Wheel World News

We've just pushed out a small update for our Next Fest demo! This update includes some small performance improvements to help everything run a little smoother. Also note that on some machines switching to DX11 can help performance. Please keep in mind the game is still in active development.

We couldn't wait to share the game with you all for Next Fest, and it's been incredible seeing so many of you enjoying it. Your positive reactions and feedback truly mean a lot to us. Rest assured, we're continuing to refine the experience, and we have plenty of tweaks and updates planned to make it even better.

Thanks for sticking with us on this journey—your support and enthusiasm are making a huge difference. Stay tuned for more updates, and let us know what you think of the latest improvements. We're excited to keep building and can't wait to show you what's next!

Mark and the Wheel World Team

For me, open world games like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption 2 really only peak when I've fought my way through the missions and completed the main story and there's not much left to do except… doing whatever the heck I want. Sometimes that's making sure I've explored every single inch of the map, sometimes it's completing a few activities to 100%, but often it's just cruising around and taking in the sights...
Read more.

We’re excited to announce Wheel World is well on its way to your Steam library, with a summer 2025 release window! It’s been a blast being part of the Annapurna Interactive Showcase this year, and we can’t wait to show you more in the buildup to launch.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
But why wait until summer when you can check out our game right now? Wheel World now has a Steam Next Fest demo available as we speak, where you can check out the first moments and get a feel for the gameplay. You can see the world we’ve built, take on a couple races, and find a few parts to spice up your ride!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3483160/Wheel_World_Demo/

We’ll have more news soon, but in the meantime, we’d love for you to consider wishlisting Wheel World and checking out the demo.

Keep moving forward,
Messhof

Back in 2023, Nidhogg developer Messhof unveiled its new game, a stylish racing game called Ghost Bike that sets players off on a quest to revive the the last of the Ghost Bikes, "magical couriers who rode between the world of the living and the world of the dead." Ghost Bike was re-revealed during today's Xbox showcase with a new title—Wheel World—and, sorry to say, a new, more distant release date: Instead of coming out this year as planned, it's now set for release in early 2025...
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Hello there! Mark and Kristy from Messhof here. Been a while since we chatted, huh? Hope you’re doing alright! We’re coming up for air today to share some big news for our next game.

“Ghost Bike” has been renamed, “Wheel World”

This game represents a number of firsts for our studio. It’s of course our first 3D game, which also makes it our first game made with Unity. It’s our first game using a physics library, our first game made with a big team and hence our first game funded by a publisher, and our first game with a real narrative (with characters and dialogue boxes even!). The gameplay in Wheel World has gone through a number of iterations in terms of gameplay and structure, and the narrative has had to adapt along the way. At the point last year when it felt right to announce the project, we came up with the name Ghost Bike based on where the narrative was. It was a game about dying on a bike after being hit by a car and ending up in a cycling valhalla. While it wasn’t directly based on real world ghost bikes (those white bikes memorializing cyclists killed by drivers), there was enough overlap to feel like the name was justified and the associations would be a positive one from both directions. But as things changed in the gameplay (to make it more fun to play), and thus the story (especially in tone) it fit less and less.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Wheel World is a game about the joy and freedom of living around bikes. Whether just to get around, exploring a new route through a familiar place, or just tinkering with them and finding your own happy medium between form and function. We made today’s new trailer to capture that spirit, and we hope it gets you as pumped about the game as we are. We can’t wait to welcome you to the Wheel World in 2025!

Mark Essen and Kristy Norindr of Messhof

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1497460/Wheel_World/