BeamNG.drive

drive features various gameplay modes and scenarios such as career mode, campaigns, time trials, as well as a free roam mode. Campaigns are collections of small scenarios based on specific themes, including races, chases and stunts. In time trials, the player selects a vehicle, map, and route, and competes against their own best time. In free roam, players can explore and experiment with maps, allowing them to operate, place, and manipulate objects and vehicles within the map.

They can also change environmental properties such as time, gravity and wind. Players can utilize various objects ranging from road barriers to weapons such as cannons in order to inflict damage on other vehicles. Local multiplayer can also be enabled in any gameplay mode by connecting multiple controllers to the same system. An experimental VR mode is also available with the unstable and in development Vulkan renderer, allowing full stereoscopic 3D VR support .

In 2011, a group of Rigs of Rods developers gathered and decided to improve upon the open-source software with a spiritual successor. BeamNG opened its website, beamng.com on 8 May 2012 to deliver news of the game's development. On 28 May 2012, BeamNG released a YouTube video entitled "Revolutionary soft-body physics in CryEngine3" that featured the vehicle deformation technology. The video, according to Marketing and Communications manager Nataliia Dmytriievska, got over one million views overnight. Originally, BeamNG.drive was to be based on CryEngine 3 but licencing costs among other issues drove them to the use of a modified version of an open source engine called Torque 3D.

A free tech demo was released on 3 August 2013 along with paid access to an alpha test through FastSpring. The tech demo featured only one vehicle and one map, while the alpha test contained five vehicles and six maps. On 10 September 2013, BeamNG.drive's sixth vehicle, the Bruckell Moonhawk, was released with YouTube premiere. The game was placed on an open vote on Steam Greenlight on 12 February 2014 and was greenlit eight days later. On 29 May 2015, the game was released to Steam Early Access.

BeamNG.drive has received critical acclaim since the game's initial release. Writing for the BBC, Jack Stewart mentioned that BeamNG.drive "has received interest from the film industry to model vehicle stunts so that they can be prototyped and tested exhaustively, but cheaply before a stunt driver smashes up a car on set."

Polygon's Nick Robinson lauded the game's simulated physics and user-created content support, leading him to create a 38-episode video series for Polygon, "Car Boys", in which he and Griffin McElroy showcased community-created content each week.