June Update

① Bigger changes
• Focus no longer automatically switches to a different unit after moving
• The planet view now shows the currently built unit in each city (if any), including the remaining turns (Ctrl+P toggles)
• Added a Finances dialog with itemized income/expense overviews, accessible from the House screen
• Added tooltips to the unit and build dialogs, explaining the effects of unit stats

② Smaller changes
• Added a fuel gauge to units that require one
• The Esc key now works in the unit view, build and message dialogs
• The City screen now automatically opens when building a new city
• Adjusted the unexplored terrain colors
• Galaxy-wide relics now work in space
• 'Select All' now correctly accounts for towed units
• Rebels no longer activate ruins before turn 50
• CTRL+G (grid) and CTRL+T (city names) toggles now work correctly
• The AI is better at handling ruins

③ Fixes
• Fixed a problem causing the production timer to go negative
• Fixed shortcuts with modifiers
• Fixed behaviour when trying to enter a city containing a naval transport
• Fixed a crash when closing a build or tech dialog with no unit selected
• Fixed transports being invulnerable in certain situations
• Fixed button clicks sometimes not registering
• Fixed retreating ministry-owned units
• Fixed a mapeditor crash when hitting Esc in the New dialog

④ Modding
• Added basic modding instructions to the MOD dir
• Unit animations can now be static images (PNG, etc)
• Ruin activation is moddable
• Blank artwork files are moddable
• Mapper CSV import no longer crashes

• Fixed issue with wired gamepads sometimes doubling up as keyboard input and confusing the game

Patch 1.1.0

Ossu!

What a ride! The game is out now and you’ve decided to visit Guntama in numbers! Thank you!

For the most part you seem to be enjoying JDM without issues, however it hasn’t been smooth sailing for everyone. Below you will find the first Patch Notes for the game - it’s just the beginning and we promise to provide equally meaningful updates and improvements in the weeks to follow.

Patch Notes:

Force Feedback

• Fixed issues where Force Feedback would not properly initiate in the game under very specific circumstances.
• Force Feedback was lightly rebalanced, especially in low FPS situations
• Fixed a few crashes, which were directly connected to Force Feedback implementation

Game Launching and Stability

• Fixed over a dozen of rare issues influencing game stability, which caused the game to crash
• Fixed issues connected to hardware and resolution testing when launching the game for the first time, which caused the game to crash.
• Fixed various issues, which may have resulted in a game crash right after launching the game.

Gameplay and Navigation Improvements

• Significantly improved the Navigation in the Ichikara city area and in-between the events
• Optimized HUD performance and display, increasing its readability and fluency
• Improved game physics - driving should feel more stable and predictable.

Steering Wheel support

• Increased the number of presets for Steering Wheels, to make it easier for new players to properly setup their input devices.

We continue to look into the issues you bring forward to us. If you encounter a problem, please send us a bug report HERE.

Thank you.

Let’s Drift
The Gaming Factory Team

The race is on!

Ossu!

You folks are awesome! Thank you for joining us on Guntama streets. It’s hard to describe the joy of seeing you all share your playthroughs and screenshots on our Discord. The discussions are lively, and there’s a lot of support coming from the community, not only for us but for all of the other members of our JDM family - seriously, you’re among the best people!

With your support, we’ve already managed to cross over 1000 reviews, and more are coming by the minute. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. We also encourage everyone to write a few words about their experience, if you haven’t done so already.

The media have also taken an interest in the project, with hours of content being published by various influencers and traditional media outlets providing their reviews. Thank you for playing JDM!

We’re being praised for the atmosphere and the authenticity of the experience, while some technical issues remain to be resolved.

"JDM: Japanese Drift Master is a hugely ambitious and earnest racer that’s very clearly in love with the art of drifting..." -- IGN

"Bursting with ideas, enthusiasm, and a solid physics model..." -- PC Gamer

"JDM: Japanese Drift Master lets you drift swiftly through a fictional, yet painstakingly detailed area of Japan like no other racing game does." -- Eurogamer

Opinions like these are pushing us even harder to make JDM: Japanese Drift Master one of the best racing experiences on the market.

As mentioned above, we didn’t avoid hiccups - some issues are still waiting to be resolved. We’re following your feedback on our Discord channels. We hear you. We’re working hard preparing fixes, and we’ve already released the first patch resolving most issues plaguing the Force Feedback implementation.

Hotfix 01

We’ve pushed another round of fixes today. Here are the patch notes:

Performance

• Improved game performance when moving through sections of the world map.
• Added a set of precompiled shaders on game launch.
• Improved performance during main story missions - stuttering should now be minimized or gone alltogether.
• Improved overal game performance during Story Events
• We're still working on a proper graphical preset for Steam Deck, however for now we've introduced small optimization changes that should provide around 5 - 15FPS gain globally.

Game Settings

• Disabled Chromatic Aberration.
• Fixed an issue where Mirror Quality Settings would reset after a game restart.

Story Events

• Fixed an issue blocking progress in Chapter 05 Mission 01.

Gameplay

• Locked the possibility to sell your last car.
• Fixed the reputation notification system, which incorrectly prompted the same notification multiple times.
• Fixed an issue where the Xbox 360 and the Xbox Elite 2 Controllers would incorrectly recognise a single press of the (A) button as a 'double tap'.
• Fixed na issue where players could not bet in the Underground Side Missions.
• Fixed an issue where the camera setting would reset to default after completing the Sushi Delivery Side Mission.

Audio

• Fixed the audio levels when launching the game in cockpit view - the sound levels will now remain at inded levels on all camera views.

More fixes are incoming, so please stay tuned.

As a reminder, if you run into any issues, please provide a bug report HERE.
This is the fastest and most efficient way to contact us.

Once again, thank you to all who bought the game and are now having fun driving through Guntama streets.

Let’s Drift
Gaming Factory Team

Hotfix

Ossu!

Yesterday’s patch has had unforeseen repercussions, which we are patching today.
Sorry for the inconvenience!

Hotfix notes:

• Fixed the money rewards for replaying certain missions
• Fixed an issue where players could unintentionally 'double buy' a car at the car dealership

We’re hard at work at resolving other issues coming from your feedback. Thank you for your patience.

In the meantime, if you ran into any issues, please drop us a support ticket at - https://jdmgame.com/drift-hub/bug-reports/

Let’s Drift
Gaming Factory Team

Patch 1.1.47.1

Ossu!

Drifters! We’re constantly working on improving the game. This patch includes, among others: some steering wheel presets fixes, audio adjustments and a sweet gift as a means of us saying thank you to all the people who believed in us and bought the game early.

Patch Notes

System

• Fixed endgame and menu credits issues with scrolling, autoscrolling and author names. The credits will now display properly;
• Fixed an issue where the game could crash in certain situations on NVIDIA GPU's;
• Added a sharpen visual setting for the game. The new slider can be found in the game's graphical options.

Wheel presets

• Fixed issues with Logicool steering wheels for the Japanese region.

Audio

• Fixed drag race events’ sound issues, when only the environmental audio would play before.

Localization

• Added a series of localization improvements across all languages based on direct community feedback. The localization adjustments include corrected automotive terminology, improved HUD and UI phrasing and various other cases connected to the story context and mission descriptions.

New Content

• Added new seats for the Alpha Moriyamo in the Tuner Shop;
• Added a new hood part including a livery for the Alpha Moriyamo.

We’re constantly working on improving the game’s experience, as well as on new content, an example of which you will find in the Tuner Shop right now.

Reminder - the launch discount will be ending soon. If you want to grab JDM: Japanese Drift Master at a lower price, this is the time to do it!

Let’s Drift
The Gaming Factory Team

Patch notes 2025-06-02 (Main branch)

Hello, everyone!

It looks like the experimental branch players really liked our new map, Hollows, and that the performance tweaks we implemented worked as intended. In that case, we’re happy to push all that - and more! - to the main branch. Enjoy!

Maps

Since Update 7 made the in-game terrain fully three-dimensional, Timberborn map makers can now overhang terrain, create caves, and use other clever tricks. Our newest addition to the map roster showcases some of these new features.

• New map: Hollows (192x192). The carved-out landscape of this medium difficulty map hides many opportunities. The eldest beavers even whisper of buried treasures.

Performance

• Significantly improved the game’s performance. Compared to Update 6, we anticipate 15-30% higher FPS. We’ve also eliminated several serious performance issues introduced with Update 7.

• Fixed a performance issue causing stuttering and degraded FPS.

Visual

• Refreshed the models for both factions' Smelters.

• Refreshed the models for both factions' Gear Workshops.

Power Shafts and Tubeways

After reviewing the recurring feedback, we realized that the modularity of Tubeways and a similar change to Power Shafts is sometimes confusing. Here’s how we’re trying to address that.

• The default model for Power Shafts and Tubeways is now always the version with all possible connections visible.

• Renamed Solid Power Shafts and Solid Tubeways to Vertical Power Shafts and Vertical Tubeways, respectively.

Quality-of-Life

• The area measurement is now enabled for all area selection tools, including cutting, planting, rubble and tree removal, and the deletion tool.

• When selecting any buildings connected to a power grid, all objects in that grid are now highlighted - this includes shafts and batteries.

Misc.

• Removed the “Too far from a district” warning and the yellow highlight when placing buildings. That warning is still displayed in the building’s panel but showing it all the time didn’t make much sense since the players would often connect the paths later.

• Status icons now work better with 3D terrain. They no longer appear too high, they don’t clip through terrain, and it is possible for them to appear under platforms and other objects.

• Demolishing single buildings now results in more smoke. Everybody loves smoke.

• The “Environment volume” slider now also controls the wind’s volume.

• Renamed the “Reset camera position” keybinding to “Reset camera” as it only resets the zoom.

• Disabled the beaver and bot throttling in the buildings’ entrances. This means they will leave the buildings earlier and react to your actions faster.

• In the preview mode, Power Shafts placed next to buildings now display the connectors.

• The blockage is now more of a cube.

• Added the creator of our Update 7 trailers and our new Discord moderator to the in-game credits. No, they are not the same person.

• The red preview is now displayed in some extra situations when it’s impossible to place a building.

Bug fixes

• Resources carried by beavers no longer disappear after saving and loading the game.

• Timberborn is not a psychological horror, so the natural resources no longer change their position after each restart and load.

• Stranded beavers no longer switch their animation for a moment after loading the game. They’ve got enough to worry about as is.

• Fixed some extra crashes related to file permissions.

• Patched up holes in the Terrain Blocks and in terrain hanging next to platforms.

• Overhangs and metal platforms no longer clip with terrain edges.

• Fixed a few visual issues with sitting beavers.

• The game no longer crashes when a mod's folder is missing.

• Fixed a crash occurring while renaming a district.

• Fixed fire and other particle effects being visible through waterfalls.

• Fixed issues with really large save lists. Like really, really large lists - we’re talking thousands of saves. We bet it’s only our programmer eMka who is mad enough to ever experience that… right?

1.1.9.0 PATCH NOTES

Bugfixes:

• Fixed the issue with overwatch tile indicator not showing if only a single-tile move is made.

Balance:

• Armored enemies have more armor points.

• Armor shredding/piercing weapon upgrades grant better bonuses on 1st level.

QoL:

• Added a map mouse drag feature by holding MMB.

• The overwatch action now does not disappear if the weapon is overheated (of course it is still unusable), and the reload action does not change its position if the weapon is overheated. This should prevent accidental overheated shooting in some cases.

• "Throw grenade" action now always correctly shows armor shredding information.