The latest version of the Streets of Rogue 2 alpha demo is here! My primary focuses since the previous version have been improvements to city generation, a greatly expanded save system, and solidifying the frontend UI’s functionality.

Astute readers of the roadmap might remember that I had planned to add Cell Phone functionality this month. I got a bit sidetracked with the world generation improvements, but I had been planning to take care of these before Early Access release anyway. The Cell Phone will probably fit in better with the next update, on which the focus is intended to be design and balance changes with in-game UI updates sprinkled in. Unless I get sidetracked again!

As a reminder, I’ll be keeping quiet about SOR2's release date until I’m 100% certain about a specific date. In the meantime, you can track my current progress on the roadmap[sor2roadmap.notion.site].

Patch Notes | v29b

• Save System Overhaul
  
  • The game now stores your last 10 auto-saves.
    
  • The game can be saved manually from the title menu.
    
  • Saves can be deleted and copied from within the game’s UI.
    
  • Your most recent game can be resumed with a single button press by clicking Resume on the title screen.
    
  • Saved game menus load much more quickly if the player has a lot of files.
    
  • More information about saved worlds and characters is available through the menu system.
• Frontend UI Overhaul - Many of the frontend menus were previously using the old Streets of Rogue 1 system. Everything has now been updated to SOR2’s system, which will make it much easier for me to add new menus and menu items going forward. While there is still room for improvement on the visual front, functionality-wise these are getting to be very solid.
  
• New "chunks" - Hundreds of new chunks have been added to the pool. Anyone who messed around with SOR1’s level editor will know that “chunks” are the building blocks of the world, and can contain buildings, roads and other features of the world.
  
• New “chunk” sizes - Four new sizes of these have been added to help flesh out the world, bringing the total to 12. For comparison, SOR1 had 3 sizes.
  
• Denser Cities - One of the common complaints about previous versions was that cities tended to have too much open space. This has largely been solved through the use of new types of chunks meant to fill out these spaces without creating an overload of insignificant buildings. City generation will continue to receive improvements throughout development.
  
• World Generation Versioning - Previously, any updated to the world generation would cause problems for existing saved games. Now, the game will identify which version of world generation your saved game was using and revert to that version when loading the saved game. In addition, you can choose which world gen version you want to use when starting a new game.
  
• Wreckage sprites - 1,000+ new wreckage sprites have been added, meaning nearly every object in the world should have its own wreckage sprites.
  
• A new music track has been added, in addition to new ‘action’ versions of several existing music tracks, which will play during higher intensity moments.
  
  
• Bug Fixes
  
  • World Generation Bug Fixes - A number of world gen issues from previous versions have been cleaned up.
    
  • Player cannot command NPC employees to stand in deep water
    
  • Fixes for various issues relating to drowned NPCs
    
  • Visual fixes for city edges when other notable buildings were close by
    
  • Status text improvements to avoid text/visual clutter
    
  • Bunch of fixes relating to claiming land
    
  • Bunch of small improvements and optimizations to map displays
    
  • Fix for magnetized items being non-interactable if the player did not have room for them in their inventory
    
  • Items will not initially magnetize toward player if they have no space in their inventory
    
  • Fix for incorrect sound effect often playing for magnetized items
    
  • Fix for player-built objects sometimes appearing far too bright
    
  • Camera no longer zooms in abruptly when driving through objects
    
  • Lots more minor bug fixes that I didn’t bother to track properly!
• Internal (not visible in the demo):
  
  • Several new animals added
    
  • A bunch of new crops added
    
  • A couple of new vehicles added
    
  • Broken-down variant art for all vehicles, and functionality for these

It's been a minute, but I have a few new items of interest for you today!

Perhaps you're wondering what's going on with the game, and why the missed release dates this year? All is explained in this video! Spoilers, though, it's nothing remotely scandalous :(

And a quick clarification about the release date:

The Early Access release will be happening in 2025.

The exact date will only be revealed once we're 100% sure of that date. That's all I'll be saying about release dates until the time comes :) Until then, check the Devlog out:

October's release of the Streets of Rogue 2 Alpha Demo generated a lot of questions from players. In response, I present to you a living public Roadmap! Click the button below to check it out.

The Roadmap should give you a solid idea of my plans for the game throughout its pre-Early Access and Early Access periods. A warning: it's pretty lengthy, and I wouldn't recommend reading it from start to finish. Think of it more as a reference guide to look at if you're curious about some specific aspect of the game. And feel free to let me know if you think anything is missing from this!

Streets of Rogue 2 Development Roadmap[sor2roadmap.notion.site]

The previous iteration of the demo had very basic, hacked-in gamepad support. This new patch has proper gamepad support so that essentially everything that can be done with a mouse and keyboard can now be done with a gamepad. I've held off on gameplay changes for this patch to work exclusively on gamepad support, so you've already seen and done everything; it may not be the time to dive back just in. But with this particular mountain overcome, future demo patches will focus on new mechanics, design, and balance issues. So stay tuned!

Patch Notes | v28c

• 🎮 Full gamepad support for all aspects of the demo
  
• Almost all actions are now properly remappable
  
• Proper help text displaying button glyphs has been added to numerous pieces of UI
  
• Fixed for the player being able to create duplicate items in their inventory
  
• Fix for crafting material locations being set to spawn within cities and only being able to spawn toward the bottom left of large cities
  
• Fix for menu-based sound effects sometimes not playing
  
• Screen shake and controller rumble no longer occur when viewing most menus
  
• Fix for car headlight jittering that sometimes occurred when traveling forward
  
• Fix for player being able to sell Mayor Hat
  
• Lots of other small fixes made while implementing gamepad support that I didn't properly track

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As always, thanks for your support. Let us know in the comments what you think about this devlog entry. Also, a reminder: Streets of Rogue 2 is coming to Steam next year as an Early Access title; wishlist & follow the game to keep yourself updated with the latest news:

https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/2165810/Streets_of_Rogue_2/

Watch the previous devlogs:
Devlog 1: How I Approach World-Building? 🗺️
Devlog 2: Creating an Open World Solo 🗺️
Devlog 3: Games That Inspired SoR 2 💡

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