August status update, has Pixel Wheels been released?

written on Friday, September 6, 2024

Release or not?

So, has the new version of Pixel Wheels been released? Well... not yet... but it's almost there! Translators have updated their translations (thanks!), I did a few adjustments and a bunch of testing. It looks good so far.

UI tweaks

The addition of the Island track made the track selector in the "Quick Race" screen too cramped. A few months ago I redesigned it to use a primary-secondary layout: first row shows the championship, second row shows the tracks in the currently selected championship. This scales much better, but touch mode was a bit broken: one had to "double-touch" on a championship to see its tracks, so I fixed that.

I now understand why lists in many mobile games only show one item at a time, with previous / next buttons to navigate. It's not super efficient, but it makes it possible to show an item and details about it, which is difficult in a UI without notion of cursor hovering or focus.

Island adjustments

"The Island" received a few final touches: I defined track records for it, but while driving it other and other I realized the long straight line at the bottom was a bit boring, so I added some extra turbo tiles to spruce it up.

I also felt like the BRGP42 and Rocket, being fast vehicles, should be faster! I increased their maximum speed a bit.

What's next?

At the time I am writing this (early September), the new version has been uploaded to Google Play. I am now waiting for Google to bless my upload. Then I can continue with the release. Can't complain too much about this blessing step, though: it has caught bugs in the past 😅. Just have to keep my fingers crossed.