In about 7 hours from now, Switchcars will be released out of Early Access! With that you'll get a massive update 1.1, a new trailer, store page overhaul and some extra videos! Stay tuned for the second news post later today!

In the meantime, I thought you'd like a tease with the update changelog below. Enjoy!

Hi everyone,

It’s been a long time since Switchcars was last updated, so I want to let you know the current situation.


As many of you know already, the upcoming beta update has been in the works since late 2016. Some of its features and fixes were released in updates 13, 14 and 15, and the most difficult part of it (for me at least) was the integration of Steam API to the Switchcars engine. Being made in Pygame, this actually required some work that no other Pygame game ever did. That work was done by Damir, a friend of mine, over a year ago.

One of the update’s major new features are many new vehicles, but also something that was kept a secret until recently - Switchcars will have a vehicle editor as well as Steam Workshop available from within the game! This will allow you to create and share your own Switchcars vehicles, making those original 1000 seem like a joke!

Some of the many new upcoming vehicles


While planning the beta back in 2016 it was already apparent that Switchcars was not making enough money to sustain development far in the future. In order to continue working on Switchcars I needed to look for an alternative source of income, which I wrote about in December 2016. If you haven’t, please read that news post.

Stretched between looking for a side job, or starting another project prematurely, I was pressured to make a definitive decision. The whole basis of founding Altfuture and creating Switchcars was a stepping stone to creating revolutionary games that improve the gaming industry, and I wanted to stick to that plan. With a couple of friends we went for the most difficult ambition - develop the second Altfuture game and make it the best of its kind in the world. That game, which lets you drive trains in virtual reality, has been two years in development, known as Derail Valley.

When development of Derail Valley began, for nearly a year I was able to work on both games in parallel with no downsides. Switchcars updates 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 were all made during that period. However, when our team unexpectedly shrank to two, higher involvement from my side became necessary. Then in the summer of 2017 an opportunity to get Derail Valley funded came around, but at the cost of taking literally all of my time devoted to Switchcars.

There I was, after just having invested the last bits of money into Switchcars Steam API implementation, suddenly having to decide whether one game or the other will live.

First glimpse of the new vehicle editor

It’s difficult to put into words how it felt at the time, but making the choice of which game to end was devastating. Any choice would define a different path for the rest of my (and not only my) life. The decision eventually boiled down to understanding that Derail Valley’s funding would definitely allow for the future of Switchcars, whereas Switchcars’ income wouldn’t definitely allow for the future of Derail Valley. A cut had to be made, and finally it was that Switchcars update was to be postponed, but I had no intentions of abandoning the game.

Months later, after a lot of sweating, lack of sleep and nerve-wrecking decisions, Derail Valley made it to the top 10% of applied projects to the Serbian Innovation Fund, and after pitching in front of the investor jury, we eventually won the funding. Today Altfuture is a team of 4 members (soon to be 5) working on Derail Valley, funded for almost a year of development, and we remain focused on making it a truly revolutionary train simulation.


For the many past months, I’ve been working on Switchcars every moment I can spare, admittedly mostly on weekends. I basically allow myself no spare time until the beta update is done. What’s already complete are the new Distance game mode, speedometer, improved wind and draft effect, nearly two hundred new vehicles, and most importantly the vehicle editor shown above, one of the most complex features of the beta update. Apart from that there have been huge code changes in order to make the vehicle editor possible, mod management system, vehicle editor documentation, support for multiple languages (made by Damir), the Steam API implementation (also by Damir), which will allow creation of Workshop, Achievements, and Trading Cards (being some of the last remaining things to do).

I still can’t say when it will be complete, but I am working on it literally every moment I can. I hope you guys will love it when it’s finally out and that it’s going to be worth it.

With this post I just wanted to apologize for the delay, and explain the situation. I understand many games remain in Early Access forever, especially if a second project takes over, and I definitely don’t intend to keep it that way. The only reason I was ever putting so much effort in all this was to make it possible for us to create more awesome games, and continue showing that great products can be made from nearly impossible conditions. Part of that is maintaining games when it seems impossible, too. On the other hand, if Derail Valley ends up being successful as we anticipate (and its market potential is notably greater than that of Switchcars), there's a lot more good stuff to come.

This period has been super difficult, but I want to thank you all for understanding the situation and being more patient than I could ever hope for. I myself can’t wait for the day the Switchcars beta update comes out and see tons of new vehicles you made! Until then I will be working on it every moment I can!

-Slobodan

Hey guys!

A new update is here - this time primarily focused on your suggestions from the forum, mainly the Random ideas thread! Thank you everyone for the awesome suggestions - keep them coming! The update includes some not yet visible work too, but more on that in a later update.


Switchcars now features a relatively advanced simulation of drafting[en.wikipedia.org]! It's an aerodynamics thing: if you tail a vehicle that is clearing air in front of you, you will reach a higher top speed due to reduced resistance. However, when you steer to the side to overtake a vehicle, hitting the air wave will slow you down again.

This feature is very analog and varies from situation to situation, as it is calculated using both player's and traffic vehicle's speed, mass and height, as well as their mutual distance at every moment, so understanding it is mainly based on a feeling. Bicycles can take great advantage of drafting, but you'll see it most useful on racetracks due to high traffic speeds. Living beings are not affected by it.

Drafting system deliberately doesn't include any accented special effects (apart from the strength of whoosh sound when you steer into the air wall), but the effect will be clearer once the speedometer is implemented in the next build.


Two new engine sounds were added to the game:

• Sports Car - fast, aggressive
  
• SUV - powerful, expensive

In addition to that, vehicles equipped with ABS (2004+) got characteristic new tire-screeching sounds.


All road and rail vehicles introduced in 2018 and later come equipped with EBS. EBS will automatically apply brakes after having detected an imminent crash. It will not prevent high speed crashes, but at least their force will be reduced. When activated, EBS is accompanied by a beep sound and a speed limit icon. There are rare situations when this safety system can be irritating, deliberately giving older vehicles an advantage.


Crashing a fuel-powered vehicle will now pose another potential threat - fuel leaking. The leak will, of course, quickly deplete fuel reserves, but can also set the car on fire if the exhaust backfires!


Each segment now comes with a wind parameter of varying intensity and direction. Like Drafting, the wind force is calculated with vehicle's mass and height taken into account.

The wind has no effect in most situations, however if you are flying in the sky lanes or operating a sail-propelled vehicle (such as a Sailboat, or a Hot Air Balloon), it will affect your speed (and speed of traffic).

The wind can be so strong, especially in storms, that it will keep an unpowered plane flying indefinitely. However, the wind is unpredictable - in the very next segment it might be blowing in the opposite direction.

Currently there is no wind indicator, but it will come with the speedometer in flying vehicles, in the next update.


Many of you had trouble finding the last few remaining vehicles to unlock. There is now an additional way to unlock them - beating The Run or Hardcore!

Winning those game modes will always unlock one vehicle as long as there are any remaining, listing it the last on the end screen, indicated by a special medal icon.

• Added "City Dusk" background and lighting (shown above)
  
• Improved heavy rain (now with thunder!)
  
• Added EMP mine (damages all batteries, spawns 2029+)
  
• No more background noise spam while browsing database

Of course, there are many more small improvements and bug fixes, so be sure to check out the full changelog for more details:


As always, all changes are listed below, but also can be read from within Switchcars and its changelog viewer!

Gameplay:

- Added Draft Effect

- Subtly increases top speed when tailing a vehicle
- Calculated using player's and other vehicle's speeds, mass, heights and mutual distance
- Changing lane while tailing will induce a slowdown as vehicle strikes air again
- Doesn't apply to living beings

- Added EBS (Emergency Braking System)

- Available on road and rail vehicles introduced from 2018
- Slows down vehicle when a crash with another object is imminent
- Shows a speed limit icon above vehicle and beeps when activated
- Can be disabled with Manual Control powerup
- Animals too will try to stop before crashing

- Added fuel leaking

- Induced by crashing a fuel powered vehicle
- Causes fuel loss
- Exhaust backfire can set the leaking vehicle on fire

- Added wind force

- Affects player speed in sky lanes
- Calculated using vehicle's mass and height
- Propels vehicles with sail propulsion (sailboats, aerostats...)
- Varying direction and intensity per segment

- Win-based vehicle unlock:

- Beating The Run or Hardcore will unlock one remaining locked vehicle
- The vehicle is indicated at the end screen with a special sound and medal icon

- Added EMP mine

- If activated by player, degrades batteries on all electric vehicles in inventory
- If activated by aliens, degrades battery of player's current electric vehicle
- Inflicts minor damage
- Appears on Minefield starting in 2029

- Shield now lifts vehicle above ground while active
- Drill and Ballast now work on flying vehicles
- Internal combustion engines no longer work in vacuum
- Rockets and Thruster powerup now have Disposable fuel
- Rail Wheels increases top speed by 20%
- Armor decreases mine damage (though no vehicle is immune to it anymore)
- Doubled magnet vehicles' hit points for better upgrading usability
- Junkyards can now spawn any vehicle
- Slightly increased spawn rate of Gas and Repair station when needed
- Slightly increased powerup spawn rate in Free Roam
- Removed Grappling Hook from sail-powered vehicles
- There can no longer be only Ice Forest or only Lava lanes
- Slightly increased Manual Control spawn rate in later stages
- Moved Graveyard from default to level 2 unlock lanes

Content:

- Added Sports Car engine sound
- Added SUV engine sound
- Added "City Dusk" background and lighting
- Added new tire screech sounds for vehicles with ABS (introduced 2004+)
- Reduced volume of diesel engine sound
- Redesigned some powerup icons
- Updated all lane images with current vehicle designs
- Updated tutorial vehicles with current vehicle designs

Cosmetic:

- Improved heavy rain weather

- New sound (distinct from light rain)
- Features thunder

- Plasma vehicles no longer glow when parked, damaged or out of fuel
- Tailpipe backfire is now possible only on vehicles with rear exhaust
- Quitting game with alt+f4 is followed by a fadeout effect (damir)
- Renamed Ski Track to Piste

Interface:

- Gameover in Free Roam now changes year selection button to "Retry"
- No more background noise spam while browsing sub-menus (e.g. Database)
- Added animated arrow above Underground Passage when pursued by aliens
- Vehicle suggestion option is grayed out until having passed tutorial
- Main Menu button now informs that stage progress will be lost

Major Bugs:

- Fixed crash caused by picking up a contextual powerup far from start in Free Roam
- Fixed alt+f4 leaving process active since 1.014 (damir)
- Fixed white letterbox on some monitors
- Attempted fix at FPS drop on certain machines

Minor Bugs:

- Fixed water battery degradation not stopping when it reaches end
- Fixed magnet vehicles unable to lift off the ground when upgraded into aircraft
- Fixed cable vehicles not working properly when having some specific powerups installed
- Fixed wheel-equipped plasma vehicles still hovering after they run out of energy
- Fixed electric boats with drill installed taking water damage
- Fixed future hybrid LCV missing petrol engine sound
- Fixed electric City Car having red brake lights
- Fixed Shield staying stuck at ending sequence
- Fixed battery degradation GUI being one pixel offset when completely degraded

Other:

- Game can be closed from OS now (e.g. via close window button) (Damir)
- Various small tweaks and improvements


That's it for this update, and as always if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to post on the forum!

Hey all!

The new Switchcars update is up! While it's got a lot of small fixes and a ton of work that's yet to be utilized in the coming builds, here are some of the highlights:

Note: Hardcore mode and database entries for four specific powerups will need to be unlocked again, due to changes in the savegame system.


Remember how, apart from vehicles, different eras all looked the same? Now, the year you're in affects the look of the lanes as well! Human-made lanes, such as roads, will look differently in 1950's compared to 2030's.

Free Roam now lets you change the year during gameplay, which makes it easy to explore the new lane designs.


Switchcars now has a Mech (a military piloted robot) and two new animals, all animated and with new sound effects! More will be coming soon!


At last! Thanks to Damir (and this was no trivial task, mind you), Switchcars finally has volume control, allowing you to set the volume for sounds and music independently in options. Additionally, the game is now quieter by default as it always should have been.


Some critical bug fixes have been made, such as:

• Plugging and unplugging your headphones will now work properly!
  
• Powerup unlock indicator is no longer stuck
  
• Fixed Space and Alien World biomes never appearing in the runs since 1.013 (!)

Various more bug fixes have been made, so please check the changelog for more details.


If for any reason you'd prefer not to have to hold the right key to move all the time, now you can enable the Autorun option in the Controls Setup section. To go right just press the right key just once, and when you want to slow down, press the left key. This also comes with audio and UI cues.


As always, all changes are listed below, but also can be read from within Switchcars and its changelog viewer!

Gameplay:

- Added Autorun option
- When turned on, press direction of movement to enable and brake to disable
- Comes with visual and UI feedback
- Found in Controls Setup
- Free Roam now allows changing current year ingame
- Added one mandatory electrified railway rule to Railway Free Roam theme
- Animals no longer heal while set on fire
- Reduced airport biome frequency
- Cargo Ships, Flatcars and Semi Trailers now also give random powerups
- Tweaked parameters of a few vehicles

Content:

- Added 2 new animals
- Added a Mech
- Added lane age skin system
- Human-made lanes (e.g. roads) change appearance over time, depending on era
- There can be up to 4 different skins per lane type
- Affected lanes change skins at different years, so that overall environment evolves organically
- Updated type names of a few vehicles
- Updated oldest Go-Kart design and future Cargo Plane
- Updated engine sound types on a few vehicles

Cosmetic:

- Brakelights are now visible in daylight too
- Exhaust fumes are now white on 2-stroke vehicles
- Questionmark above Powerups is now animated
- Slightly improved heavy smoke graphics
- Large NPC planes will no longer fall when stopped by Siren
- Hybrid cars now cast red brakelights only instead of both red and blue

Interface:

- Added sound and music volume control (Damir)
- The game is no longer too loud (default volume is 60%)
- Vehicle suggestion set on "full" is no longer aggressive when the timer is not ticking
- Joystick intro screen now lists number of detected devices
- Nitrous and Grapple tutorials no longer appear while being chased by an alien
- Having cursor on "auto" resolution setting now shows actual resolution at the bottom
- Renamed some powerups to match their graphical name counterpart
- Renamed some options
- Removed redundant 1360x768 resolution
- Removed redundant "Instantly save unlocks" option, off by default now
- Upcoming biome icon now raises up immediately instead of gradually
- Added Alien Ooze healing ability description to lane database
- Added description about no speed limit in Space to lane database
- Rephrased ending messages
- Renamed "Laser requires fuel" alert to "Insufficient energy for Laser"

Major Bugs:

- Fixed audio driver not updating when unplugging headphones (Damir)
- Fixed game process staying active indefinitely after unplugging headphones (Damir)
- Fixed Powerup unlocked indicator stuck since v1.013
- Fixed Space and Alien World biomes never appearing in the runs since v1.013
- Fixed Tutorial having bugged snow section object spawning
- Attempted fix at main menu dropping FPS sometimes
- Attempted fix at letterbox being white on some monitors

Minor Bugs:

- Fixed Hardcore mode being unlocked when reaching stage 10 in The Run, even without beating it
- Fixed Manual Control not working sometimes when installed, once again
- Fixed animals having more friction after being revived
- Fixed inventory color remaining red on animals after being revived
- Fixed going too far right in Tutorial allowing starting vehicles to disappear
- Fixed Low Acceleration never showing in vehicle database
- Fixed "Grapple Up" tutorial being triggered by an invisible object
- Fixed missing and miscolored pixels on some vehicles


That's it for this update, and as always if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to post on the forum!

Hey guys,

As I wrote in December, something new has been cooking for about 8 months now. Today I’m super excited to introduce you to our new upcoming VR game - Derail Valley!

Before I continue, let me just say this - Derail Valley actually already helped fund further Switchcars development! There’s a ton of interesting things to share, but I’ll try to keep it as short as possible and stick to the key points, so please bear with me:

https://youtu.be/p5PEKotBNfo


Derail Valley is a next-gen train simulation made for VR. You drive a train using your own hands in a virtual cab, tasked to reposition rolling stock between trainyards on time. Derailment is a big part of it and it also brings some advancements to the realistic train sim genre, such as decayed railway simulation. More info on its Steam page and announcement.

If you have an HTC Vive, you can try the free demo!


Derail Valley is made by a team of three developers: Nenad, Ivan and myself. As of now, we are all part of Altfuture! You’ll find a bit more info about our history and roles on the website[www.derailvalley.com]. I remain working on Switchcars in parallel of course, as I did in the previous 8 months, with Damir who’s done work on the upcoming beta features. More on that soon!


Derail Valley is still in development, and planned to release in Early Access in Q2 2017. While still in early phase, the game is already playable and offers hours of playtime.

Initial released version will introduce some new features compared to the free demo, such as procedural shunting missions, NPC trains and more car variety. We plan to regularly make news posts about all additions to the game, with a lot more to come. You can see more info about this in the Early Access section of Derail Valley Steam page.


It’s a long topic, but basically all three of us are passionate about vehicles, game development and technology. Having experienced train sims and VR games, we simply saw room for improvement on both markets and wanted to do something about it. I wrote more about this in my new blog post[altfuture.tumblr.com].


Probably not at this point. As we are all working on this unpaid, we were brought together by passion and a collective idea around making a project that we saw ourselves the most efficient at making, which also had the highest chance of success. Based on what we’ve achieved so far I’d say Derail Valley was a great choice. As I wrote in the past, the idea is that the potential success of Derail Valley will pave the way to more future projects.


Here comes the amazing news: Those of you who read my last blog post[altfuture.tumblr.com] might know that Switchcars development days were limited due to finances. Thanks to Derail Valley, that is no longer the case!

What happened, which is also the reason we’re announcing Derail Valley a bit earlier than we originally expected, is that among more than 600 participants on an international MSI VR Jam[vr.msi.com], our game won 3rd place! We were awarded with $15.000 and some extra prizes, which will be spent ensuring stable development of Derail Valley for months to come. Obviously, since I’m working on both games simultaneously, this applies to Switchcars as well. The goal is to bring it to full release by the end of this year.

If you’re wondering if I can pull off working on both games at once, have no worries. In fact, updates 1.010 and onwards have all been made this way, and they were quite large. Lately I’ve been slowed down by the contest and preparing for this announcement, but Damir has been putting a lot of work into Switchcars in the meantime. I am back working regularly on the upcoming 1.014 update now, which I expect to come out in a few weeks.

-

Finally I’d like to express huge thanks to all of you for the support so far - revealing our second game is a big moment for us, and it absolutely wouldn’t have been possible without you!

If Derail Valley is your cup of tea, for all future updates and news you can follow it on these links:

Facebook[www.facebook.com] | Twitter | YouTube | Website[www.derailvalley.com]

You can also find @nothke, @_bgr_ and me individually on Twitter.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about Derail Valley, feel free to post on its Steam forum!

See you all soon with another (Switchcars) update!

edit: fixed mysteriously expired image link

Hey everyone!

Only a news update this time - but a rather important one:

I made a blog post detailing some key information related to Switchcars, which was never posted so far. It's related to the game's success since release, how it almost never got made, as well as future plans for both the game and the company!

Switchcars and Altfuture: a look at 2016 and future plans[altfuture.tumblr.com]

Just keeping you guys up to date - soon there will be more concrete news on the new features, can't wait to share those! Now heading back to work, and see you next time with another game update.

As always if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to post on the forum!

Happy holidays and have a great New Year guys!

Hey all!

Before diving into update details, I'd like to announce that I was temporarily joined by a programmer and a friend of mine, Damir Veapi, in solving some technical issues in Switchcars. He already did some notable work prior to release, but also in the previous update 12 and now, 13.

His involvement with the project likely won't be long, but it's very meaningful already. In this update, and throughout next several ones our aim is to make the game as stable as possible, so that it will be able to leave alpha and have its development continue in a more mature beta state.

This also means that, besides getting more stable, the game might get some awesome new features! I'm not going to announce them just yet - first we want to make sure they work.

Now onto the update!


Yes! The game now lets you run it at your monitor's native resolution, such as 1920x1080. Alternatively, you can change it to 1280x800 or 1366x768.

You won't need to worry about the settings anymore. When the game is initially started it will automatically set up the resolution to the highest possible on your screen. From that point on you can change it if you want.

Changing resolution and fullscreen mode is now applied instantly and no longer requires you to manually restart the game (for now this only works on Windows, and is being worked on for Linux).

The underlying method works the same as the Fit Screen option did previously, so you might notice the same slight visual glitches at higher resolutions. This will be fixed in one of the following updates!

For some people who have been experiencing a crash on startup due to incompatible resolution, this update should have that fixed.

As this is a new system and is likely to stay as the final one, please let me know if you experience any issues! For now the game also supports 4k and 8k resolutions, so if anyone has such screens please let me know if the game works on them (the highest resolution I was able to test on was HD).


Thanks to a forum suggestion Free Roam now features 12 environment themes to choose from, such as Railway, Arctic, Space, Alien World and City.

If you would like to peacefully explore all the trains, or spaceships in a specific year, now you can.

A theme called Mixed uses the same world generator settings as The Run and Hardcore do, allowing you to practice without time pressure or aliens on your back.

Of course, for some themes to become available you will first need to unlock specific lanes.

In other Free Roam news, if you would like to keep driving in the current segment without changes, Free Roam now lets you go to the left, infinitely! It also increases the powerup deck size to 4.


When the game is started, if there are joystick devices available, the game will now prompt you to click a button on your preferred device before receiving input from other devices.

We hope this will fix all the crashes and rogue inputs some people experienced. For example those who have steering wheels had to unplug them in order to play Switchcars, because they were sending constant input that couldn't be stopped. That is no longer the case.

More work remains to be done in one of the following updates, so that gamepads using DirectInput will be properly remappable.

If you experience any issues, please let me know! Details on what exact gaming devices you have plugged in would be very appreciated!


There were very few reports of a savegame being corrupted in the former months, however the cause of that should now be fixed, and preventively the game also creates a backup savegame file, and reverts to it in case of savegame failure. Losing a savegame due to corruption should no longer happen.


Traffic generation was modified, resulting in slightly increased traffic density, and less situations in which you cannot find a vehicle.

The build year tolerance was also tightened, so traffic is generally more bound to the era you are in. You're less likely to find oldtimers in running traffic, especially in later years.

The change also results in much improved performance, which might remove previously reported stuttering on slow machines (please let me know if the change is noticeable on your system!).


Aliens in the alien world will now be attracted proportionally to the time you've spent there. This means that going through it quickly is likely not going to add more aliens on your tail, but spending a long time there will.

Difficulty in The Run has been increased in the higher stages and years.

Like Free Roam, Hardcore too now has the powerup deck size increased to 4.


Due to another forum suggestion, contextual powerups spawning has been greatly improved (e.g. Rail Wheels, Skis). These powerups are now given mostly when truly needed, and are also giving more boost.

Many other propulsion-related powerups were beefed up too. Installing any kind of engine on very slow vehicles will immediately make them faster. Many bugs related to installing powerups were fixed (see full changelog for details).


- Animals can now be revived by getting hit by a lightning!
- Aliens now jump when you point rocket thrust or ion thrust at them.
- There is now an option to reset controls to default.


As always, all changes are listed below, but also can be read from within Switchcars and its changelog viewer!

Gameplay:

- Added Free Roam Themes
- Player can now choose an environment theme in Free Roam
- There are 12 themes, including Railway, Arctic, Space, Alien World, City
- Roads are no longer always present, except in "Mixed + Highway" and "Freeway" themes
- Theme called "Mixed" generates the world as The Run or Hardcore do, which can be useful for training
- Some themes are locked until the player first unlocks the needed lanes (e.g. Space, Alien World)
- Player can move left in Free Roam now (however the segment will never change)
- Traffic density was improved (and thus slightly increased)
- Oldtimers are much rarer in traffic now as production year tolerance was changed
- Improved contextual powerups system
- Rail Wheels, Hull, Skis and Medikit are now more likely to appear when actually needed
- Reduced contextual powerups spam
- Animals can be revived by getting electrocuted (50% chance)
- Alien spawn rate in alien world increases with time spent there
- Spending a few seconds there is unlikely to attract aliens now
- There cannot be more than 8 aliens attracted on alien world
- Increased difficulty on The Run, in later years and stages
- Free Roam and Hardcore now allow keeping 4 powerups in a deck
- Improved acceleration and speed caps on all power source powerups
- They are far more useful on slow vehicles now
- Increased minimum top speed on Hull and Skis, also making them more useful
- Increased Spoiler speed cap
- Rocket and Ion Drive thrusts make aliens jump if pointed at them
- Reduced UFO health by 1/2

Cosmetic:

- Updated car types to a class-based standard
- Mid-size Car was formerly Sedan
- Full-size Car was formerly Estate Car
- Subcompact Car was formerly Hatchback
- City Car was formerly Minicar

Interface:

- Resolution options
- By default, game will start with the highest available resolution
- Resolutions other than 1280x800 and 1366x768 may create slight visual glitches for now
- Changing resolution and fullscreen mode no longer requires a manual restart (thanks to Damir)
- Resolution and fullscreen options will be grayed out when unavailable (e.g. ingame)
- It's not possible to change resolution in windowed mode
- Added option to reset keys to default (thanks to Damir)
- Added intro screen for primary input device assignment
- Tutorial tips for powerup swap and vehicle lock now appear later to reduce clutter
- Tutorial tips for using powerups on vehicles no longer pause the game
- Subnotes in changelog are now darker for clarity

Code:

- Savegame will now ignore missing vehicles, instead of crashing, for future use (Damir)

Major Bugs:

- Prevented unused joystick devices from sending input (Damir)
- Should stop all kinds of crashes and weird behaviour that some people experienced
- Prevented rare savegame corruption (Damir)
- Optimized traffic spawning, improved performance

Minor Bugs:

- Attempted fix at electric vehicle's top speed dropping to 60 when switching vehicles sometimes
- Fixed prop planes not getting a jet engine when having Wings installed
- Fixed nonpowered aerial and naval vehicles not working when having a power source installed
- Fixed non-hover thruster powered vehicles being able to hover on Earth after being used on a dwarf planet
- Fixed Nuclear Reactor disabling helicopter flight
- Fixed Refuel powerup not always fully refueling vehicles
- Fixed Helicopter Rotor not becoming the primary propulsion on vehicles it can't lift
- Fixed Helicopter Rotor not working on nonpowered VTOL vehicles
- Fixed lightning setting an electric vehicle on fire, when it had room to charge
- Fixed a bug with some internal timers running while the game is paused
- Fixed replacement alien taking too long to spawn sometimes
- Tweaked a few non-fitting vehicle production years
- Fixed alien producing metal crash sound when hitting animals
- Fixed "vehicle in range" indicator trying to make sound in space
- Fixed Marina missing "Deep liquid" description in database
- Fixed one Half-track using rubber sound for its tracks
- Fixed some faulty pixels on two vehicles

Other:

- A few other tweaks


That's it for this update, and as always if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to post on the forum!

Hey everyone!

The new update is up, bringing us the biggest Switchcars changelog yet, not only since launch, but since Switchcars development began in 2012!

The shear amount of general small changes is enormous. Here are some highlights, although I recommend reading the full notes too.

Note: this update will reset the "config.ini" file which contains your graphics, controls and other settings.


The update is mainly focused on vehicles. They were all revised, and most of their graphics updated for better consistency, looks and purpose clarity. Some received minor graphical changes, whereas others complete overhauls.

For example, nearly all aircraft and future vehicles were remade from scratch, looking closer to how they might look in real life. Magnet and plasma vehicles are now easily distinguishable with featuring cyan or light purple glowing pads underneath, respectively. Car designs now more closely resemble the era they come from, particularly in the 1970s-2010s range.

Redesign also includes replacing some redundant vehicles with completely new ones (e.g. two Tiltrotor VTOLs have become Maritime Helicopter and Light Attack Helicopter), and there are many non-visual modifications to vehicles as well. Trains, trolleybuses, mining vehicles, animals and some others have been made much more practical on their native lanes.

The color palette of vehicles was improved, their shadows now conform to the size of the vehicle, and so do glows from the lights underneath if they have any.


Due to popular demand, you can now choose starting years later than 2040, for any game mode. However, they will have to be unlocked first, the same way the years were unlocked up to that point.


Headlights have been redesigned, now also featuring more types (there are tungsten, LED and the rare yellow ones). Neon light modifications now come in different colors!


As with every update, there are tons of small gameplay tweaks. For example, Alien Younglings will be hurt more when using Teleport, but they (together with any other living beings) heal faster when on Alien Ooze lane type.

Magnet cars now appear earlier, giving players more reason to use them. Self-driving Cars and Taxis can provide a Manual Control powerup, giving players choice to drive manually or not.

Various powerups were tweaked (see changelog for details), as well as their spawn rate. Hardcore and Free Roam spawn more powerups now.


Changes were also made to alien spawning and stopping power, resulting in subtle differences in The Run difficulty, and considerable increase in Hardcore difficulty.

Player character now suffers considerable friction when rolling, depending on the material type, thus moving long distances with grappling hook only is no longer viable.


When beating the game, the end message will be picked randomly from a pool of many, revealing various final musings of the main character.

End screen now also lists the game mode and starting year at the bottom, providing more complete information about the run.


There were many bugs fixed (see changelog for details), including missing light glow in caves from previous update, as well as an old crash that would occur if you alt-tab while the game is loading.


The game features an ingame changelog viewer now, so you might want to read the full notes there. Alternatively, they are all listed below:

Gameplay:

- Human rolling is now affected by terrain friction
- Reduced aliens' stopping power when touching player
- Years 2040-2054 are now available as starting years (but need to be unlocked first)
- Alien Ooze now heals living beings, including aliens
- Increased alien spawn rate in Hardcore
- Increased speed of various vehicles, previously not very useful
- Trains, Trams, Trolleybuses and Cable Cars
- Horses, Elephants and Cows
- All mining vehicles, including Speeders and Handcars
- Submarines, Solar Boats, Swamp Buggies
- Battle Spacecraft
- Rebalanced production years of all future vehicles (2016+)
- Magnet vehicles appear earlier, giving players more of a reason to use them
- Slightly increased chance of repeated railway biomes
- Increased powerup spawn rate in Hardcore and Free Roam
- Increased Teleport damage on living beings
- Shortened Shield charge time from 0.5 to 0.4 seconds
- Self-driving cars and taxis can give Manual Control now
- Rockets can give Disposable Power Bank (simulating the second stage rocket)
- Reduced underwater friction on submarines
- Reduced friction of magnet roads
- Reduced fuel consumption of Nuclear Reactor
- Reduced acceleration penalty of Armor powerup
- Reduced speed penalty of Offroad Wheels
- Tweaked powerup spawn rate per type balancing
- Increased Medikit spawn rate (for use on animals)
- Lightning strike can no longer set an electric vehicle on fire, if it had room for charging
- Using Shield will resurface player, if underwater
- Refuel and Repair stations blow up if standing on them for too long
- Light rain is no longer accompanied by Storm Clouds
- Bright HDR flash when exiting caves is less intensive if the weather is bad (e.g. fog, rain)

Content:

- Redesigned 1000+ vehicles
- Improved visual consistency, aesthetics and purpose clarity of all vehicles
- Includes minor tweaks as well as complete graphical overhauls (e.g. all aircraft and future vehicles)
- Car design better reflects the era it comes from
- Magnet vehicles are easily distinguishable by cyan glowing pads underneath
- Plasma vehicles are easily distinguishable by light purple glowing pads underneath
- Guns are more noticeable on most armed vehicles
- Most vehicles with offroad wheels are now visually lifted off the ground
- Matched emergency light position with the light effect on all vehicles
- Repurposed or modified some vehicles
- Changed Plough to Dump Trailer
- Changed Flying Taxi to Flying Car
- Changed one Rocket Train to Jet Train
- Changed one Tiltrotor VTOL to Maritime Helicopter
- Changed one Tiltrotor VTOL to Light Attack Helicopter
- Changed one Tandemrotor Helicopter to Transport Helicopter
- Changed one Mobile Radar to Radar Truck
- Changed one Handcar to Speeder
- Changed one Gyroglider to Gyrocopter
- Changed one Rocket Plane to Spaceplane
- Changed one VTOL Attack Plane to Bomber
- Changed one Private Jet to Regional Airliner
- Changed one Sedan to Hatchback
- Changed one Aerobatics Plane to Aerobatics Biplane
- Modified UFO to be more useful, less reusable
- Modified Battle Spacecrafts to have Laser instead of Rocket Launcher
- Modified flying cars to not be able to float on water (except the Flying Float Car)
- Modified one IFV to have Machine Gun instead of Cannon
- Modified one Armored Car to have Cannon instead of Machine Gun
- Modified unarmed GEV to have propeller propulsion
- Modified one Limousine to be electric instead of a hybrid
- Modified one LCV to be a hybrid instead of electric
- Modified one Minicar to be self-driving
- Modified one Self-driving Car to not be self-driving
- Modified one Snow Coach to use tracks instead of skis
- Modified one Snow Coach to use wheels instead of skis
- Modified one Icebreaker to have nuclear power source
- Updated some vehicle type names
- Improved vehicle paintjob color palette on all vehicles
- Updated all vehicle colliders [WIP]

Cosmetic:

- Emergency vehicles can spawn as being on duty (speeding with siren on)
- Traffic emergency vehicles now have siren glow too
- Long vehicles now have long shadows (or glows)
- Neon lights now come in varying colors
- Improved headlight graphics
- There are three types of headlights now, tungsten, LED and yellow (rare)
- Added stability control to vehicles entering production after 2011 (no tire screeching on them)
- Added alternate explosion animation
- Supercar racetrack layer now includes various kinds of sports cars and bikes (like an open track)
- Underground environment is now lit by rocket and ion drive thrusts
- Plasma hovercrafts are now lifted off the ground
- Removed headlights usage from light rain weather
- Electric road vehicles now cast blue brakelight spotlight, rather than red
- Dirt no longer sticks to wheels of most vehicles
- Installing Electric Motor to a light prop vehicle will change its sound to electric prop
- Improved Laser graphics
- Added a downwards arrow to an Underground Passage prop
- Salt flats now generate dirt

Interface:

- Win screen now gives a random message every time (there are 13 currently)
- Game mode and starting year are now listed at the bottom of the gameover screen
- Tweaked lose screen message formatting
- Precisely specified what Neon Light does, in database
- Recharging icon and glow are now blue instead of cyan
- Cripsier font in changelog viewer (thanks to Damir)

Code:

- Switched to a newer version of SDL2 (Damir)
- Automatic generation of config file when starting the game for the first time (Damir)
- Added available system resolutions readout, for future use in options (Damir)
- Optimized terrain particle VFX texture usage

Other:

- Timer no longer starts counting after pressing any button, but when player starts moving
- If browsing database or options on end screen, aliens will go away and stop spamming

Major Bugs:

- Fixed a crash with alt-tabbing during loading (Damir)

Minor Bugs:

- Fixed engine deceleration sound not playing when it should sometimes
- Fixed biome-repeating becoming more likely the more it repeats
- Fixed new aliens not able to spawn if existing ones have repositioned recently
- Fixed cave lighting glow from previous update not working
- Fixed electric submarines getting damaged by water
- Fixed Manual Control not giving control to player sometimes when used on AI vehicles
- Improved teleports not being triggered when going through them very fast
- Prevented self-driving magnet cars from swerving off magnet roads for powerups and teleports
- Fixed smoke not appearing above objects on fire
- Fixed installing Swimming Belt disabling Drill ability
- Fixed installing Wings to a GEV not making it able to fly
- Fixed Shield sound not stopping when switching vehicles
- Fixed two Snow Coaches not spawning on Snowy Highway and Ice
- Fixed rain sound not stopping immediately when using Radar
- Fixed broken vehicle getting unbroken when installing a powerup
- Fixed dead animal getting up in inventory after using Repair
- Fixed plasma vehicles playing metal friction sound when braking
- Fixed Alien Youngling using wrong braking sound when not controlled by player
- Fixed dirt not being applied to an entire vehicle sometimes
- Fixed beating Hardcore changing the starting year
- Fixed Disposable Power Bank not giving power to vehicles that were originally non-powered
- Fixed missing "too scared to go there" alert when going left
- Fixed presence sound on hovercrafts not being looped properly
- Fixed clock sound being heard before the timer starts counting
- Fixed player being able to go left in the first tutorial resulting in cars disappearing
- Fixed installing Solar Panel not setting up the correct top speed
- Fixed player character swimming in Sea Ice, which is shallow
- Fixed a pixel-gap at the bottom of the screen in 16:9, visible when raining on gameover screen


That's it for this update, and as always if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to post on the forum!

Hey everyone!

A new update is out and brings a number of new things to Switchcars!


For all of you who've beaten the game many times a new mode is now available - Hardcore! Hardcore mode, which only becomes available once you've beaten The Run, features 3 stages rather than 10. They are very long and the timer ticks only 5 seconds before not one, but two aliens show up chasing you.

The idea behind the game mode was to have a tough challenge from the very start of a round, without the usual build-up present in The Run, yet make it still possible to beat it. Right now Hardcore is quite fun and beating it is highly satisfactory, but it is also in experimental phase, meaning that some things could be changed over time based on your feedback. Please let me know your thoughts about it, and I'm looking forward to seeing hardcore gameplay videos and end-screen captures!


The game now lets you see what's new in every update, directly from the database. If the game was updated, a notification in the main menu will lead you to the latest changelog, where you can read about the update. Other than what's new, you can browse changelogs of every previous update, all the way up to 21st November 2012 when development on Switchcars started.


Based on a forum suggestion, recharging electric vehicles now reduces their battery capacity with 1/6 ratio. The more the vehicle is recharged, the less capacity it has, however repairing the vehicle will restore the battery to a new state.


Another forum suggestion is a new kind of powerup that effectively provides instant refuel which also changes the power source and prevents it from being refueled again. Disposable Power Bank is very useful as a last resort in very tight situations.


This active powerup lets you brake hard by deploying a parachute behind the vehicle. It's particularly useful at avoiding obstacles at very high speeds, such as when in a Land Speed Record Vehicle.


Electric propeller vehicles now have their own drone-like sound. The most common examples are the older generation flying cars in 2030's and 2040's.

Crash sounds have been expanded with 9 new ones, making action moments feel more dynamic and less repetitive.

Light and heavy jets got improved engine sounds, as well as heavy propeller vehicles, all having gradual acceleration rather than being maxed out immediately.


When entering or exiting dark caves, the game will simulate eyes adapting to a new brightness level. Leaving a cave will cause a bright flash, whereas entering a cave will make you see almost nothing but darkness for a moment. Shooting and explosions now light up caves slightly.

Thanks to another community suggestion, all vehicles now turn on headlights (and brake lights when braking) in dark or foggy environments. Traffic can also flash headlights as a warning if you're in its way.


With Teleport found naturally in them, younglings have become a very tactical asset. As with vehicles, using the teleport will hurt the animal, however riding the animal itself will have it regenerate health. With calculated use they can be a life-saver, but at the same time the Younglings are very fragile.

As usual, there have been many more smaller changes to the game of course (e.g. bicycles and mining vehicles are now faster), so make sure to check out the full changelog - except this time you can do it either here below, or in the game's own viewer if you so desire!


Finally, I'd like to mention that RPS yesterday published an article about Switchcars. As I've been dreaming of having it for years, I'm quite glad about its existence :)

RPS: Planes, Trains and everything else: Switchcars


Gameplay:

- Added experimental Hardcore gamemode [WIP]
- Unlocked by completing The Run
- Timer is always set at 5 seconds
- Two aliens appear at timeout
- Stages are very long
- There are only 3 stages
- Late-game powerups can be acquired at start
- No additional aliens spawn in alien world
- Added battery degradation
- Range of electric vehicles gets decreased by 1/6 of every recharge
- Degradation is visible on the battery level bar
- Degradation is fixed by using repair stations or powerups
- Using non-waterproof electric vehicle in water will degrade the battery
- Added Disposable Power Bank powerup
- Provides energy to a vehicle, but cannot be further refueled
- Found naturally in Gyrobuses
- Added Drogue Parachute powerup
- Instant braking
- Useful on very high speed vehicles
- Includes sound effects
- Found naturally in Dragsters, Spaceplanes and more
- Alien Younglings are now equipped with a Teleport
- Increased damage of Teleport ability on living beings compared to vehicles
- Increased speed of mining vehicles
- Increased acceleration of bicycles
- Radar and Horn are now present on more vehicles
- Fire Extinguisher is now a human powerup (meaning it can also be used on non-vehicles)
- Added back the possibility of having fogless rain (light rain)

Content:

- Added electric prop motor sound effect
- Improved light jet, heavy jet and heavy prop engine sound effects
- Added 9 new crash sound effects

Cosmetic:

- Added lighting effects
- HDR effect simulates eye adaptation when entering or exiting underground environments
- Shooting and explosions slightly light up underground environments
- Added headlights and brakelights to vehicles
- They turn on in bad visibility (visual effect only)
- They stop working if vehicle's hitpoints drop to less than 80%
- Traffic can now flash headlights in addition to using horn
- Added light glow effect when using Siren

Interface:

- Added changelog browser
- Accessible via Database
- Shows what's new in the latest and all previous Switchcars versions
- Features a timeline of updates since Switchcars development started
- Timeline gives a quick overview of size of all changelogs ever made
- Player will see a notification icon if the game was updated and its latest changelog not seen yet
- Difficulty description is custom tailored per selected gamemode
- Animals are no longer "broken down" but "incapacitated"
- Added helmet icon to "life saved" notification
- Added battery recharge lane-marker to recharge tutorial
- Reduced footprint of "warning: FPS too low" text
- Renamed "reset tutorial tips" to "re-enable tutorial tips"

Major Bugs:

- Fixed input accumulation during tutorial pause
- Reduced repeating sound glitch when using grappling hook

Minor Bugs:

- Fixed engine sound stuttering sometimes
- Fixed unequipped animal not updating in inventory when revived
- Fixed Alien Younglings spawning on Earth
- Fixed Explosives not damaging player
- Fixed electric vehicles not being affected by water when submerged
- Fixed installing a powerup on a very damaged vehicle blowing up the vehicle
- Fixed a bug with oncoming traffic not blowing horn at high speeds
- Fixed clicking noise on heavy prop engine sound effect
- Fixed a sound glitch in recharging tutorial tip, when triggered by laser fuel consumption

Other:

- Entering vehicles equipped with unseen powerups will automatically unlock them in database
- Various small tweaks

That's it for this update, and as always if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to post on the forum!