Originally entitled KartSim, KartKraft is the evolution of a university game prototype created by ex-kart racer and Black Delta CEO, Zach Griffin.

KartKraft, powered by Unreal Engine 4, lets players race karts capable of accelerating from 0-100km/h in 3.1 seconds, with triple the cornering forces of a road car.

Players can customize their avatar, kart and team with products from partners like FREEM, Alpinestars, CRG, IAME, MIR, Sparco, Arai, Arrow, Monaco, Praga, Sodikart and many more.

Back in 2016, developer Black Delta announced KartKraft would be coming to Steam Early Access soon, and two years later it's finally about to happen.

When I envisioned KartKraft all those years ago, I wanted to make the game I’d always dreamt of when growing up playing racing games in the 90’s. To say I was heavily inspired by Geoff Crammond’s GP2/3/4, Dave Kaemmer’s GPL, Gjon Camaj’s SCGT, and Stefano Casillo’s NetKar Namie would be an understatement.

After racing karts competitively, there wasn’t anything that came close to replicating what it felt like to drive a kart on the limit with 30 other competitors around you and engines screaming at 21,000RPM. And for good reason; despite their deceptively simple appearance, modelling their physical dynamics accurately is an incredibly complex task. Regardless of a kart’s complexity, you won’t ever play a racing game that’s more fun and as close or rewarding than KartKraft.

Much to the detriment of the development schedule, little did I know that making the game with the features I wanted was going to be such a monumental task. With a comparatively small development team of 3 programmers and 3 artists, not only did we play catch up to our competition who all had existing foundations to build upon, we also needed to innovate and exceed what they had already developed. We never settle for second best.

When we released the Closed Beta Test in 2016 it was evident that there were several shortfalls and fundamental issues that prevented giving you that experience. Most notably, the tyre and chassis models weren’t behaving correctly, replay and photo mode were missing, leaderboards didn’t promote competition and game settings kept resetting. Whilst most testers gave incredibly positive feedback, there was no way I could have released KartKraft and ask you to pay for it when I knew we could do better.

Since the end of 2016, and based on the CBT feedback, we completely rebuilt the game from the ground up and have now written over 1 million lines of code. It may not have looked like it, but there hasn’t been a day the game hasn’t been worked on, played or tested with over 15,200 code and art submissions in that time. Let’s not even begin to count the amount of laps driven in that period!

And that only fixed the issues we encountered during CBT. It was even more critical that we had a game framework capable of allowing us to consistently maintain a weekly or fortnightly update cycle for content and new features. Secondly, the framework needed to be flexible enough to quickly implement ideas from the community without having to rewrite large parts of the codebase. I’m proud to say we’ve achieved both of these and more. We’ve added a physically based tyre model, rebuilt the physics engine, remodeled all the karts, improved the AI, added cloud saving, leaderboard ghost modes, all the while creating the most advanced customization system ever seen in a racing game. This is the game I dreamt of all those years ago and I can’t wait for you to play it!

And now the reason for the update. Given our previous track record with release dates, we weren’t going to make the same mistake of announcing again and disappointing so many of you, until we knew with absolute certainty that KartKraft was ready for Early Access. After an incredible journey, KartKraft will be released on Steam Thursday, November 1st at 9.00am PST

Over the coming week, we’ll be releasing new screenshots, gameplay trailers, our Early Access roadmap and an in-depth look at some of the new features we’ve added. It’s going to be an exciting journey and one I and all of you have been waiting for! So set your alarm clocks and add KartKraft to your Steam Wishlist to be notified when it launches. We’re launching!

Key Features:

• Champions are Made in KartKraft: No suspension, no down force, no seatbelts; this is real kart racing. Sharpen your race craft as 30 other drivers hustle to get past and steal the chequered flag. With 3.5Gs of cornering forces thrust upon you every 3 seconds, you’ll quickly learn why only karting moulds you into a champion.
• Faster than an exotic supercar: Power through the lower classes to unlock the 45+ horsepower, purpose built KZ2 racing kart capable of reaching 160km/h, just 18 millimetres off the ground. Accelerating from 0-100km/h in just 3.1 seconds, you’re quicker than the McLaren MP4-12C and as fast as the Lamborghini Aventador.
• Race across the globe - From Europe to the USA: Race on world renowned circuits, from Sarno in Italy, Atlanta Motorsports Park in the USA, Paul Fletcher International in the UK and Geelong Karting Club in Australia. Laser scanned and reproduced with millimetre accuracy, you’re racing on the real track.
• Real kart physics: Hear the motor scream as it reaches 21,000RPM. Feel the tyre biting into the asphalt while it generates 3x the cornering forces of a road car. See the chassis twist as you slam headfirst into the tyre wall. With the only dedicated kart physics engine in gaming, this is as real as it gets.
• Build the ultimate race team: Buy a kart, create a team and invite your friends to race alongside you. Win races to unlock bigger headquarters, team skins, drones, rc cars and more.
• Look as fast as you drive - Race with style: Kit out your avatar with the latest gear from Alpinestars, Freem, Arai, Sparco, Mir and more. From suits, gloves, boots, and helmets, choose the way you look on the track.