Happy Halloween! Today we're taking a short break from Adventure mode development to give Distance a Halloween-themed makeover! Alongside various visual tweaks, this patch also features a brand new (super spooky) Sprint level called The Manor.

Build 5464 - Halloween Update

• Added new Sprint level: The Manor (with new music)
• Added toggle in General settings for Halloween Features
• Random smashable pumpkins are back
• Updated the main menu to something a bit creepier
• Added spider web on the car's screen, jack-o-latern image on rims, and flickery headlights
• Added heavier film grain and vignetting effect
• Landing tricks triggers a mysterious laugh

Development Update

As you might have guessed by the short changelog, this build does not contain all of the new stuff we've been developing internally. We still plan to release the final Adventure mode at v1.0, and while things are going well we're not currently in the best spot to branch back into the public build. Since our June update we've added quite a bit of new tech to make certain cool things happen in the new Adventure mode, but unfortunately it causes some issues with the old Adventure mode. Since it would be sad to miss our tradition of releasing a Halloween patch, our solution was simply to patch the latest stable branch. It might be a bit unorthodox, but we figured it was better than no patch at all.
(an upgraded level from the revamped Adventure, can you guess which one?) As I mentioned above, content for the v1.0 release (i.e. final Adventure mode and some other secret stuff) is coming together nicely. Adventure mode itself is finally nearing completion, so one of our current big tasks is to ensure performance and memory usage are acceceptable thoughout the campaign. Many of the final Adventure levels have 2x as many objects than their current early access counterparts. To ensure the new levels run as smooth as possible it requires some clever optimizations on our end. We're using the PS4 build as a performance benchmark and have been making good progress this month towards our target, though we clearly have some work to do.
(framerate data for secret new level running on the PS4) I still can't yet announce everything that will be released at v1.0, but some very cool stuff is making the cut. We're making slow but steady progress every day over here, doing our best to stay within scope while still living up to the promises we made. Until we can say more I hope you get a kick out of this week's patch and have a fun Halloween! - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2017-10-30 17:30:29 CET ] [ Original post ]