Hello Drivers,
During our latest Patch Note introducing the new vehicles, we talked in depth about the process we go through to create and add new cars to the game. Your feedback on that topic was incredibly positive, and we're really glad you enjoyed learning more about it!
To keep that momentum going, we organized a Q&A session on Discord and Reddit to collect your questions about vehicle creation and the development process.
Today, we're answering them! We hope you'll enjoy this format, and if you do, we'll try to organize more Q&A sessions like this in the future.
Q: How do you guys decide what cars to add into the game? There are tons of cars in the suggestions channel
Thibault: Our vehicle list is heavily inspired by community suggestions. From there, we discuss which vehicles would bring the most value to the game. We want to offer something for every taste and every playstyle. We actually covered this process in more detail in our latest Patch Note if you'd like to learn more.
Q: How do you manage to put your own spin on the cars, yet it remains so clear what brand they are? Like with the Speedle, it doesn't look like a Beetle at all, but you can still see that it comes from a Beetle (stickers would be nice if they could be applied, and tintable windows).
Anthony: During the concept phase, we do our best to preserve the design language of every vehicle we take inspiration from. With the Speedle, for example, we wanted to capture what made its real-world counterpart so iconic by making sure its rounded silhouette would immediately stand out.
From there, we carefully redesign the details to differentiate it from the original vehicle without straying too far from what made it recognizable. Our goal is for every vehicle to feel inspired by a specific brand or era, capturing what made it memorable without feeling like a direct copy.
Q: Why do you change art style of a cars? Just to avoid copyright or it was planned from start?
Thibault: Basically, yes. We received warnings regarding the resemblance of some of our vehicles. By the time our lawyer confirmed that our new designs solved those concerns, all seven vehicles had already been completed. Rather than throwing away months of work, we decided to implement them.
Q: Will future vehicles follow the same design philosophy as the Speedle, or will some remain much closer to their real-world counterparts? What determines how closely a vehicle resembles its inspiration? Does it depend on the model, the brand, the production era, or legal considerations?
Florian: Our goal isn't to make vehicles look different simply for the sake of being different. The seven new vehicles were designed to ensure we can continue expanding the game's roster without running into legal issues.
Our philosophy is to create vehicles inspired by iconic real-world models while giving them their own identity within the universe of Drive Beyond Horizons. Rather than producing direct recreations, we work closely with our Concept Artists to develop original designs that remain familiar and authentic while giving us much greater creative freedom.
This approach allows us to keep introducing exciting new vehicles, ensures the long-term sustainability of the project, and helps every vehicle feel like it could genuinely exist within the world of the game.
Q: Can you explain what makes some cars spin out all the time and some cars are basically glued to the road?
Pierre: The current version of the game relies on the AVS Plugin, which unfortunately isn't well suited for a project of this scale. Vehicle tuning is extremely delicate, and while we do our best to make every vehicle enjoyable to drive, the results aren't always as consistent as we'd like.
For the future version of the game, we plan to move to Unreal Engine's Chaos Physics system with fully simulated vehicles, allowing us to create handling that behaves much more naturally.
Q: dude how does the recentering of center of gravity work on a car
Magic: The center of gravity offset simply shifts the vehicle's center of mass relative to its default position. Lowering it generally makes the car more stable with less body roll, while raising it makes the vehicle feel more top-heavy and prone to rolling over.
Moving it forward increases front-end grip and understeer, while moving it rearward gives the rear more influence and can make the car oversteer more easily.
Q: Does aerodynamics matter? like if i put on huge doors on a tiny car will it matter if they’re open
Pierre: No. Simulating aerodynamics is extremely demanding computationally, especially on highly modular vehicles like ours. It's certainly possible, but it hasn't been a priority for us so far.
Q: Any plan for motorcycles?
Pierre: That's not something we can easily achieve with the current vehicle physics system. It would technically be possible, but we don't think the result would meet either your expectations or ours.
We'll see what's possible once our future physics implementation is in place.
Q: As more cars are added to the game, how will the loot pool be handled so players can still reasonably find the specific car parts they need? For example, does driving a certain car influence the type of parts that can appear in loot, or is the loot pool completely random?
Thibault: This has been one of our concerns for quite some time. We're currently working on a long-term solution. For example, certain vehicles could eventually become tied to specific POIs or even specific biomes.
Unfortunately, that's not something we can implement in the current version of the game, especially since we're rebuilding the project from scratch in parallel. In the meantime, we'll try to introduce smaller improvements to make collecting parts less frustrating.
Q: Also, for players who are only missing the last few parts to complete a car, will there be a better way to target those parts, or will we mostly need to rely on spending in-game cash to finish builds?
Thibault: The Computer was primarily designed for exactly that purpose.
Q: How are the parts that can be bought in the auto parts shop chosen? I know some parts are ridiculously hard to find (i.e. Bolf front bumper lights), so are there any plans to include all parts in the auto shop?
Magic: In theory, every part can already be purchased. If you notice one missing, please let us know exactly which vehicle and which part it is (including left/right if applicable), and we'll make sure it's added to the shop.
Q: Will there be performance parts added? like you have the original parts and then the much rarer performance parts can be found for them
Pierre: Everything is possible in the future. It's definitely something we'd like to explore.
Q: Also, are there any plans for gameplay changing attachment? I mean, things like the seat attachment allow you to increase the amount of seats you can have on a car, so are there any plans to add rockets, spring or stuff like that that would allow a car to go faster, handle better etc...? Maybe with controls support so they can be activated remotely?
Thibault: We're definitely moving toward more advanced vehicle modifications in the future. However, features like these require a tremendous amount of balancing and testing before they can be added properly. It's something we'd really like to implement. As for when... I honestly don't know yet.
Q: Are there plans to add any damage to cars such as body deformity when colliding with objects/vehicles?
Pierre: It would certainly be fun, but it's also much more complicated than it might seem, especially from a game design perspective.
Vehicles are highly modular, and making body deformation work correctly without causing clipping issues is far from trivial. Since we currently have much higher priorities, it's not planned for now, but we'll definitely keep the idea in mind.
Q: As some of the new vehicles seem to overlap with the existing ones, will the OG Golf, French Van, and other vehicles be removed in the future?
Thibault: Some players prefer the new vehicles, while others still love the originals. Removing them would be a major decision, so we'd first want to gather feedback from the community.
Lag: Maybe we'll organize a poll one day and let players decide.
Q: Is there any plans on allowing the community to create cars? I am sure there are a few people who would love mod tools for DBH so we the community can create and upload them to the Steam Workshop, Nexus or mod.io (whatever ends up being the community's preferred method)
Lag: That's something we'd really like to do in the future. Don't expect it anytime soon, though. We're strong supporters of modding, but when it will happen is another question entirely. We'll share more when the time is right.
Q: is most of the assets done with blender?
Mohamed: Our Art Team uses a wide range of DCC (Digital Content Creation) tools, including Blender. We're currently migrating our entire asset creation pipeline to Blender 5.0, along with a suite of in-house tools and plugins developed specifically for our production workflow.
Q: What is the game's artistic direction? Or, is there a theme in mind?
I'm asking because half the buildings look abandoned as if something you'd find on a desert road, but, you also have the very modern looking tablet things that allow you to save your car and such. It feels too way maintained and modern for the otherwise old but semi-recently abandoned feel of some locations.
And I suppose another somewhat follow up question, is there some sort of loose story with the game? or is it just a driving and car building game?
Because the game has moments of "something" happening, like the zombies and some telephone calls.
I don't know if I'm supposed to be looking at this as a reason to keep driving or if this is just stuff added in for fun that is just there to fill the game.
Anyway, love the game, keep it up!
Mohamed: The current version of the game doesn't yet fully represent the artistic vision we're aiming for. During the early stages of development, our priority was to build enjoyable gameplay and solid driving mechanics, and at the time we simply didn't have the full Art Team needed to establish a consistent visual identity.
For the future version, that's changing. We now have a dedicated Art Team working closely with our Game Director and Art Director to build a much more cohesive world. Our Concept Artists are defining the visual identity of Drive Beyond Horizons, and you'll gradually see that vision come to life through future updates.
Our world is heavily inspired by the United States during the 1980s, with a focus on exploration, memorable locations, and environmental storytelling. As development progresses, every part of the world will feel more coherent and believable.
As for the story, yes, there is a larger lore behind the world. The strange phone calls, environmental details, mysterious events, and other oddities are all intentional. We don't want to reveal too much just yet, but players will gradually uncover more of the world's history and secrets as new updates are released.
Thanks for Reading!
We hope this Q&A gave you a better understanding of how Drive Beyond Horizons is being built behind the scenes.
If you enjoyed it, let us know in the comments! We'd love to make this a recurring series and answer more of your questions on other aspects of the game's development in the future.
You might also want to check out:
Our previous patch: PATCH NOTE: 7 NEW VEHICLES ↗
Our official Drive Beyond Horizons 2026 Roadmap (Updated) ↗