Cranked Tuesday Update!

Yo! Hope you had a killer weekend. This week's update is a day late cause of Labor Day here in the US. Here's what's going on.

General Updates

• I went down a physics rabbit hole this weekend. A bunch of our beta testers have been asking about slowing the game down, making pedaling speeds less, and a few other suggestions. So I took Labor Day to rework a big chunk of the physics. The suspension now tunes more like a real bike (damping, rebound, sag), there's finally air resistance so you can't rocket down the mountain forever, you can tuck to cut through the wind, and there's a tire pressure model where low pressure gives you grip but too low and you start getting rim hits which slow you down.

• This is only shipping to beta testers to start. Not sure if it will ever make the light of day on the real builds, but probably. I think this is the start of physics tweaking for mod maps at the very least. At most, it is a new bike tuning system for all players. Testing will determine where it lands.

• Demo timeline is locked in. We have two weeks to submit the build for press review, and the new Steam page and trailer are due October 8. The demo will be Zone 1.

Here's what we're focusing on this week.

Michael

• Grinding away on rider animations and movement.

• Helping set up how the demo locks you to Zone 1.

Cedric

• Wrapping up the last trails on his new Small Hills map, which is turning out awesome and kind of changed how we think about maps. Future maps are going to be smaller and way more detailed, with the goal of shipping them more often.

Maggie

• Finishing the first-person mask and the last of the clipping fixes on rider gear.

• Cleaning up Zone 1's grass and bushes by hand. The automatic placement got overgrown and made some trails less fun to ride, so we're going back and doing it deliberately.

Damien

• The Atherton bike is textured and the new bike rig is done, so it's ready for testing.

• Starting on models for other points of interest around the map.

Andreas

• Gloves are done. Moving on to more rider gear.

Joe

• Finishing the Physics Lab and getting it into beta testers hands. (hopefully Patreon members at some point, too)

• Then back to Zone 1: replaying the tutorial and challenges from a fresh save and making them better. Gap challenges got a visual redo so you can actually see the takeoff. Here's a preview. I'll probably remove the word GAP and just have the arrow. This goes away after you complete the gap.

• Starting a gear unlock system for Zone 1 where you find items hidden around the world. Placeholder boxes for now until the artists have time for the real thing.

Julian

• Playing a ton and grabbing footage and screenshots for the demo push.

• Testing a few different reel styles this week to see what lands.

• Planning the marketing lead-up to the demo. We're going to do more posts aimed at people who have never heard of Cranked, not just deep-dive updates for you all.

That's the plan for this week.

Lucy says hi.