The Karters 2: Turbo Charged News

Hello Everyone,

I hope you're all doing great. I've got some exciting updates to share about the game, especially about a feature many of you have been asking for:


In the last two weeks, I've been busy adding a feature many of you wanted – stickers for vehicles.
I thought this would be easy, but it turned out to be quite tricky for two big reasons.
First, I didn't just want to give you a few sticker options. I wanted to let you change how they look and where they go. Second, adding decal stickers usually slows down the game, especially on older computers or when playing split-screen with friends. So, I had to find a simpler way to do it (without the extra camera rendering requirement), which ended up needing more work.

In line with my current work on Workshop support, I'm excited to share that you'll also be able to create mods and incorporate custom stickers within the game as well :)

[h3]How Do Stickers Work?[/h3]
Each vehicle can support up to 10 stickers in designated spots, with each spot accommodating up to two textures—allowing for front and back layering. You'll have the flexibility to adjust the sticker's position, scale, rotation, color, and transparency. I believe this level of customization will enable you to design truly unique and eye-catching vehicles.
In the video below, you can see how it works.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


In "The Karters 2 - Modding Unity Project," you'll find a scene template for setting up your track, including placing the finish line, adjusting AI navigation curves, road width, start positions, colliders, boost pads, item boxes, and setting the track's loop mode.

Custom tracks will be accessible from the Main Menu, similar to other race tracks, and you can also include them in online races within private rooms.

[h3]Leaderboard Support[/h3]
Next week, I'll be adding Leaderboard support for these custom tracks and implementing a system to inform players in a private room when a track is missing for someone—preventing the race from starting until the custom track is downloaded.

[h3]Track Creation Tool[/h3]
In the future, I plan to develop a special Track Creation tool that will enable you to design race tracks, shortcuts, and borders without needing any external software. This tool aims to simplify the creation of epic race tracks, so stay tuned for more updates!


Next week, I'll be wrapping up everything related to Workshop Support, including creating comprehensive documentation to guide you through the process of creating mods for characters, vehicles, and race tracks. Following that, we'll produce a series of videos and a cool trailer to showcase this process. Expect the next dev-log update once all this is ready. :)


In the upcoming weeks, my focus will shift to finalizing game modes, online systems, and preparing everything for the final beta phase before the game's launch. The launch date and beta details will be announced once everything is set. I will be selecting beta testers by hand based on activity and feedback within our Steam and Discord communities, so your engagement really does make a difference ːsteamthumbsupː

Thank you for your continued support :) Stay tuned for more updates, and see you on the track soon!
Sebastian

Hello, everyone!

Since the start of project development, I've been very excited about the incredible potential of modding support. The creativity of community can bring new life and excitement to the game, offering something new every week, or even every day! That's why I am committed to going the extra mile with modding support for The Karters 2.

Integrating Steam Workshop directly into the game last week was a big step. This week the challenge was figuring out how to present all the custom items in the Main Menu and how they should work in terms of online support.

In the game, there is a 'Preset Support' system where you can make, edit, or delete presets that include Characters, Vehicles, Wheels, and Stickers. This system makes it easy to choose and manage your favorite combinations. Adding custom items to this system and making sure it's user-friendly was tough, but I must say it made the game so much better!

Also, I've made an exciting decision: to enable Workshop Mods in online races as well! This means you can showcase your custom characters, vehicles, wheels, and stickers in Online Races, making them visible to everyone. As long as other players have the same mod installed, they will see your customizations exactly as you do!

The way custom content integrates with the Main Menu's preset selection and creation is actually quite intuitive and easy to use. Each preset has two versions: Original & Modded.
You can select whether you want to play using the Original or the Modded version of a preset.
You can see how switching between them works in the video below:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
All your mods can be applied in the Modded preset version, and if other players don't have those mods, they'll see the Original setting instead.

Custom Tracks will also be supported in online play, but only in private lobbies. The game won't automatically download needed mods, but I will add systems to make it easy to find, download, and install the required mods in a private lobby. I am also planning a Special Track Editor, so stay tuned for more updates.

It took four weeks of hard work to add modding features to the game, along with integrating everything into the Main Menu, but I believe it's all worth it!

I hope you find this update exciting. If you do, give it a like ːsteamthumbsupː, and feel free to ask any questions in the comments!

Sebastian

Hello everyone!

You might wonder why I would dedicate an entire week to integrating Steam Workshop directly into the game's menu, considering that Steam mods can already be browsed through Steam itself.
The reason is straightforward – console support. Unlike PCs, consoles don't have the option of accessing the Steam Workshop, which means we need an in-game way to explore and download mods.
(console mods will be hosted on a different platform called mods.io )




This menu is divided into three categories:

• Mod Browse: Here, you can browse through all user-created mods. You can sort mods by Most Recent, Most Downloaded, and Most Popular (on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis). Furthermore, you can filter by types like : Tracks, Characters, Vehicles, or Wheels.
  
• Installed Mods: This section lets you see all the mods you've added to your game.
  
• Publish Mods: Here, you can publish mods to the Steam Workshop directly. Using my Unity Export Tool, you can set the thumbnail, description, and name of the mod, and build everything into a single directory with the click of a button. Once this directory is placed in the game's folder, the game recognizes it, allowing for publication or sending an update.
  

When you select a mod in any of these sections, you'll see the Mod Details screen where you can get all the info and decide if you want to download it, publish, or remove it. (The thumbnails above are just for preview purposes)



Next week, my goal is to wrap up this UI implementation and start integrating mods.io for console support. I'm also planning to add support for custom tracks, which shouldn't take too long.
Even if things take a bit longer than expected, I'm confident that, in the worst-case scenario, all modding support will be completed within the next two weeks. The great news is, with all these tools for modding, it'll be easier to add even more fun stuff to the game later on ;)

Stay tuned for more updates, and thanks for keeping up with the development!
Sebastian

Welcome back to another exciting update from last week's development progress!


Integrating workshop support for characters and vehicles is a two-step process:

1. First, you import your 3D model into Blender and usepecial tool created by Mortus (animator) . This tool automatically generates all necessary animations and configurations for your character and vehicle 3D Model.
   
2. The next step is copying these exported files into Unity project and use a special tool that I've been working on. This tool enables you to export everything into Mods Packages with just a single button. These Mods can then be directly copied into the game directory or uploaded to Steam Workshop / Mod.io.
   

This week, my focus was on this Unity tool for character export, ensuring proper recognition and initialization by the gameplay logic. Given that a character has tons of logic and over 160 animations for various actions, integrating that was quite a challenge. After the entire week of intense work I'm thrilled to share that this feature is now operational and functioning like magic!

An exciting feature is also the capability to define your character’s Name and Outfit. This means if multiple different Mods are customizing the same character, they're grouped under the same character selection button. These Mods are recognized as standard game skins, making them accessible from the Main Menu for creating Presets, and even AI can utilize them, which is fantastic. 🔥


In the upcoming week, I plan to finalize all aspects related to characters, vehicles, and wheels. Then I will proceed to work on custom tracks support. Lastly, I'll be looking into the integration of Steam Workshop and Mod.io for easy uploads and navigation right from the Main Menu

I must say, these Modding tools truly work like magic, and I can't wait to see everything that will be made by the community!

Sebastian

Hello everyone!

It's amazing to realize that the last devlog was released last year just before the launch of the online beta!
It feels great to dive back into these updates, so you can look forward to new ones every Friday 💪

Expected Release Date:
In short, it will be announced once the beta tests confirm that the game is fully prepared for launch. I am expecting one or two more closed beta test phases, with access limited to selected Discord members based on their feedback and forum activity.
But don't worry, we'll be showcasing all the game features, so you'll get a sneak peek of everything!

Development Roadmap:

1. Workshop Support - Custom Characters, Vehicles, Wheels, Tracks.
   
2. Clans/Guilds, Tournaments, Duo/Squad Online Systems Finalization** (Beta Phase)**
   
3. Game Modes, Tracks & Battle Arenas Finalization
4. *(Beta Phase)**
   
5. Game Progression (Campaign Challenges), Improvements, Bug Fixes, Polishing.
   
6. Track Editor.
   
7. Release!
   

Steam Workshop & Mod.io Support
In about 1-2 weeks, workshop support should be fully completed. The exciting news is that I have might found a way to support mods on consoles as well - its called mod.io! Content on consoles will need to be moderated but it is great to seee that it can be done :)

Last Week's Development
Over the past week, I focused on vehicle modding support and to be specific Vehicle Suspension system for custom vehicles :) It was crucial because it will ensure that the vehicle body consistently connects with the wheels and reacts appropriately. There will be some presets to choose from in Unity.

Upcoming Week
Next week I'll be finalizing custom characters and track support, then focusing on integrating mods into the game's Main Menu. After completing Workshop support, expect a special trailer and detailed tutorial on its functionality and usage 😊

Thanks!
Big thanks to everyone for your support and patience. 'The Karters 2' is truly shaping up to be fantastic 💪

Join our community: discord.gg/TheKarters