RaceLeague Released into Early Access on Steam

RaceLeague_presskit_3.jpg
RaceLeague, a new indie racing game with sim racing elements and an intuitive track editing tool is now in early access. To commemorate, we did an exclusive interview with the game's developer, Jali Hautala.

What is RaceLeague?​

The new title in the racing game world delivers on a sophisticated damage model and enables users to create their own race tracks with the in-game track editor and publish them via the in-game servers.

All the while the driving itself is nothing to be scoffed at either. With wheel support, force feedback and multiplayer lobbies, the game promises to be fun for groups as well.

For sim racers, Finnish Hautala mentioned: "RaceLeague has semi-realistic handling and support for wheels and force feedback. It also has other motorsports sim features, such as tire wear, realistic damage, pit stops and so on."

Who is the Game's Developer?​

When asked for the inspiration for RaceLeague, 28-year-old Hautala said: "Biggest inspiration for RaceLeague is definitely GeneRally, which I played a lot when I was younger. I have always been intrigued by racing games with track editors, in fact, my first pc game was Stunts from 1998. I have always enjoyed realistic physics and destruction in games, such as BeamNG and iRacing, so I guess that’s where (the) inspiration for the physics comes from."

Despite this statement, a comparison to GeneRally cannot really be drawn for the driving experience. That is because you drive in either first or third person, with no top-down in sight.

Jali Hautala is a software engineer from Lempäälä, Finland. In his free time, he develops RaceLeague, which is his first solo project.

"Before RaceLeague I have worked at BeamNG for five years, where I did programming and vehicle 3D modelling.", Hautala exclaimed about his past experiences.

What's to Come for RaceLeague?​

RaceLeague is now released into early access. When asked about why Hautala mentioned: "I feel that RaceLeague is in a stage that it can be released into public but it’s far from being feature complete. The game needs funding to achieve that status, that’s why I’ve chosen to release it for early access. I also genuinely feel that the players can enjoy the game as it is now and I don’t want to keep them from playing it any longer. Many of the playtesters of the game have hundreds of hours already logged into it."

Since the game is in early access, it is far from feature complete. Hautala maintains a development roadmap which can be found on the RaceLeague Discord as well as in-game.

The Finn also exclaimed RaceLeague to be missing a native "League"-feature, although "... playtesters of the game have planned to host them in the game’s Discord server and actually have done so in the past during the testing stage."

When asked about what's coming for sim racers, 2 important things were mentioned: "I’m planning on improving sim racing features in the future by adding triple screen support and such. Sim racing is close to my heart as I’m a sim racer myself."

In addition to that, the solo developer mentioned that "Custom setups are in the roadmap" as well.

About RaceLeague​

RaceLeague costs 24.99€/29.99USD but it uses Steam’s regional pricing so the price will vary depending on where you are located.

Since the game is in ongoing development, you can follow the development best by joining the game’s Discord server or following its social media accounts.

Does RaceLeague sound interesting to you? Let us know in the comments down below!
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About author
Julian Strasser
Julian Strasser
Motorsports and Maker-stuff enthusiast. Part time jack-of-all-trades. Owner of tracc.eu, a sim racing-related service provider and its racing community.

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Comments

R
Interesting project. What is annoying is that, in steam's rules, early access is not a way to find cash, and the point is clearly made there.

It may be a bad communication though. ACC has made a successful ea because of clear milestones at the launch of the ea and the possibility to be refund during the period. If not done like this, it's a business mistake, steam is not kickstarter.

Hope the project will end well, it's quiet promising.
 
G
I don't need a VR headset to throw up, Race League is there. Seriously, it's a small game but it's 2022.

I'd think I was stuck in the 2010s where most games were on the same level graphically and suddenly you'd come across a game that made you want to play but the graphics were stuck in 2002. I have the same feeling (for 2002) except that we are in 2022.

It's empty, it's soft, it's boring to death, it's ugly, it lags but in contrast to where there is an editor. So why bother making a game knowing that there is a publisher, just sell the publisher, you'll make money, you'll get creativity from the buyers and that should be more than enough.

I can't even imagine if ACC was released in this state in Early Access...

Video on Youtube :

 
M D Gourley
Premium
In the Video above....they look good enough to eat:rolleyes:....small, bright / colorful almost like candy:)
Looks interesting and wish them all the best, but I'm not their target market:D
 
Jugulador
People don't mind even to learn other track than Spa and one or two more... imagine how many people will give themselves the work to learn anonymous folks track designs.

I'm rooting for this game because want it to change this tendency or at least build a community that cares for more than those few more famous tracks... but can't be optimistic about and the early reviews on Steam didn't help it, specially considering that folks use to cut a lot of slack to early access games and, even then, it's reviews are bad.

But, ok.. both ACC and AMS2 begun with considerably negative feedback and today are what are. Still...
 
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G
M D Gourley said:
In the Video above....they look good enough to eat:rolleyes:....small, bright / colorful almost like candy:)
Looks interesting and wish them all the best, but I'm not their target market:D
Click to expand...
As much as I love your screenshots, I doubt if I'll be a fan of RaceLeague if you make them^^.
 
Slapped
G_B said:
I can't even imagine if ACC was released in this state in Early Access...
Click to expand...
It was. In fact in an arguably worse state - it was one car and one track - hotlap only.

I've spent a good half hour with it and this really shows some potential. It is, however in need of some serious optimisation - I've got a pretty good last gen machine (i9900K + 2080 Ti) and with the full complement of 10 AI I'm not getting 60 FPS. It's not the graphics that's the problem - it's barely touching the GPU, it's the CPU that it's hammering. I suspect the Unity physics engine is responsible as it's known to be a bottleneck, and this is not the only game to fall foul of it - VTOL VR, my favourite one man indie developed game suffers from this as well when things get busy.

Now onto pricing. With regional pricing it cost me 27 CHF (Swiss Francs) which is currently around $30, or €27 (and that's with the current 10% discount). Now I personally have no problem spending that to support a small one man indie studio in developing a game that interests me - 27 CHF is a beer and a pizza in a cheap restaurant where I live. However...

...It's way too expensive to grow the title. And if I may say so, it's way too expensive for what it currently offers. It's also facing incredibly stiff competition at the €25 to €30 mark - For example BeamNG is currently around €25 and VTOL VR is currently around €30. Both are way more complete.

I get it. You've poured your heart, soul, massive amounts of time into something. As a result your better half is starving and your cat has left you (trust me, I know cats), and after all of that you don't want to see your creation devalued.

The problem is that it's not going to sell much at its current price. If this was less than €10 then it would attract far more people who are prepared to give it a shot, thus gowing the game, and making more money as well. For example 1 person buys it at it's current price - that's €24 (less 30% Steam tax) and one person added to the user base. If it was €5 then you'll get far more people prepared to take a risk, possibly 10 times as many meaning €50 (less 30%) and 10 more users.

So to dev I would say bring down the price, get more users and grow the game, and ultimately make more money. Too many promising early access projects fail because they go in too high in price and collapse because they don't attract a user base.

I'd love to see this grow, I really would - it's rough at the moment as you would expect for an initial early access release, but shows some serious potential in becoming a cult arcade/simcade racer.
 
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flykas
Looks really interesting if it will be what I hope it will. And I hope it would be like wreckfest with more realism. + it has simple track editor. Thats awesome, I just hope that it will have realistic physics, but still remain playable with gamepad, just like BeamNG. Because of its Lo-Fi look it seems to me like it should be one of those fun racers with physics, like 1nsane or Cross Racing Championship and yeah, Wreckfest.
 
R
Slapped said:
It was. In fact in an arguably worse state - it was one car and one track - hotlap only.

I've spent a good half hour with it and this really shows some potential. It is, however in need of some serious optimisation - I've got a pretty good last gen machine (i9900K + 2080 Ti) and with the full complement of 10 AI I'm not getting 60 FPS. It's not the graphics that's the problem - it's barely touching the GPU, it's the CPU that it's hammering. I suspect the Unity physics engine is responsible as it's known to be a bottleneck, and this is not the only game to fall foul of it - VTOL VR, my favourite one man indie developed game suffers from this as well when things get busy.

Now onto pricing. With regional pricing it cost me 27 CHF (Swiss Francs) which is currently around $30, or €27 (and that's with the current 10% discount). Now I personally have no problem spending that to support a small one man indie studio in developing a game that interests me - 27 CHF is a beer and a pizza in a cheap restaurant where I live. However...

...It's way too expensive to grow the title. And if I may say so, it's way too expensive for what it currently offers. It's also facing incredibly stiff competition at the €25 to €30 mark - For example BeamNG is currently around €25 and VTOL VR is currently around €30. Both are way more complete.

I get it. You've poured your heart, soul, massive amounts of time into something. As a result your better half is starving and your cat has left you (trust me, I know cats), and after all of that you don't want to see your creation devalued.

The problem is that it's not going to sell much at its current price. If this was less than €10 then it would attract far more people who are prepared to give it a shot, thus gowing the game, and making more money as well. For example 1 person buys it at it's current price - that's €24 (less 30% Steam tax) and one person added to the user base. If it was €5 then you'll get far more people prepared to take a risk, possibly 10 times as many meaning €50 (less 30%) and 10 more users.

So to dev I would say bring down the price, get more users and grow the game, and ultimately make more money. Too many promising early access projects fail because they go in too high in price and collapse because they don't attract a user base.

I'd love to see this grow, I really would - it's rough at the moment as you would expect for an initial early access release, but shows some serious potential in becoming a cult arcade/simcade racer.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry but you misunderstand the Steam early access thing. It is absolutely not made to raise money for a project. Indeed, while paying to use the game, it is impossible to know how much money is required to complete the game you pay for. You may be throwing money away without knowkng. Especially with a single developper, it rarely ends well.

The issue is not the price, the issue is knowing whether enough people support the project. This is where kickstarter is useful.

Even for a serious developper, early access isn't a good idea. Indeed, if he can't reach his goal (the goal nobody knows, even himself), he'll get a very bad reputation and his next project will be more difficult to realise. It's a trap for the customers and for the developper.

Carerul with early accesses, as customers we have a responsability in avoiding giving away our hard earned money and in educating the developpers.
 
Slapped
roadyroad said:
I'm sorry but you misunderstand the Steam early access thing. It is absolutely not made to raise money for a project. Indeed, while paying to use the game, it is impossible to know how much money is required to complete the game you pay for. You may be throwing money away without knowkng. Especially with a single developper, it rarely ends well.

The issue is not the price, the issue is knowing whether enough people support the project. This is where kickstarter is useful.

Even for a serious developper, early access isn't a good idea. Indeed, if he can't reach his goal (the goal nobody knows, even himself), he'll get a very bad reputation and his next project will be more difficult to realise. It's a trap for the customers and for the developper.

Carerul with early accesses, as customers we have a responsability in avoiding giving away our hard earned money and in educating the developpers.
Click to expand...
With respect I 100% disagree with you. You are wrong for exactly the reasons you believe you are right.

IME kickstarters rarely end well, and I’ve personally lost a few hundred bucks on them, and as for the products I’ve actually received most of them have been utter shite, over a year late, and totally rushed to market.

With early access I get something right at the start, it doesn’t cost much, and if it goes belly up then it’s not much lost.
 
G
Well, I'm not trying to demotivate the editor, who is a single person, there has to be a first time for everything.

If it can give ideas, a Frenchman also alone has been creating games for years and we now have the best tennis game, the most complete, the most fun to play in multiplayer and even in demo version.

Those first games were ugly and as we got more experienced, we now have this kind of rendering even though he is alone.

So good finish for Race League which will serve as a springboard for Race League 2

 
BorisK
roadyroad said:
Carerul with early accesses, as customers we have a responsability in avoiding giving away our hard earned money and in educating the developpers.
Click to expand...
I agree that early access is a lottery. There are a few projects from independent developers, like gRally, that have passed away. But there are some that have been brought to a good release level, TrackDayR for example. So we'll see in the future.
 
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andrewaugust93
Love the artstyle and the customizability but that physics and handling model just looks so......... unimpressive. Feels like a generic unity engine cookie cutter driving game handling model. Cars look like they have no real weight to them.
And I know this is an arcade game and not a sim, but if Daytona USA 1 & 2 taught us anything, arcade handling can be fun if done properly.

We can tell enough from the trailer, so don't bother replying if you want to say "But it's not even out yet! You Don't Know!". We know, you should be able to know just by watching the trailer, it's not rocket science.
 
TheRealCeeBee
if those tracks from the track builder can be ripped to AC, (edit: I meant to say, exported as FBX ;) ).. then this is worth the price of entry for the track builder alone, (dev.. build a tool to replace that buggy hot mess RTB please).. considering RTB is 80 bucks..
 
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R
Slapped said:
With respect I 100% disagree with you. You are wrong for exactly the reasons you believe you are right.

IME kickstarters rarely end well, and I’ve personally lost a few hundred bucks on them, and as for the products I’ve actually received most of them have been utter shite, over a year late, and totally rushed to market.

With early access I get something right at the start, it doesn’t cost much, and if it goes belly up then it’s not much lost.
Click to expand...
I am right about steam's early access spirit : it is a good way to test a game (savings on quality control and feedback from players) but not a fund raising tool. Any title in steam's ea should be developped until its release, because it is supposed to be sufficiently financed. As a developper or publisher, you are not supposes to release a game in ea without being sure to have the money to end its development.

As a customer, you are not supposed to take any risk (excepted the final game gameplay) in buying an ea licence, you will get a complete product. In kickstarter, you take a risk as cofunder.

My point is that stating a developper wants to find money for his game through steam's ea is a huge issue.
 
R
TheRealCeeBee said:
if those tracks from the track builder can be ripped to AC, (edit: I meant to say, exported as FBX ;) ).. then this is worth the price of entry for the track builder alone, (dev.. build a tool to replace that buggy hot mess RTB please).. considering RTB is 80 bucks..
Click to expand...
100% agree, exporting the editor tracks in various formats, to allow them being used in other games, would be amazing and justify the price of the game. RTB allows to use satellite data though, which is a heavy feature...
 
T
This has potential to be an absolutely awesome rally sim. Anyone know if there is support for pace notes?
 

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