So, on Monday September 2nd 2013, Xspeed reached a milestone.

Features that need to be present for the v1.0 release are completed:

Tournament Mode:

Although we intended to have several tournaments, this is not a requirement of the initial release. Instead, we will add more tournaments at a later date- the initial release will have a single 6-track tournament.

Single Race:

Done.  There’s not a lot to describe here- it’s where things started.

None of the extra race types are implemented for v1.0 but that was never the plan- they were always going to be implemented later on as artwork was built.

Ship Yard:

This is implemented via the ship select screen. Ships can be purchased for currency, which must be earned by racing in tournaments.

Upgrades can be earned simply by winning races at the moment.

Options:

We want the game to run on a wide range of hardware. Instead of designing it on an Nvidia card, we’ve designed it on an Intel HD3000 to keep PC requirements down, with options to absolutely minimise rendering so the game should theoretically run on archaic hardware.

The physics type can be reduced for those on slow CPUs. At its lowest level, the CPU requirement for each ship is reduced by 400%. This allowed the game to run on a single core 600mhz phone.

You can also tweak the number of CPU players if required.

Currency:

As mentioned, Currency is implemented. You earn credits by winning tournaments. You can then buy new ships.

Upgrades:

Ships are upgraded via upgrade points instead of currency. Upgrade points are awarded per race rather than per tournament. You will continue to earn upgrade points in each race during a tournament. Upgrade points may be merged into currency at a later date but the idea of keeping them separate ensures you work hard for your ships and upgrades. If we just gave you 10K credits at the end of a tournament, you could spend it all on upgrade credits straight away and you would miss out on a lot of gameplay.

Ships:

There are three different ship visuals implemented, with 20 types of ship handling. When the artwork is completed, these will be made available.

So, what’s still planned?

The above are the requirements for a first, initial, v1.0 release of Xspeed. They are the most basic functions of the game, but don’t be fooled, they are far from the final feature set.

More tournaments:

There will be more tournaments to play, with a different set of tracks and different AI configurations in each to provide a good challenge.

More ships:

20 ships will be in the very first release. Although there are 3 visible different ships at the moment, there are more configurations of each. It will be more obvious when more meshes have been built as they will be completely different visual vehicles.

The rest is from my previous “What’s the plan?” post:

Race Types:

These are different versions of the standard race. You can enter a tournament of any of these modes. I will not list the Standard Race as this is obvious- What isn’t, is what’s left:

Skirmish Race Type:

Your ships have extended shields at 10x their original capacity- but once you’re out, you’re out. This is a last-man-standing race to 10 laps. If you finish, you score 20 XP, if you don’t, you get nothing!

Death Bowl Race Type:

Ditch the track and replace it with an arena!

Your ships have extended shields at 10x their original capacity- but once you’re out, you’re out.

Try to survive. Ram, shoot, blow up the other vehicles and be the last man standing. XP is distributed as per a standard race.

New Name:

Let’s face it, Xspeed is a terrible name. It’s a shame that Red Forest no longer applies as I loved that.

With that in mind- if you guys can think of a name, we’ll choose one. We’ll pop your name high up in the credits for that one! We’ve had plenty of submissions but feel free to give us your ideas.