Yo! Hope you had a killer weekend. Here's what's going on.

General Updates

• Early Access is officially happening on December 1.

• We're working hard to get the public demo ready for Steam Next Fest. We plan to release the demo build to Patreon members a week from today so you can test it a week before we have to submit it to Steam.

• Steam Next Fest will run from October 19-26

  • When the time comes, please play the official Cranked Demo on Steam instead of the Itch version you get with your Patreon membership. This will help us with the Steam algorithm, which is very important during Next Fest.

• Leaderboards and career progress are getting wiped before the demo goes out.

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

Michael

• Final test pass on the zone blocking so the boundaries behave the way they should.

• Locking mods down for the demo build.

• Adding a proper crash when the wheels clip into something. Temporary until we fix the wheels.

• Last-minute demo improvements.

• More rider movement and animation work.

Maggie

• Fixing the missing hands when you run the no glove option.

• Looking into imposters, which is a trick for drawing far-away stuff cheaply so the game runs better.

• Building the Steam store art with the demo branding on it, capsules, header, and logo.

Damien

• Building a tire track system so your tires actually leave their mark on the trail.

• Remaking the tires so they look right and pick up dirt as you ride.

• Getting high-quality renders of the e-bike over to Atherton for sign-off.

Joe

• Building the reward system. Hit 50% of a zone and the next one opens up, 75% and 100% unlock gear sets, plus hidden backpacks and gear pieces stashed around zone one.

• Writing loading screen tips. If you have a good one, send it my way.

• Getting the Demo Steam page up and running with Julian.

• Bunch of polish and bug fixes for the demo.

Julian

• Getting the Steam demo page set up and live with me.

• Capturing gameplay for the demo marketing push.

• Capturing GIFs for the Steam page.

Bryan

• Chasing down a cross-promo partner for a visibility push around the demo.

• Testing the updated tutorial build with Tobias.

Whole team

• Playing career from zero, over and over, hunting bugs. We're prioritizing polish over adding new stuff right now.

It's all hands on deck for the demo! After Steam Next Fest, we will shift focus to getting Early Access ready for launch on December 1.

Lucy says hi. She got a new friend (my MIL's new dog; name TBD).