Developer Update 2

Though it has been almost a year since my last written update, I have been working on Kaido Genkai daily throughout 2025! Thank you all for your patience and for not forgetting about this game - it’s a labor of love and I cannot wait for folks to try it out.

Firstly, an obligatory excuse as to why the update posts are infrequent: my time is quite limited, so I usually choose to work on the game rather than creating promotional content. It is to my detriment, but it does mean the game keeps its development momentum up (even if it doesn’t seem like it)!

Kaido Genkai is my passion project that I work on outside of my day job, so it can be tough to create content while working on development. With that said though, I do post several times a week on social media - it’s a lot easier than longform content creation.

With that out of the way, the game has been updated massively since the last dev blog here and I’m excited to tell you about it.

Firstly, we have started some internal beta-testing in Discord for a playable demo, which feels like a huge milestone. While the testing is happening behind closed-doors for the time being, it’s been instrumental in locking down issues and ensuring that the first playable experiences I present in the upcoming public demo will be fun.

We also had a playable build at the Comic Frontier convention in Indonesia as part of the Mashin Asia booth! I wasn't able to personally attend, but a HUGE thank you to Holeecrab and Hacao for making it happen, and thank you to anyone that had a chance to play the game there!

Speaking of Holeecrab, he has been officially onboarded as the game's illustrator! He's responsible for the key art and all the character designs and headshots found in the game. Couldn't be more happy to have him on board!

Several vehicle additions have been added by the ever talented Hacao, and we have almost half the planned vehicles in game (nine - shooting for twenty total). This includes a very stylish police interceptor with working siren and a really cool tuned variation - Hacao continues to impress me with every car we work on. The police interceptor itself was a design that we spent considerable time developing, as to make it an iconic piece of Kaido Genkai’s visual style.

The racing and progression systems have undergone some of the most important updates. Race logic saves progression now, racers remember if they’ve already been beaten and will react differently when approached again. Most importantly, the core game structure/framework is now complete, meaning future content can be added much more easily as the game develops.

Race types are in place, including time trials, circuit races, and point-to-point events. Winning races now grants Reputation Points (REP), which introduces real progression for ‘number-go-up’ RPG fans. As the game is much more than just racing, items and collectables are now fully implemented for players to uncover and hunt for - though I haven’t made all the items yet.

There are also one-off objectives that are fully unique, such as hitting a tree to knock a peach down.. If you know this reference, you're a real one.

Driving itself has seen major refinement. Manual transmissions are now supported, shifting logic has been improved for the automatic gearboxes. On the UI side; keeping with the 90’s theme of the game, a cellphone (keitai) interface has been added to act as a central hub for the mission log, item log, and a playtime counter. I quite like how it turned out and I hope you do too.

Changes have also been made to the physics to ensure the cars feel good to drive (at least better than the North American version of Auto Modellista). And love it or hate it, I have implemented a brake-to-drift function for hitting hard corners at a decent speed, though it does take some practice to get down.

Additionally, the UI and overall user experience has been improved across the board. Players now receive notifications when new objectives are discovered and when Reputation Points are earned, plus stylized transitions are implemented when races start and finish. There’s a working minimap and the overall HUD is way more polished than it used to be. It even changes color at night! This feels like old news in my mind since I added it months ago, but the last blog still shows the outdated designs - oof.

Audio has also received many meaningful upgrades. An announcer has been included in the game, and she adds a lot of personality and energy! You can hear her in the game trailer, but she is also prominent in game as well now. Shoutout to MeltyVA (Lux) for being an amazing anime voice artist! With that said, I understand not everybody likes having voiceovers, so rest assured that you can turn her off if you’d like.

We’ve also added our first licensed music - rather than using stock assets - by the musician indrop. His j-rock style riffs and moody compositions are exactly the direction I always wanted to go with the game music, instead of Eurobeat or City Pop. No hate on those genres though, I'm still a fan. I just want a unique style for Kaido Genkai, and those two directions feel like they’ve been well explored by other games.

The world itself continues to grow and improve visually. A new cave area has been added to the map, introducing a more atmospheric environment that isn’t as often seen in racing/driving games. In my last update, I mentioned that the world was probably about as big as it will be. That was a lie, and will continue to be a lie if I ever say it again.

Trees and lighting have been majorly redesigned and now look significantly better, rather than using flat polygons that look awkward from the sides, the leaves are made out of many different sprites stacked together.

Other world updates include working streetlights, additional models for bridges, texture work, and effects such as birds, falling leaves, light rays, and fog. Destructible billboards have been added throughout the map too, and they dynamically change every time the map loads. The temple area has also been refreshed with a bold new look that leans heavily into pink tones, helping it stand out visually. But this area will not be featured in the free demo I’m planning.

Speaking of demos - I was originally hoping to get something out by now. However, as time goes by, I am realizing how much it matters to put out something polished and representative of the final game. As such, I am delaying the demo just a bit, but it’ll be out in 2026 for sure - though likely centered around a Steam Next Fest event. I’m shooting for the one in February but it really depends how many bugs I encounter and how my time shakes out, so let's see!

This year has transformed the game from a proof of concept to an actual playable experience. There’s still a lot ahead, but this update represents a major step toward the game it’s meant to be. Please follow along on social media or join Discord if you want to show your support for the game, and thank you so much for your interest in Kaido Genkai. It means the world to me and I hope you’ll play it one day.

Happy holidays and looking forward to 2026!

• Karoshi Electric Company