Refract Studios has been working hard on Distance since it was officially funded by Kickstarter back on November 16, 2012. That effort seems to have paid off, as the spiritual successor of Nitronic Rush has started strutting its stuff in the form of an alpha version for Kickstarter backers. Last week, the Refract Studios team sent out a web blast announcing that the Distance alpha would be available for all backers with alpha access ($55 pledge or higher). If you're a backer, make sure to check your email and redeem your code to download the game! Refract Studios has teamed up with Humble Bundle to distribute all the game codes and private backer-only forum access codes. Hopefully, that means that in the future, when new codes are released for other platforms, you'll be able to download them all from your centralized Humble Bundle page!
The game alpha is currently being distributed on both Steam and as a stand-alone installer, however, Refract Studios recommends the Steam version for one major reason. Updating the game on the stand-alone version requires you to re-download the entire game build, while using the Steam version allows for players to download small incremental updates.
If you're unfamiliar with Distance at this point, think of it as an arcade style racing game with multiple interesting game modes and a very retro Neon art style. To quote from Refract Studios themselves,
In short, it's Trials Evolution + Rush 2049 + Halo + Tron. The game takes the intense action of arcade racing and fuses it with the exploration of an atmospheric world.
Distance is definitely a fairly unique game that we look forward to hearing more about in the future! Even if you're not big into racing games, the unique gameplay combining track-racing and open-world exploration are definitely worth checking out. If you'd like to read more on Distance or to pre-order the game (which gets you beta access when it comes out), please check out the official links below:
Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.