Hello, Chasers!
This month, we’re taking a look back at the launch of our new Weekly Challenges game mode, sharing some upcoming features, and giving you an update on our long term work on the weather systems.
We recently released the Weekly Challenges game mode, and after two weeks of intense competition, we already have our first winners.
Week 1 was claimed by Sum Hippie, who topped 1122 players with a score of 190,911.
Week 2 was won by Marshall Westing, beating 749 players with a score of 147,628.
We’re very happy with how this new mode has been received so far. If you’ve had the chance to play it, let us know what you think in the comments.
We first shared a design mockup of this feature in our January newsletter, and development has been progressing well. It is now getting close to the testing phase.
You can revisit the original design here:
Since then, we’ve added a new usability improvement. By holding the map button, you can now instantly open the map centered on the most recent callout. This should make reacting to callouts much faster and more intuitive during a chase.
Another customization feature coming to OUTBRK is the addition of player titles and banners.
Production on this feature will begin after chat callouts. It will roll out in two phases. The first phase will introduce a set of free titles and banners to establish the system. The second phase will add challenge based unlockables for players to earn.
These will be displayed on the player card, visible in the bottom left of the main menu and in the pause menu player list. We are also exploring additional ways to showcase player cards across the game, giving players more opportunities to display their achievements.
Here are some early examples of what to expect from this feature:
We’re entering the final stretch of the vegetation update.
With destruction modeling now completed for the full set of new trees, we are moving into the final debugging and optimization phase before sending the update to testing. This marks a major step toward delivering this large scale visual upgrade to the world.
Below is a preview of one of the new trees and its destructible parts.
The decal system has been fully refactored to properly support shadows and enable more advanced use cases.
This change allows for full-body decals on vehicles, opening the door to more detailed and dynamic visual customization. To support this, all vehicle models required minor updates, and we are currently finalizing decal rigging across the remaining assets.
This overhaul also comes with performance improvements, particularly in cases with heavier decal usage.
We started a rework of the driving system to improve overall control and responsiveness.
Vehicles will feel more natural and predictable, especially when cornering. The goal is to reduce the learning curve while maintaining a satisfying level of control.
A dedicated testing phase will soon begin to validate our changes before putting this in the game.
We’ve been working on improvements to storm visuals, with a focus on how tornadoes form within the cloud structure.
This work will allow mesocyclones to show visible rotational structure inside the volumetric clouds, with funnel clouds forming directly from the cloud system rather than being treated as separate elements.
This is still actively in development, but it represents a major step toward more realistic tornado formation and visual behavior. Once finalized, these new tornado visuals will be integrated into gameplay scenarios.
The new high-resolution scenario system is nearly ready for production and deployment planning will soon begin.
We also continued testing the OUTBRK Forecaster during a recent severe weather event in the Midwest. Early comparisons between our model run (from the morning of the event) and observed conditions show promising alignment.
Here are the two social media posts we made with our simulations:
https://x.com/OutbrkGame/status/2030821913061151169
https://x.com/OutbrkGame/status/2031545993095729392
That’s all for this update!
You can follow our detailed development on Trello here:
https://trello.com/b/nsBmMfIa/outbrk-game
Consider leaving a review on the Steam store to help us reach more future chasers:
Till next time,
-The OUTBRK Team