Posted November 30, 2025 by Scarlet Games
Hello all! Welcome to a very exiciting dev diary entry for Zoomies Cat Racing!
This time we’ll be jumping into an initial peek of the upcoming multiplayer update which should be coming to Zoomies soon.
Above is a video of a test build showcasing some initial multiplayer gameplay, with two players facing off against the AI.Note: The networking is still a bit flaky, but should be improved by the final build! I have the latency set to high to save on resourcing during dev :)
A lot of work has gone into this feature, namely the synchronization of all gameObjects has been the most frustrating task so far; having to ensure that all on-track threats, physics props and timings are synced up between all players.
I am anticipating A LOT of teething issues in the next update as players begin to explore multiplayer, which is why the next update is more of a ‘beta’ of sorts, so I can weed out the most critical issues to make sure they don’t make it into the final build.
Due to the recent Unity build fiasco, the next build of Zoomies will use version 2022.3.62f3 as opposed to the “bugged” version 2021.3.5f1 used for the previous builds. That’s a lot of bug fixes and improvements to the Unity Engine!! I expect some back-end benefits to be available in the next build such as improved engine performance as well as better features for me to develop the game with.
Since we’re almost at the end of 2025 and I am still in the thick of developing multiplayer for Zoomies, I think it’s safe to say that the full version of Zoomies will be releasing in 2026. My day job has been really demanding this year and has left me with minimal time to devote to game dev. Part of being an adult, I suppose!
Here are some answers to some questions I’ve received in the past few months:
(Note: All features are subject to change!)
The single-player races support up to 99 AI opponents, and as much as I’d love to mirror this for online play, it’s just not feasible! So online play will support up to 6 players, in total. Meaning that there are 6 slots in a multiplayer match, with empty slots being filled by AI racers. If there looks like there’s room for more network resources during real matches, then I may consider upping this to maybe 8 slots, but no guarantees!
I’m firstly trying to get a “Quick Game” matchmaking service working, which will match you with whatever rooms are available.
Once that is done, I will begin working on a private match system where you can play with friends!
Once online multiplayer is finished development, I will investigate. I will not give this a HARD no, but it is unlikely as I am looking to finish development of this project very soon :(
- What cats and tracks are available in multiplayer?
All of them are available, subject to whether you have unlocked them or not :) You can still play on locked tracks with other players who have already unlocked it.