Developer Update - July 2024

We’ve had quite a journey this year and deeply appreciate your patience and dedication. I recognise that my previous blogs set expectations high, and those expectations weren’t met within a timeframe anyone expected. While we’ve remained dedicated to delivering updates, I’m going to explain the reasons for the delays in this blog. If you’d rather skip to the good news, scroll to the next subheading.

The first reason was lengthy investment talks which diverted time and resources from development. While we received some attractive offers to be acquired by larger companies, we have a long-term vision that we don’t want to sell out or compromise on, so I want to ensure that we remain in charge of iGP Manager’s development. There are some promising options we’ll explore further in the months ahead, but there’s no rush on our end, and these things take time.

Regrettably, I also had to take a lot of time off after separating from my former fiancé. It goes without saying that this took priority over everything else in my life for a while, especially because we have children together. I worked tirelessly to ensure that they continue to have a healthy and balanced routine with both of us in their lives. I’m happy to say that’s the case today, though it’s impossible to overstate the impact this had on my life and the development of iGP Manager for many months.

The bulk of time in development has also been devoted to “routine” upgrades. In particular, migrating across four years of Unity updates, the game engine we use. An upgrade of just one year was a significant challenge in our case, let alone four. Virtually every aspect of the game had to be upgraded as part of this process, which was very manual and time-consuming. That work is now complete, enabling us to refocus on content like the 2024 car (more on that later).

Going forward, things should be much simpler. My personal life has settled into a routine which gives me more time for work, and we’re soon to be on the latest version of Unity, once we publish the next update. Whether we secure investment or not, the pace of development is going to pick up a lot.

So, let’s walk through what’s coming soon.

Gameplay & Racing Updates

The first gameplay update is going live now, alongside this blog. It builds on the improvements of previous updates and is aimed at improving racing by rebalancing "the big four" attributes. It has been developed with feedback from some of the best managers in the community. Acceleration has been nerfed slightly and the impacts of Braking, Downforce and Handling have been buffed. The formula for Research has also been better balanced to reward higher level managers more. They will notice greater gains from research than they had available to them previously.

Soon we will also be introducing the ability to change a driver’s favorite track and special abilities for the Technical Director, which will unlock new insights such as driver error data on practice laps and more precise fuel data. These features will give you more control and depth in managing your team.

There are also major gameplay overhauls in development, designed to populate all league tiers more fully and to connect the whole community more. These updates will greatly improve the experience for new and existing players of iGP Manager alike. Stay tuned for more on this in later blogs.

2024 Car Launch

We’re excited to announce that the much-anticipated 2024 car will be arriving soon. Originally planned for late 2023, it has been upgraded to 2024 spec with the extra time in development. We will be running livery competitions and seeking your input on new livery designs prior ot the launch through our socials, so be sure to follow us on X, Instagram and Facebook.

Stability and Performance Improvements

Within weeks, we expect to release a major app stability update. This update is crucial as it brings our app architecture up to 2024 spec. This time consuming upgrade was necessary to ensure future support on Android and iOS and to improve the stability and performance of the iGP Manager apps.

In September, we also expect to perform a server migration, significantly reducing our server costs. Servers are currently our biggest expense and a drain on resources. This move will allow us to reallocate those funds towards development.

We also recognise the demand to fix long-standing bugs and concerns of more hardcore players. This will become a priority once these updates have been completed. We will start on the low-hanging fruit first, working our way along to the more complex stuff.

Thank you

We also have more in the pipeline but I think it's important for us to deliver these updates to you before anything else. Thank you for sticking with us as we’ve worked through these challenges behind the scenes. We're excited to bring these updates and continue this journey together.