Hey Racers, The wait is finally over. We are thrilled to announce that [b]Old School Rally is now officially available in Early Access![/b] Since the game's initial reveal and especially during the demo release at the Next Festival, we've received a tremendous amount of feedback from players all over the world. We greatly appreciate your attention and recognition! Based on the community's voices, we've brought many new contents and features to this Early Access version: [i]*This post does not include future update plans. We will share those in a separate announcement soon, as there's a lot to cover. Thank you for your patience and understanding.[/i] [h3]1. New Content: Rally Mode and New Car Unlocks![/h3] Given that Old School Rally is a rally racing game, naturally, we're proudly presenting you the all-new Rally Mode. In this mode, you'll need to complete championships at different difficulty levels, across 7 countries and 14 special stages. Use your skilled handling to finish races before your car gets wrecked (either from your careless driving or the rough terrain!) – rest assured, you’ll be able to fix it up every other stage! As you progress through the Rally Mode, many new cars will be unlocked along the way. There are a total of 17 cars in the Early Access version with different looks and performances – including some very funky kinds! [h3]2. New Content: 14 Special Stages Across 7 Different Countries![/h3] Yep, as mentioned earlier, this is currently what we are looking at in the Early Access version after many all-nighters from our hardworking developer! Hit these special stages either in Rally Mode or Time Trial Mode, your call! Be careful with your driving though, as different special stages have different terrain (remember those big jumps in Finland special stages?), so make sure you adjust your driving style accordingly! [i]*In the long run, more special stages from more countries will make it into the game. We plan to share a detailed, 2-phase roadmap talking about future updates in the coming days.[/i] [h3]3. New Feature: Toggleable Day/Night Cycle![/h3] All special stages now support a toggleable day/night option. You can manually select your preferred time of day to maximize your performance or to experience a whole new vibe! [h3]4. New Feature: Customizable Steering Sensitivity![/h3] The joy of driving lies in finding the vehicle that best suits your handling habits. Steering sensitivity is crucial for drivers, so by popular demand we've enabled a customization feature to make steering sensitivity adjustable. We hope you can find your best performance based on your driving/handling habits while considering different road conditions! [h3]5. New Feature: Control Rebinding![/h3] Among the features that received the highest demand from the community feedback, we knew we needed to make sure this got implemented for the Early Access release, so we prioritized it and got it done. Now you can customize the controls – whether a gamepad or keyboard – in the Settings menu. Try and find the combination that suits you the most – and you can always reset it to default. [h3]6. New Feature: Ghost Car Now Available in Time Trial![/h3] Well, we know the best way to improve your time on each special stage, besides countless practices, is chasing someone who’s faster. As an essential feature in any racing game, we’ve worked hard to ensure the Ghost Car feature made it into the game at its Early Access launch. Simply beat the system-default best time in Time Trial, and you shall be able to chase your own Ghosts and pass them eventually. [i]*You can backup or delete ghost car files in the local folder: \Users{your username}\AppData\LocalLow\Frozen Lake Games\Old School Rally. The .gst files correspond to different ghost records for different Special Stages.[/i] [h3]7. New Content: In-Game Background Music for Racing![/h3] The Early Access version of Old School Rally now has a fully built-in up-tempo soundtrack, which is a perfect pairing for your wild wild drifting. We hope you like the vibes the soundtrack brings, but if not, of course, you can simply turn it off from the Settings menu, and just enjoy the engine revving! [h3]8. New Feature: Global Online Leaderboards![/h3] Now, there is a basic online leaderboard feature for the fastest times on each special stage in Time Trial. This feature might still need some fine-tuning (display and loading speed-wise), but it should work as intended. We can’t wait to see your fast times spamming the leaderboards after release! [h3]9. New Feature: Basic Support for Certain Steering Wheels![/h3] Currently, this feature offers basic Logitech wheel support (in-game only). We know it will require further optimization in the future to add proper force feedback, menu support, additional brands, etc. Please stay tuned - players with a Logitech wheel, we ask you to go ahead and test this – please do not hesitate to share your comments and feedback with us on that front. Note that this feature is set to “off” by default in the Settings menu; Players need to enable this option manually and use Gamepad or Keyboard to navigate the menu. [i]*There are quite some different brands of Sim Wheels, and they have quite different specs - at the beginning of Early Access we have to admit the current support is not perfect, but we'll be working on it and expand the coverage as development progresses - thank you for your patience in advance![/i] [h3]10. New Feature: Toggleable Alternate Car Liveries![/h3] We’ve also implemented a toggle feature for cars’ alternate liveries. Though simple, this lays a solid foundation for future features related to customizable car liveries. [h3]11. New Feature & Content: Customizable Collectibles Area![/h3] For cars unlocked, of course, you can use them to your liking in the races, but also display them in a dedicated collectibles area! You’ll have your own showcases and shelves, and you can customize many details of this area – such as different paints, trophies, and fun props. Some might ask, "There are only 17 cars now, but it seems like there are two shelves of 16?" Well… you’ll find out later! [h3]12. New Feature: KM/H (metric) vs. MP/H (Imperial) Unit Toggle![/h3] This was also a popular feature request from the community feedback we collected from the Next Festival. You want it, we deliver it! Don’t forget to pick your favorite unit from the Settings menu before the races! Of course, we’ve also made improvements in many different areas, particularly with optimization of the tracks and pacenote timings. We believe you will gradually notice them during your gameplay! So that’s what the Old School Rally Early Access version offers (for now)! We sincerely hope you like what you see here! We understand there might still be some issues or hiccups here and there, and we ask for your patience in advance. We promise we will provide timely updates to fix anything that arises. We promise we will continue to work and bring the game to full release, ideally with our passionate community members’ trust, feedback, and support, during the Early Access phase. You have our word. Regarding future plans - we will post a roadmap detailing future update plans within 24–72 hours after the Early Access release. Trust us, it is long enough to be its own post :) And that will only be the first part. We are committed to continuously monitoring and collecting community feedback and observing players’ complaints, just like before. We will actively listen and analyze useful and feasible feature suggestions, and implement them one by one in the future. TIME TO REVV UP THE ENGINE AND HIT THE STAGES, RACERS! Sincerely, Astrolabe Games & Frozen Lake Games