Features

Roadclub has a lot of features for a shareware game, well for any racing game. Here's the most important:

  • Immersive club setting. Do you have what it takes to become the Roadclub Master? You just got the invitation for a trial race to join the exclusive racer association Roadclub. If you got what it takes to get in, a whole new world opens where the greedy club members fight you for the top spot among the divisions in the Roadclub league system and to finally become the Roadclub Master!
  • Innovative career mode. A first for racing games, Roadclub features a league system with divisions you advance through or fall down from, like in sports. As you progress through the main league you can take detours and join cups and tournaments and smaller leagues to gain more cash and experience. What's really unique is that ALL computer-controlled members in the club advance and make decisions just like you which together with other random events like challenges and car shops with limited and ever-changing stock makes no two careers the same! Additionally you can challenge and be challenged by other members at any time. Race for cash or put your (and their!) car on the line in bet races!
  • One-of-a-kind ranking system in a racing game where you gain experience as you drive and promote to ranks giving you respect and privileges above the other members. Unlock cars, tracks and upgrades as your driving experience grants you higher levels in the internal ranks of Roadclub!
  • Between-races strategy. The races are definately not the only place where strategy and decisions require your mind to be sharp. Leagues, challenges, shops, upgrades all give you the chance to take different roads to the top. But which is the best one?
  • Quick race mode for when you just wanna get in the game and play with things you have unlocked in the career mode!
  • Fun-filled racing. Crash and tackle with realistic collisions handling, boost and slipstream to victory!
  • Arcade or Simulation difficulty levels which gives two sides of the unique new combination of realistic car handling and the classic overhead view! If you create a profile with the Simulation difficulty level the cars behave realistically and together with the manual transmission option you can have all the stunt racing fun you want. Do donuts, limousine-turns and whatever you see in the movies!
  • Visual effects enhances the experience. They include time of day lighting, shadows, weather effects and ground particle effects.
  • Adrenaline-pumping sound and music from talented independent artists! Support their work by buying the game.
  • Challenge your friends. The game records all your best times and creates ghost cars of your best laps. Send your friends the map files and they can race against your ghosts!
  • Customization. The editors used by the developers to create leagues, tracks, cars and opponents will be made available to the public, giving you the possibility to create and share custom content with your friends and the Roadclub community! (Possibly in an update after game release). You can also add all the music and portraits you want for easy access in the game. (See the manual).
  • 30+ tracks laid out in three varied environments: Countryside, Winter and Desert. Tracks can be circuits or point-to-point and all are filled with shortcuts, alternative routes and objects you can move around and smash into, or push the opponents into. Objects react realistically to the collisions thanks to the physics engine.
  • Almost 50 car types ranging from the old, simple beginner cars to the max-styled, max-powered supercars. And you don't have to rely on one. You can have up to 25 cars in your garage which you can upgrade individually to fit different kinds of challenges.
  • Help is always at hand. Don't be put off by the complexity of the game. A detailed in-game tutorial gets you going and lots of help and tips are always just a click away. If that isn't enough we have forums where you can get help directly from the developers!

About...

In this section we've added all the tasty details for the curious to enjoy!

...Career Mode

Here you will find several leagues to race in, some are optional, some must be completed to get closer to the master title. Each league has a different amount of divisions where every division consists of 6 members competing over a certain amount of tracks. You begin at the lowest division and after all tracks are completed the best two switch places with the lowest two in the division above. That way you advance through the leagues until you ultimately get a one-on-one with the current master. There's more than enough with cars, upgrades, opponents, bet races, strategic and economic decisions, and league races to keep you going for a long time until you reach the ultimate goal: to become the Roadclub Master.

...Racing

Featuring the most advanced underlying systems in a 2D-racer ever Roadclub doesn't disappoint in taking the classic top-down racing genre to whole new levels. Using common features in todays most anticipated 3D games like realistic car physics, advanced AI, collision physics, minimaps, time reports, shortcuts and multiple routes, interactive moving objects and adrenaline pumping music and sound Roadclub will keep you smiling all the way to the end of this amazing ride. And when you get that far, you can still continue racing the challenges your friends made you or give away those you made with the included editors!

...Editors

The game will include most of the tools used to create the single player campaign which give you the power to create whole campaigns of leagues with your own division, maps, cars and opponents!

  • Map editor - Easily paintbrush any kind of surface any way you like. Pick-and-place immobile and movable objects affected by the physics. Place startpositions and plot the different routes for the AI to just start racing on. Then place the invisible checkpoints everyone must cross to get their lap counted to prevent cutting. Finally setup the different surfaces available on your track. A minimap will automatically be generated ready for use in the game. Now everyone can enjoy your track!
  • League editor - Create leagues just like in the official career mode with several divisions containing lots of tracks. You can even add your own customized opponents, cars and music.
  • CPU editor - Add your own opponents two your leagues. They can even drive your own cars. Choose their racing type and their progress (upgrades) and add them to a list ready for your league!
  • Car editor - Last but certainly not least is the car editor with the power to create all kinds of cars. It comes with 7 different engine types, graphical tyre placement, engine sound choice and tons of settings to make the car handle just like you want.
  • All editors automatically import and make all content available that is present in certain directories on disk. So anyone can make any objects and just send straight to the editor.
  • Export/Import features to easily share your work with friends
  • Current list of supported external content:
  • Cars
  • Portraits
  • League logos
  • Tilesets
  • Track Objects (Static or Dynamic)
  • Engine sounds (wav/ogg only)
  • Race/Menu Music (.ogg only)

...Map System

The map system deserves a separate list. Here are it's features:

  • Currently handles tracks spanning over 4 square kilometers, with no limit on track length or track looks. No predefined turns and straights.
  • An unlimited amount of split roads, shortcuts and crossovers are supported.
  • Supports thousands of static (immobile) and dynamic (interactive, movable) objects. Each object type has several attributes like weight to make them react differently to collision.
  • Can have virtually unlimited amounts of separate surfaces with different characteristics like ice, tarmac, sand, dirt and gravel.
  • Built-in waypoint system to easily get AI-cars in the game.
  • Invisible trigger (~checkpoint) system to make sure no cheating.
  • Tracks are circuit or point-to-point.

...Car Physics

The heart of this game is the most advanced in a 2D racer ever as far as we know. We realisticly model the following. Huge thanks to Joseph Kovach for making this possible.

  • Engine features - accurate torque and power curves, possibility of upgrades like turbochargers, superchargers and nitro systems.
  • Transmission and clutch are modelled for ease of play combined with realism. Supports 5 and 6 gear transmissions with 3 different gear ratio curves. The option of automatic and manual transmission is also available.
  • Realistic Tire Modeling - models slip and burnouts in ways similar to pro 3D simulations. Includes ABS/Traction control features and FWD, RWD, and 4WD drive types. All four wheels are individually modelled to realisticly simulate these drive type and reactions to different surfaces.

...Object Physics

The game features a physics system rarely seen in 2D games. It handles realistic collision detection/response between all objects in the game resulting in realistic collisions and interaction with mobile objects. Big thanks to Olivier Renault for his work on this. Built on his physics demos our enhanced system has RK4 integration, surface materials and ground friction among other things.