Hello Racers,

I'd like to thank all Racers for enjoying the RISE update. We are keeping an eye on the feedback from everyone through various communities and social channels. While there is a lot of room for improvement, I'd like to share the ongoing development plans through this Dev Blog.

First, I'd like to discuss the Ranked Queue.

Due to the Kart proficiency and MP requirement to advance to higher ranks in the Ranked Queue, it seems that the Auto-Steering feature is being used against our initial intentions. Since this may decrease the fun of the game, we are planning to make improvements to address this issue. Our short-term plan is to increase the points gained in Ranked Queues to reduce the burden of MP requirements. Afterwards we will quickly address other issues related to the Auto-Steering feature to provide a fair and enjoyable experience in every race. We ask for your understanding of the Dev team's intention to make every single game exciting and ensure fair results. Also, we are planning to provide additional means to gain proficiency outside of the Ranked Queue to alleviate stress caused by Kart proficiency. We are also working on a fix for the issue where the win streak bonus is not being applied.

Next is regarding track difficulty and party play in the Ranked Queue. Some specs related to track difficulty and party play can be adjusted real-time without the need of a separate patch, and we will continuously fine-tune these aspects based on the needs of our Racers. We will be implementing some adjustments to the game today, so please check the details through future announcements. Since these features are directly tied to the satisfaction of each race, we will keep an eye on your feedback and game data to make detailed adjustments. All changes will be notified through our announcements.

We are currently working on the inconveniences in the Ranked Queue mentioned earlier, and will try to reflect as many changes as possible within this week.

The next is character skills.

Character skills are a newly introduced feature in this update, and we have designed the balance through internal tests. We believe balance is an area with no perfect answer, which means that constant adjustments is a must. We are also taking interest in how our Racers are studying skills from various angles and using them in fun and efficient ways, and recognized the need for additional adjustments. We plan to discuss specific directions through data analysis on skill usages, and we will share the general roadmap first. Our initial direction for character balancing will lean towards buffs rather than nerfs. Even if it deviates from our initial intentions, we aim to maintain elements that Racers are already enjoying, and will adjust the stats and features of less popular characters to give them more value.

We are working our best on character skills that haven't been introduced yet, and plan to update them sequentially. We appreciate your patience until we give every character a unique skill.

The third content I'd like to bring up is the Chat System and Matching Stage.

While there evidently are positive sides of the chat system, it can also have side effects considering the competitive nature of games. This is why we initially introduced the chat in minimal areas. However, we are aware that many Racers strongly wish for mid-game communication and we are working to enable chatting in as many areas as possible. We are also reviewing a sequence adjustment from after passing the finish line all the way to the matching stage. We are also exploring various ways to improve inconveniences in the matching stage, such as adjusting waiting times or introducing a ready button, and we will make these adjustments in a direction that can satisfy our Racers.

Furthermore, we are listening to your feedback on the UX/UI. We are well aware of the inconveniences regarding skipping Racing Box opening scenes, track sorting and filtering in Custom Race and Time Attack, as well as sorting and filtering Karts. We will address these issues sequentially in the upcoming major patch schedule to alleviate inconveniences. We ask for your understanding since there might be slight delays as we adjust the internal development priorities to put more weight on core fun elements mentioned earlier.

Last will be new tracks. The RISE update was focused on introducing new systems, and we understand that many Racers were disappointed by the absence of new tracks. For the next update in March we are preparing a new theme update that will include a total of 10 new tracks. We will provide information on details and the schedule through a separate announcement.

Please note that improvement plans that were mentioned today but are not included in this week's patch are being prepared to be implemented in March.

We are aware that there is still a lot of room for improvement, and we sincerely thank our Racers for enjoying the game. We truly feel passion for the KartRider IP from all of you. We will continue to listen to your passionate support and feedback to improve the game, and will be back in the next Dev Blog to share our thoughts and plans.

Thank you.

-Director Jaewoo Seo and the KartRider: Drift Team-