More than eight years after work on it began, Switchcars just graduated to a full release alongside its biggest update so far!
Switchcars was rather polished at the time of its initial launch in 2016. I kept it in Early Access all this time, however, because I wanted to add more to it. An amount of 15 hefty updates were made in the meantime, and today’s one is the biggest so far:
It adds almost 200 new vehicles (totalling to 1305), an editor for players to create their own vehicles and props, a new “Rally” game mode and many smaller improvements and bug fixes. The game is filled with lots of content, polish and replayability. Full changelog of the 1.1 update is available here.
The biggest addition is the new editor. I hope to inspire you all to create your own vehicles and props and share them with other players! Switchcars is already in IGCD top 10 for its amount of road vehicles, so seeing it grow further would be awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ROOP8Yx2rc
With this update, I’m also ending further development of Switchcars. It’s been more than eight years and the time has come for me to let it go. A game can always be further improved -- I hear you say. I agree, but we must also consider this:
Switchcars was the first game I ever programmed. It was the first game I ever released. Not many such products typically see the light of day. Yet, Switchcars did a lot more than purely exist. It’s a fun, polished game with brutal replayability. It left a footprint in the local game development scene, as one of the first games to be released on Steam from Serbia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmZrg6Eqtas
Switchcars also helped slingshot Altfuture into a more serious, impactful and self-sustainable business that it is today. It helped us create Derail Valley. Jumping from Switchcars to a genre-disrupting train simulator was quite a massive step forward! It was exactly the thrust I was hoping Switchcars would produce back when it all started. With reviews at more than 92% positive each, our games are the two highest ranked Serbian games on Steam, and we’re only getting started.
It was a very ambitious vision back in 2012 when my work on Switchcars began, but here we are! I do wish I was able to do more on Switchcars, but for a small indie game that it is, it made a huge impact and it's time to let it go with pride. I look forward to focusing my energy on other prospective goals at Altfuture. If an opportunity arises, I’d gladly do more with this title. If not, the game features the editor now, so that the community can keep adding vehicles and props for years to come.
Last but not least, I’d like to thank everyone for your patience, understanding and support over the years. There were some rather challenging times in Switchcars’ history, both personal and development-wise, and I’m glad all that is behind us now. I’m happy to have the game finally see the light of a full release -- and I hope you enjoy it for many years to come!
-Slobodan