heyhey everyone, It’s been quite the month in the world of Stampede: Racing Royale, so it feels like the right time to share our latest Dev Log and give you an update on how things are going. Lets’ get into it, shall we? [h2]Switching Gears[/h2] Last week we confirmed that the Early Access launch for Stampede will be shifting into the first half of 2024. Whilst we’ve been able to make huge progress in developing the game this year (thanks in huge part to your comments from each Steam Playtest), a little more time is needed to make key additions and improvements for Early Access. The feedback from players has been super positive when playing the small slice of the game we’ve shared so far. Around that slice, though, are many other important things that we want to nail for Early Access. The goal, basically, is to give you more – more of the stuff you’ve already seen, like customisation items and maps, and then more new things to get stuck into, like modes, challenges, and goals to achieve. The reaction to last week’s news was incredibly supportive and understanding, and we can’t stress enough how appreciated that is. Thank you. We’ll keep you as updated as we can on how things progress on our journey to Early Access. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44237934/56f11cace1b8437593ec9c45053d1188aa84e60a.jpg[/img] [h2]Under The Hood of EGX and Playtest 3[/h2] Of course, this month we also ran a new Steam Playtest, and brought the Stampede fun and games to another con! From both EGX and the third playtest, we received more brilliant feedback from folks, which we’ve started to address. Whilst the game appears to be running very well at this stage on most supported setups, we’re continuing to optimise, so as many PC specs as possible get buttery smooth performance. We also made changes to lobby discovery behaviour to get more players into events together. Whilst this helped, we also saw the mentions on the two-minute lobby wait time being too long, so we’re looking into tweaking this for Early Access. A couple of prominent bugs from the playtest are also being worked on now, including AI drivers getting stuck and the ‘wrong way’ indicator appearing incorrectly. Finally, we continue to log all the suggestions for features and content you send to us, and see if it’s something we can implement down the line. Quite often, the stuff you suggest is already in the works behind the scenes. Always great to see when we’re on the same wavelength! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44237934/93c0c448b92d27e8d870e0743e1646c3e7176450.jpg[/img] [h2]What’s Around the Corner?[/h2] We’ll get back in the lab to keep implementing new content, squashing a few bugs, and putting some polish on Stampede to ensure the best possible Early Access launch. We aim to be able to share details on some new content by the end of the year, then moving into 2024, we’ll bring you more deep dives on what to expect the next time you can hit the track. Thanks again everyone. Take it easy <3