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What's Nitronic Rush? What's Distance?  Okay, that's cool but seriously, what's going on here? Nitronic Rush was an immensely successful DigiPen project. The goal was simple: get to the end of the track, but both the mechanics and the tracks were uniquely challenging. In addition to the normal steering, accelerator, brake and boost, the car could jump, fly and rotate freely on two axes using rocket boosters. The tracks were challenging as well, with obstacles on the roads that themselves would give way to rideable walls and ceilings. To stay on these surfaces, you had to move fast to keep up your downforce. Luckily they stuck a huge rocket booster on the back of your car. Wanna play it? It's still free on nitronic-rush.com. Give it a try, you won't regret it. So wait, you can just boost forever? If you keep boosting, you'll gain heat. Gain too much heat and your car explodes. Tricks make you  cool , so if you keep riding walls and spinning your car in the air, you can keep boosting.You still haven't mentioned Distance Although they'd garnered a devoted following who demanded to give them money, Team Nitronic couldn't actually ask for payment- or even donations for the game they made, because DigiPen technically owns the property. They're still allowed to use the Nitronic brand to promote Distance, but that's it. The team split off after graduating, some of them taking jobs in big companies, but a few stayed together to form Refract Interactive, and went on to successfully Kickstart Distance. As of the 9th of December, 2014, it's now in Open Beta, after having been in closed alpha and later beta for a year and a half. If you donated at the Beta Level, you should have gotten it from whatever way you chose while backing. What's the multiplayer like? Nitronic Rush's engine was built by students from scratch for just one player. The last update made it possible to LAN it, but it's really janky. Distance on the other hand runs on Unity, meaning there's actual online multiplayer, as well as local splitscreen. Up to 4 players can play on the same computer at once, and there was talk of making it possible to let all four players play online from the same computer. I've never actually tested this, though, and the network code needs some work before latency becomes acceptable. Where can I see more of it in action? There's never been an NDA on the Alpha, so there's already a whole bunch of videos on Youtube, just search for "distance refract". Other than that, Refract post little updates and trailers on their channel from time to time, the latest being https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IWDTeuukfc i also stream it sometimes on hitbox.tv These games have some sick tunes! Both games share a composer. Though Nitronic Rush got a bit of assistance from M.J. "The Quiggles" Quiggly, all the songs in Distance so far have been composed by Jordan "Torcht" Hemenway. Other games he's worked on include The Fourth Wall and a Kinect game called Solstice. Both the Nitronic Rush and Fourth Wall soundtracks are available to download for free, if you follow the links above. Torcht also posts a few of the tracks he's worked on to his Soundcloud. Check it out, it's pretty nice stuff. When will Distance come out? It's already out! Kinda. Distance was released on Steam Early Access on December 9th, 2014, though you can also buy into the open beta on the official site and get a DRM-free copy via the Humble store. If you're not sure about buying in just yet, I seriously recommend checking out Nitronic Rush. It's free, it's amazing, I dare say it's the best car game to come out in 2011 (sorry, Driver: San Francisco). It's a pretty nice demo for the sort of mechanics and design that would continue in Distance. Platforms? Windows, Mac and Linux for now, with a Playstation 4 port promised for 2015. Whatever other ports might happen will probably come out later than the full PC and PS4 releases. Great Joe fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Dec 9, 2014 |
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Aug 21, 2014 21:44
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How substantial is the beta? I want to check it out because I love Trackmania, and this looks to be doing some really neat things with that same concept. Only thing is I hate doing tricks in these kinds of games. Are they needed at all?
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Aug 21, 2014 22:39
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Well, it's got an incomplete story mode. They started implementing it during the final months of the alpha and have been adding quite a bit to it ever since. Other than that, there's Sprint, Speed & Style and Challenge, which are variations on getting to the end, and a Stunt Mode, where you just try to get sick tricks and get a high score in an allotted time. For multiplayer, you also have your Reverse Tag and Soccer. Sprint and Speed & Style share tracks but the others have unique tracks made specifically for them. There's about 20 official levels for Sprint now, with the other modes having at least 2 official tracks each. They were also quick to implement Steam Workshop support there's now over 60 unofficial tracks available. As for the tricks? Give Nitronic Rush a try, it's got about the same emphasis on tricks and should give you a pretty good idea of what you're getting into if you get Distance. Also, the Beta shipped with a little intro for new arrivals, which includes this  piece of infoBeta intro posted:The game currently includes a “Pre-order Now” button in the main menu. Since we are releasing this game DRM-free, we decided to offer an easy option to potential pirates to support us if they so chose. This feature is not intended for existing backers.
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Aug 21, 2014 23:45
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In case you didn't get in the private beta (public beta is coming later, sorry, wasn't aware  ), and you're in the general Seattle area, Distance is getting shown off at PAX Prime at the Indie Megabooth. Apparently, there's gonna be swag handed out there as well.
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Aug 25, 2014 11:29
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I've played a ton of Nitronic Rush, to the point where I was only capable of beating my shortest times by a matter of milliseconds. Definitely a fantastic game that anyone interested in Distance should try out. Distance itself feels pretty much like a better Nitronic Rush in every way. As for emphasis on tricks, while they're maybe not absolutely necessary in either game, to get the best time you need to be boosting whenever possible, and in order to do that you need to be doing tricks. However so far checkpoints (free 100% cooldown gates) have felt closer together in Distance. I personally am not a fan of this, because it does make tricks less important but you may prefer it.
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Aug 25, 2014 14:52
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I loved Nitronic Rush to pieces. They updated it a ton after launch, too, and the final update hit peak awesome by including a full remake of the Battletoads Turbo Tunnel. Everything I've seen and heard about Distance seems like more of the same but better in every possible respect. My only regret is that when they were Kickstarting it, I didn't have a card available that KS would take, so I'm not in the current beta. I've watched a few gameplay streams, though, and I'm fairly confident in recommending this to anyone with a pulse. The thing to get most excited about is the new, more powerful level editor, paired with proper level sharing. Infinite fun.
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Aug 25, 2014 15:01
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My biggest complaint so far is that flying really isn't that fun. It feels cumbersome and clunky, and making the car auto-rotate towards surfaces is more annoying than it is useful. You also really lose the sense of speed that you get when on the ground, which is partially because flying actually is a lot slower. In a game about speed and sweet tricks it just feels out of place. Fortunately it's not even like 15% of all levels so it's easy to look past. Unless they tweak it substantially though I'll probably be avoiding most levels that include flying. Otherwise the beta has been amazing so far. I was actually blown away by how great it looks and feels when I started playing the "campaign".
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Aug 25, 2014 18:00
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Yeah, I kinda agree on the flying, it feels they kinda included it because of the wings in Rush 2049, though it does make for some cool cuts if you've got an eye for those. As for the auto-adjustment thing, I like it but you can turn it off in the Options.
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Aug 26, 2014 16:47
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This game is a lot of fun, agree with the flying, sometimes I can't even figure out where to go once I'm off the track. But the racing track parts are absolutely amazing. Can't wait for distance now.
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Aug 26, 2014 20:23
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Yeah, the driving feels excellent. It's kind of amazing how they do it, they basically start out making a physics system that simulates every aspect of how a real-life car would move, and then have to tune every system until it feels like an arcade game.
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Aug 27, 2014 13:45
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Alright! It's been a while but in that time, Refract have posted a couple of updates. There's a new build out that lets you toggle an FPS counter with alt+F10. Yeah, that's all the new features.  But really, the update has a ton of optimizations that help levels load faster and fix a lot of unnecessary slowdown.Other than that   Distance is hitting Early Access!!!Jordan posted:
oh right, there was a live stream of the game...two days ago. I missed it
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Sep 15, 2014 20:53
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New mini-update for October! Next patch is doing more for network stability, QOL improvements like shorter reload times and new Challenge maps! Adventure mode is getting at least one new track, which is previewed in this Imgur gallery I've linked:  The guys at Refract are answering questions in the comments section, so definitely check it out!
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Oct 8, 2014 11:41
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Early access is here! Which means people who did not make the closed beta can play! I did, and the game is freakin amazing! Is there like a goon group to play with or something? There is a worrying lack of posts in this thread.
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Dec 9, 2014 18:41
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And here I thought nobody cared about this thread.  Yeah, the game is indeed amazing, though no there's no game-specific group for it yet. I honestly didn't think of making one since this thread never really took off. If somebody makes a steam group, I'll put up a link to it in the OP front and center.  edit: I've updated the OP a bit, what with the game being in open beta and all. Here, have a video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mDVxz732rk Great Joe fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Dec 9, 2014 |
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Dec 9, 2014 20:48
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I drove through two laser grids that cut my car into a million pieces. I still had control over one little piece, and just squeaked by to the next checkpoint where it regenerated and I still managed to win. This game is loving awesome.
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Dec 24, 2014 00:31
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KOTEX GOD OF BLOOD posted:I drove through two laser grids that cut my car into a million pieces. I still had control over one little piece, and just squeaked by to the next checkpoint where it regenerated and I still managed to win. I've been thinking of starting a Workshop collection for community maps, because there's some tracks out there that are even better than the official ones, and there's tracks out there that are just plain bad. Would you guys be up for that?
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Dec 31, 2014 15:39
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