Official

New Community Management

We haven't changed the qualifying format, but we have changed how qualifying is run in response to feedback from hardcore managers. We're running a test of the new system tonight. It should resolve the "qualottery" complaints, and make every car run in identical conditions.

When I say we're tackling everything, I mean it. We're going all out for this update! It's even hard for me to keep track of all the changes. I'll put it all together soon in a blog or public announcement.

Well, that changes now. You’ve waited an hour for this reply today, not weeks, and I respect your frustration. There were real reasons for everything, but that doesn’t make it an acceptable experience for you. Your point is valid.

On development, before this change, others often had to come to me for opinions or simply didn’t have the answers. That created long delays or vague responses as they tried to rephrase what I meant, not always understanding it on a technical level.

There were periods where I had to focus entirely on the company itself, it’s a complex legal and financial entity. Other times, I was buried in cloud infrastructure work, setting up new systems or cutting costs. And occasionally, Apple, Google, the EU, or someone else would drop a new SDK, API, or regulation on us that required weeks of integration. Many months disappeared into that kind of work.

Running an entire MMO pipeline, from servers right up to publishing, isn’t light work. Most studios rely on third-party suppliers or publishers. We vertically integrated everything, manage it all ourselves, and self-publish the game. It makes it a lot more work when you're scaling up.

At the same time, there were hard technical and financial limits. Updating the race simulator required a C++ developer, and good C++ developers are among the most expensive you can hire. With a small team already covering Unity, web, support, servers, accounting, legal compliance, and more, it simply wasn’t viable. Without a C++ dev, the simulator was effectively a black box. We could maintain it, but not evolve it.

Here’s what’s changed this year: AI has completely shifted the equation. I can now build those updates myself. I’ve always understood the simulator deeply, just not the C++ layer. Now, AI translates that understanding into working code, while I keep it from hallucinating or losing track. We've had C++ developers quit because the simulator was too complex. The fact that I've been able to complete those jobs shows the strange but exciting times we are now living in. There are new possibilities.

It took months, yes, but the time wasn’t wasted. I began integrating AI into our workflows over a year ago, and there was a long “setup” phase with little visible output. That foundation is now paying off, the pace of development behind the scenes is unlike anything we’ve had before.

The final major benefit is that AI now handles much of the mental load that used to consume me, like an assistant, making context-switching seamless, so I can oversee all these disconnected fields. That frees me to engage more with the community while still developing. So involving the community in the process is finally something we can live up to.

In the end, talk is cheap. The only way forward is to show the progress we’ve made, and we will, this month.

I think the issue was more execution than choices. We've always been very ambitious and tackled projects at the limit of our ability. Execution suffered whenever we hit the technical or financial constraints my last post hinted at.

When I play other games, I often smile to myself, because I can see the compromises the developer was forced to make, not just the choices they wanted to make. The reality of game dev is it's always a compromise.

It's interesting you mentioned 2018. We had big surpluses back then, and 2D was far easier to maintain. All that capacity = better execution. I've said this before, but in hindsight, we took on 3D before we were ready. We've still done everything on a fraction of the budget of other games (1-10% of the budget of licensed games), so I'm proud of what we achieved, even if it didn't live up to your expectations.

What I believe has changed now is AI has made it possible for us to execute at a level that starts to be competitive with the bigger studios. I hope the next update will be to your liking, but if it isn't, I'll be here to listen. We can respond to feedback faster now too.

We’ve been going for 14 years because we never stay still. Every step forward comes with its own friction, and I know some updates can feel like a step back before we move ahead again, especially under tight constraints. But from what I’m seeing now, it’s going to be worth it.

The irony is that many of the same people criticising 3D only discovered iGP after we made a similar leap from browser to app. Back then, everyone was furious about that change too, and the game went from 45,000 users to over 4 million. No big software companies got big by staying still and playing it safe. All the games in our genre that stayed 2D or in browsers are dead.

We can't make everyone happy all of the time but we have a real shot at leading the way in this next wave of change. It will come down to execution again, and hopefully our experience means we can deliver the right gameplay to go with the visuals this time.