- Downtown Drift Update 2.1 - 31 December 2023
My plan for 2023 was to definitely release a new update for Downtown Drift... so now here we are one day before the year ends. Just in time! I had been quite bothered with the state of the game from the previous update. I made some pretty hard changes to the map design and overall flow of the game. Looking back at it now I have now idea how I just published those changes without reflecting further on the consequences. The game lacked intensity and was overall just really bland. I deeply apologize for the ruining the game... I hope to bring back the exciting and thrilling Downtown Drift we used to know! There are a few changes here I could talk about, but the most important one to me is the redesign of the map generation system. The city still has that uncanny, empty feel that I very much like. But with the last update there was way too much open space that was not filled with anything t…
- Downtown Drift Update 2.0 - 20 June 2022
It has been a long time since the last update for Downtown Drift, also it has been quite some time since I had initially announced this update to come out... my bad. I suppose I've gotten a bit rusty when it comes to estimating how long the final stretch of an update can take. A lot of bugs came up somewhat last-minute and there were certainly a few other things I wasn't completely happy with. This led to me delaying the update and even having to delay the delayed update once more. I did release a somewhat stable release on the beta branch two weeks ago and thanks to the feedback from the community over on discord I have been able to catch a handful of bugs and get rid of them. In the end, I think I have learned my lesson to not under-estimate and over-promise. Will not happen again! With that out of the way, now onto this update: There is a new map, a new music system and a hopefully b…
- Beta Update 2.0 - 30 May 2022
After having to postpone the initial release of Update 2.0, I unfortunately have no other choice than to delay its release once more. However, there are good news: the current state of the update is playable on the beta branch right now! The reason for the delay is that there are still some bugs and issues that need fixing. So if anyone would like to help out finding more of them, please go ahead and play the beta. You can switch over to the beta branch by right clicking Downtown Drift in your Library and selecting Properties. Next head to Betas and select beta - beta in the dropdown menu. Now Steam should automatically update Downtown Drift to the newest beta update. If there is no update available restarting Steam can help with that. Once all bugs are taken care of Update 2.0 will roll out immediately. If you want to report bugs please consider joining the Discord! Best, ThatMadProgra…
- Coming Soon Update 2.0 - 23 May 2022
Well well well... it has been awfully quiet around here for a while now, for a good reason: Downtown Drift hasn't seen an Update for almost 2 years. So finally, after a long hiatus, there will be a new Update coming this Friday Monday, the 27th 30th of May 2022! For a lot of reasons I unfortunately haven't gotten around to working on Downtown Drift earlier, but mostly it was a lack of motivation. Especially during these past two years it had been quite hard to find the drive to work on the project, but I always felt like there was unfinished business here. So over the past weeks I have been putting in some hours to finally fix those issues with Downtown Drift that have always bothered me in the past. Beyond this next update I intend to continue with adding more content to Downtown Drift over the next weeks. So I hope everyone is as excited as I am to improve and develop Downtown Drift f…
- Downtown Drift Devblog #4 - 28 April 2022
Downtown Drift Devblog #4 is out. Go ahead and check out what I am currently working on!
- Downtown Drift - Dev Stream - 22 January 2021
I am doing most of the development for Downtown Drift live on Stream now. If you want to drop by and see how I am working on the game and what I am doing, head over to my Twitch Stream. Streams will usually go from around 5pm-7pm CET. Sometimes might also go live sporadically when I feel like working on the game. Best, ThatMadProgrammer
- Downtown Drift - Discord Server - 18 July 2020
I believe this is long overdue, but there now is a Discord Server for Downtown Drift! I think it is important to create an easy and intuitive way for the community to get involved in the development process and give much needed feedback. So for anyone who wants to take an active part in deciding what's next for Downtown Drift and also get involved early with new games coming from me/SiliKöln Valley Games: Join the Discord Server Best, ThatMadProgrammer
- Downtown Drift Update v.1.5 - 13 June 2020
This Update introduces bonus multipliers. Also there is now a new tutorial track that focuses more on mechanics instead of pure information. Up until now each drift would increase the overall multiplier for all drifts coming after that. However its somewhat unrewarding for each drift to be equally valued. For example if you dodge a police car and almost hit a wall while still drifting the entire time you get the same amount of points per second as if you were just doing a simple drift around a corner. The only factors used to be the speed at which you drift and the overall multiplier. Now there is something called Bonus Multipliers. They are not added to the overall multiplier but instead are applied to the current drift only. Right now there are three: Police Dodge: adds 1 to the bonus multiplier for drifting when close to a police car Close Call: adds 0.4 to the bonus multiplier for e…
- Downtown Drift - Soon Free ! - 9 June 2020
Downtown Drift is going to be Free starting on the 13th of June 3PM PST! It has now been a little bit over a year since I have released Downtown Drift. This has been the first game I have published on Steam so I am very thankful for everyone that bought the game, seriously very much appreciated! For everyone that owned the game up until now there will be a small badge next to your name in the leaderboard and also if I am able to implement a multiplayer mode in the future those badges will be present there too. I was able to learn a lot along the way so I hope can make even better games in the future. Until then, I hope everyone will enjoy playing Downtown Drift. Stay Safe! Best, ThatMadProgrammer
- Downtown Drift Update v.1.4 - 9 June 2020
In this Update I am adding some much need settings to the options menu including custom controls for both keyboard and controller and also introducing the dashboard with meters for speed and rpm. Over most of the past year a lot of complaints have been made specifically about the very hazy or foggy visual of the game. I finally decided to add the option to adjust two quite prominent visual effects that are responsible for this problem. From now on there is a slider for both Bloom and Motion Blur, this allows to control the intensity of those effects and even turn them off completely. However, notice that even at the lowest setting there will still be a slight bloom. Still this should make a noticeable difference and allow for a more enjoyable experience. In addition there now is an option to turn v-sync on or off. Another issue that bothered me was the inability to customize the control…
- Downtown Drift Update v.1.3 - 10 January 2020
In this Update I am adding some changes to the level design. In the past there has been a lot of complaints about the brightness in the game, which I try to fix as best as I can. Just increasing the brightness in general was no option cause it would completely destroy the visual style I was going for. So I thought about what Information of the level and the track is important to convey. The corners at intersections and the walls at the end of a street where the main points where I would imagine players getting confused. The first step was to rework the intersections and make sure that all corners you can drift along are actually curved now. That means they follow the natural motion of the player instead of being a sharp edge. This allowed me to add billboards to the areas covering the corners. These advertising billboards help players to navigate around the level better while still pres…
- Downtown Drift Update v.1.2 - 27 December 2019
In this Update I am addressing most of the issues that have drawn my attention since the past update. Including Downtown Drift in the Jingle Jam 2019 (Humble Bundle) obviously drew a lot of attention to the game. First off, I am very grateful for being able to help out such a great project. To be honest I did not think that I would be able to participate, therefore I am even more happy about the opportunity. That being said, up until that point Downtown Drift was and still is now in a very raw and unpolished form. In addition to that I made the mistake of pushing a game changing update the day Downtown Drift was featured on the Jingle Jam, so there was no time to actually test things prior; some reasonable negative feedback followed. Lesson learned, good thing I was able to get a decent amount of feedback. Now for this Update I reworked the game rules once more. It seemed like the chang…
- Downtown Drift Update v.1.1 - 19 December 2019
In this Update I finally got to improve performance and reworked some design flaws I have noticed in the past. First off and most important: The game rules have changed! Before it was all about creating a highscore by drifting and police would try to chase you. If you hit anything with your car, your multiplier would reset but you keep your total score. So the game was not over and you could just keep on playing pretty much forever. The only way to actually lose was to get get caught by police if they were in your proximity for too long. The solution could have been to add more police cars or make it harder to get away from police in general, but that is not what the game is about. When I played the game and started to master the drifting I set myself the challenge to play the game without hitting anything at all and as soon as I hit something I would restart and try again until I got a…
- Downtown Drift Update v.1.06 - 6 September 2019
In this Update I finally got to rework some visuals and fix some major bugs. The visuals have been a problem right off the start. Up until now the map was only made up of intersections, traffic lights, street lights and some grey cubes that were supposed to be buildings. My intention was to create a very simple but yet intriguing art style, but unfortunately I did not deliver that at launch. Now after most of the important bugs and issues were fixed I had time to invest into the graphical fidelity. I have now added multiple types of buildings with different sizes and styles to make the game really feel like its Downtown! Also I have added multiple subway lines that run above the streets to add to the urban feel. With the sky-high buildings the game now has a lot more verticality, at least visually speaking. That way the player finally gets the feeling of being chased in an actual city.…
- Downtown Drift Update v.1.05 - 15 July 2019
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F35026652%2F3803eb4d00dc266c961db116c18fa217b0beef1e.png In this Update I tried to fix some minor issues. One big complain with the game was the intense bloom. The Post processing has been adjusted with this update. The bloom has been reduced by 50%. Also some color grading has been changed to create a more realistic feel. The way how the player gets caught by police has been slightly changed. Before, the time it took for the player to get caught was dependent only on distance to the nearest police car and speed of the player. From now on the player can not get caught when moving at a certain minimum speed, this means if the player is making an effort to escape he won't be arrested. The bloom effect from getting getting arrested however remains until the player gets away from police. Head on collision with a police car does…
- Downtown Drift Update v.1.04 - 25 June 2019
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F35026652%2Fcb831472f1cc8f13b8ffe37bde48e4723cf9646b.png This update includes quite a lot of changes. First off the new Tutorial Track: I included a written tutorial section in the main menu last update, but I feel like the average player does not actually care to take the time to read through it. So now I included a Tutorial Track where you can actually drive and get familiar with the game while small hints are displayed for help. The written tutorial section however is available. With this update a small prompt will show up when you play the game for the first time suggesting to drive the Tutorial Track. If you want to drive it again after that you need to click the "Tutorial Track" Button in the Tutorial Section. A Leaderboard has been added to the main menu as well. There are two sections: Top Rank and My Rank. Top Rank…
- Downtown Drift Update v.1.03 - 12 June 2019
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F35026652%2Fcec32465116d2d3bdaa5a165d4458a6606464295.png The first and most obvious problem I have noticed from launch is that the game gives no hints how to actually play. I have worked on a Tutorial section that explains different parts of the game through primarily text but also video sequences. I would love to get some feedback on how helpful this new addition is and how I could improve it further. Here are all the changes for this Update: added in-game tutorials added current rank to main menu fixed various UI related issues Best, ThatMadProgrammer
- Downtown Drift Update v.1.02 - 25 May 2019
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F35026652%2Fdd82b308cc6c96360582d7d7d46b67e598532fa5.png Here are all the changes for this Update: fixed Steam Achievements not working properly Best, ThatMadProgrammer
- Downtown Drift Update v.1.01 - 24 May 2019
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F35026652%2F721073ced19e9c2c3848dcfa43c9e112e2302f5a.png Since the rate at which you get points has been changed the leaderboard is going to reset for this Update. Here are all the changes for this Update: fixed options menu being disabled adjusted drift score multiplier from 1000 to 100 fixed an issue causing a new highscore not to be properly shown Best, ThatMadProgrammer
