Hi all,

Big big thanks to everyone who's playing the game and giving feedback - it's been busy and overwhelming but I appreciate all the kind words and support. There have been a handful of issues raised in the past two days, but thankfully things seem stable for most, and the issues that have come up should be solvable in the near term. I just wanted to give an overview of how the next few weeks are looking to keep everyone in the loop.

Patch update 1.0.1 now live

• Added axis input support for binary actions (e.g. you can now use your thumbstick for things like indicators)

• Added a short delay when braking to a stop before transitioning into reverse

• May have fixed an issue where controllers would sometimes not work in-game despite working in the menus - please let me know if this still happens to you

• Adjusted the brightness of the UI background fade on Off-World scenes

• Slightly increased the range of motion for interior cameras, so you can better look out of the window

• Removed unused/duplicated vehicles from the Profile display

• Removed the engine preference setting from the System settings; this was only meant to be a First-Time Setup thing which initialises the defaults. You can still change the engine type in the vehicle tuning UI in-game - click the spanner while in the Vehicle dashboard.

Known issues and tips

• Anisotropic filtering is set to 16x internally, but the game can't always set the right hints for your GPU - if the road lines look blurry to you (compared to the screenshots on the Steam page), you may be able to tell your GPU control panel explicitly to use a higher anisotropy setting for Slow Roads specifically, and that should help

• Steam Deck controls had some issues due to a misconfigured Linux runtime on my end, meaning it was trying to run with Proton - I'm sorry for missing that. I've updated that so it should default to the native Linux build going forwards.

• Flickering menu and WebGL errors seem to be happening specifically on RTX5080 cards - the cause and cure hasn't yet been narrowed down but I'm investigating. One user found that they were able to start the game by switching to windowed mode while in the menu (F11) and then starting the game, switching back to full-screen once it had loaded

• Performance being limited to ~30fps on otherwise powerful systems might be due to an NVIDIA setting for "Background Application Max Frame Rate" - if this is happening to you, please double-check that setting

• Music player - seems there are a handful of issues playing certain tracks for no apparent reason, and especially on Linux people have had trouble getting local music working. I don't have a fix for this yet but I'll be investigating - sorry for the wait

• Radio streams need to be direct links to an audio stream source - e.g. if you open them in your browser, it should give a music player UI that can immediately play the stream. https://live.truckers.fm is a good example

• Javascript Exception when trying to launch the game is typically due to a missing Windows dll which you can manually download here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170#latest-supported-redistributable-version

• Floating foliage and chunks of land - thanks for reporting this, I have a good idea of the cause and will try to patch it in the next update

Targets for the next content update, 1.1.0

• Mouse upgrades to support non-click-drag movement and possibly pointer-lock steering

• Controller upgrades to solve some QoL issues like shifts in controller index leading to incorrect mappings

• Force feedback support - still some unknowns to figure out, but I'm optimistic about it

Targets for 1.2.0

• Rain, improved weather effects, and bringing back support for a day-night cycle

I learned my lesson over the past few years not to give estimated dates, but I'd really like to have 1.2.0 released as an update later in Autumn. If there aren't too many new issues raised in the next few days, I'll be getting started on 1.1.0 by the end of September.

Thanks for reading, and to all who are supporting the project - I'll be sure to keep you in the loop. If you want to follow along with the day-to-day, check out the Discord server and specifically the #dev-log channel. I'll also be keeping an eye on the Steam forums, so you can find me there if there's something you'd like to ask.

Thanks again,

- Anslo

Hey all,

Testing is going well and everything is finally falling into place for the version 1 release next week. While I didn't hit the August date I was hoping for, in these extra few weeks I was able to finalise the new vehicles and revamp all of the interiors, as well as make some critical improvements and fixes to the game as a whole. Even though I'm sure there will still be some inevitable turbulence on release day, and surely a couple bugs I've missed, it feels a lot more polished and stable now, and I think it was the right call to delay. Here's a before-after on the coupe interior, for example:

...and the coach:

In the past few days I've updated the store page with a new trailer and video clips showing off what's coming next week. In particular you get a good look at the new vehicles doing their thing. The variety feels really good, and I'm looking forward to finally getting them into people's hands. Even though I wasn't sure about adding a sports car, it's becoming my favourite way to play.

I'm going to spend the next week probably not sleeping very much and doing everything I can to make for a smooth release. Thanks again for reading, and I really hope you'll enjoy the game once it's out. I've been pouring all of my effort into finalising the Steam version for the last 8 months and I can't wait to finally let people play.

And as a reminder, the version 1 release next week marks the beginning of post-release development more than an ending. Development will continue for hopefully many months while I gradually add all the features I'm most excited for, like rain, a day-night cycle, and new locations. While I'm definitely going to take a little rest after release, I'm really just looking forward to getting to work on version 1.1 in autumn.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and see you next week,

Anslo

Hey all,

It's been a busy few weeks - development is going well, and I wanted to share some of the progress along with an update on release targets. I'm on schedule to finish core development by the end of the month, though sadly can't confirm everything will be ready for release in August. With issues raised so far during testing, and also some unexpected real-life difficulties, it seems wise to take another week or two so as not to rush these final steps. I've updated the target release month to September for now, and will try to confirm a specific date after the results of testing next week. I'm sorry to disappoint anyone who's been waiting for release in August - I promise I'm going as quickly as I'm able. I can at least keep you updated on how things are going, so here's an overview of what I've been working on.

For the first time since 2022 I've been working on new vehicles: a rally hatchback, designed for dirt trails, and a GT3-style sports car, for higher speed and traction. Both are still WIP, so you'll only get these views from afar for now, but they're complete enough that I can confirm they'll be included in version 1. Like the existing vehicles, these will each have customisations available, both for style and tuning.

I've also altered the handling physics slightly for better control, especially when sliding/drifting on the off-road tracks. You can get a feel for this in the latest demo update, though be aware the Coupe isn't the best off-roader...

Besides vehicles, I've been working on a handful of UI and quality-of-life features, including:

• Finishing the music player for playing from local files or radio streams

• Profile statistics for distance travelled under different contexts

• Milestone achievements

• A non-slip steering option for easier driving

• An option for distance interval notifications

• Extra controls for graphics settings, including disabling all foliage

• Individual gear-select mappings to support shifters

• Improved UX for controllers

Finally, many kind volunteers have graciously offered to help with localisation, and thanks to them translation is underway for a number of languages. I can't yet confirm which languages those will be, but will likely include Turkish, Brazilian Portuguese, German, and French, at least. I'll be updating the Steam page as new languages are finalised, so you'll be able to check there for confirmation nearer to release day.

The demo has been updated with a handful of changes to the engine, physics, and UI features. The same limitations are in place as before, but with a new road and a few extra tuning options for the Coupe. Full changes:

• Altered the road generation algorithm (meaning the demo road has changed)

• Altered steering/handling physics to improve feel and reduce loss of control

• Added a "non-slip steering" option which limits steer angle to help you retain traction

• Added gear-select input mapping, to support shifters - though multi-controller support is still in development

• Altered the audio system to hopefully reduce some of the crackling issues

• Added a "distance notification" feature to ping you after passing certain distance intervals (disabled by default)

• Added extra tuning settings for the Coupe

• Added extra graphics settings, including the ability to disable foliage

• Improved headlight shape/brightness, and the switch between high/low beams

• Improved UI audio a little

• Minor bug fixes and UI improvements

• Removed reference to some features that have been pushed to later updates, such as Fast Roads

Give it a try and let me know how it feels. If you're interested in testing future beta versions, you can switch the demo to the "staged" branch in the game properties on Steam, which is where the pre-release betas are tested. Join the Discord or post in the Steam forums to let me know your thoughts!

Thanks for reading, and apologies for pushing the date once more. Game dev is tough, especially as a solo developer, and the final tasks leading up to release somehow seem to never end. But they will end, and soon - I'll do my best to confirm the release date in the next news post.

See you there,

Anslo

Hey all,

The next location - a coastal road inspired by California's Pacific Coast Highway - is nearly finished, and release is looking set for August. I'll detail the roadmap for release at the end of the post - first, a preview of the new scenery and vehicles.

After spending years building the environment engine, I've finally been able to reap the fruit and refocus on the core goal of the project: making locations. This is the first true location I've worked on since initial release in 2022, and I'm really happy with how it's turning out. All that work preparing the engine to be flexible paid off; it's taken only a month of effort, with the broad strokes taking just a few days. The bulk of the time was spent developing the unique foliage systems needed for having brush coverage that looks naturally distributed and works at all view ranges. The trees also had some bespoke elements in their system design to streamline handling of the different variants - Coast Live Oaks, Jeffrey Pines, and a California Fan Palm. All of the foliage textures (besides the bark) are hand-drawn, and despite the time pressure it's been a joy to finally work on art again after so long.

The landscape is designed to mimic the California coast, with green mountains dividing ocean and desert. Foliage is richer and more lush closer to the water and in the valleys, but occasionally the road will wind up into the drier hills. The seed will determine whether you're heading "north" or "south", with an equal chance for either. Like with the other locations, there will also be options for off-road trails and single-lane roads. Those elements are still in development, but the goal is to capture the feel of an area like the roads through Tuna Canyon.

Overall, development for the Coast location went as smoothly as I could hope, and it gives me a lot of confidence for the locations that will be coming next. It's hard to choose which those will be, but the goal will be variety - something more mountainous or forested is likely. In any case, I can't wait to get back to work on it after release.

Like the Coupe, the existing Coach and Bike have had a revamp, with each receiving mirrors and getting rigged for customisation and tuning. In the next few days I'll be working on a couple of new vehicle models intended for the initial release, and will hope to show those off in the next post.

At the end of next week I'll be pausing work on new content and switching to focus on the final steps to release later in August. The temptation to keep adding new features to version 1.0 is strong, and I've been weak to it for the past few months, but with all these new features now sitting ready it's becoming hard to justify further delays. So, here's where I'm drawing the line - the last tasks before initial release will come down to this:

• Finalisation of the vehicles and US location

• Finalisation of the music player feature

• Profiles, stats, and achievements

• UI/UX polish and upgrades, especially for controllers

• Localisation

• Stability, testing, and polish

It feels really close now, and I'll be working as hard as I can to work through this list ASAP. I can't specify an exact release day just yet, but will confirm that in the next news post, along with pricing details.

While I have to set a boundary for version 1.0, development won't be stopping anytime soon - once the release is dealt with I'll be continuing through the list as usual, returning to a regular update schedule. The list is long, and priorities shift often, but currently the top items are:

• Day/night cycle support

• Rain and dynamic weather effects

• Highway variants of the existing locations (aka Fast Roads)

• New locations and landscapes

• Workshop support

Some of these had been targeted for the initial release, and I'm sorry to have to push them back, but rest assured I'm just as eager to develop them as you are to play them. This is the "fun stuff" I've been looking forward to all this time, and once the pressure of release is cleared, I'll be right back to work. And yes, these would all be free content updates added to the core game.

Thanks for reading, and thanks also to all who tried the demo so far and gave feedback - it's massively helped to get things in place for the full release. Despite the delays I'm feeling really happy with how development is going, and I can't wait to share the new stuff.

Not long now,

Anslo

Hey all,

The demo is finally complete! A little later than I'd hoped, but with much more content than originally planned. It gives a short preview of most of the new features, including:

• Vehicle customisation

• IC engines and manual transmission

• Off-road modes

• Tuning sliders

• Traffic

• Revamped UI with controller support

• Improved details and audio

It's limited to one road, and only the first 25km of that road, but you can replay it from the start indefinitely and try out all the different settings. If you start from the beginning it will also time you, for those who want a little challenge while you wait for the full release. Give it a try and let me know what you think - there's a new Demo Discussion forum on the community page, or you can join the Discord server[discord.gg].

Unfortunately I've had some issues preparing a build for MacOS - I should be able to solve them before full release, but apologies to any Mac gamers who are still waiting.

Now that nearly all of the new systems are implemented (note that the time-of-day cycle is still in development) most of the remaining work is adding content - principally, new locations and new vehicles. I've been looking forward to this part for years, and I'm hoping it'll go smoothly now that the engine has matured so much. For locations, I'm planning to add one set in the US and one in the EU, and the new vehicles will include one more appropriate for off-roading and one designed for a little more speed. I'll aim to make a progress announcement at the end of June, and by then I should have a clearer idea of a release date.

Thanks again for reading and following along, and I hope you enjoy the demo

Anslo

Hey all,

Since the last update I've been deep in development of the Steam-exclusive features -- in particular traffic, IC engines, and vehicle customisation, all of which I'm planning to include in the upcoming demo. Today I finished the major components for the vehicle customisation feature, which also involved an overhaul of the vehicle art, so this feels like a good time to share a little progress update.

First, a few angles of the upgraded Coupe, which has been given a few more polygons and some shader adjustments. After some experimentation I managed to set up a simple environment reflection system, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I've also finally added (working) wing mirrors and indicator lights, by popular request.

There are two parts to the customiser: a style config, which lets you play with how the car looks, and a tuning config, which gives you control over various parameters for physics and handling. These menus are easily extensible and can vary per vehicle; different models may have different editable elements.

For the coupe's styling you can set colour, gloss, and metallic properties for the body paint and wheels, and choose from a set of options for rim designs. Aside from colours, there are sliders for details like the window and metal tint, and eventually you'll be able to edit the license plate (not included in the demo). Longer term this menu would be where you could add details like spoilers and decals if/when they're added.

The tuning config lets you tweak the physics feel to your liking, with controls over suspension, tyre properties, and more. You can turn any vehicle into an off-roader by widening the axles, increasing the ride height, and softening the suspension. Like the Style config, this set of options can easily be extended as needed to support new features or vehicle types. You'll also be able to adjust engine properties like power and sound, once those features are finalised.

Next up I'll be back to work on traffic and IC engines, aiming to have the demo ready later in April. Traffic is now fully functional, but still needs final artwork. IC engines and manual transmissions are also mostly functional, with the major remaining task being sound design. Aside from that, everything is pretty much demo-ready - the UI has been rebuilt for controller and language support, and the new off-road road styles are already finished. If everything else goes smoothly, the demo should be out by the end of the month.

Note that these traffic models/materials are rough placeholders and will be reworked

It's still too early to judge the release date for the full game, but at this moment it's looking like late May/June. After the demo is finished, the remaining tasks are mostly the development of new locations and vehicles, which will be a lot of work but shouldn't bring any surprises. I'm hoping to have at least two new locations (one US-based and one EU-based) and two new vehicles for the initial release, with many more of each to be added in future updates. The locations are the core of the project and I can't wait to finally get to work on them - looking forward to sharing more as I go.

Thanks again for following along!

Anslo

Hey all,

To cap off a busy month I've finally revisited the vehicle interiors task that I started way back in 2022. For the last 3 years the interiors have had rough placeholder geometry, waiting for a time when the various refactors and major life events had cleared the priority list. Even though they're still quite simple, I think it helps everything to feel more cohesive and complete, and it's good groundwork for further detail coming to the Steam version. You can check it out on https://slowroads.io and let me know what you think. And if you don't like it, good news - I'm likely to add configurable colours and styles in the Steam version.

With this update wrapping up the last of the loose ends in the core codebase, I'm now transitioning to focus fully on developing the rest of the Steam-exclusive features. My goal is to finish the major pieces, like traffic and combustion engines, in March, culminating in the demo releasing before the end of the month. If I hit that target I think I have a good chance of reaching release at the end of April. 8 weeks is still too far to see with certainty, but if progress keeps up at this rate I reckon I can get there. The first test is getting the demo out in a few weeks, so look out for that in the next announcement post!

Thanks again,

Anslo

Hey all,

My goal of weekly updates in February is still going strong (though I'm cutting it a little close today), this time with more visual upgrades to close out the Hills revamp and bring Off-World up to scratch. The Hills roads now have variable road markings, matching the lines you'd expect on UK roads, and the shaders for the Off-World scene have been reworked to bring some much-needed detail. This update also adds a handful of engine optimisations which will be crucial for adding more details in future.

Next up I'll be looking at audio and interiors for vehicles, which will be a big step toward supporting new vehicles for the Steam version. As part of this I'll be figuring out the systems needed to support combustion engine sounds, manual transmissions, and vehicle customisation. Those features won't be added to the web version, but this coming week will mark the start of a pivot toward development of the Steam-exclusive features.

The plan is to wrap up some fundamental common upgrades through the remainder of February, then spent the entirety of March crunching on the Steam version. I'm also going to begin testing the waters for building a Steam demo this week, and am aiming to publish that in early March if all goes well.

Much more to come - thanks for checking it out!

Anslo

Hey all,

January has been a little quiet but I've been back at it this week, reworking the ground shader for the Hills location to bring more colour variation and detail. As part of this I've also tweaked the colours for all seasons/weathers, and altered a number of textures to improve the feel. Let me know what you think - I'm planning to upgrade the Off-World shaders in a similar way as part of 2.3.

Here's the brief changelog:

• Upgraded aesthetic detail in the Hills location

• Improved smoothness of the road generation

• Added "center" driving option for Autodrive

• Various bug fixes and performance optimisations

You can try this now at https://slowroads.io!

This weekend I'm going to start figuring out the Steam demo, at least to get my head around the build process and understand the complications in that. I'm unsure how long it might take, but I'd really like to have it ready by the end of February. Otherwise, the plan is to keep pushing small but frequent updates throughout the month, ideally once per week. The vague outline of upcoming tasks looks something like this:

• Off-World detail upgrades

• Upgrades to the forests on Hills, with performance optimisations

• Improved vehicle models/shaders

• Vehicle interiors with working dashboards

As always you can join the Discord server to follow along with the day-to-day development and test beta previews.

Thanks for checking it out,

Anslo