Mmm, hot chocolate, sweet bread, the smell of douglas fir and the sound of slot cars as they loop around a track in the living room. By the tree, gifts await, for the elves of OFG have been reading all your letters and suggestions. Let’s open your presents!



We have been working on several new features and content that we believe will have a huge positive impact on your experience of Circuit Superstars! From fuller lobbies to the depth added through the new drafting mechanic, this patch introduces an evolved version of the racing game that has brought us all together.

We’ve added a drafting system to the gameplay of Circuit Superstars. Drafting or slipstreaming is an aerodynamic phenomenon where a car driving close behind another car will be pulled forward by a low-pressure zone created by the car in front as it pushes air out of the way.. The player behind will receive a speed boost, providing key opportunities for overtakes.



You’ll be able to find a new setting under the Advanced Settings of Free Play, where you’ll be able to customize the % rate of drafting you want in a custom scenario. Additionally, we have revised the Grand Prix tournaments and Online Events to include drafting. We are excited to hear how this changes your experience!

To help you get familiar with tracks and hone in your driving line, you’ll be able to quickly enter an endless practice session with your choice of car and track combination, racing vs your own session ghost.



You can now easily restart a race from the pause menu.

We made significant improvements to the online gameplay experience of Circuit Superstars. The changes will have an impact on the experience of collisions, close contact racing, and how other cars appear on your screen. The game now has better handling of suboptimal network conditions, so overall your experience should be more reliable and, most importantly, more competitive.

We tested these changes with our amazing community (thank you, everyone!) and we saw that our improvements made an impact across the board. We can’t wait to hear what your experiences are.

To help find full races more quickly we have made significant changes to our matchmaking. Now when you queue to find a game if there is an ongoing race that’s nearly done you will automatically join it.

Whilst you wait for the next race to start you can do whatever you like (time trials, garage customisation, etc.). You will automatically be moved to the race when it’s ready.

Additionally you can join your friends whilst they are playing online at any time using the invite functionality. If they’re in a lobby you will join it. If they are in a race then you will automatically join them when they reach the next race. Magic!🧙

Precision, persistence, endurance. These are some of the skills you will need to master to battle for the lead on our first ever oval in Circuit Superstars!





What a better way to accompany the release of Bullseye Speedway than with the introduction of stock cars to Circuit Superstars? While the Impact is a beast that runs free on ovals, soon you will see that this new addition to our roster will challenge your skills with every existing track.



We also accompanied the Impact with plenty of new liveries for you to lead the charge in style.

Drafting, Stock Cars and a robustly competitive online experience. The only thing between you and the race track is that PLAY button. Are you ready? Join us on the race track!



Happy holidays, drivers! We hope Circuit Superstars is a source of joy in your life. Your love for what we have created is a source of major joy for us. Thank you for joining us throughout the journey of releasing our debut game in 2021, we could not have done it without you.

Love,
OFG Team

Links:
Twitter
Discord
Website

Hello, drivers!

Two important news today!


We have a lot of exciting updates planned for Circuit superstars in the new year. The roadmap below shows approximately when we’re planning to get these updates to you! Not everything we will do is here, these are major features that will drive our priorities, but we also have a backlog of your suggestions as well as our own ideas for the game.



As we move forward, we will keep looking at our backlog and pick the best features to work on as we develop these bigger systems. Additionally, it's important to note that these priorities might change, some things may come before others. We will continue to update this roadmap as we move forward, so you always know what to expect next!

And as always, a reminder that we take community suggestions seriously, so if you are not yet on the Discord server, consider joining us there!


We have been working on an exciting update that lands next Thursday, December 16th! Improved online systems, stock cars, our first oval and drafting are among the gifts you are getting for Christmas from us.



Are you excited? We are too! We hope to see you on the racetrack to experience all that is coming to Circuit Superstars next week.

With love,
OFG Team

Links:
Twitter
Discord
Website

--
Hello, drivers!

We have been working on improvements to the online gameplay experience of Circuit Superstars, and we are excited to invite you to playtest these changes this Thursday, December 2nd from 10 AM - 5 PM PDT (6 PM - 1 AM GMT).

To kick off the playtest, Alberto and Caro will do a livestream to discuss some behind-the-scenes game dev topics, which will include slipstream design, online synchronisation challenges and other topics.

We hope that you will join us both for the playtest and the stream, and we look forward to hearing what you think. So, here is what you need to know:

• When: Thursday, December 2nd from 10 AM - 5 PM PDT (6 PM - 1 AM GMT).
  
• The playtest will have only online play available.
  
• The playtest will be available only to players who already own Circuit Superstars.
  
• Beta key will be shared on the day of the event, along with instructions.

To join other players via the lobbies feature, discuss the improvements and provide feedback, be sure to join us on Discord! We will have dedicated channels for the playtest, and we are excited to hear your feedback.

See you on the racetrack!!

Caro

Hello drivers!

We know that patience, consistency and persistence are important for getting better in Circuit Superstars, but, from what we have observed, its actually friends and other players that are the keys to improving, even marginally, on the next lap you take! Even if the improvement is a fraction of a second, you know that will make an impact.

We would like to invite everyone to nominate us for the "Best Game You Suck At" Award! Circuit Superstars is not an easy game, but it has been incredibly lovely to see players come into the game and either improve on their own, or receive feedback and coaching from the community on Discord!

We hope you will consider nominating us for this and other categories. In the spirit of thanksgiving, we thank you for being the loving and supportive community you have continued to be. The entire OFG team is grateful for you!

See you on the racetrack!

Love,

Caro & OFG Team

*Inhale*
…
*exhale*

Hello, drivers!

We’ve spent the past month taking a breath and working on improvements we knew would make your racing experience better! You might remember if you read last week’s post on The Road Ahead, that we listed a few items as coming very soon. Well, great news, soon is now! With this update we are certain we will turn your world upside down. 😉
Sometimes just a flip in perspective can significantly change our experience, so we can’t wait to hear about and watch your races on the new roster of reverse routes in the following tracks:

• Whistle Valley
  
• Sugar Hill
  
• Maple Ridge
  
• Rennvoort
  
• Copperwood GP
  
• Copperwood Club
  
• Tilksport GP
  
• Tilksport Club
  
• Interstate
  
• Siena

Friends, rejoice! You’ll now be able to invite friends into a game directly from the Steam friends overlay.
We have introduced an optional control option for players who would prefer for the car to steer with direction relative to the screen. Some players find this more accessible than the default driving scheme.

• Fixed an issue in which AI would sometimes not pit correctly.
  
• Fixed case of Whistle Valley corner cutting.
  
• Magdalena respawning issues.
  
• Fixed Performance issues on Siena, Lost Lagoons, and Faenza.
  
• Bumped max laps to 99 on PC.
  
• Rotated Siena's perspective.
  
• Fixed bug where Euro Truck AI would take wrong path in Buffalo’s Mini Circuit.

We hope you enjoy this update! Let us know what you think in the comments.

The next priorities the OFG team is focusing on are:

• New gameplay feature: Slipstream.
  
• Improvements to AI race craft.
  
• Online - Improvements to synchronisation and collisions.
  
• Online– Play while you wait - You’ll be able to play other game modes or customize your cars and driver as you wait for an online game. This will result in fuller lobbies.
  
• Practice Mode - To help you get familiar with tracks and hone in your driving line, you’ll be able to enter an endless practice session with your choice of car and track combination, racing vs your previous best time.
  
• Single Player & local co-op In-race restarts.
  
• New car, new track, new category!

For more information on our priorities and roadmap, be sure to check out our blog post on The Road Ahead.

As mentioned on our previous post, this list is focused on key priorities. We have a wider backlog of features and suggestions that we constantly evaluate. So, if something you really want to see isn’t listed here, it doesn’t mean we won’t get to it. We take community suggestions seriously, so if you are not yet on the Discord server, consider joining us there!

Thank you, fellow racers! See you on the racetrack.

With love,
OFG Team

Twitter
Discord
Website

Hello, fellow racers!

It has been almost a month since Circuit Superstars released on Xbox and PC. During this time, we have been listening, reading, observing, and recharging our batteries as we begin our work on the next stage of the game.

We have had a blast watching your streams, reading your reviews, and watching the community grow on Discord. It has also honoured us to read the wonderful articles from gaming and motorsports outlets alike. We feel immensely happy to see our design intentions manifesting in the stories you tell about the game. We’ve also paid attention to all your suggestions and the conversations happening amongst the community.

This time allowed us to recharge, enjoy the ride of releasing and observe the road ahead. We had plenty of conversations to craft our next strategy, and we are very excited to share with you what we have in store for Circuit Superstars, some of which we’ll touch on in this post.

Before we get to our future roadmap, we wanted to thank everyone who has left a review on Steam. Thank you for sharing your love of the game and for communicating your suggestions for
improvements. If you've enjoyed the game and have not yet left a review, please do so, it helps us and Circuit Superstars significantly!

Now, to the exciting part, the following outlines our priorities as they currently stand:

• Reverse Tracks
  
• Steam Invites - You’ll be able to invite friends into a game directly from the Steam friends overlay.
  
• Screen Space Steering - Introduces an optional control option for players who would prefer for the car to steer with direction relative to the screen. Some players find this more accessible than the default driving scheme.
  
• Plus, several bug fixes and quality of life improvements. Details will be shared with the patch update!

• New gameplay feature: Slipstream.
  
• Improvements to AI race craft.
  
• Online - Improvements to synchronisation and collisions.
  
• Online– Play while you wait - You’ll be able to play other game modes or customize your cars and driver as you wait for an online game. This will result in fuller lobbies.
  
• Practice Mode - To help you get familiar with tracks and hone in your driving line, you’ll be able to enter an endless practice session with your choice of car and track combination, racing vs your previous best time.
  
• Single Player & local co-op In-race restarts.
  
• New car, new track, new category!

• Custom Lobbies (AKA Private Lobbies)
  
• Ranked Matchmaking

This list is focused on key priorities. We have a wider backlog of features and suggestions that we constantly evaluate. So, if something you really want to see isn’t listed here, it doesn’t mean we won’t get to it. We take community suggestions seriously, so if you are not yet on the Discord server, consider joining us there!

We are immensely excited to work on this next stage. Are you excited, too? Let us know in the comments or hop on Discord to join the conversation. Stay tuned for a game update soon and other news like upcoming developer streams!

Thank you for your feedback! We’re working on new features and quality or life improvements which you will start seeing soon. If you haven’t yet, please leave a review and consider joining our official Discord Server to talk to other fans and share your suggestions.

Thank you, fellow racers! See you on the racetrack.

With love,
OFG Team

Twitter
Discord
Website

• Prevent collisions before crossing the starting line
  
• Replays are now sorted from newest to oldest
  
• Fix for extremely short time trial times

• Fixed an issue where ready states could become desynchronized in lobbies when new players joined.
  
• Adjusted matchmaking rules to help certain users find matches more easily.

Changes:
- Fixed an issue where the game could launch with a resolution of 0x0.
- Removed a debug overlay.

Hello, everyone!

We have very exciting news! Circuit Superstars is out NOW (what?!), NOW, on Xbox and Steam! You heard that right! 🎉 We are extremely excited to open the doors to new players, and we can’t wait to race with you all!





Early Access Players please read – As we mentioned at the beginning of Early Access, your progression and liveries will be reset when you update the game. This is done to prevent bugs and issues with your experience on the fully launched title.

With a significantly refined experience across the board, 3 new tracks, 2 new cars and the incredible Top Gear Test Track, Circuit Superstars continues to be the love-letter to motorsport we have been writing since this project started.



We want to say a big THANK YOU to our community. Our work has not been easy. We set out to accomplish something deeply ambitious, something fueled by dreams and a deep love for motorsport. We could not have gotten Circuit Superstars to where it is today without the support of our wonderful partner, Square Enix Collective, and without the support of our community.



This community has been a wonderful companion on our journey. We've poured an unmeasurable amount of love and dedication into creating an ode to racing, a stylized simulator that portrays the charming world of motorsport. We could not have done this without YOU. To everyone on our wonderful Discord community, to every single Early Access player who played and gave feedback, a deep thank you from all of us at Original Fire Games.

Sign up to the official Circuit Superstars Discord Server. Join our community of passionate and competitive racers!

See you on the racetrack!
OFG Team