos about the development of this game. Below is the first talking about the creation of the gameplay loop!

[previewyoutube=EYiuXS379rM;full][/previewyoutube]
I figured something like this would be more interesting for people than a huge writeup. There are lots of interesting topics to cover, so I hope these will be interesting to watch.

-----------------------

And that's it for this one.
Thank you for reading (and/or watching!).

Join the Discord
Follow on Twitter(X)

- Alexander

[h3]V0.1.205 has arrived![/h3]

This is once again a patch on the smaller side of things but brings a change I've wanted to introduce for a while as a response to the difficulties some players have been experiencing getting into the game; Auto Steer.

[h3]Auto Steer[/h3]

Similar to the Auto Steer included in the Mario Kart games, Auto Steer is now available as an option in the game (enabled by default). Auto Steer automatically steers your vehicle into the right direction when you are about to collide with a wall. This feature works in unison with the already present "slide wall hugging" to drastically assist players learning the controls, reducing awkward moments where you get stuck hugging a wall due to mixing up left/right for a moment.

This change should make the game a lot more accessible, as maneuvering the road should be more doable, letting you focus more on combat.

Auto Steer is not a "win for you" option for those concerned. It really only kicks in when you are about to drive into a wall, and does not steer for you in some kind of optimal path. This is still up to you to do. In addition, Auto-Steer is completely absent when boosting, so it should really never come to a situation where auto-steer will mess you up or something.

This patch also comes with a couple other minor QOL.

[h2]Full Changelog:[/h2]

General/System Changes:

• Added "Auto Steer" option, letting the game steer for you when you are about to run into a wall. Enabled by default.
  
• Added Reticle graphic in the Upgrade Shop to more clearly communicate what upgrade is selected.
  
• Added "Objective" tip. This tip is displayed as the first tip of the run for every run. This tip has been added due to some players being confused about what the objective of the game is, resulting in them doing things like only destroying cops, etc. .
  
• Increased default camera overhead distance (100% > 110%). This change only applies to new save files and when reseting the settings to default.
  
• Limited NPC boost behavior in the Desert Zone, Level 1.
  
• Changed John Carma's starting Upgrade Order. Spinning Top is now 1st.
  

• Fixed destruction by chain-elites being recorded as "unknown".
  
• Fixed Control display mentioning DPAD twice.
  
• Fixed various incredibly minor visuals.
  

Small patch adding Steam Cloud Support and Steam Screenshot Support.

No other changes have been made.

[h3]V0.1.203 is here![/h3]

This is a pretty small patch, but comes with a major change for people that just wanna hold C like a maniac. This has been a bit of a "design-thorn" in my eye for a while now, and I believe this patch will finally deal with it for good.

What was the problem? Simple; some folks just really wanna go fast at all times, and push the risk as far as humanly possible. Previously, the game anticlimactically forced you to end your rush due to the direct penalty being the immediate end of the run. You were forced to enter a decently long period of not boosting, long enough to kinda kill the vibe and general pacing.

Which sucked! But was also part of the design; a period of power was meant to be followed by a period of vulnerability. The feeling of power feels particularly shallow if it's 100% free - when it's all push, but no pull.
Not to get into balancing issues either - boosting indefinitely without a drawback would enable players to, for example, just camp inside walls and still rack in fairly good scores/never fear a time-out.
Players which more tactically build their run around this playstyle should also have a direct edge over those who just bluntly boost, too.

The change is made in 3 parts:

V0.1.201 Changelog:

• Fixed some Jobs being unobtainable despite matching conditions
  
• Fixed Job Tracker not displaying the next higher tier once the tier below it was reached
  
• Reduced max. Boost Heat Cap, now sits between pre-V0.1.2 and V0.1.2
  
• Reduced Boost Heat scaling, now also sits between pre-V0.1.2 and V0.1.2
  
• Reduced additional scaling imposed on HP drain rate when boosting past 1 HP
  

[h3]V.0.1.2 is here![/h3]

This update to the Demo adds two major features which I originally planned to work on later for the full release, but figured were such a huge part of the vision for the full release that not containing a taste of them in the Demo wasn't right. These two features also boost the replayability of the Demo by a fairly large margin. Other than that, this patch also features a ton of balancing and other QOL changes.

The major changes include:

[h3]In-Game Challanges: Jobs![/h3]



This patch introduces a whole new screen and system with it! The demo now contains 16 challenges to beat, such as Time-Attack, Score-Attack and general achievements (such as reaching rank R for the first time) and lots of other stuff to test how far you can push your game. 8 of them also come with their own completion tiers, rewarding Bronze, Silver and Gold medals depending on how well you've performed.

Jobs may be visually-tracked by selecting them in the now-open Job Menu, allowing you to check your progress in-game.

Completing Jobs will not just reward you with a big stamp that says "DONE" or a Medal, but also with in-game currency: Stamps. Stamps can be exchanged in the Shop available via. the Job Menu and can be exchanged for various goods. In the Demo, these are only limited to 1 type of item for now, which are...

[h3]Customization: Paints![/h3]



Earned stamps may be exchanged for a variety of Paints available in the Job Shop. These are unlocked for all characters upon purchase. You can then select the Paint in the character select menu to give your vehicle a bit of flair.



There are plenty of colors to choose from, so take your pick!



[h3]Updated Auto-Slam Attack Indicator[/h3]



The attack indicator for when Auto-Slam is enabled has been updated, moving away from the reticle design to instead favor an arrow design. The reticle has proven to be a bit misleading, giving the impression that the Side-Slam is fully homing. The new design now more accurately communicates how the attack works.

That does not mean that the reticle is gone, however! The option menu for Controls now offers an option in which you can change the style of the attack indicator: Arrow, Reticle, Both, or None at all!

[h3]Better Timer-Feedback[/h3]

Despite being a game-over condition, getting into trouble due to losing time and/or letting too many enemies get ahead of you without trying to catch-up was not communicated very well, or at all.
The UI will now flash the red portion of the track-progress bar, display a flashing, "CATCH UP" warning text and also play a noticeable sound cue when you are getting in hot water due to the timer and/or the enemies getting too far ahead of you.

Alongside this change, the last 10 seconds of the timer now audibly tick down for that extra bit of tension.

[h3]Additional Camera Options![/h3]

You can now find 3 additional camera settings ready to be tweaked by your liking in the options menu. These include how smooth the camera should move, how far the camera should move ahead when you are boosting, and the option to change how much the camera should adjust when it's looking horizontally vs. vertically to accommodate for the aspect ratio.

[h2]Full Changelog:[/h2]

General/System Changes:

• Added in-game challenges feature: Jobs! 16 Jobs await.
  
• Added Job-Shop as a place to spend your hard-earned stamps
  
• Added 16 Paints as purchasable items in the Job-Shop
  
• Added paint functionality and menu in the character menu to be used with your purchased paints.
  
• Added Job-tracking functionality, to visually keep track of jobs in the in-game UI. Simply select the Job you want to track in the Job menu to track it!
  
• Updated Auto-Slam attack indicator with a more fitting graphic.
  
• Added Menu Option to choose between Arrow, Reticle, Both or None as your Auto-Slam attack indicator
  
• Added "Camera Boost Overhead" Option to the options menu
  
• Added "Camera Vertical Adjustment" Option to the options menu
  
• Added "Camera Smoothing" Option to the options menu
  
• Added "Hotswitching" option to the Gamepad options menu; You may now "Hotswitch" between Keyboard and Gamepad at any time. Previous behavior may be restored by disabling the hotswitch option in the Gamepad options menu.
  
• Added new "Time Danger" UI state if your time is about to run out and/or enemies have gotten too far ahead of you. In this state, the red portion of the track-bar will now flash, and a warning text encouraging you to hurry up will also be displayed in the UI. Entering this state will also be accompanied by a sound effect.
  
• Added SFX for the last 10 seconds ticking down.
  
• Added SFX when reaching max. Boost Jump Energy.
  
• Added particle effects coming out of your exhaust with amount scaling by the amount of Boost Jump Energy you've accumulated. A big puff of smoke will also appear once max. Boost Jump Energy has been reached.
  
• Redesigned UI elements responsible for switching screens in the Upgrade Screen to be more noticeable.
  
• Added Enemy-Counter in the Track-progress bar displaying how many enemies are ahead, and how many enemies are behind you.
  
• Vehicles aligned to the Police now have an audible siren sound.
  
• KAMICARZE COPS now have their siren sound go higher in pitch before exploding instead of playing the same sound Bosses use for their attack warning.
  
• The SHOPKEEP will now tell you if it's the last time you'll see her in the run.
  
• Updated SUPER HONK animation.
  
• Civs are now less likely to clump up into large clusters if you let a bunch of them pass.
  

• Increased amount of Boost Heat reduced on Taunt.
  
• Added "Diminishing Returns" effect on Taunts, the more NPCs taunted the less Boost Heat will be reduced.
  
• Increased max. cap of Boost Heat.
  
• (Slightly) increased the default amount of HP boosting costs.
  
• Reaching the end of the level with < 25 max HP will now restore your max HP to 25.
  
• Reduced Deadlift Boost HP cost. (3 Stars > 4 Stars)
  
• Increased M.A.L.L Boost HP cost. (4 Stars > 3 Stars)
  
• Added a reduction in Boost Heat when a First Aid Civ is destroyed.
  
  
• Changed EXTENSIVE GYROSCOPE: Now reduces Boost Heat when dealing lethal damage with the SPIN ATTACK to vehicles.
  
• Changed VACCUM HOSE: Now reduces Boost Heat when throwing vehicles.
  
• Changed HORN LOUDSPEAKER: Now reduces Boost Heat when dealing lethal damage using SUPER HONK to vehicles.
  
  Comment on the Upgrade Changes: Lots of players wanted to do runs where they hold C like a maniac, never to stop boosting. While I can recognize the fun of it, it was very difficult to find a good middleground between keeping the push-and-pull dynamic of boosting and also allowing you to do that. Combined with the three upgrades previously always being kind-of overshadowed by their counterparts, this change aims to offer these players an additional way to decrease their Boost Heat to keep on boosting right from the get-go and build their run around it from Shop 1, without affecting the rest of the playstyles available.
  
  
• Decreased JC SPIN ATTACK cooldown (60f > 50f)
  
• Slightly reduced the amount rank decays over time.
  
• Slightly increased the amount rank decays scales with rank.
  
• Adjusted PETE'S TRAP MINES:
  
  
  
  • Reduced surface area
    
  • Added delay before exploding; You can now "outrun" the explosion, provided you are boosting.
    
  
  
• Reduced the scaling-effect rank had on taunted enemy speed.
  
• Side-slaming Explosive Civs now has you "bounce" off the explosion.
  
• Bosses no longer take damage from explosions that do not originate from the player.
  
• VANCE'S EXPLOSIVE CIVS are now significantly slower and face the right way to act as more dangerous traps.
  
• Increased the effect rank has on shooting enemy fire-rate.
  
• Increased invulnerability after whiffing a Side-Slam.
  
• Added max. amount of time enemies can reduce when reaching the end of the level before you; enemies are no longer about to reduce the time beyond 5 seconds. This only applies Pre-Loop.
  
• Increased amount of time available in the first and second desert level.
  
• Increased gun-flash time for gunblast enemies in countryside.
  
• Grey Health decay no longer scales with rank, and default grey health scaling has been set to the scaling you would've gotten if you were on rank B.
  
• Increased time it takes for grey health to start decaying (2s > 3s) when taking damage from sources other than yourself.
  

• Removed "Boost Cooldown" preventing you from quickly re-tapping boost to trigger a Boost Jump.
  
• Fixed Boost-Jump visual being misplaced.
  
• PETE'S TRAP MINES now properly draw below vehicles.
  
• Fixed BLAST PROCESSOR attacks not drawing hit effects when striking vehicles.
  
• Added missing bonus-heal SFX for various bonus-heal effects.
  

V0.1.1 is here!

This update focuses on aiding Tutorialization and making it easier to learn the game, as well as expanding on the control settings you can choose.

The major changes include:

[h3]Turning Modes![/h3]



The game now features two distinct Turning modes; "Steer Style" and "Free Style".

Steer Style is the one most people will be used to, in which you steer the vehicle from the driver's perspective. Heavily recommended for keyboard, and the one that I'd imagine most people will use.

Free Style is the new one, and is best used on a controller. This mode turns the vehicle into the direction you point from the perspective of the camera, rather than the driver. If you've played Kirby's Air ride and played with the Free Star at some point, this should sound familiar.

Turning modes may be swapped at any time, and you will be prompted to select one the moment you enter the first tutorial.

While it seems like most players prefer Steering, there have been several requests from players which prefer turning from the camera perspective. This mode should hopefully be right for you!

[h3]Tutorial Revamp![/h3]



The Tutorial has received a numerous amount of changes to make it flow better, avoid confusion, and help smoothen the learning curve. For one...

The Tutorial has been split into two!

Tutorial 1
Tutorial 1 remains largely the same as the one in the game previously, minus the taunt section.
Taunt ended up being a mechanic that was largely irrelevant to new players until they got into the swing of things. As such, the mechanic is now first introduced in the second Tutorial. This should help with the "information dump effect" a lot, and keep players focused on learning the core mechanics.

Tutorial 2
Tutorial 2 is entirely new, minus the Taunt section from before. This Tutorial is focused on the more "advanced" mechanics of the game and features the following topics:

• Taunting
  
• Boost Jump
  
• Augmented Enemies
  
• Elite Enemies
  
• Rank System
  

• Added "Turning Modes"; "Steer Style" and "Free Style"
  
• Added DPAD Support for Controllers to use for directional input
  
• Added "Slamstick" Option to use the right analog stick for inputting manual slams
  
• Split Tutorial into Two, removed Taunt Lesson from the first Tutorial and moved it to the second
  
• Added an almost entirely new second Tutorial
  
• Added new Submenu after selecting "Play", featuring an option to advance to the character select screen or play the Tutorials
  
• Disabled Rank gain in the Tutorial (outside of the "Rank" lesson)
  
• You can no longer defeat enemies in specific Tutorial lessons using the "wrong" attack (e.g. slamming in the special lesson)
  
• Retrying/Blowing up in the Tutorial will now save your progress in the Tutorial, rather than completely restart it.
  
• Added time-freeze for each tutorial lesson to give time to read the ancient scriptures
  
• Added Option tooltips on hover
  
• Added new Option submenu "Controls"
  
• Generally moved a lot of Options into places that make more sense
  
• Added Upgrade Store Keywords, which are underlined and feature a helpful little text card that pops up and explains the effect.
  
• Added "Spree Ender" to the Game Over screen as immediate feedback to what ended your run
  
• Added new Tips, made Comedy Tips a bit rarer
  
• Increased distance you can dig outside level boundaries before taking damage.
  
• Made explosions a bit more audible.
  
• Boost Jump Energy now has a maximum.
  
• Reduced Boost Heat reduction from taunts by 15%.
  

• Fixed the Taunt sound cutting off when experiencing hitstop as everyone but JC.
  
• Fixed Mr.Kill's Skulls sticking around after he dies.
  
• Loop Counter now properly says "Looped 1 Time" instead of "Looped 1 Times" when only 1 Loop was done.
  

TL: DR:
- New patch out, V0.1.05!
- Makes the game significantly easier/more approachable.
- I'm working on a lot of extra stuff (such as an extended tutorial option) to further help tutorialization and ease the learning curve.
- Said extra stuff will make its way into the demo very soon!


First of all, thank you to everyone who has so far given the game a try/wishlisted it! I've received a ton of feedback which I am working on implementing right now.
The two main pieces of feedback which I have received are:

The Store Page and Demo of REDLINE CROOKS is now live!

Get a taste of some unique & high-speed roguelite gameplay with 4 characters, 2 areas, a fully implemented loop-difficulty scaling system and a ton of upgrades!

This also marks the start of the game's public presence.

Please let me know what you think of the demo and submit any feedback on your mind in either the Discord, or the Steam Discussions.

• Join the Discord!
  
• Follow on Twitter!