SuperTuxKart in Microsoft video and on Slashdot

Just a few weeks after 0.8 and the subsequent winter break, 2013 started off with a bang. None other than Microsoft Research posted a video showing off their IllumiRoom projection... project, starring SuperTuxKart and FOSS shooter Red Eclipse. And no, this is not an early April's Fools.

 

 SuperTuxKart featured about 0:48-0:50

So what does this mean? Well, we should not read too much into it. Most likely they just needed something as proof of concept, and STK's free and open source nature made it possible to do without asking us, paying us or anything of the sort. I just wish they could at least have the courtesy to spell SuperTuxKart correctly. Oh well, it's free publicity for us. :)

We also made it onto Slashdot, a well known news site among the self-proclaimed geek crowd. Hopefully we will benefit from this exposure, as we are looking for coders and artists alike to continually improve SuperTuxKart. We also take monetary donations through SourceForge, and welcomes everyone who wants to get involved, whatever their skill set might be.

The road ahead can be seen at the Milestones page. We will have 4 point releases before the big 0.9 release introducing WAN and LAN network support. But the more help we can get, the quicker we can get all the planned features, so please get in touch and get involved! :)

SuperTuxKart 0.8 Released

Hi all,

over a year after the 0.7.3 release, we are proud and excited to announce the release of SuperTuxKart 0.8! We have closed over 230 tickets, and made some significant changes: You can now enjoy a story mode with challenges against a stronger AI, and improved physics with better skidding and collisions. Tracks can be driven in reverse, and we have new music especially composed for SuperTuxKart.

Many many more changes were done, the main ones are:

•     Story mode and new challenge set
•     Improved AI
•     Skidding and better collision physics
•     Reverse mode
•     New green valley track
•     New Blackhill Mansion track
•     Updated XR591 track
•     Updated Fort Magma track
•     Updated Jungle track
•     Updated Sand track
•     New music
•     Updated menus

We hope you will enjoy this brand new version!

Head over to http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Downloads to download the game now! Windows and OSX binaries are already available, and Linux binaries should appear in the coming days as packagers make binaries for various distributions.

Finally, as always, don't forget that the forum and mailing list are more appropriate than blog comments for bug reports.

A big thanks to all the people who have contributed to SuperTuxKart, without whom this release would not have been possible (full list in the credits of the game).

And finally a few screenshots :

French translation available here

SuperTuxKart 0.8 Release Candidate 1 released

Over a year after the 0.7.3 release, we are proud and excited to announce the release of the first release candidate towards SuperTuxKart 0.8!

There have been several bugfixes since the alpha release, new music by Claude Werner (Bollen),tweaks to challenges, and some modifications to tracks (most notably a new shifting sands track, thanks to ctdabomb and kalado).

Please help us test this release to make SuperTuxKart 0.8 a great release! There is also still time to help complete translations.


The main changes since version 0.7.3 are :

• Story mode and new challenge set
• Improved AI
• Skidding and better collision physics
• Reverse mode
• New green valley track
• New Blackhill Mansion track
• Updated XR591 track
• Updated Fort Magma track
• Updated jungle track
• New music
• Updated menus

 

Windows and OSX binaries are already available, and Linux binaries should follow soon (tomorrow hopefully).

>> Download here

String freeze for 0.8

Hi all,

just to let all translators know that we have now frozen the strings for 0.8. We expect the first release candidate in a few days - depending how we go with the final known bugs and outstanding improvements.

If everything goes well, we might have a release tentatively hopefully in around 2 weeks time.

Also, we want to thank everyone reporting bugs and giving feedback on the 0.8 alpha version - with your help we can release 0.8 with more confidence knowing things are working like they should (of course, we can't guarantee anything). Keep 'em coming. :)

SuperTuxKart 0.8 alpha released

We are pleased to announce the first pre-release version of the upcoming 0.8 release, namely SuperTuxKart 0.8 alpha.

Please note the following:

This is not the final version of 0.8 and thus contains more bugs, unfinished translations and is meant for testing and feedback. If you want a stable and polished SuperTuxKart experience, please download 0.7.3 from our website.
If you have installed SuperTuxKart previously, you will lose your previous highscores and challenge progress. Do not install this version in the same folder as any previous installations, and do not install a previous version in the same folder as this version.
When reporting bugs, please check if it has already been reported and remember to add the necessary details to your report (whether you can reproduce it, under what circumstances you can reproduce it, operating system and hardware details, whether you were sober or not, and so on and so forth).


The most important changes from 0.7.3 are:

• Story mode and new challenge set
• Improved AI
• Skidding and better collision physics
• Reverse mode
• New Green Valley track and Blackhill Mansion track (thanks to their authors Wolf and samuncle)
• Updated tracks XR591, Fort Magma and Amazonian Journey (thanks to Auria and samuncle)
• Updated main menu

Besides general feedback we are especially interested in the following areas:

• New skidding: Note that the skidding works completely different from the old 'sharp turn' key, and that it will take time to get used to it. Please try a while before you form your opinion, you might have to "unlearn" the sharp key handling! In certain curves it is now necessary to brake in order to take them. If you skid for a while you will get a boost when you stop skidding, so this has to be taken into account.
• AI levels: The AI is significantly stronger now, so much that we actually had to make it easier, since we were struggling to beat the AI on Expert. We particularly have problems with judging the Novice and Intermediate AI, but are very interested in every level. Expert level is expected to be quite a challenge, whereas Intermediate should be challenging but not frustrating for the average player and Novice should be suitable for new and younger players.
• Challenges: The challenges are now integrated in the story mode, and support three difficulties for each challenge. Again it's very difficult for us to see which challenges are adequate, and which aren't. So we are highly interested in people doing a complete play-through of all challenges at a certain level, and provide feedback on which ones you think are too difficult, too easy, or if they feel right.

We expect 0.8 to be final in 1 to 3 months, depending on how much bugfixing/tweaking is necessary. Meanwhile, you can help with testing (especially, feedback is welcome on challenges at all difficulty levels) and help complete translations. For feedback and discussion, please use our forum or mailing list (comments on the blog may be read but not necessarily answered).

Download SuperTuxKart 0.8 alpha for Windows (XP and newer), Linux, and MacOSX (10.5 and newer).
French translation available here
 
Happy testing! :)
Your STK team