Slipstream has been created during 4 years by Brazilian solo developer Sandro Luiz de Paula (ansdor), who built his own custom game engine that recreates the sprite scaling graphic techniques used on 80s and 90s racing games to bring the real, authentic retro experience to modern hardware, taking advantage of the extra power to provide smooth, constant 60fps gameplay.

The soundtrack, drawing from synthpop and jazz fusion influences, sets the tone for a race across a variety of exotic locations from all around the world, including cities, deserts, forests, mountains and beaches. Drifting and slipstreaming mechanics add depth to the driving gameplay, and the result is a challenging and exciting experience.

The combination of the colorful pixel art graphics with a soundtrack that draws from synth pop and jazz fusion influences by Stefan Moser, aka Effoharkay, sets the tone for a race across a variety of exotic locations from all around the world, including cities, deserts, forests, mountains and beaches. Drifting, rewinding and slipstreaming mechanics add depth to the driving gameplay, and the result is a strategic, challenging and exciting experience.

BlitWorks an Brazilian indie developer ansdor are proud to celebrate the 5th anniversary of  Slipstream with the free content expansion “blue hour”, arriving on June 28, 2023 to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox consoles and PC. 

Slipstream will also be natively released on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X. The new expansion will offer 2 game modes, 3 cars and 5 new tracks with their respective 5 music tracks.

“The blue hour is a brief period of the day, after the sunset but before the night, when the sky takes on a deep blue tone. It's long been appreciated by painters and photographers because of the beautiful and unique properties of light during this time. The fading light from the sun illuminates everything softly, and the deep blue sky creates a great contrast with the usually yellow-ish urban lamps. It's a moment of natural beauty that happens every day. And as times of the day have always been a theme in Slipstream, in this expansion I joined forces with Effoharkay and took the opportunity to explore it a little more.” - Sandro de Paula, aka “ansdor”

All the new tracks are set in real world locations, more specifically in exotic or unexpected locations in Europe: Marseille, Pompeii, Transylvania, Granada and Edinburgh. Ansdor's skills have improved a lot since 2018 and he also added many new features to the Slipstream engine, and the new tracks make heavy use of them, like a fog system, a dynamic lighting system that allows cars’ headlights to illuminate the track in real time. The expansion looks like an early 32-bit game, while the original was more like a late 16-bit game. As a natural technical evolution, he wanted to try new techniques and do artistic experiments that weren't possible in the original.

On the music side, Effoharkay's goal was to maintain some consistency of the same synthy vapor OST but without relying on synth sounding instruments. Most of the songs were inspired by the eccentric electric club-ish racing tunes of Ridge Racer 4, Need for Speed, and Wipeout. He wanted it to be pulsing and driving and diverse, while not worrying about pristine production quality or structure.

Key Features:

• The real thing: Built on a custom engine, Slipstream brings authentic 2D sprite-scaling graphics to modern platforms.
• Multiplayer: Local split-screen fun, up to 4 players!
• Time rewinding: Made a mistake? Press the rewind button to travel back in time for up to 5 seconds and try again.
• 20 Different tracks: Set on a variety of exotic locations all around the world... and beyond.
• 5 Playable cars: Inspired by classic models from the 80s and 90s.
• Accessibility Options: There are 3 difficulty levels to choose from, some visual effects can be turned off and, most importantly, the game speed can be reduced up to 50%, giving players more time to react, but keeping the game physics exactly the same.
• 6 Game modes:
  • Grand Tour: Scenic trip through five stages, with rival racers to beat and branching paths to choose.
  • Cannonball: Freely customizable race mode with optional traffic, rivals and other racers.
  • Grand Prix: Championship mode composed of five races, with season scores and optional car customization.
  • Single Race: Simple race mode, with customizable settings.
  • Time Trial, a solo race against time.
  • Battle Royale, an elimination endurance race mode.
• 5 Car models, each with its own specs and playstyle.
• Original soundtrackwith 9 exclusive songs by Stefan Moser (Effoharkay) .
• Graphical Options: Including Pixelated, CRT and NTSC filters, for a faithful retro experience.
• And much more: Mechanics such as drifting and the slipstream, rival characters and secrets to discover...

Slipstream is available for Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam) at 9.99 USD | 8.99 EUR.