Hi everybody,
I'm Jan and I'm something one would probably call an "Indie developer" and we (a team of 2) are currently working on a MTB/Downhill game. The game is still in development, but we showed the prototype/pre-alpha version several times at different events and some people who played it said we should really, really tell the speedrun community about it (and they pretty much kicked our assed in our own game).
To be honest, this is something I didn't have on my radar at all. I mean of course I know what speedruns are, I love to watch them from time to time, but I didn't know how big it is!
I'd love to get your thoughts on the game... if it is something for you at all and if not, what we would add/change to improve it. I mean the game is not "designed" for speedruns, but it CAN be a lot about perfection and finding shortcuts.
Well, I really don't want to turn this into a promo post, so before writing more, it would be great to hear if you are interested at all. :)
All the best, Jan
Thanks! Will do that, however (as mentioned on Discord ;) ) we are still in the middle of the development and release will be next year. ^^
@JayJane4 agreed, this would be a good way, but we can't do that from a financial point of view right now. We will have an early access tier in our upcoming Kickstarter - but I am not here to sell the game. :)
@chryoyo thanks! We had about 800 players at different events (e.g. Gamescom) and it all went surprisingly well. :)
Like I said the game is a Downhill Mountain bike game, however it is not focusing on the "event/action" part, but wants you to feel like riding a bike somewhere out in the nature. You start at the top of the mountain and have to find your way down to the valley. We have relatively easy main routes, but you are free to take any shortcut you can find. No invisible walls or anything... what limits you is the physic, which will often enough through you off your bike in a not-that-peaceful-manner. ^^
The core competition is about best times, which can only be achieved if you optimize your racing line and find the most efficient shortcut, figure out where you can manage a steep drop and where you can't.
Never played a downhill mountain bike game before, but from the description, it seems like it is already set up for speed running for the most part. The only thing I can think to add, there is either an internal timer for the levels, or some clear indication in game when the frame has begun, and when the "run" has finished.
yes! adding an accurate-to-the-frame timer into the levels will make grinding ILs alot easier
As it is a racing game in it's core, we do have on screen timers and we already learned that one decimal is way to less. ;) For ILs: we call the levels "mountains" and each mountain is divided into small sections (mostly between 10-30 seconds) with varying difficulty. Once you passed the finish line of a section you will continue on the next one. However we should probably add a quick "replay last section" functionality?
Honestly, people more likely to speedrun a whole mountain than a slew of individual levels (it gets time consuming to run and moderate tons of tiny levels). Would probably also be annoying for casual players to have to answer "No" to a replay question every half minute or so. If said check marks have splits in the timer though, that's pretty useful.
Btw we launched our Kickstarter campaign yesterday and it looks really promising so far. Let's hope we can actually finish making the game! :)
100%OJ has multiple campaigns, so they decided to make the IL speedruns be one single campaign. Maybe that'd be similar to your mountains.
Some gameplay GIFs, if anyone is interested... in the comments people said they are looking forward to see some speedruns of that game. :)
People always praise a game for its amazing graphics. :P but It's all about fun gameplay most of the time. That's certainly what this game looks like it has! :D Color, concepts, mechanics, storyline, character development, that's good and all, but fun... That's the point of gaming in general! Just having a good time. (Unless the game is about some serious concept like suicide or experiencing anxiety. Those games have an entirely different purpose.) Not the point! The point is, your game looks fun to play! It sure seems like a number of us from speedrun.com have taken a liking to your game as well. We can't wait to play your game and just have a good time. I hope you're having fun making it!