After months of development, the beta of UnrealRace's multiplayer mode is launching and will be officially available at the game's release on Steam. Real-time races, synchronized powers, collaborative painting… everything you love in solo, now against your friends.

Here's everything you need to know.

Starting a multiplayer session takes just a few seconds:

• Create a lobby : From the main menu, head to Multiplayer and create your lobby. A room code is automatically generated and can be copied in one click to share with friends.

• Join via code : Enter the code shared by the host to join directly.

• Steam invitation : Invite your friends directly from the Steam overlay or the integrated friends list. They receive an in-game invitation and can join with one click.

• Steam "Join Game" : Click "Join Game" from a friend's Steam profile to join automatically with no extra steps.

The lobby displays in real time the number of real players connected and the ready status of each one.

• Up to 4 real players at the same time

• Each real player controls their own camp of players. Remaining spots are automatically filled by AIs, with their count and difficulty configured by the host

• Each real player receives their own unique color pair (positive / negative), visible in the standings and all interfaces

Once in the lobby, each real player:

• Picks their players (or a team) from the available list

• Sees the other real players' selections in real time to avoid duplicates

• Custom tracks : If the host plays on a custom track, it is automatically transferred to real players who don't have it yet, with no manual steps required.

The host configures the race (track, number of laps, weather, enabled powers…). These settings apply automatically for everyone before the race starts.

At the end of each race, a full results screen is shared among all real players:

• The full standings display the performance of each real players' camp and the AIs side by side

• Paint section : repainted segments, shields placed and broken, dominant color per real player

• Rematch : relaunch the same race in one click, or move on to the next stage if you're playing a Cup

The Session Recap is a multiplayer-exclusive feature. After several races in the same session, access a global summary compiling all your shared performances:

• Aggregated stats across all races played together (wins, overtakes, painting, powers…)

• Head-to-head comparison between real players to find out who dominated the session

• Available from the results screen starting from the second race

Multiplayer is now fully playable. Next steps include testing phases and bug fixes, quality-of-life improvements, and better power balancing in a multi-real-player context.
A Playtest will open soon to let you try the game and share your feedback with us!

Have you been following the project from the beginning? Or are you just discovering it? Welcome! Since the very first Focus dedicated to the race, Unreal Race has gone through a deep overhaul of its core mechanics. This devlog takes stock of everything that has changed, and trust me, there is plenty to talk about.

The observation was simple: between pure simulation, betting, and interactive powers, some players felt lost. Rather than forcing a single hybrid mode, Unreal Race now offers two distinct, fully assumed experiences:

• 🎮 Arcade Race : You are at the heart of the action. Powers, segment painting, real-time tactical interactions: this is the mode for those who want to act and influence every lap.

• 🎲 Betting Race : You are the strategist, the bettor, the educated spectator. Analyze the odds, place your stars, and watch the simulation unfold. No intervention, just your intuition versus randomness.

Each mode has its own menus, options and dedicated screens. No more confusion: you know exactly what you came for.

Gone is the rigid "plains / mountains / jungle" system. The terrain now relies on a 14-color HSV perceptual system (red, orange, yellow, lime, green, cyan, blue, etc.). Each track segment has its own color, and each racer has their own affinities.

How does it work in practice?

• At the start of every race, a lottery wheel is spun for each racer: it assigns a favorite color (+20% bonus) and a hated color (-20% penalty).

• When a racer crosses a segment of their favorite color, they speed up. On their hated color, they slow down.

• Color names now visually match the hue displayed on screen (rework of perceptual hue centers).

• Detection is unified across the whole game: editor, race, shop, betting.

It's clearer, more logical, and it opens the door to a brand-new mechanic…

The most striking gameplay addition: in Arcade Race, you have a paint gauge that fills up during the race (passively, or through certain actions: overtakes, time spent in your favorite zone, taking a hit from an enemy power, etc.).

With your paint, you can:

• Repaint a segment in the color of your choice. The cost is calculated by length (10 m = 1 point). A segment freshly repainted in one of your favorites' favorite color? Guaranteed boost.

• Place a Shield on a segment to protect it from any opposing repainting.

• Break an enemy shield with a Break Shield (2 charges at the start, +1 per lap).

The screen shows in real time the cost of the hovered segment, pre-selection animations, and visual feedback when you don't have enough points. A genuine tactical layer overlays the race. And what about the AI? It has been completely redesigned to leverage the system: it evaluates trending colors, manages its shields, breaks others' shields, and adapts its strategy to the chosen difficulty.

You can now face from 0 to 9 AI in a single race (in addition to your own racers). Each AI follows its own multi-criteria decision logic:

• Situational awareness: standings, position in the race, distance to the finish, active game mode.

• Power management: weighting based on its racers' stats and the chosen difficulty.

• Paint strategy: choosing when to repaint, when to drop a shield, when to break an enemy cluster.

• Final push: better handling of the last meters and tactical use of the carrot (boost).

4 difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, Random — plus a Custom option to fine-tune each AI individually. Perfect for tuning your evening to your mood.

The power roster has grown considerably. A quick overview of the recent arrivals:

• 🖌️ Paintbrush : Select a segment and color it with your favorite color. Dedicated animation and instant bonus.

• 🎨 Pigment Burglar : Steal up to 50 paint points from the racer (human or AI) who has the most. Visual notification on both ends.

• ⚡ Electric Judgment : Area-of-effect strike with dedicated animations (4 new SFX).

• 💨 Last Breath : End-of-race boost: the closer the finish line, the stronger the kick.

• 🌩️ Weather Alteration : Force the current weather to change and shake up everyone's affinities.

• 🖱️ Blitz Click : You have 3 seconds to click as fast as possible. Each click = a penalty applied to all opponents for 10 seconds.

The classics (Black Hole, The Wall, Shield, Dope, Cloud…) are still there, and every power has had its visual and audio effects refined.

All weather conditions are now available from the very first launch. They cycle automatically during the race with transitions every 15 to 45 seconds — rain, fog, storm, snow, hail, strong winds… each condition modifies performance based on the affinities generated at the start.

Each racer has 2 carrots per race. As long as they are in contact with another competitor, you can activate a carrot to trigger a 5 to 10% boost for 3 seconds. Perfect for slipstream overtakes, pack comebacks, or finish-line sprints. The best uses are highlighted in the results screen.

This has been one of the major projects of the past months. The results screen has become a real analysis room, not just a leaderboard. Depending on the mode, you'll find:

• Full standings with colored podium, medals and your racers highlighted.

• Top 1 / 2 / 3 and Top 10 for each racer across the session.

• Dedicated Paint tab: paint spent, earned, segments repainted, shields placed/broken, favorite color, global distribution, full repaint heatmap before/after, and percentage of track changed.

• Top 3 carrots: who pulled off the best tactical uses.

• Powers used detailed per racer (human and AI).

• Session recap available from the very 1st race (live counter for duration and number of games).

• Star reward system fully redesigned: participation (base + lap + consecutive races) + performance, with a dedicated UI for Arcade Race.

And for those who want to push the thrill one step further: Cascading Double (×2, ×4, ×8, ×16, ×32), Heads or Tails, and Risk Slider (75% → ×1.25 up to 10% → ×8) let you risk your winnings to multiply them after a Betting Race.

The Betting Race mode now offers a much richer betting experience. Alongside the classics (Podium, Underdog, Team), the following have been added:

• Duel : Guess which of two racers will finish ahead of the other.

• Top 10 / 25 / 50% and Bottom 10% : Adapted to the size of the field.

• Quinella and combination bets for those who like complexity.

• Flash Odds : Short-lived odds to grab on the fly.

• Remontada and Constancy : Long-form bets exclusive to multi-stage Cup mode.

• Live Bets during the race via a dedicated panel, flash micro-bet popups, and a scrolling announcement banner.

A streak system rewards winning runs, a full history with ROI and statistics is available, racer favorites make it faster to bet, and a detailed tooltip on each odd explains exactly how it was computed. The odds themselves have gained in precision.

The three historic modes are still here, playable as a single race or in Cup format:

• 🥇 Classic : The clock at the finish line decides.

• ⚡ Elimination : The last one is dropped at regular intervals. A dedicated UI shows the number of survivors and the latest eliminated racer.

• 🏆 Points : 19 scoring systems (F1, Indy, exponential…) with a visual preview of the points per place before the start.

The Cup format chains races together for a cumulative ranking. As a bonus, the Cup Editor has been completely revamped for a much clearer creation flow.

Many small touches added up over the past months:

• Glowing outline on every racer to make them pop against the background.

• Transition particles between biomes.

• Kilometer markers alongside the track.

• Center dashed lines and road shadows.

• Checkered bands at the start and finish.

• Carrot indicator and racer color directly integrated into the HUD.

• Camera focus: double-click a racer to follow them in close-up.

• Speed counter in km/h (previously in pixels per second).

• Over 25 new backgrounds to vary the moods.

• And many more to discover soon.

The sound design has grown considerably: 8 ambient music tracks, dedicated SFX for the lottery wheel, the shield, the break shield, the carrot, shop purchases, the final lap bell, and many new effects for each power (lightning, blitz click, paintbrush, black hole…).

The Twitch integration is still going strong. Your viewers type join in the chat, appear in real time with their Twitch color, and race alongside the others. You keep control of the powers and the camera, they race for the glory. The participant database is saved across sessions.

A future devlog will be dedicated to the editors (tracks, racer database, cups), which have also received a huge number of improvements: background grid, track length label, average duration calculator, asset multi-placement, rotation with the R key, scale indicator, visual selection of racer images, and many more things…

But above all… a brand-new dimension has been in the works for months now, and it will deeply change the way you experience your races. Picture your Unreal Race nights differently. No longer alone in front of your simulation. No longer alone placing bets. No longer alone bending fate with your powers.

A feature that many of you have been waiting for since day one, and it's about to drop. We'll keep the mystery a little longer, but get ready: a dedicated Focus is coming very soon to reveal everything. Stay tuned. 👀

Thanks to everyone following the project. Every feedback, every suggestion, every bug report contributes to making Unreal Race grow in the right direction. Don't hesitate to drop by the discussions, wishlist the game if you haven't already, and reach out if any mechanic catches your eye!

🏁 See you very soon for the next Focus.