Hey there everyone, here is update 0.12! This update brings a new event type: Football! (Or soccer if you prefer) [previewyoutube=M2TEJt3Cjwc;full][/previewyoutube] I think everyone knows the rules for this game, so I will just skip to the part that is different. You can have 10 vehicles on the field at the same time, the cool part is that you can set any number of vehicles for each team: 5 x 5, 1 x 9, 2 x 2, 2 x 8 etc etc etc. I think this makes room for some very challenging scenarios! Among the other fixes and improvements, one I think is very nice is the new possibility to change the camera angle in the default view:
Next update, the new event type will be Demolition! CHANGELOG

• Added: Football!
• Added: OPTIONS MENU now accessible from the PAUSE MENU.
• Added: you can now set the BEHIND THE VEHICLE CAMERA ANGLE (OPTIONS menu, GAMEPLAY settings).
• Change: some menus now work better with keyboard/controller navigation. Now you press UP/DOWN to navigate through options (event time for example), and press LEFT/RIGHT to change the value. Some fields accept mouse wheel scrolling to change the value too.
• Change: improved visuals for the Red Rover Arena areas (the ground painting).
• Fix: previously, if you selected a color for your vehicle, the next time you got to the VEHICLE SELECTION menu, the vehicle on the garage would still be blue. And even if you didnt change the color, when playing, the color would be the correct one (the one you choose on the last event). Now the vehicle in the garage will be the last color you selected.
• Fix: if the option SHOW SPECIAL FUNCTIONS HINT (GRAPHICS settings) is ON and one of the computer vehicles is the Master Loader, the Master Loader controls hint would always be on screen, even if the player(s) did not select the Master Loader.

This update provides some fixes for the TRUCK WITH TRAILER. When the player selected it for most of the tracks, the game would simply crash. Thanks, again, for user berarma for reporting this problem! Also, this vehicle was not available for the computer. Now, you can enjoy moments like these:


CHANGELOG

• Added: TRUCK WITH TRAILER now available on the list of ALLOWED COMPUTER VEHICLES.
• Fix: when selecting the TRUCK WITH TRAILER for most tracks/arenas, the game would crash.
• Fix: when selecting the TRUCK WITH TRAILER on KAMIKAZE RACE, and PLAYER RACING WAY as REVERSE, the player would always be placed on the REGULAR racing way.
• Fix: OPTIONS MENU now presents settings divided into tabs. Before, some items in the OPTIONS MENU would be under other items in some screen resolutions (smaller than 1920 x 1080).

The main purpose of this update is to provide a fix for the Linux version, that is not working for Update 0.11. Since I've had some improvements already done, I've decided to anticipate them. Some improvements are only cosmetics (but I think make the game very cool!), like the Oval Track ground visuals or the crash debris, while others are functional ones, like the possibility to use the arrow keys, or the RESTART button fix.

CHANGELOG

• Linux: game is working again on Linux.
• Fix: RESTART button (PAUSE MENU) has been changed to RESET VEHICLE. Now, it only resets the player vehicle, back to the start grid position. In the future, I will add a proper RESTART EVENT button.
• Controls: keyboard arrow keys now work to control the vehicles (player 1 only).
• Menu: CONTROLS MENU updated with arrow keys.
• Graphics/Performance: improvements in the dust effects. The visual aspect of the dust particles effect is now better. Also, it has better performance. Ive got up to 30 frames per second increase with this improvement. The dust amount setting (OPTIONS MENU) still makes a difference in performance, but not as much as before, so its more of a gameplay/aesthetics option now.
• Graphics: improvements in the Oval Track ground surface visuals. This same improvement will come for the other tracks in the future.
• Added: vehicle landing sound effect
• Added: crash particle effects

"Betas" is a function Steam provides so that players can play, well... beta versions of a game. In practice, it's also a way to play previous versions of the game. Since TrackMaster is in early access, the term beta is not 100% correct, but I've just enabled it, allowing players to play previous versions. Right now, versions 0.8, 0.9 and 0.10 are available. To access it, just RIGHT CLICK the game name on your library, then PROPERTIES, and then BETAS. From there, you can choose previous versions. I'll be using this feature from now on, so that you can always go back to a previous version if something is not working.
I've done this because right now, version 0.11 is not working on Linux. I will soon release a new version of the game to fix the problem, and with this, I will anticipate some features of the next update. Thanks for user berarma for pointing me to the issue on the forums.

Update 0.11 brings a new racing mode: Kamikaze Race! [previewyoutube=lhDznJLtSPg;full][/previewyoutube] Half the vehicles run in the regular direction, but the other half runs in the opposite direction. Actually, you can set how many vehicles run at each direction, and you can set if the player will run in regular, opposite or random direction. This way, you can make scenarios, like: you, with a car, running alone in the regular direction, and all the other 9 vehicles, only Monster Trucks, running in the opposite direction! This update also brings a long requested feature: first person camera! Run, crash and roll other vehicles or be rolled, now in first person, available in all the vehicles! There are still issues (only aesthetic ones), like the steering wheel doesnt well turn, and the vehicles interiors are not good yet. But I will fix them in the future. Im also planning more 2 cameras in the near future: hood and bumper, for those who like to get even closer to the track! Next update will bring Football! CHANGELOG

• Added New Event Type: Kamikaze Race.
• Added New Camera: First Person Camera.
• Graphics: minor improvements on the truck visual.

Hey there everyone, here is update 0.10! This update brings a new event type: Red Rover! [previewyoutube=xxPyYUzm3RE;full][/previewyoutube] The rules for Red Rover are simple: all the vehicles have to go from one area in one side of the arena to other area, in the other side of the arena. Once each vehicle gets into the area, it has to stay there, until the second-to-last vehicle makes it to the area. When the second-to-last vehicle arrives in the area, the last vehicle is out of the game, and all the vehicles have to go to the other area, and the process is repeated, until there is only one vehicle left: the winner! Of course, while you are waiting for the other vehicles to get into the area, you can try to push the others away from the area, or be pushed away... Next update, the new event type will be Kamikaze Race! CHANGELOG

• Added New Event Type: Red Rover.
• Added Arena: Red Rover Arena.

Hey there everyone, here is update 0.9! This time, we have 2 new event types: Master of the Hill and Tag! [previewyoutube=wgN1zZJ_uA0;full][/previewyoutube] [previewyoutube=7zsFSGRxq8s;full][/previewyoutube] Master of the Hill is a very simple concept: stay as long as you can on top of the hill, while trying to push the other vehicles away from the hill. At the end of the time limit, the vehicle with longest time on the hill, wins! Tag is the good and old playground everyone played as a child: chase other players, touch them (or tag them), to mark them out of play, or as the new tagger. Tag has 4 types:

• Last One Standing: each tagged vehicle becomes the new tagger, and the previous tagger is free, no longer a tagger. Game ends when the last not tagged vehicle is tagged.
• Time Based: Same as above, but with a time limit. At the end, the vehicle with the shorter time as tagger, wins!
• Everyone is Tagger: each tagged vehicle becomes a tagger, but the former tagger is still a tagger, so the tagger vehicles grow in number during the game. Game ends when the last not tagged vehicle is tagged.
• Freeze Tag: each tagged vehicle becomes frozen and cannot move, until a free vehicle touches it. Game ends when the last not tagged vehicle is tagged.

• Added New Event Type: Master of the Hill.
• Added New Event Type: Tag.
• Added Event Type variations - Tag: Last One Standing, Time Based, Everyone is Tagger, Freeze Tag
• Added New Arena Variation: Master of the Hill Arena Dirty.
• Added Arena: Hill Bowl.
• Added: Tires in some arenas, that go flying for your amusement, and for vehicle security reasons.

Hi there everyone! After almost 3 months with no news, I've finally added 2 events to the game: racing and FreeStyle, and lots of additions and improvements! [previewyoutube=SRlSdnmtFxQ;full][/previewyoutube] RACING Racing is the regular type: get to finish line first, that's the only rule in this game. The other types of racing events will come very soon! FREESTYLE The FreeStyle event is very similar to monster truck events where the driver has 2 minutes to perform tricks and score points. Although 2 minutes is the standard time, you can set the event duration from 1 minute to how much you want. The FreeStyle event and arena are best enjoyed with the Monster Truck, but you are free to try it with any vehicle. There are 8 types of tricks, and bonus points for performing 3 different types of tricks in the same event, and bonus for performing all the possible tricks in the same event! The 2 minutes standard time has bronze, silver and gold scores so that you know how good you are. Can you make a gold score?!
From a coding and organization structure point of view, the game now is ready to receive more events, so that the next updates bringing more events will come very soon! CROWD One of the big additions of this update is that the TrackMaster stadium is no more empty! An excited and noisy crowd is filling the arena. They will react to every trick you perform succesfully or every failure in FreeStyle events, and every hit and crash in racing events. Of course you can set the crowd sound volume, and even the crowd amount in the stadium, in the OPTIONS MENU, since this last one affects performance. MINIMAP Another addition is a minimap:
VERTICAL OR HORIZONTAL SPLIT SCREEN When playing in local multiplayer, you can now set the split screen separation to be vertical or horizontal. This affects 2 and 3 player split screen. The option is in the GRAPHICS section of the OPTIONS MENU. VERTICAL SPLIT SCREEN

HORIZONTAL SPLIT SCREEN

PHYSICS FPS An update that impacts gameplay and performance is the possibility to choose the physics FPS (frames per second) of the game. Since TrackMaster is a physics based game, just running physics calculations 60 times per second (the rate at which the computer updates the game graphics, that is, the rendering of the graphics), is just not enough. The original physics FPS of the game is 240. But since this may affect performance (the overal FPS of the game), you may want to change the physics FPS to 120, 90 or even 60. From my experience, at 90 FPS, the physics behaves almost like 240, with just minor differences that doesn't affect the overal gameplay. With 60 FPS, the physics behaves in different ways in a more perceptible way. The physics FPS can be set in the OPTIONS MENU, in a specific PHYSICS section. DEMOS UPDATED The demos for Windows and Linux have been updated with the possibility to play a 2 minute FreeStyle event, and a 3 laps race. Also, a demo for MAC computers is now available! DISCORD SERVER Last but not least: TrackMaster now have a Discord server! Come talk, share feedback, report bugs and show screenshots of your tricks! https://discord.gg/PypEQQNBpA And that's it for this major update! Since I'm happy with the overall structure of the game now, I really think I'll be able to release the next updates faster and always with new events! CHANGELOG:

• Added: Events.
• Added New Event Type: Racing.
• Added New Event Type: FreeStyle.
• Added: Option for vertical or horizontal split screen, in the OPTIONS MENU. It affects 2 and 3 player split screen.
• Added: Mini map.
• Added: Stadium audience effects, like crowd, crowd sounds, an airship and big screens!
• Added: Crowd amount, in the OPTIONS MENU. It affects performance (frames per second). Its possible to turn it off entirely.
• Added: Crowd sound effects volume, in the OPTIONS MENU.
• Added: Physics FPS (frames per second). Lower values increase overall performance of the game. Value of 90 or above results in almost no change for vehicle behavior. A value of 60 may result in weird vehicle behavior.
• Change: vehicles (including player) start the race in a random grid position.
• Fix: Crash sounds now work when the vehicle is in the air. Previously, it would only work with the vehicle grounded.
• Update: Demo (Windows and Linux) updated.
• Added: Demo (MAC).
• Known Issues: when making a FreeStyle event with the GryoMonster, flips are currently not being calculated correctly.

Mac OS version for the full game now available! Thanks to Arnaud Selvais who tested the game on a Mac for me! Any Mac user who wants to share feedback on hardware specs and running performance is welcome! I will soon update the demo with a Mac version too!

Godot is the free and open source game engine that I'm using to make TrackMaster, and I've made a flashtalk about the TrackMaster development to be presented at the Online GodotCon 2021. The event will be free for everyone, and the streaming will happen at the official Godot YouTube channel, on July 3rd. The TrackMaster talk will happen inside a section starting at 15h40 (UTC time). After the event I will share here the direct link to the TrackMaster presentation. https://godotengine.org/article/godotcon-july-2021-schedule

This is just a small update with some bugfixes and small improvements.

• Fix: CAMERA AUTO RESET ROTATION didnt work when playing with MasterLoader or GyroMonster.
• Fix: MasterLoader rotating light beacon moved when the vehicle turned.
• Fix: Giant Globe Arena some big vehicles (like MasterLoader and Truck) were stuck when starting the event.
• Change: Vehicle colors there are now 20 colors (before, there were 12) and the new ones look better on the vehicles.

Hey there everyone! Update 0.7 brings a quite different vehicle from all the others so far: Master Loader TRM 986t, a heavy construction machine! Its very different because it has working arm and bucket movements, allowing for carrying and lifting stuff [previewyoutube=ruPDR_JMa6o;full][/previewyoutube] Also, because of this new cool vehicle, I just had to make a new arena: Rockmoving Playground. There is not much in there yet, but I plan to add new toys in the future. For now, its more a showcase of what is possible with the new vehicle. And with this update, there is only one vehicle class left to add in the game: farming vehicles. This class will come in July or August. And the next update (to come in July I hope) will bring a most wanted feature: racing! CHANGELOG

• New Vehicle: MasterLoader TRM 986t
• New Arena: Rockmoving Playground
• Added: SPECIAL FUNCTIONS HINT. Vehicles with special functions, like the MasterLoader (raise and lower arm and bucket) now show a small picture on the left, with the buttons to use the special functions. The Monster vehicles can steer the rear wheels, I will add hints for them soon.
• Added: Show Special Functions Hint ON/OFF option, in the OPTIONS MENU.
• Added: In gamepad, L3 (left stick, click) now turns CAMERA AUTO RESET ROTATION, ON and OFF.
• Fix: Monster Truck, when on the ARENA SELECTION menu, is placed in the right location

Update 0.6 brings a pack of 4 new tracks and arenas. The first of them is an Oval Track, a must in any respectable racing game. The second is the Oval Cross, an oval track with an intersection (I just can't resist putting intersections in most of the tracks in this game...). The third, the Half Pipe, is a track with 30 meter high ramps. I've got the idea from skateboarding half pipes, and thought of how I could make this concept into a racing track. And finally, the Giant Globe, a 60 meter diameter sphere shaped cage. Globes of death exists in real life, most of the time only for bikes, and more rarely, for 1 car at a time. Here, 10 vehicles run wild to try their best at... hum... running wild...! I'm planning to add at least a racing event and a demolition derby in the future. With this 4 new tracks, the game has 12 arenas, and the goal of having 11 arenas by the end of 2021 is already reached! Of course new arenas will come (I already have some in the works), but it's good to know I'm being able to deliver what I have promised in the beginning, and this gives me more tranquility to focus on the next main goals: more vehicles and events! [previewyoutube=aI3EGpvObhE;full][/previewyoutube] CHANGELOG:

• New Arena: Oval Track
• New Arena: Oval Cross Track
• New Arena: Half Pipe Track
• New Arena: Giant Globe Arena
• Fix: In 0.5, not all vehicles registered distance driven. Now, in 0.6, all the vehicles do.
• Know Issue: its not a bug or glitch, but I think the default camera when playing on the Giant Globe is not good: when playing with many vehicles, you cant actually see where you are going, so its difficult to chase or avoid other vehicles (so racing or playing demolition derby events are going to be frustrating). Ive tried a fixed camera (like when you are inside the loop in the FreeStyle Arena) but motion sickness is insane, and it doesnt make the view better. I will work on it.
• Know Issue: in the HALF PIPE track, the computer vehicles can get stuck very easily. And there is a big chance that they will get stuck for good, not being able to continue. The reason is that the next point in the path may be just around the wall, and since the game doesnt have pathfinding yet, its a matter of luck for a computer vehicle to find its way. To have more chances of having a challenging race, choose the Monster Truck, TriMonster, Monster Bike or the TUMVE for computer opponents.

Updade 0.5 brings the TUMVE TrackMaster Ultra Mobility Vehicle! A hybrid between all terrain military vehicles and off-road rally trucks! [previewyoutube=ma3sFVi19zY;full][/previewyoutube] CHANGELOG:

• New Vehicle: TUMVE (TrackMaster Ultra Mobility Vehicle)
• Added: Master Volume setting, in the OPTIONS menu.
• Added: Music Volume setting, in the OPTIONS menu.
• Added: Time Played, in the STATISTICS (inside OPTIONS menu).
• Added: Distance Driven, in the STATISTICS (inside OPTIONS menu). Only counts player 1 data.
• Added: Save Settings. Graphics, Audio and Gameplay Settings are saved every time the players quit the OPTIONS menu and loaded every time the game is launched. The settings are stored in a .cfg file, that is located in the following locations:
• Windows: C:/Users/[USER NAME]/AppData/Roaming/Godot/app_userdata/TrackMaster
• Linux: ~/.config/godot/app_userdata/TrackMaster
• Added: Statistics. Info like TIME PLAYED and DISTANCE DRIVE (player 1 only) are visible now in the OPTIONS menu.
• Added: Save Statistics. These info are saved in the same path as the SETTINGS.
• Known Issues: If the TRUCK WITH TRAILER is selected in any arena that is not the FREESTYLE ARENA, the game crashes, because the other arenas have no planned place for the TRUCK WITH TRAILER. This bug is in the game since the first version actually, but Ive just noticed it recently.

What? A helpless van? I'm just going to ram it with a Monster Tru... wait, what is it carryin...BOOM! [previewyoutube=MWLReCyaI8s;full][/previewyoutube] CHANGELOG:

• New Vehicle: ExplosiVan
• Fix: In the NUMBER OF VEHICLES screen, the button COMPUTER VEHICLES allowed up to 10 computer vehicles. Fixed to 9, since the first one is the player.
• Fix: fixed a small bug of the Monster Truck bumpers. Sometimes, after the bumpers received an impact, they would behave in a weird way, even causing other vehicles that touched it to be launched far away.
• Added: Vehicles crash sounds!

This time it's not exactly an update of content, but a mode that for sure will be very interesting for many: Steam Remote Play Together is enabled for TrackMaster and working!
If you are not familiar with Remote Play, take a look at the official Steam page. Remote play is very simple, and it simply works! It's like playing split screen with a friend, in the same room, but accross the internet! And what is even better, your friend doesn't need to have the game, since one player is the host/streamer, and the other is just a client. So basically you both will see the screen split into two, but each one will control one of the vehicles. I've tested it with 2 players, but not 3 or 4. So please give me your feedback if you do play with 3 or 4 players. The only issue I've had is if my computer had more than 1 controller connected. Steam would assume the second player was actually controller 3, and that could lead to some confusion. To solve that, I've just unplugged my second controller. Thanks to Reddit user Btr101mage, that asked me for this feature and encouraged me to enable it. In the future, I'll add a feature that, if everyone changes the camera to the bird's eye view, there will be no split screen and everyone will see the whole stadium in full screen.

Hi there! So, youve thought the MonsterBike and the TriMonster would be the most weird vehicles in this game right? Well, think again, because this time, I present you the Gyro Monster! [previewyoutube=f9DA0bgaQsU;full][/previewyoutube] Gyro is for gyroscope, a mechanism used the stabilize devices.
Ive talked other times about how TrackMaster is an arcade game, but I try to add some realistic roots when I think it fits (a friend of mine who is a big supporter of the game used the term semi realism which I like). I try to apply this concept (semi realism) also to how the vehicles of the game are supposed to work. A vehicle like the Gyro Monster is not new in video games, but how a vehicle like this could work in real life? If there are only two wheels in the same axle, the rotation (the torque) of the engine would make the body of the vehicle itself to spin, not the wheels. How to solve this? Well, maybe something based on the way a gyroscope works? I really dont know if a gyroscope would be enough, but well, thats the semi portion of the semi realism concept. Based on this idea, I came up with the concept of the Gyro Monster. Thanks to its unique layout, it can spin in place for a fast change of direction, and it also gives a nice look when its moving! The computer has no idea of how to control the Gyro Monster yet, but Ill fix it in the next updates. Also, new track: Intersection!
CHANGELOG:

• New Vehicle: Gyro Monster
• New Track: Intersection
• Select allowed vehicles for the computer accessible in the TOTAL NUMBER OF VEHICLES MENU: you can now restrict which vehicles the computer can select. I think this allows different fun scenarios like 1 monster truck (the player) against only cars, or one car against only monster trucks etc.
• Dust accessible in the OPTIONS MENU: it's now possible to adjust the amount of dust generated in the dirt tracks. You can set 4 levels of dust amount, including setting it off entirely. It greatly impacts performance (frames per second), but also gameplay, if you don't like the thrill of driving in the middle of a giant cloud of dust, and having a monster truck coming from nowhere to ram you.
• New Vehicle type - muscle car with different types of drivetrain: now the muscle car has 3 variations, RWD (rear wheel drive, the only one available till last version of the game), FWD (front wheel drive) and 4WD (four wheel drive). They all handle very differently, and its fun to try each one. The RWD version is still not the way I like it. It does behave like a RWD vehicle (unstable when full throttling), but its not powerful enough, Im still experimenting with it. Since the muscle car in the game has a front engine layout, the center of mass of the vehicle is positioned at the front of the vehicle, so that a RWD drivetrain makes it very unstable when fully accelerating. That is the tricky part Im trying to balance, so that the vehicle can be fun to drive without making the player having to worry too much about it.

Hi there! Before everything else, for your amusement, here is me trying to fix a bug (fear not, I've managed to have success):
Now that the game is launched, what is ahead? First off, a demo is [strike]coming in the next days, it will[/strike] already on-line, it plays exactly like the full game, but with less vehicles and arenas. Second, I've made a small update to fix some bugs, glitches and behaviour that was not intended. Third, I know it's not the most exciting thing when you want to know about a game, but here is a table with all the information I think is most relevant to the game, so that anyone can make an informed decision about buying it. I will post an updated version of this table with every important update of the game, so that you can keep track of the game's evolution. What is worthy noticing is that there is still the important update of this month, with one more vehicle and one more arena, it's coming soon!
And finally, here is the changelog of the last small update:

• Bug when selecting color of vehicles fixed.
• Glitch when Monster Truck would reset rotation (after toppling over) fixed.
• In CONTROLS SCREEN, before starting event, mouse no longer rotates the camera.
• In VEHICLE SELECTION, VEHICLE CLASS and VEHICLE MODEL fields no longer change size when changing vehicle.
• In VEHICLE SELECTION, mouse click over the colors could freeze the game, fixed.

[previewyoutube=eL69mWJB6JM;full][/previewyoutube] Here is a small update on the current state of development: I've just finished adding 2 new vehicles and 1 new track! The vehicles are a 2 wheeled Monster Truck (the Monster Bike), and a 3 wheeled Monster Truck (the TriMonster). The track is a layout where you cross the other parts 4 times each lap, hence the name. While the initial idea for a 2 wheeled and a 3 wheeled monster truck seemed good, the first iteration of the implementation is not. Although it's possible to try some tricks with the MonsterBike and the TriMonster, I consider them broken right now, you just make a slight turn and they topple over... I won't abandon the concept, I have some ideas to improve them and make these vehicles unique and playable. Some ideas are simple, like just lowering the center of gravity, while others are a bit crazy and I will share them when I have something working. On the other hand, the new track - 4 Cross - is very nice and results in some very chaotic moments!

GAME MODES

EVENTS

THE PLAN

• 0.5 is planned to the end of 2021. The game at this point will feature all the vehicles (7 classes, with a varying number of models inside each class, to a total of 26 models), 11 tracks (plus the tracks variations) and 14 game modes planned now.
  
• 1.0 (end of early access phase) is planned to the middle of 2022. The game at this point will feature on-line multiplayer, LAN multiplayer, track editor and of course, more vehicles, tracks and game modes are probably going to be made.
  
• Nothing prevents some features to come out earlier than planned, like on-line multiplayer, I just can't promise it now.
  
• After 1.0, free updates with more of everything described above, and, why not, some new and cool things, like an open world, real world tracks, steering wheel support, vehicle destruction (with soft body!), missions and scenarios... but this are just dreams right now and I can't promise any of this.

• OS: Linux 64-bit
• Processor: Intel i5 4th generationMemory: 4 GB RAM
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: OpenGL 3.3 compatible GPU
• Storage: 250 MB available space