Aug 27, 2019
Wreckfest - jannesBB


Ladies and gentlemen,

To celebrate the launch of the game on consoles, Wreckfest receives a free PC update today! It's been one long, wild ride but after a considerable amount of sweat, tears and coffee, here we are: the console versions have finally seen the light of the day, and the PC will be receiving a major update adding new free content and whole wealth of neat improvements introduced in the console versions.

Once again, we need to thank all of you folks for your love, care and support over the years. It's been amazing what kind of community we have built around the game and we certainly wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. You were the first, and we will always love you.

So, we know you're anxious to get your hands on the game so let's get to the good stuff. The update contains way too many improvements and additions to list everything here, but the most significant ones are as follows:

4 NEW RACING TRACKS + 1 NEW DERBY ARENA
  • Clayridge Circuit
  • Deathloop
  • Northfolk Ring (two routes)
  • Dirt Devil Stadium (Speedway)
  • Dirt Devil Stadium (Derby Arena)

5 NEW VEHICLES
  • Venom (career reward)
  • Stretch Limousine
  • Couch Car
  • Motorhome
  • Big Rig

CAREER ENHANCEMENTS
  • Several new career events and challenges featuring new tracks and vehicles. Check each Championship for new events – for example the first championship Regional Juniors now has the Couch Craze challenge to unlock this vehicle.
  • There's now more variation in the computer-controlled AI cars, and they will also make use of the upgrade parts to make your life so much more miserable.
  • Many events have been changed and tweaked to offer more engaging, balanced gameplay experience.
  • Also, achieved bonus targets are no longer reset when restarting a career series.

GAME IMPROVEMENTS
  • Polished and more detailed environments.
  • Animated objects such as flags and balloons.
  • New paint jobs for most vehicles.
  • Collision improvements: the cars no longer clip each other.
  • Quick match functinality for multiplayer.
  • Streamlined server browser.
  • Overhauled server lobby user interface and improved usability.
  • Improved car and upgrade selection in the garage/pit.
  • New daytimes for many tracks.
  • Improved career menu screens.
  • Multiplayer: Bots now get auto-kicked also during races if a human player joins and takes their slot.
  • Multiplayer: At event start, players not ready won't be kicked as long as they have a valid car.
  • New track and event specific loading screens.
  • A save data backup is created automatically whenever the game is updated.
  • Minimap (can be disabled in the Settings menu).

PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATIONS
  • Overall game performance increased especially for older PCs.
  • Multiplayer better optimized for poor connections and PCs.
  • Drastically reduced loading times for all tracks.
  • Server side: hardware and bandwidth demands reduced.

BUGFIXES
  • Numerous bugfixes, tweaks and improvements, many based on the feedback we've received from you. As always, thanks for your continuing support and keep those suggestions coming!

In other news, the Season Pass granting you access to wild and wacky content will become available today as well! All content will be released post launch of Wreckfest, over the course of 8 DLC packs, with the first packs launching in September. As a special bonus, anyone who purchases the Season Pass will also receive the coveted Bandit V8 Ripper!



Wreckfest - jannesBB


Howdy fellas,

On Tuesday, the Season Pass will be launched on Steam. As it's already available for consoles it's something that many of you folks have been asking for – and for a pretty good reason too, since it grants you access to the expanding world of Wreckfest for one neat bundle price.

The Season Pass contains:
  • Multiple vehicle packs containing 20 crazy and iconic cars.
  • Roof decoration pack with 20 fun and insane roof props.
  • Car customization pack with new armor, rims and more.


All items will be released post launch of Wreckfest, over the course of 8 DLC packs.

And that's not the only major news today. To celebrate the launch of the game on consoles, later this week Wreckfest will receive a hefty free PC update, bringing the game up to par with the console versions and containing the following major improvements:
  • Four new racing tracks and one derby arena.
  • Four new exciting challenge vehicles​.
  • One new career reward race car.
  • Major performance optimizations.
  • More varied AI cars and new career events.
  • Additional daytimes for all tracks​.
  • Polished and more detailed environments.
  • Improved, more refined user interface.
  • Overhauled lobby functionality.
  • Collision improvements.
  • ...and a lot more!
We're still sorting out the remaining issues and finalizing the update, but we're planning on getting it out of the door as soon as we can. Stay tuned for more details about the update soon and thanks for your support!
Wreckfest - jannesBB


Hello friends,

In case you have ever dabbled with mods for Wreckfest, you would have been hard-pressed not to pay attention to a track pack having an intriguing name The Very Track Pack available on the game's Steam Workshop. In case you're not familiar with the mod, it's an impressive collection of tracks by an ever-prolific modder Tor Ole Lerbæk who goes by the name The Very End in the community circles. The Very Track Pack has been one of the most popular mods on the Workshop ever since it's inception in 2016, and indeed, it's also a mainstay on many community servers running custom content.

Now there are many remarkable mods available on the Workshop, yet we've always been particularly impressed by Tor's work, not only because of the sheer amount of varied content included but also because his tracks are fun and feel like they're a perfect match for our game. In fact, many of the Tor's tracks would fit right in to the base game! That lead us to think that actually, why not make some of them part of the base game so that more people can enjoy them? So, we got into talks with Tor, got him interested and that's exactly what happened!

As a result, we're thrilled to let you know that two of Tor's track will be coming to the game as official content in the next update, and they will be included in the console version at launch. We've started with the rallycross style tracks since those are always loved by everyone and fit the bill perfectly, with more on the way. Together with Tor, we've also been busy giving these tracks a makeover so what you will be getting are the absolute definite versions of the tracks that have been completely overhauled. Tor being as prolific as he is, he's been helping us otherwise too, creating for example animated banners, pennants and camera cranes that will reinforce the dynamic nature of our tracks. All those will make their way to the game in the next update, and no doubt Tor is already busy hatching up new improvements!

A huge props to Tor for making this happen since he had to go through the trouble of setting up a business for himself and sort out all sorts of legalities, but at the end it all worked out great.

Check out some impressions below:

















Given the occasion, we also thought this would be a great opportunity to get up close and personal with Tor and give you a glimpse of the man behind the tracks. Most of the time you get to play the mods and appreciate them, but the authors themselves are very little known. Time to change that! And who knows, maybe he can even share some modding tips so without further adieu:

Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for the fans of Wreckfest! To start this off: could you please introduce us to the man behind the mods and tell us a bit about yourself, your background, and what you do?

Thank you so much for this warm welcome!

The name is Tor Ole Lerbæk, a 31-year-old potato from southern parts of Norway. I have done a range of things over the course of the years, such as been a firefighter in the military, driven trucks (the big ones), worked at factories and worked at call center just to mention some of my work experience (hence the potato reference).

These days I am working on my master degree at the University of Agder, in Information Systems Development and Management. Bachelor in same topic, with a deep-dive into developing a GDPR compliant newspaper system (yes, you have my rights to use my data in any way you like).
Regardless of what I have done and what I do, the interest in computers and games has been there since I was a child. It always fascinated me, regardless of genre of game. Being as old as me I have grown up to witness the birth and extreme development of computers and games! I still remember those good ol’ days playing the Destruction Derby series, Carmageddon, Unreal Tournament, Command & Conquer series etc.

You're hailing from Norway. How is it like being a gearhead in there? Do you also do folk-racing or demolition derby, and if yes, have you ever attended such an event?

It is great! Being spoiled by living in a small country with rich natural resources means most people have the means of doing (mostly) what they want. We have a pretty good folkrace scene, as well as a range of other leagues and classes, despite our small population. I’ve never been lucky enough to participate myself (I do really suck at fixing things), but I do regularly drive to the close by tracks Konsmo and Rugsland to watch the show. The smell, the sound, the entertainment of watching these crap machines drive around on small tracks is just too much of a fun to miss out on. I don’t know if you are aware of this, but folkrace in Norway is made to be accessible. If someone offers a certain amount for the cars, they have to be sold to this person, meaning that the attenders keep their cars as cheap as possible to ensure that people won’t buy these. When you have this combination of cheap cars and part-time drivers just wanting to have a bit of fun on the weekends this makes for a great show for those lucky enough to witness it!

As for derbies – I love them too! But never seen on in life. Actually, anything that involves cars and crashing makes me exciting, regardless the league.

What is it that made you choose Wreckfest as your modding platform? What makes it special?

The base of the game and the accessibility. By base I mean the gameplay, the feeling of the game. I like simulators and I like arcade racers, but blending the best of these two worlds together in an entertaining package sold me. It just feels good, and it is fun and accessible, a balance which I have not felt since probably the two first FlatOut iterations.

Secondly, accessibility. Sure, it was a nightmare in the start to learn everything from scratch, but at same time most other games don’t have any native way of getting your work into the game. When you get past the technical and artistic challenges, getting your creation into the game is not so much a big issue as the two first aspects. Furthermore, having the ability to peek into the file structure and read most of the game files helps understanding how everything is interconnected. This I have never seen in other games (even if they support custom additions), making it a natural platform for me to develop on.

What drew you towards modding initially and how did you learn how to make mods? You didn't start modding with Wreckfest, right?

I guess with age you start to know yourself a bit more. The creative part of me (which I for the better part of my life believed I didn’t have) just kept growing over the years, and the wish to create something just became too much too ignore. The turning point was Wreckfest, firstly through the BagEdit tool. Here I could change a range of parameters, such as creating suicidal AI’s, indestructible player cars, bombs, random events and so on. But the more I did this, the more I wanted to truly create, to build something from bottom up. There really was no other way, I had to learn a 3d modelling software.

I remember opening 3ds Max for the first time and wondering “what am I even looking at?”. To even get anywhere, I used days, weeks, months (or has it been years already?) looking at guides, learning one small bit at the time. Learning one thing lead me to wanting to learn more, and thus the cycle continued – and continues. I still got a long way to go but seeing how starting from zero around 3 years ago to where I am now, it makes me happy for the future. There is so much to learn, so much to create! So back to original question, despite some small mod projects to games in the Command and Conquer series as well as the game Crashday, Wreckfest was my first actual game to truly mod on more than just a technical level.

You are known for being a very prolific content creator, constantly evolving and trying to break boundaries of Wreckfest modding. Where do you get your inspiration from? Do you ever sleep?

Probably not enough, hence my constant red eyes and blue bags under them… *sigh* The fun part is, inspiration comes in many shapes and forms. Sometimes they just fall into my head at evening while I should really sleep, sometimes by listening to music, walking in the nature, watching ski jumping on TV (…), playing other games, speaking with friends, daydreaming and so on. It’s the moments when I try to not force the thoughts on new ideas and projects that they just sort of reveals themselves to me. Fun thing is, the more I delve into the 3d modelling word, the more inspired I can be by the stupidest stuff. Like yesterday for example. Walked in the local forest, and then I saw this lovely small dirt road with an interesting transition to the surrounding terrain. My head thought following: “This is lovely, I want to create a forest road course sometime with these elements”. I guess what I try to say is, creativity and inspiration comes in many shapes and forms, don’t try to force it. Listen with your eyes and mind to your soundings – you’ll be surprised what you mind can do at it’s own when you do not force it.

Are there any tools, tips or tricks you would recommend to budding mod authors? What's the best way to get started with modding?

Oh, this is a tricky one! If you read on the web you’ll find “best guides” or “best tools / practices” etc., but ultimately it is about finding your own way. I read somewhere from someone much wiser than me something like the following: “a program is a mere canvas and extension of your imagination”. What I think this means: find the path that works for you. If it be Blender or 3ds Max, Photoshop or Gimp, etc. Find the thing that feels just right for you. Take small steps, look ahead, and accept that you will never truly create that “perfect piece”. Don’t be discouraged by last sentence, what it means is that as you progress your skills, you will also progress your own expectations. Nobody judges you as hard as yourself, but instead of looking at it as a bad thing, think of it is a personal development. We will never be perfect, nor is it the goal, but it will regardless make us better humans - or in this context, better creators.

What are your future plans? Where do you see yourself, say, two years from now?

Hmm! Then the question becomes how much honest do I dare and want to be? ;) Well, on a practical level my first goal is to finish master’s degree by spring next year. And that is mostly it for the practicalities. Then we delve a bit into “what do I want”? I think it is safe to say that what these last 3 years has taught me, is that I aspire, work and dream towards being able to be a full-time software / game developer. Being able to invest all my time and energy, (and not school and two part time jobs at same time), at creating software with a team of people is what I’d hope I will be doing. At same time I got to be realistic; it is a hard marked and a lot of more talented people out there, yet again, dreams are important and what drives us forward. Time will show; I don’t know what the future holds, but I will nevertheless meet it, head-on and ensure to make the best out of it!

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Even if I am extremely humbled by all this attention, I wish to put the spotlight on the teams. By teams I mean both the team around me at the modding community scene but also team Bugbear. The former has brought so many ideas, thoughts, feedback and joy to me personal, and I think it would be unfair for me taking all the credits. Much of what the mod has become is because of you, and there are lot of unsung heroes here. The same goes for the latter, team Bugbear. I won’t do name calling, but you know who you are, you who has answered so many AI questions, tech questions, art questions, personal motivation and support in times when needed.

I believe in the effort of the team and a group of people. One person only reaches so far, but a team of people working together can move the world. If anything, this horrible long text and history should be a testimony of what lengths people can go with the support of others. This is why modding communities are so important; We inspire and help each other’s to bring forth the best in us and create truly unique creations only limited by our imagination! (Oh and time, please, give me like 2 semi-trucks of time please! There is just not enough time in this world!)



A huge thanks to Tor for taking the time to answer our questions! Like said earlier, a number of Tor's overhauled tracks are coming to the base game in the next update but in case you can't wait make sure to check out The Very Track Pack in the Steam Workshop (and if you do, make sure to let Tor know!):

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=764432700
Apr 26, 2019
Wreckfest - jannesBB


Howdy friends,

As we've mentioned previously, while porting the game to the consoles we're also using the opportunity to improve many aspects of the game. During the past weeks we've already been introducing some of the improvements to you but we're not stopping yet.

One pet peeves we've been fighting with for a long time has been the lack of proper collision detection of the car bodies on the vertical axis (up/down), meaning that when cars have gotten on top of each other, for example when landing a jump, they have often clipped into each other and become a tangled mess. If you've played the game any longer than for a few minutes you've no doubt noticed this grievance – and many of you have, based on your feedback – and it's indeed frustrating, sometimes even getting you wrecked instantly when someone lands on top of your car and the cars get stuck into each other, causing them to deform like there's no tomorrow and resulting in massive damage.

Well – we're happy to let you know that no more! Check this out:



See what happens? Apart from that looking very unhealthy for the driver of the Rocket, the cars speeding from the ramp hit the car on the ground as well as each other, but instead of clipping into each other, the cars get beautifully deformed and are able to continue racing. Pretty neat, isn't it? Not only it looks much better (as in, less glitch-y) but it also makes a huge gameplay difference especially on tracks with jumps.

Now, there are still some pesky details regarding the collisions that we need to work out but with the main issue solved we're confident that they can be sorted out pretty easily and that we can push out this improvement in the next update.



In the grand scheme of things this is admittedly a pretty small detail but since it can have quite a significant impact on the gameplay and knowing how much many of you have been looking forward to an improvement, we thought we'd already give you a sneak peek.

Play it again, Sam:



Thanks for all your support and stay tuned!
Wreckfest - jannesBB


Howdy partners,

If you've ever played the game for more than a few minutes, you would have been hard-pressed not to notice that the computer-controller AI Players mostly use the same cars with the same paint job and upgrades (more like no upgrades, to be honest), no matter what the performance class or whether you're playing racing or demolition derby. Looking at the same cars all over again makes all the different events feel generic and it's definitely something that many of you have been hoping that we could improve at some point, but why is it like that anyway?

Well, it's not because we were simply slacking off – creating paint jobs and configuring vehicle assemblies, not to mention setting them up for the career events, takes a considerable amount of time, and we were quite simply running out of it back when the game was being released on PC. Rest assured, we were not happy about it and thought it was definitely something that we wanted to improve later down the road. Releasing the game on consoles has given us time to improve many aspects of the game, and we're happy to let you know that this is one of them!

So yes, first of all we have created many more paint jobs for the AI cars. What that means is that now the chances of seeing two or more cars share the same paint job in one event is much smaller. The game is also clever enough to pick correct AI Players based on the event, so for example banger racing and folk racing themed events during the career will feature AI Players racing with banger racing styled cars whereas demolition derby events will put you against mean looking demo cars. This is actually true for car models as well, meaning that the AI Players will only use car models that fit the theme of the event – so for example in a folk-racing event they only use the type of cars that are used for real-world folk-racing as well, giving the game an extra immersive touch.

We also went the extra mile to make sure AI cars now sport appropriate derby upgrades like heavy bumpers and side protectors, making the derby events not only much more exciting but also challenging, since the AI Players are no longer driving around in boring bone stock cars. And actually, the higher the AI Player class is, the higher the chance of them using spoilers and other racing-oriented goodies in the racing events, upping the ante and giving a better show.

Thanks to these improvements, the game now feels more varied as well as immersive especially in regards to its career mode. And talking about the career: who knows, you might even receive an awesome paint reward or two from some of the special events for bragging rights!

Of course we need to have a screenshot drop too so here we go:











And to end on a high note let's have one final teaser...



See you the next time!
Wreckfest - jannesBB


Howdy friends,

How are everyone doing this fine afternoon? As we all know, new vehicles are high on everyone's wish list when it comes to new content, and as we've mentioned earlier, we have a number of new vehicles in the pipeline. Today, we're going to put the money where our mouth is and introduce you to one of the upcoming additions: Motorhome!


That's a pretty mean looking motorhome, don't you think? Even if you're not feeling the call of the open road and crowded camping sites, you're going to love this thing and be a happy camper!

As you can see, our version of the titular recreational vehicle stays true to the spirit of Wreckfest, featuring a body that shows its age and a wicked, demolition derby inspired paint job. Not only that, but we also really went to town with the body damage, and as a result you will see individual body panels of the camper section getting mangled and ripped off in collisions, getting opened up like a sardine can – pretty awesome!



Back when we were thinking about what kind of vehicles to add to the game, a motorhome really was a no-brainer for us. It's something that's occasionally used in real-world demolition derby events (well, to be honest what wouldn't be?), and since we love taking cues from the real life that's always a huge plus in our books. Also, being quite a bit, erm, campy, a motorhome will fit right into the style of the game and offer a nice change of pace whenever you'd feel like you want to take a break from the serious racing and have some recreational fun.



The best part of all this is that Motorhome will be launch content for console versions of the game and a free content update for all owners of the game's PC version. There will be also some new, fun career events featuring Motorhome, and naturally it will be available for multiplayer as well.

That's all about Motorhome for now, folks. We can't wait until you get to try it out for yourself but since we have quite a few balls up in the air at the moment we don't dare to give even a rough date for the next PC update. That said, it's coming and it will have plenty of neat improvements and exciting content. Watch this space for more news!
Mar 8, 2019
Wreckfest - jannesBB
Howdy all,

Here's a quick question for you (and it's not a trick one): What's that one obvious thing that Wreckfest has been missing compared to other racing games? That's right, a minimap! And by that, we mean the little overhead presentation of the track, complete with cute little dots showing your car as well as the other cars, all neatly tucked away in one of the corners of the screen on your HUD.

A minimap is something that's long been our to-do list, not only because it's pretty awesome but also because it has quite a few benefits. For starters, it makes it much easier for newcomers to get up to speed and start racing properly, obviously so because it removes the need to keep guessing where the next turn is and which way the track is going. Also, and this is a big one, for Wreckfest in particular it's extremely useful during demolition events because you can use it to quickly glance where your opponents are, removing the need to drive in circles especially during the latter stages of the match, looking for the remaining cars, all while possibly risking triggering the dreaded contact timer.

This being the case, we thought it would be a high time we added one so that' what we did!

Here's our minimap in all its glory:



A closer look:



We're still working with the some bits like finalizing the HUD layout, minimap size as well as figuring out how much further ahead to show the track but we wanted to already give you a sneak peek since for the most part, the minimap already functioning like a proper one should, doing a fab job at showing the next stretches of the track and the other cars. It also rotates according to your direction of travel, so up is always forward, and zooms according to your speed, meaning that the faster you're going the further away the view is. This works well especially in larger demolition arenas, in so that when you're rolling ahead slowly you can clearly see the cars in the immediate vicinity and when increasing speed, the whole arena comes into the view. Like alluded to earlier, the distant sections of the track are faded away.

Here's another sneak peek, this time in demo derby:



And closer:



As you probably already guessed, those gray dots are poor souls that have been already wrecked.

We also found out that having a minimap definitely makes playing a more exciting experience. For one thing, it obviously makes it easier to target your rivals and evade their hits during demolition events, or dodge those clever whippersnappers going the wrong way with a school bus. Besides, when playing catch-up during racing events it's fun to glance at the minimap to see whether you're catching up or whether you need to step up. What's even more fun is seeing the leader go off the track or even come to a completely halt, meaning that they crashed! Good times.

Oh, and one final note to our content creators: The minimap is being generated run-time from the track data, so as long as your sector data is more or less legit the minimap should work straight out of the box even for your custom tracks.

The minimap will be part of the next update of the game, and we can't wait until you folks get to try it out. That's all for now but see you the next time for more exciting progress reports on what we have in store for you!
Act of War: Direct Action - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Graham Smith)

“We’re doing an 8chan AMA and we have no idea why,” announced THQ Nordic on their Twitter account earlier this evening. If you’re not aware, 8chan is an imageboard website which has been de-listed from Google search results for hosting “suspected child abuse content,” and which is associated with Swatting and Gamergate.

THQ Nordic’s marketing director has since apologised and claimed ignorance, but both are hard to believe.

(more…)

Wreckfest - jannesBB


Howdy friends,

As you know, we've been working with the console versions of Wreckfest ever since the launch of the game's PC version. One major task that we've been keeping ourselves busy with is improving the performance on both console and on PC. Needless to say that whatever your platform, maintaining a smashing framerate is almost as critical in a fast-paced racing game as it is in a first-person shooter, and sure enough, improvements in this regard is something that we know many of you have been looking forward.

We're happy to let you know that much work has been completed already. For instance, the optimization of the rendering engine has yielded immediate gains in the raw rendering performance, instancing is now used for billboard trees as well as spectators, saving valuable memory, and vehicles now have multiple levels of detail that are used based on the distance to the camera – and the new vehicle detail setting that you can change according to how much grunt your gaming rig has.

While optimization is an on-going process, and yes, we know that there are still further gains to be had, we thought this would be a good opportunity to take a look what kind of performance improvements you can expect in future. To do that, we decided that the best way to show you the goods is to go old-school and simply compare the Minimum, Maximum and Average framerate between the latest Steam release and our current internal developer build.

The comparison was performed by doing three laps with exactly the same event settings: Midwest Motocenter, manually selected Mixed Class AI Set, 24 cars and Noon time of day, and while doing our best to ape the gameplay in both runs. The graphics quality options were set to Medium with V-Sync naturally disabled. This is of course not a scientific analysis at all (just look at how hardcore the lads over at Digital Foundry are doing it), but nevertheless, we'll let the numbers speak for themselves:



Open the larger graphic by clicking here.

As you can see, there's a considerable performance improvement with the average framerate seeing a whopping 37% increase after switching to the new build. The minimum framerate naturally occurs at the race start with most of the other cars still in the viewport, and while it's still a taxing situation, the new numbers look much healthier with almost a 50% improvement over the Steam build. The best part of all this is that all this improvement is gained without needing to dial back the game's visuals.

While we were at it, we also compared the system and video memory usage between the Steam build and latest developer build, with results as follows:



Larger graphic here.

The difference is not as striking as was the case with framerate, but even so we can see roughly a 10% reduction in the memory consumption, no doubt thanks to instancing support and track specific optimizations that we've been doing. This track is probably one of the tracks benefiting the least from the latter, seeing as it has never been very resource hungry compared to certain other tracks. Incidentally, this track was chosen for this performance comparison exactly because it's one of the tracks that has not seen much work done on it since the last Steam release due to not really needing much optimization.

This comparison was performed in single-player, with proper multiplayer benchmarking with a full grid being obviously much more difficult to arrange. That said, we expect most gains here to trickle down to online side of things as well and help with performance. Furthermore, we have implemented certain multiplayer specific optimizations like dead reckoning for remote cars which will reduce the CPU load in multiplayer, something we know is a sore point for most players. Also consider that this test was performed on a single system, and naturally your mileage will vary depending on what your rig is bottlenecked by. All things considered, we're hopeful that these improvements will make the game more accessible and make it possible for more players to enjoy the game the way it was meant, no matter what kind of system they have.

So – that's that, folks. As for the release of the next update (yes, we know that's what everyone is hoping for soon), we need to ask for more patience. The console versions are nearing a critical stage, and rushing out a PC update right now would not only mean using time to make that happen in the first place but also that we would need to do post-update support to address the bugs – especially with so many changes to the game, and multiplayer in particular, no doubt there will be some nasties we won't be able to catch before the release. So, our thinking is that, seeing as the current build is pretty robust, it's best to stay on that until we're sure we have the resources to attack the new issues and support the update properly. That being said, we expect to be able to share more news and a rough target soon so please stay tuned.

Thanks for your support and see you on the track!
Wreckfest - jannesBB


As you might have heard, Wreckfest has been nominated for 2019 D.I.C.E. Award in the Racing Game of the Year category. This is a huge honor for us and of course a testament to the amazing community we have and have always had - without you, there's no doubt that this game would be nothing like it's today. We love you! To celebrate the occasion we've also released a press release that you can read in full below or on the THQ Nordic website here.

Wien/AUSTRIA, Helsinki/FINLAND, February 12th, 2019: The destructive racing game Wreckfest developed by the Finnish game developers Bugbear Entertainment has been recognized with a nomination for the 2019 D.I.C.E. Award in the Racing Game of the Year category. The annual D.I.C.E. Awards are the most important honors of the video game industry, equal to Academy Awards of the film industry.

The Finnish game being recognized as one of the 2018’s finest racing games is an accomplishment that aptly demonstrates the innovation and proficiency currently prevalent in the Finnish game industry. The small Finnish studio’s achievement is even more impressive when considering that only three games made it to the final list of the nominees. The D.I.C.E. Awards are organized on a yearly basis to correspondence with the D.I.C.E. Summit conference held on 13th of February. The trophies are presented by industry veterans and other established game developers, and they reflect the current trends of the industry.

”Being nominated for an award is already a huge privilege for us, and it shows that even a small team can achieve big things when you are skilled and motivated. The nomination is also a testament to the vitality of the Finnish game development community as well as of course our devoted supporters who have believed in us during all these years” says Janne Alanenpää, the CEO of Bugbear.

Even before the D.I.C.E. Award nomination, Wreckfest has been already acknowledged internationally. In a voting organized by GameStar, a major German gaming news outlet, in early February, Wreckfest came in as a 1st runner-up in the category of Best Racing and Sports Games released in 2018.

Wreckfest was released on PC in summer 2018, with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions slated for release later this year. In the near-term future, Bugbear plans to expand the studio and create new racing games that will rival the success of Wreckfest. “Our goal is to grow Bugbear in a racing game powerhouse, and to achieve that goal we’re looking for talented developers to join our strength” says Mr. Alanenpää.
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