What’s New? Tracks, Vehicles and More

As we race through our roadmap and approach the games beta launch at mach speed, we’re finally here with another adrenaline-fueled Block Riders development update.

The last couple of updates have revolved around the projects direction, it’s achievements in the past and our goals for the future, we’ve covered team changes and even marketing strategies — but we’re happy to say that this update is a little more creative.

It might even have sneak peaks at upcoming vehicle drops.

You’ve probably seen our updated website, and we’re really pleased with how it turned out. It should still be seen as a working progress, an ever-evolving marketing tool if you will.

We’re still considering axing it for a full screen game though.

Logo & Branding

Some of you will have noticed that along with the new website came a new logo — abit sleeker than our previous logo — still needs a spot of work but overall it’s the right direction for us and I don’t mind our brand evolving for the time being.

With that came a new color scheme which meant the games user interface needed jazzing up — I mean, it needed it anyway, but this forced it to happen sooner than later.

Which means we also need to revise the whitepaper, again — the last time this was revised was some time ago, the images and artwork is all from the first iteration of the game and that shit ain’t pretty. Not indicative of our product.

That’s on it’s way shortly — but do check out this article to learn more about the project overall.

Track Branding

Along with the overall branding update, we wanted each of the tracks to be part of a wider story line and feature explorable areas from the game world along with their own little bits of branding to… elevate them.

The tracks that will be joining the game for the first major beta release are Flint Pass, Bara Bara Desert, and Point Blackwood.

The Flint Pass track is a short section of road from the Flint Valley area outside of Blockston. I pulled the road into a loop to create a circuit and filled the back areas with trees — the terrain, points of interest and general aesthetic of the zone is left unchanged.

Bara Bara Desert is located way North of Blockston, and is based on the sandy flats of Khazum — the Northern-most territory. Khazum lays atop a slew of oil fields and the story we’re planning to weave in around this is definitely interesting.

The destroyed military outpost on the island south of Blockston is based on the original Alpha version (0.1.6) starter island, and features a much more drag-race style event. With 2 long straights that take the player from the outpost all the way to the edges of Blockston City before ripping down over a mile of (straight) sea-battered bridges.

Vehicle Updates

There have been several changes to individual vehicles and we’ll include those details in an upcoming changelog – for now we’ll focus on a couple of the mechanical and quality of life changes we’ve implemented based on player feedback 👇

There were some gravity issues causing the vehicles mass (weight) to respond in a weird way to jumps and bumps, the Toretto hit bumps and flew 3 kilometers into the sky, the Crossback hit the Flint Pass ramp and exploded off the map.

Not ideal.

So we’ve implemented some changes to the way gravity works in particular instances (just race tracks, because we like the way it works for player movement). Mostly, you’ll feel those changes when you hit smaller obstacles, bumps and terrain (you won’t jump 30 meters in the air when you hit a pebble).

After fixing the gravity, we changed the sensitivities of the horizontal wheel axis to smooth out the overall driving experience — but it’s a difficult thing to do for all speeds. Cars respond differently if you turn at high speed, versus turning at a low speed.

To account for this, we adjusted the mass of the vehicles and added a multiplier to steering based on velocity / distance which is essentially how our drifting mechanic works.

Finally, for this article atleast — we added the first person view to vehicles (and tied up those [camera/reset] buttons on the UI) that’s currently in very early alpha mode and we’ll spend some more time on this in the coming weeks.

As rough as it is right now, I can’t wait for players to mess around with it because it really is just good old wacky fun.

Upcoming Vehicles

Which brings us to our final, and potentially most awaited part of our wee journey here today. Some sneaky peakies at a few of the vehicles we’ve got coming up, in no particular order and packed with wildly vague details — just how you like it.

Your Uncle’s Taxi

Yes, your uncles taxi will be dropping any day, it’s a free mint and it’s going to double up as part of our wider marketing strategy to gain more exposure among NFT gamers via airdrop.

Mo’s Truck

Mo is your in-game contact to travel back and forth between Blockston and the Northern territories. Mo’s Truck can only be obtained by completing a side-objective given to you by the heavy drinker himself.

More details and release info to come.

The Dirtie

Unbelievably fun, wild and honestly — completely uncontrollable in it’s current state. You couldn't win a race with it, but on a very open terrain track it’s well worth a pick. Suspension 40% looser than that on the Nashville, wheels 3" larger than the Sledge and a backfire you wouldn't believe.

Details and release info coming soon.

The Clarkson

J̶e̶r̶e̶m̶y̶ Clarkson here is a well traveled explorer, full of useless equipment and has a hell of a grumbly engine sound. Based on a land cruiser, or a Discovery — the Clarkson has similar characteristics to the Nashville. Only tighter suspension, a smaller wheel (but a larger chassis, and turning angle) and it’s actually slightly heavier.

More details, to come.

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