Why Early Access?

“When I launch NEODRIVE 1.0, I want to be confident that it presents a worthwhile, accessible difficulty curve for all skill levels, while still giving speedrunners and car sickos something to chew on at the highest difficulty stage. To that end, I will be iterating on track design and tuning difficulty with the help of the community.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Six months, based on my current pace of track creation and its rate of acceleration as my internal tooling improves. I will spend most of that time finishing the campaign level set. Any remaining time will be spent implementing community feature requests.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“The full version is planned to have have a 64-track campaign (16 levels across 4 difficulty stages). It will also have the existing tutorial levels and some experimental tracks not part of the main campaign. Some of the current tracks may have their layouts tweaked, or be in different difficulty stages based on the community feedback.
I will likely add more data to the player save files, but I already have them versioned with automatic conversion. I would only break saves as a last resort, with plenty of warning for the community. I do not anticipate breaking saves at this time.
As I build out the game, I will likely add in-race music, as currently there is only music for the main menu.
I am also planning to add extra car wheels and achievements to unlock.
If there’s time, I also would like to add unlockable car liveries.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Out of 64 planned tracks in the campaign, there are currently around 25, each with the full range of medals and spanning all difficulty ranges. In a few of the tracks, the scenery and layouts are outdated and will be improved before the full launch.
The physical handling model is feature-complete to allow people to master it. Going forward, it will only receive small tweaks and bugfixes to homogenize the driving experience across transitional states like landing a jump, crossing different terrains, and starting and ending drifts and hydroplanes.
NEODRIVE currently contains integrated Steam global/friends leaderboards, a photo mode, and a replay viewer of your best run for each track.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“I plan to slightly increase the price during Early Access as I add more features and content. By the end of Early Access, the price will not change for the full launch.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“Whether a player is a seasoned racing sim veteran or someone who’s never touched a clutch pedal before, I want their feedback on difficulty and level design. I want to make NEODRIVE an accessible arcade experience across all skill levels. As I build out the campaign, I will be collecting user feedback via Discord, Steam community discussions, and in-game feedback buttons.

I will be regularly posting updates with detailed release notes and taking the comments on those into account.

I’ll be looking for feedback on user interface, accessibility extras, quality-of-life, or other features that would further improve NEODRIVE before launch. If there’s time left in the Early Access window, I would also like to implement features by popular request.”