(the new camera logic is kinda mesmerizing) Hey all, today we released another experimental build! It includes changes to the camera, car physics, and level editor as well as the addition of a new level and Oculus 1.3 support. For the changelog and info on how to access this build, check it out here. In today’s devlog I’d like to discuss our thoughts on gameplay as we approach the end of development, but before that I’d like to mention a cool charity event coming up.

Distathon

Distance regular / community organizer Fork is raising money for Child's Play in his second annual charity marathon Distathon. For 24 hours straight he'll be playing and streaming Distance on May 7th, starting at 8am CDT. His goal this year is to raise $1,000 and he's got some amazing rewards for donators. We'll be around to cheer him on, so join us in watching the marathon! More info: http://www.distathon.com

Looking at Rotations

A common complaint we get from controller users is that the "Normal" controls (the default scheme) are easy to learn, but difficult to use when boosting. You can use the bumpers to boost, but it's a bit awkward. Almost all of us devs use the "Advanced" controls scheme which allows rotation to be controlled via the left stick while holding the left bumper to engage "roll mode." We would enable this as the default scheme, but in testing we noticed that it was significantly harder to comprehend car rotations with this method. In the end we enabled Normal controls by default and left Advanced controls as an option if desired. We've read several complaints saying that it was dumb of us to enable the inefficient scheme by default, but in our experience that scheme was so much better at conveying rotations since it was a one-to-one interaction. Jason and I were talking a few weeks back and we realized that whenever you want to rotate, you're in the air. What if we auto-enabled jets when no wheels were touching the ground? That way you could control the jets without taking your thumb off the left stick, but you wouldn't have to worry about roll mode. It would also finally consolidate Normal and Advanced control schemes into one method. We implemented it quickly to try it out, and it felt surprisingly intuitive. There were only a couple moments where we felt like we had less control. As quickly as possible we did some testing with players in-person, and the result was undeniable. New players were picking up rotation gameplay better than ever (and we've been testing this type of gameplay since 2010). In Nitronic Rush, rotational gameplay was actually relegated to a separate mode from Story mode since it was confusing to so many players. If you did figure it out though, there's a good chance that you really enjoyed it. I know it might be hard to comprehend for many people, but the average player has always struggled with rotations. Part of that is due to a non-optimal control scheme and part of it is non-optimal level design and teaching of those mechanics. Up until the release of Nitronic Rush we had similar issues with the flying mechanic. We even had professors telling us to cut it right up until the end. I'm glad we ended up pressing through and found something workable. In Distance we've been doing our best to strike that balance between intuition and functionality, and I think this new control scheme is our best effort yet. Of course, it did bring up some interesting issues for advanced players. That's when we came up with the Grip ability.

The “Grip” Button

One of the ways I've explained rotational gameplay to new players is that your wheels are magnetic and get more magnetic when moving faster. Of course it's not true at all. Instead, a downward force is applied when you're moving, and it increases with speed. It all happens automatically with the goal of making wall and ceiling rides possible, as well as rotational transitions smoother. We had contemplated giving some control over this force to the player, and with the new default control scheme we revisited this idea since it could further help players feel a sense of satisfaction by actively "snapping" to a desired surface. We were also somewhat inspired by some of the thruster techniques created by the community. Grip mode essentially replaces the roll mode from the previous advanced controls scheme. You can either hold LB on the controller or Q on the keyboard and you'll be pushed downward. Not only does this make snapping to surfaces cleaner, it also offers some interesting new level design options available. Here are a couple examples:

The reaction from fresh players in playtesting has been incredibly positive. It helps them feel safer in clinging to walls, and they found the new gameplay ideas interesting. The grip button also solves a problem we noticed with our new control scheme. If you want to use jets while sitting on a road (e.g. tight turns or road hugging), gripping allows the same functionality.
At the same time we wanted to make it sure it couldn't be abused easily, so it's effectiveness is quickly reduced after initially holding the button. You'll be able to use it to do a quick adjustment, but you can't float infinitely with it. It's all a massive balancing act, and Jason is doing his best to balance functionality with fun factor. In today’s exp. build we included a new level called Friction. It demonstrates the new techniques as shown above. Try it out and see what you think!

Improved Camera

Following the theme of improving things for new players, Jason also took some time to make the camera much more dynamic. It now gives you a much better sense of where gravity is by factoring in the global up vector into the rotation. In other words, it gives you a better subconscious understanding of when you're doing wall or ceiling ride. It also just looks way cooler. It's a bit hard to explain, so here it is in action:

Our Thoughts on Thrusterboosting

There are a lot of changes in today’s build, but one of the biggest changes is that thrusterboosting's effectiveness has been greatly reduced. I’d like to take a minute to express our team’s thoughts on this. If you’re one of many who don’t know what I’m talking about, feel free to skip ahead. Thrusterboosting has pretty much always been (in the team's opinion) an exploit of the car physics. If you want to close a big gap in Distance, you need to do a long jump or deploy the wings. The "carve your own path" and "create your own shortcut" gameplay is exciting to us from the perspective that you're usually driving on the road. While thrusterboosting is an interesting physics manipulation, it was never in our design that a player could easily float across levels. Also interesting: after many hours of practice no one on our team can reliably perform the thrusterboosting technique (and that's after thousands of hours of playing Distance). Watching someone thrusterboost also looks glitchy and non-intuitive to us. Since it's usually the fastest technique to finish a level, most of the top leaderboard times will be filled with thrusterboosting ghost replays in our new replay system. Even if we were to somehow teach the technique, we foresee an incredible amount of frustration from new players who view those replays in confusion. We do understand that thrusterboosting brings a sense of satisfaction to some players, but we can't in good conscious support such a powerful exploit that only a few are able to possess. We know that it might be a disappointing stance to some, after months of internal discussions it is how we feel about this issue. Balancing high level gameplay has easily been one of the greatest challenges of this development, and we appreciate those who have kept a cool head throughout this ongoing discussion.

Simples 2.0

Following the success of the particle system, Andrew has been hard at work further enabling level creators. Based on community feedback we added something called "simples" last year which were simple primitive shapes that can be used to create, well basically anything.
(the old Simples 1.0 options) Going along with the "simple" mentality, they were optionless objects. Over time we would hear specific requests for more simples with collision enabled, or a different visual style. Instead of continually adding to a massive list of objects, Andrew thought up the idea to create simple shapes with highly adjustable materials. Thus, the "Golden Simples" were born.
(Simples 2.0, with tons of shapes and presets to choose from)

(and here are couple examples of the new Simples in action) They're magical. I'm starting to use them in Adventure mode and it's a bit overwhelming how many possibilities have been opened up. As usual I expect the community to put them through the ringer, and you know I can't wait to play those levels.

Quick Note on Bug Reports

I know this devlog is getting a bit long, but I also wanted to mention a couple things regarding bug reports. If you read our changelogs you'll see that we've been fixing bugs as best we can, though we've been a bit behind on marking bugs as fixed in the Uservoice system. Our thought process is that while in early access, experimentation comes first, stability comes second. We will do our best to fix game breaking issues as they arise, but our priority while in early access is to experiment with gameplay, content, and features, especially when releasing experimental builds. If you haven't received a response to your bug on Uservoice, know that we do our best to read every output log and crash report. It just might take some time to respond with a fix. I've updated our Uservoice page to reflect our intentions. Special thanks to Skirmisher for recently helping us catch up on old bugs. Once the stable build is launched we plan to update Uservoice with the latest fixes.

The Replay System (Preview)

Finally, if you made it this far, I have a bit of a treat for you. Jason has graciously allowed me to post some early screenshots of the replay system. Once we feel satisfied with the new gameplay and camera changes he'll be finishing it up. I'm just excited as many of you are to see this come to light.
(here I am racing against ghosts from my local profile and others’)
(you’ll be able to view replays for this track from the result screen)
(when watching replays you have access to all spectator cameras, as well as the ability to fast forward, rewind, etc.)

Adventure Mode

On top of the aforementioned madness, we have been making fantastic progress with Adventure mode. The playtesting I mentioned existed for both testing of the new controls as well as story content. At this point it's 18 levels, and takes a bit under 1.5 hours to complete. The reaction to the current story is better than I guessed despite how clumsy it gets at moments. I was super jazzed to hear that the ending (finally) felt climatic, and we noticed engagement during story-centric moments was reasonably high. What's actually going on in the story is still muddled for many, so we have a ways to go there, but it feels like we're on a good path. We have some new techniques in place for gaining your attention, so now it's all about capitalizing on those moments. For those that claim to not care so much for story and just want gameplay, the story didn't seem get in the way of their enjoyment. I've been going light on marketing efforts lately, largely because I'd prefer to focus my efforts closer to launch. To kick things off I'm hoping to release a strong story mode teaser that will be everyone's first look at the new content. We still have a ways to go before I think the major story beats are locked in, but I think we're not far off. Anyways, we've been hitting things hard and it's been paying off. I'm incredibly proud of what's been accomplished by the team in these past couple months. Once we feel satisfied with the new physics changes a rather large stable build release will be on the horizon! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)