Since Distance's private beta was released we've been learning an unbelievable amount from new players! Now that PAX Prime is over and we've taken a couple of weeks to process the feedback, I'd like to give a recap on some of the cool stuff we've seen from players and discuss our future plans.

100 Levels Published to Steam Workshop! Community Level Stream Tomorrow (1pm PST / 10pm CET)

We hit a big milestone this week as 100 levels have been uploaded to Steam Workshop by level editor users! From gravity-less arena levels, to thematic Refract-style levels, to immaculate remakes of other racing game levels we've been floored by the creativity and passion of the Distance level creating community.

To celebrate hitting 100 levels we'll be doing another Twitch community level stream tomorrow! Starting at 1pm PST / 4pm EST / 10pm CET (on Sept. 13th) we'll be playing through as many of the newest levels as we can. Click Follow at twitch.tv/refractstudios to receive an alert when we start streaming! Oh yeah, it's also my birthday tomorrow so there might be cake...

Distance Beta Build 3087 Released

(in case you missed it, here's our latest Beta trailer)

Today we released a patch for the private beta on Steam that includes several bug fixes as well as a few performance optimizations. Thanks to all of the new Beta players who reported bugs via our bug reporting site! Visit the link below to read more about the latest build.

Read more: Distance Beta Build 3087 Changelog

Distance at PAX Prime

From start to finish, PAX was a crazy ride. For this PAX we decided to go all out and give away swag as well as debut the Distance arcade cabinet. We met tons of amazing backers, streamers, speedrunners, and new players. Similar to PAX East we showed with Indie MEGABOOTH which had a great spot on the main floor.

PAX Prime was also the testing ground for our first ever Distance racing arcade cabinet. It featured steering wheel + joystick controls (for car flight/rotation) and external lights synced with the in-game music. It was assembled with the help of some amazing friends during the few weeks before PAX. Special thanks to Andrew Nollan, Ben Nollan, Fernando Silva, Michael Fletcher, Andrew Shurney, and Chris Barrett for helping us bust this out!

I'm writing a more in-depth postmortem of our PAX experience that I'll post next week. It shows a behind-the-scenes creation of the arcade cabinet, how our swag and booth layout worked for us, and more. Watch out on refract.com and on Twitter for when that goes live.

Learning from Beta Feedback

Reading the forums, watching live streams, and playing with Beta players online has been immensely educational. While there are a ton of great, specific suggestions, the primary feedback so far seems to be that the core mechanics work pretty well. There are a lot of great points on how to potentially improve player interaction in multiplayer and what content seems to be lacking, so we're collecting all of the data and reorganizing our task lists.

Here are some highlights from the past few weeks since the Beta was released:

• GameInformer: Racing And Flying Through Portals And Leaping Over...
• Tested: Some of the Games I Had Fun Playing at PAX Prime 2014 (Video)

Over the past couple weeks we decided to optimize the game in a few areas and fix several of the bugs listed by Beta players (most of which shipped with build 3087). On top of adding content we're now looking forward to integrating the replay system Jason has been developing over the past month, adding in a car selection for the backer car and Chin's car, as well as improving usability in areas like the server browser and game lobby.

Quick Mention: Spirit Siege

Some of our talented DigiPen friends have also decided to take the indie plunge and they're looking for help on Kickstarter. Their project Spirit Siege is your "five minute strategy game fix" and claims to be the first real-time card game to offer incredibly deep PvP duels with buttery smooth controls for iOS/Android. There's some impressive talent on the team, and they're almost at 50% of their goal with only 14 days left.

Check it out: Spirit Siege on Kickstarter

Next Up... Steam Early Access This Fall

I've saved the most exciting news for last. After much discussion we've decided to pursue a release through Steam Early Access this fall! Many beta players have requested an easy avenue for their friends to play, or are simply wanting us to open it up so that there are more people playing multiplayer. In any case, we think it's a natural extension of our development style and we're excited to give it a shot. We don't have an official release date locked down just yet, but we'll let you know as soon as we do!

It might not have been clear from our previous post, but our goal in initially having a private beta is simply to provide some exclusivity to backers who have been waiting quite some time for the beta. Pre-orders after the private beta shipped now go towards our public Beta which will be on Steam Early Access.

In the meantime, we'll keep plugging away as usual. Thanks again to everyone for providing such great feedback on the Beta so far and we hope to see you during the live stream tomorrow!

- Jordan (with everyone at Refract)