Hello, KitHackers!

We are happy to announce that we are officially taxiing for take-off! KitHack Model Club will launch on 15th April into Early Access. We’re incredibly excited to put the game into the hands of the community, giving you the opportunity to help shape our next steps.

The journey from Balsa Model Flight Club to KitHack Model Club has been ever-expanding. The project is an ambitious undertaking for a very small team, and while we could continue to reiterate and improve internally, we realise there’s only so far this approach will take us. To propel the game to the next level - we need you.

With that being said, KitHack will be launching into Early Access in just under two weeks, allowing players a true hands-on experience. An Early Access launch will open the ability for players to help carve out the path of the game as we look ahead to a 1.0 release. During this time, our goal is to create a friendly and reactive environment where you, the community, can inform us on the most important improvements and iterations you'd like to see. You’ll be able to find more about how this will work, the scheduled progression of the game and the road to 1.0 in the Content Roadmap section below.

We are a three-person development team, and KitHack is a very big project.

Manpower is our most precious and limited resource. At any given time, there’s an infinite number of things we could be focusing on. We need help from our players now, to make sure we are making the best of our available time and effort.

Should we add more parts? New Missions? Do we expand the map, or focus on Multiplayer features? The array of possibilities is vast, so an Early Access Community is essential to ensure that we are putting our very limited manpower towards the best possible use every day.

Our intention has always been for the game to really be a platform, which developers and community creators can build on for a very long time. The foundations for KitHack are already very stable, and we feel that all the essentials are in place for this next phase, where we can put all our efforts into making meaningful updates with the help of our community.

Sort of. Its predecessor, Balsa Model Flight Sim was in Early Access some years ago. We chose to pull it back as we focused on what is now KitHack Model Club. This was the right decision to make at the time, because it allowed us the freedom we needed to do deeper changes, which we wouldn’t have been able to do while supporting a live game.

The Balsa/KitHack transition allowed us to completely rethink things, like for instance, which vehicle parts are your fundamental building blocks, how missions made with the scenario editor work, even how the basic game loop flows. Changes like those are very difficult to make in a published project, as they can be very destructive.

Thanks to that decision, the game has been transformed by the addition of fully procedural fuselages, car parts and drive train components, boat parts and buoyancy physics, internal stress simulation, new atmospherics, a completely rebuilt and expanded Wirraway Bay, NPC traffic and pedestrians, Scripting support in the editor, and so many more features.

We would love for the community to join our Discord[discord.com] channel, share their playing experience and provide their feedback on what is going well and what needs our attention.

We also encourage everyone to tweak and tinker with the game itself. KitHack was designed from the very start to be as open to modding as we could make it, and we are really excited to see what the community comes up with. Feel free to come talk to us over on Discord[discord.com] about anything related to modding.

We will put up a poll asking players to help us prioritise which features we should focus on ahead of 1.0 - ranging from parts and missions to multiplayer and optimisation.

We’ve created a graphic to visualise what the roadmap looks like between the Early Access launch and 1.0 release. Phase #1 will see the launch of the game in Early Access. Phase #2 will be spent focusing on bug fixing and Quality of Life updates, as determined by player feedback. Phase #3 will be spent implementing community suggestions, and finally Phase #4 will mark a complete 1.0 launch of KitHack Model Club.

The Beta is available now! If you signed up to our email list in advance of the 4th April, you should have received your Steam key to your email inbox. If for any reason you haven’t received your key and have previously signed up to the email list, please message us on Discord[discord.com] and we’ll do our best to help you resolve any issues.

Please note, if you have signed up to the previous Alphas you will not require a new key. You will be able to load the application and start playing right away.

As mentioned in our previous newspost, we have opened the ability to upload to the Steam Workshop during the Beta. This means you can upload your designs ahead of the EA release and be some of the first people to showcase your extraordinary vehicles.

How do I upload content to the Steam Workshop during the Beta?

1. Finish creating your masterpiece.
   
2. Name your craft and write a short description inside the drop-down text box.
   
3. Hit the blue ‘Save’ icon in the top right of your screen.
   
4. Once saved, click the publish icon located at the bottom right of drop-down text box.
   
5. Review your submission on Steam and set it to Publicly Visible.

If you haven’t already, make sure you join the Discord channel[discord.com] where you can speak directly to the developers, provide feedback, report bugs and help us improve the game.

Thank you again for taking the time to check out KitHack. We really appreciate all the support. We can’t wait to continue the journey with you!

Hi everyone, Felipe here. Today I want to talk about the physics of wobbling, and how we implemented (and got it under control) it in Kitbash Model Club.

https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/2107090/Kitbash_Model_Club/


So here's the problem: in a game where you have breakable vehicles that are made of parts, you need to somehow simulate the strains and stresses between those parts.

Back in KSP, the way it worked was that each part was a separate rigid body. They were all connected together via PhysX joints, and with those, we could just let the physics engine do its thing and joints would snap on their own when you put enough force on them.

The problem was (still is) that when you simulate linked rigidbodies like that, the position of any one body affects the position of all the others, which in turn affects it back, so you need to run multiple iterations to solve all positions every frame.

The more iterations you do, the more solid the whole assembly appears to be, but you can probably imagine this is not going to be great for performance.

If you want an infinitely rigid construct, you have to run infinitely many iterations. There is no way to just set a 'wobble scale' value down to zero.

The end result is that even with a very large number of iterations, you can always build something complex or large enough to see instability in your joints, and that instability shows itself as overly flexible connections that should have been rigid.

So I spent a lot of time back then, thinking about how I would do this if I could start over. And over time I came up with a plan.


In Kitbash Model Club, I decided very early on that I was not going to treat parts as separate bodies. Instead, there is a single rigid body for the entire vehicle, and all parts are child objects of the vehicle.

This way, the vehicle is inherently solid. It has the shape of the aggregate of parts, but there is only one physical entity being simulated.

Ok, that certainly gets rid of the wobbling... but then that creates new problems. How do we figure out whether a part should break off? What point is there in using Struts? How would anyone ever be able to pull enough Gs in a display of excellent aerobatics to shear their own wings off?

Without the joints there to flex and bend, we needed to come up with another way to do those things.


My plan for this had been brewing for nearly 10 years now (wow I feel old).

The idea is to use an independent, separate simulation for the wobble alone. We use a custom physics integrator, which treats each part as a body that is connected to its neighbours via constraints, or joints.

That sounds an awful lot like the original setup doesn't it? It actually is... but the key word here is separate.

In this 'internal' simulation, the vehicle lives in an inertial reference frame. We calculate and subtract all of the vehicle's root motion from the simulation, so what you're left with is only the motion between parts, aka the wobble.

We called this Internal Physics. It gives us a place where we can cause joints to flex and bend, but here we have full control over everything that goes in and out.

What we do then is take all of the forces that happen to the external rigid body (collisions, engine thrust, wing lift/drag, wheels, etc), and we also feed them into the internal physics. The external physics causes the vehicle to move as a whole, and the internal physics causes parts to move in relation to one another.

But most importantly, we can now have coupling constants to scale down these forces we are putting in. These are the 'wobble scale' parameters I had been wishing for since the early days.

You couldn't do this with a single physics model for the entire thing. If you scaled down the forces, your vehicles would just move less. But the wobble being separate from the external physics, this doesn't affect the behaviour of the vehicle as a whole.

This all means that the internal physics can actually be a very simple simulation. It doesn't need to run a lot of iterations, because we can scale down the input forces instead. There are no collisions either, because those happen on the outside.

It doesn't even need to run on the same thread, because the internal objects don't interact with the outside world directly. We actually offload the simulation to a background thread, which means we can let it run while the main game thread does other things for the current frame.

So in a nutshell, that is how the internal physics works in Kitbash Model Club. There is a lot more I could write about this thing, but I've gone on for long enough already. In fact, props to you for reading along this far!

As a little reward for making it this far, I’m happy to announce that our next Alpha Test is happening very soon! How soon? November 16th to be precise!

In Alpha Test 2, we’ll be testing multiplayer, Kitbash Model Club allows for up to 16 players to get together and battle it out, or you know, just show off your models.

Players from Alpha Test 1 will automatically be enrolled into Alpha Test 2, and an additional wave of new players will also be invited to play in Test 2, so keep an eye on your emails for more information and instructions!

We’ll also be organising play sessions with the community in the Alpha Test Channel on the Discord [discord.com]at specific times during the 2 week test to give us opportunities to really stress test the 16 player load! Hope to see you there!

Thanks for reading, and see you on the next one!

Felipe (aka HarvesteR)



For all things Kitbash Model Club, follow us on Twitter (X), and join us on Discord[discord.com]!

The Scenario Editor is a powerful tool for creating gameplay in Kitbash Model Club. In fact, this is the same tool we use ourselves to create all of the stock missions.

The editor allows you to set up missions of any type, from simply placing props around the world or spawning NPCs, to setting up complex gameplay logic using a system of behaviour modules, which are interconnected by signal triggers.

Modules and Triggers allow you to create gameplay logic without needing to write any code, but there is also support for C# scripts and expressions compiled right in the editor. No need to create a visual studio project.

And of course, Scenarios and Scenario Modules are fully mod-enabled, so if you are a developer, you can create entirely new plugins as C# assemblies, to add new modules and scenario types, new game props with custom behaviour, or anything else you can come up with.

The Scenario Editor also works not just for Multiplayer, but literally in Multiplayer. As a session host, you can act as Game Master and create and modify scenarios on the fly, changing the world around everyone else as you see fit.

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https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/2107090/Kitbash_Model_Club/

For all things Kitbash Model Club, be sure to join our Discord[discord.com], and follow us on Twitter!

Hello Kitbashers,

We are chuffed to let you know we are officially part of Steam’s Simfest Event – this is a great opportunity to discover loads of simulation titles on the platform while you’re waiting for Kitbash Model Club to come out!

Don’t forget we are still collecting signups for our Alpha testing – we intend to continue testing throughout the Summer. Sign up today:  
https://curvegames.com/kitbashmodelclub/?k

Join our community on Discord

https://discord.gg/cHMw2EksPd

Follow us on Twitter

http://www.twitter.com/kitbashmc

Hello Builders!

As we edge closer to Kitbash Model Club’s release, we’re now at a stage we’re we’d love your help in playtesting the game to find and squash bugs, and get your valuable feedback!

From July 13th to July 20th we’re running our first Alpha Test where the focus will be on the Workshop. We’re opening signups right now and will select 200 players at random to come test the game and share your thoughts and reports with us!

Sign up today:
https://curvegames.com/kitbashmodelclub/?k

Players selected will be emailed a key for activating on Steam, this can be activated like any game on Steam by clicking on Games > Activate a Product on Steam

Selected players are encouraged to sign up to our Discord where we’ll have a channel to discuss the test, and tips on how to get your reports to us. You will also be given a role granting you access to the Alpha Test Channels.

Discord:
https://discord.gg/62fvm5U53G

If you don’t get selected this time around, worry not our friends! We plan to run a second test later which will focus on multiplayer elements, stay tuned!

These tests will give us some valuable data and feedback to continue building the best game we can, we appreciate everyone who wants to test and leave us feedback, so a huge thank you from the team!

For all things Kitbash Model Club, be sure to follow us on Twitter, and join our Discord[discord.gg]!

Curve Games is thrilled to announce its exciting partnership with Floating Origin Interactive to bring you Kitbash Model Club, the ultimate RC model experience.

Formerly known as Balsa Model Flight Simulator, Kitbash Model Club provides the freedom to design, build, explore and battle with model RC vehicles.

Spend your time creating in the workshop, explore the varied landscapes of Wirraway Island by air, land, and sea, or jump into combat in PvP or PvE mode.

https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/2107090/Kitbash_Model_Club/

If you supported Balsa Model Flight Simulator in Early Access we know you'll have some questions, so please read through our FAQ below:

1. What is Kitbash Model Club?
   Kitbash Model Club is the evolution of Balsa Model Flight Simulator. The name was changed to reflect the addition of vehicles such as cars, boats, rockets… whatever you can kitbash together in the workshop!
   
   
2. What happened to Balsa Model Flight Simulator?
   The team at Floating Origin has been working hard on expanding the original vision of Balsa Model Flight Simulator. The culmination of this hard work will be released as Kitbash Model Club this year.
   
   
3. What happens if I bought Balsa Model Flight Simulator in Early Access? Will I still be able to play?
   If you bought Balsa Model Flight Simulator, the last version of the game will remain in your library where you can play it whenever you’d like.
   
   
4. Do I have to buy Kitbash Model Club if I own Balsa Model Flight Simulator?
   No. If you purchased Balsa Model Flight Simulator in Early Access, Kitbash Model Club will be added to your library free of charge once it is released. Please note Kitbash will not show up in your library until the game has launched.
   
   
5. When is Kitbash Model Club coming out?
   Kitbash Model is planned for release in the second half of 2023. For updates including release date announcements, join our Discord or follow us on Twitter.
   
   
6. Will Steam Workshop still be supported?
   Yes. Creating and sharing your models is an important part of the Kitbash Model Club experience; the game will have full Steam Workshop functionality
   
   
7. What will happen to the Steam Workshop items on the Balsa Model Flight Simulator page?
   Due to the many major improvements and updates made to the game, we cannot automatically transfer Balsa Flight Simulation workshop items to Kitbash Model Club. We encourage existing creators to take advantage of the many new additional tools and features, resulting in more customizable and detailed models, and upload their models once Kitbash Model Club has launched.
   
   
8. How can I find out more about Kitbash Model Club?
   To keep up with the latest and greatest on Kitbash Model Club, join our Discord and follow us on Twitter. To get Steam news first, don’t forget to follow and wishlist.
   
   
9. Who are Curve Games?
   Curve Games are an award-winning independent games publisher – you may know us from titles such as Human Fall Flat, The Ascent, and For the King.

For all things Kitbash Model Club, be sure to join our Discord[discord.com], and follow us on Twitter!

Hello everyone,

Felipe here with a quick update on Balsa Model Flight Simulator. But first, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for continuing to show your support and for being a part of this community.

I’m very excited to announce that we’ve partnered with a publisher who are renowned in the Indie Games space. Our partnership means we can expand our plans for Balsa Model Flight Simulator and reach even more players!

We’re hard at work here behind the scenes, I can’t wait to share more with you in the new year. I hope you’ll join me in welcoming some new faces around here too.

Until then, I wish you all a Happy Holiday and New Year!

Felipe

Hi again,

We've got a small update this time. Just a couple of fixes and small additions that we felt were worth getting out there.

Bug Fixes and Tweaks:
• Publishing vehicles to the workshop will no longer append the unnecessary 'Vehicles' tag. (Vehicles is a category, not a tag)
  
• Added a new button to the Craft Browser screen to allow selecting craft files using the system file dialog.
  
• Fixed an earlier fix that fixed no-bottom water but broke shallow water buoyancy.
  
• Fixed a longstanding bug where physics could break if the player was teleported while holding a vehicle in hand.

Happy Flying!

Cheers