Hey KitHackers,

Before we dive in to your genius creations, we just wanted to make you aware that we've been working hard to improve your experience week by week and have made a significant number of alterations to the game! See the three hotfixes we've carried out since launch here - Hotfix #1, Hotfix #2, Hotfix #3.

Now, on to the community! We're back once again with our second series of Workshop Wonders. This edition sees a plane made from a mis-match of garish parts that perfectly meld together to make a well oiled flying machine, and a hybrid boat-submarine that you really don't want to cross paths with (we'll give you a clue - duh dun, duh dun, duh dun!).

We've linked to the Workshop items below, so you can try them yourself right now! Thank you for submitting your incredible creations to the Workshop, we love taking them for a spin, so please don't stop uploading!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3235686585&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3230054740&searchtext=formula
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3223901727&searchtext=pigskin
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3230734304&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3234822244&searchtext=
Thanks again for all of your wonderful creations! It means the world to us seeing you bring your ideas to life.

Follow us on Twitter (X), and join us on Discord![discord.com]

Hey KitHackers,

Our third Hotfix is now live! Please see a list of updates and changes below.

• Fixed vehicles not responding to inputs while in the Vehicle Editor.
  
• Added a new Reference Line to the Aerodynamics Overlay.
  It shows the ideal graph for a chosen handling preference and can be configured in the Aero Overlay settings dialog (gear button above the graph).
  
• Decal handles now take on the colour of their decal, and show the decal image on themselves.

• Fixed an issue that caused some subscribed Vehicles to not appear on the list.

• Added a new OD0-II procgen adapter part,
  now made with better fabrication processes and next-gen materials, to achieve EXACTLY the same look, but with 10x less effective shell thickness! Tremendous mass reductions, and only slightly more expensive! (original model discontinued)
  
• Fixed an issue with decal UV mapping on the adapter fuselages (both old and new models).
  
• The Pontoon part now defaults to the Aluminum material by default.

• Added a button to Delete vehicles in the Craft Browser panel.
  
• Improved how the Aerodynamics Overlay's menu handles out-of-rect clicks for dismissing itself.
  
• Fixed the orientation of popup dialogs when the view is tilted wrt the horizon.

We will continue to hotfix as we improve the game, so please stay tuned for further updates. Happy KitHacking!

Follow us on Twitter (X), and join us on Discord![discord.com]

Floating Origin Interactive and Curve Games

Hi Everyone,

Patch 2 is now live. This is another hotfix update to address the most pressing issues found during these first two weeks of Early Access.

We've got a number of general improvements, and most importantly, another considerable set of optimizations!

Here is the changelog:

* Fixed incorrect calculation of vehicle dimensions
* Added information about dimensions and part count to the Stats Toolbar details panel

* Added a screen to allow configuring Tags before publishing a vehicle to the Steam Workshop.

* Fixed incorrect layout of several expanding tooltips in the Vehicle Editor
* Fixed non-appearing tooltip for the Aerodynamics Overlay button.
* Revised the text of several expanding tooltips, replaced mentions of keyboard controls with proper dynamic glyphs.
* Fixed incorrect layout of configurable inputs on several parts' context menus.
* Decal handles are now slightly smaller.
* The Chat Input text field no longer accepts linebreaks, as they caused unwanted breaks when submitting if the caret wasn't at the end of the text.

* Made the overdraw (dotted lines) of the Vehicle Editor ground plane more transparent against the vehicle.
* Fixed visible sky flickering when moving from light to shadow areas while looking up.
* Reduced the density of underwater fog.
* Reduced pop-in artifacts of vegetation.
* Fixed imposter LODs of parked cars around the map being visible on top of the higher detail LODs.

* Untasked NPCs will now at least maneuver to avoid terrain instead of burrowing headlong into it.

* Fixed random popping sound in the Main Menu
* Environment ambience is now correctly controlled by the Environment volume slider.
* Road Traffic noises are now controlled by the World volume slider
* Vehicle Wheel skid sound is now controlled by the Vehicle volume slider
* Wheel skid sounds are less loud overall.
* Adjusted level of gas engine start/shutfown to better match the level of the idle sound.
* Adjusted the curve for engine load/rpm parameters so engines audibly rev up when accelerating.


* Added additional hints to Glider Gold, and standardized the style of notification messages.


* New terrain shading setup, significantly reduces baseline memory usage.
* The Vegetation system is now more efficient at releasing memory.


Happy KitHacking!

Cheers

Hello KitHackers,

Our very first Hotfix is now live! Please see a list of updates and changes below.

• Struts are now much more effective at securing the parts they reinforce.
  
• Struts should now snap across the two sides when overstressed (not only across their anchorings)
  
• Struts now show their stress indicators correctly.

• Fixed failure to publish vehicles to the workshop if the turntable animation ended up larger than the max allowed preview file size. If that happens, a static snapshot will be used instead.
  
• Craft files from the Balsa era that had been previously published on the Workshop will not attempt to edit the original submission.

• Minor wording tweaks to Car Basics and Aircraft Controls tutorials.
  
• Revised the descriptions for the included input presets, to mention the configuration menu for reassignment.

• Added new Default/Gamepad input preset that does not target the steam input device by default. Will apply to the first device it detects.

• Saving missions directly into a Steam Workshop location is not allowed anymore, as that can cause file sync problems.
  
• Saving a mission to a new location now copies all packed external assets, if they exist. (eg, when saving a workshop mission to a new location for editing).

We’d like to take this opportunity to give a huge thanks to the community for making our Early Access launch a huge success! Your feedback and suggestions have been paramount in us building and improving KitHack and we can’t wait to see where this journey takes us all. We will continue to hotfix as we improve the game, so please stay tuned for further updates.

Follow us on Twitter (X), and join us on Discord![discord.com]

Floating Origin Interactive and Curve Games

Hey KitHackers,

We have been absolutely blown away by the sheer ingenuity and creativity of the community thus far. Truly, thank you for contributing to KitHack Model Club.

There are currently over 140 vehicles that have been uploaded to the Steam Workshop in just under four days, from planes, to tanks and even pod racers. We highly recommend you start subscribing and testing out some of those wild community creations for yourself. They are a lot of fun to play around with.

In the spirit of highlighting community members, we want to take this Friday afternoon to show off some of our favourite items that have been uploaded to the Workshop so far!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3224379443&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3226311986&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3224628731&searchtext=stealth
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3224579808&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3225365566&searchtext=
Keep your engineering and creative prowess high, as we'll be looking to spotlight more community items in the future!

Follow us on Twitter (X), and join us on Discord![discord.com]

Hello, KitHackers!

After quite a few years of work, I'm happy to announce today that KitHack Model Club is now available in Early Access.

First and foremost, I want to thank you for taking the time to check out our game. We all sincerely hope you enjoy it!

We are all very excited about entering this new phase of the project, and we are really looking forward to working on the game along with the community. We feel that the game’s foundations are solid, but there is of course still a lot to do, and there are lots of features we still want to add.

I want to reassure everybody that we are fully committed to continuing development and fixing bugs as we go through Early Access.

I do want to ask for your support in a couple of things though: If you come across any issues, please let us know directly over on our official Discord[discord.com]. We will be actively listening and working on feedback from there.

I also want to ask, as humbly as possible, for everybody to not use steam reviews as a place to report issues. Negative reviews can be tremendously damaging to the future of a game, especially one with such a small team behind it, and that can ultimately prevent us from being able to keep going.

So before writing a negative review, all I ask is that you instead write directly to us and let us know your feedback. We will be listening, and we are determined to make the game the best it can be.

If you find yourself enjoying the game, we would be incredibly grateful if you took a moment to leave us a positive review on Steam. Your support means the world to us and helps other players discover and enjoy KitHack Model Club.

Our Discord server[discord.com] provides a dedicated space for discussions, bug reports, suggestions, and more. It's a platform where your voice can be heard, and your feedback can make a real difference in shaping the future of our game.

We’ve been impressed by the wide variety of designs we’ve seen in the Beta over the last two weeks; truly they have been amazing. We eagerly anticipate seeing all the incredible creations flood the Steam Workshop over the next few days. Whether you’re a seasoned KitHacker or if you’re just getting started, we can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with.

1. Finish creating your masterpiece
   
2. Name your craft and write a short description inside the drop-down text box.
   
3. Hit the blue ‘Save’ icon in the top right of your screen.
   
4. Once saved, click the publish icon located at the bottom right of the drop-down text box.
   
5. Review your submission on Steam and set it to Publicly Visible.

We have many special community members that have followed the journey of KitHack since it was known as Balsa Model Flight Sim. As a thank you to those early adopters, we are happy to provide a free copy of KitHack Model Club in your Steam library as a reward for your support over the years.

Lastly, here is a final thank you!

We appreciate you taking the time to check out KitHack Model Club, and for supporting our project! This is just the beginning. See you on Wirraway Bay!

Felipe, Floating Origin Interactive & Curve Games.

Follow us on Twitter (X), and join us on Discord![discord.com]

Hello, KitHackers!

We are happy to announce that we are officially taxiing for take-off! KitHack Model Club will launch on 15th April into Early Access. We’re incredibly excited to put the game into the hands of the community, giving you the opportunity to help shape our next steps.

The journey from Balsa Model Flight Club to KitHack Model Club has been ever-expanding. The project is an ambitious undertaking for a very small team, and while we could continue to reiterate and improve internally, we realise there’s only so far this approach will take us. To propel the game to the next level - we need you.

With that being said, KitHack will be launching into Early Access in just under two weeks, allowing players a true hands-on experience. An Early Access launch will open the ability for players to help carve out the path of the game as we look ahead to a 1.0 release. During this time, our goal is to create a friendly and reactive environment where you, the community, can inform us on the most important improvements and iterations you'd like to see. You’ll be able to find more about how this will work, the scheduled progression of the game and the road to 1.0 in the Content Roadmap section below.

We are a three-person development team, and KitHack is a very big project.

Manpower is our most precious and limited resource. At any given time, there’s an infinite number of things we could be focusing on. We need help from our players now, to make sure we are making the best of our available time and effort.

Should we add more parts? New Missions? Do we expand the map, or focus on Multiplayer features? The array of possibilities is vast, so an Early Access Community is essential to ensure that we are putting our very limited manpower towards the best possible use every day.

Our intention has always been for the game to really be a platform, which developers and community creators can build on for a very long time. The foundations for KitHack are already very stable, and we feel that all the essentials are in place for this next phase, where we can put all our efforts into making meaningful updates with the help of our community.

Sort of. Its predecessor, Balsa Model Flight Sim was in Early Access some years ago. We chose to pull it back as we focused on what is now KitHack Model Club. This was the right decision to make at the time, because it allowed us the freedom we needed to do deeper changes, which we wouldn’t have been able to do while supporting a live game.

The Balsa/KitHack transition allowed us to completely rethink things, like for instance, which vehicle parts are your fundamental building blocks, how missions made with the scenario editor work, even how the basic game loop flows. Changes like those are very difficult to make in a published project, as they can be very destructive.

Thanks to that decision, the game has been transformed by the addition of fully procedural fuselages, car parts and drive train components, boat parts and buoyancy physics, internal stress simulation, new atmospherics, a completely rebuilt and expanded Wirraway Bay, NPC traffic and pedestrians, Scripting support in the editor, and so many more features.

We would love for the community to join our Discord[discord.com] channel, share their playing experience and provide their feedback on what is going well and what needs our attention.

We also encourage everyone to tweak and tinker with the game itself. KitHack was designed from the very start to be as open to modding as we could make it, and we are really excited to see what the community comes up with. Feel free to come talk to us over on Discord[discord.com] about anything related to modding.

We will put up a poll asking players to help us prioritise which features we should focus on ahead of 1.0 - ranging from parts and missions to multiplayer and optimisation.

We’ve created a graphic to visualise what the roadmap looks like between the Early Access launch and 1.0 release. Phase #1 will see the launch of the game in Early Access. Phase #2 will be spent focusing on bug fixing and Quality of Life updates, as determined by player feedback. Phase #3 will be spent implementing community suggestions, and finally Phase #4 will mark a complete 1.0 launch of KitHack Model Club.

The Beta is available now! If you signed up to our email list in advance of the 4th April, you should have received your Steam key to your email inbox. If for any reason you haven’t received your key and have previously signed up to the email list, please message us on Discord[discord.com] and we’ll do our best to help you resolve any issues.

Please note, if you have signed up to the previous Alphas you will not require a new key. You will be able to load the application and start playing right away.

As mentioned in our previous newspost, we have opened the ability to upload to the Steam Workshop during the Beta. This means you can upload your designs ahead of the EA release and be some of the first people to showcase your extraordinary vehicles.

How do I upload content to the Steam Workshop during the Beta?

1. Finish creating your masterpiece.
   
2. Name your craft and write a short description inside the drop-down text box.
   
3. Hit the blue ‘Save’ icon in the top right of your screen.
   
4. Once saved, click the publish icon located at the bottom right of drop-down text box.
   
5. Review your submission on Steam and set it to Publicly Visible.

If you haven’t already, make sure you join the Discord channel[discord.com] where you can speak directly to the developers, provide feedback, report bugs and help us improve the game.

Thank you again for taking the time to check out KitHack. We really appreciate all the support. We can’t wait to continue the journey with you!

Hello KitHackers,

We’re happy to let you know that we’ll be running an Open Beta at the start of April. We were truly impressed by the inventive creations we saw across the Alpha we ran in November. We loved seeing what you’ve been able to do with the game, so we’ve concluded - we want to see you play it more!

This exciting Beta is another opportunity to get hands-on with KitHack and dig into what it’s about. If you’re a Kerbal Space Program fan, enjoy sim games, meticulous building, customisation, sandbox environments and problem solving along with a healthy dose of chaotic fun with friends, you’ll feel right at home.

If you’ve played the Alpha you may be interested in what’s changed since then. Our small team have been hard at work to include a range of multiplayer missions for you to go head-to-head with your friends, seeing who’s the most inventive and prolific model builder.

To opt-in to the Beta, please click here[curvegames.com] and complete the form using your Discord account and join the community Discord here[discord.gg]. During the beta you will get access to the KitHack Model Club Playtest application where you’ll be able to build and experiment with planes, boats, cars and everything in between, then take them out to pilot against your friends!

Beta Start Date and Time: 04/04/2024 at 3pm GMT
Beta End Date and Time: 12/04/2024 at 3pm GMT

If you haven’t heard already, we’ve been making KitHack with community and shareability first. Therefore, we’re going to open the ability to upload to the Steam Workshop during the beta. So, what does this mean for me? This means you can get in early and become one of the first people to create content for KitHack Model Club! Players will be able to upload their creations during the Beta, but please note, Workshop items will not be downloadable during this time. That functionality will be a short from now, when we go live. Yes, we did just say a short while...

Thank you again KitHackers, we look forward to the fun and chaos!

Hey everyone, Notice anything different? It won't take much searching to notice the new name "KitHack Model Club". What's with that?

As it turns out, the old name is not one we have as much freedom to use as we thought we had. It came as quite a surprise, but instead of dwell on the matter, we put our thinking caps on and came up with "KitHack Model Club."

To be honest I think this one might be even better. In the completely invented etymology of the word ‘kit-hack’, you will find shared roots to other words like ‘l33t-hacker’ or ‘hack job’. It definitely feels on point for a lot of the things we come up with in the vehicle editor.

In any case, It's not a dramatic departure and is still synonymous with all things model building, tinkering and customising. What's more, we're pretty confident this name is all ours!

The new name is not the only news coming to this page over the next few months. Make sure to keep an eye on here, because we've got interesting things coming in the very near future. Cheers!

Make sure to join the Discord[discord.com] for the latest news!