SNØ: Ultimate Freeriding News

TL;DR: Wishlist the SNØ Demo here

[Christer has heard your calls on social media, and he is telling me that people there DEMAND a demo for SNØ!

Well, DEMAND, and ye shall receive.



That's right, a demo for SNØ is right around the corner! Keep reading for some thoughts that went into the design of the demo, or skip 'til the end for some more info about how to get your hands on it.

Dear Dev Diary...

First of all, designing a demo is no trivial task. At least not for a game like SNØ. I suspect it might have been easier if we had a classic level based game. Then we could simply limit the amount of levels available, and there you go, game demonstrated!

SNØ is not a level based game. It is more like a collection of gameplay elements that together provide some pretty exciting moments. If we are not careful when choosing what parts of gameplay to limit or omit we might end up changing the feel of the entire game, and that would not be a very good demonstration now would it?

So, how to square this circle? We wanted to give people an opportunity to try our game before the full release, but making a demo of a game that relies on procedural generation is really tough.

We tried a couple of different designs. Among others: Limit the demo to quit after 10 minutes; limit the demo to one single mountain; limit the demo to 10 runs per day; and limit the playable area to a straight corridor (more like in a ski resort). After discussing and testing the variations of the demo on ourselves and on our neighbors at OLO (the co-working space we're at), we feel that we have struck a good balance.

Here are the core differences between the demo and the full game:

• Every run in the demo is limited in space and time (1000-ish meters of travel, then a few seconds grace period to wrap up your combo). You can play as many runs as you want tough.
  
• The demo includes only 3 biomes, as opposed to the full game which has 25+
  
• The mountain renews itself every time you retry. In the full game you can choose to stay on the mountain or even save it if you like it
  
• The first person view and night time (when you might see northern lights) is unavailable in the demo
  

With these tweaks we think the demo give you a good feel for what the final game will have to offer, even if the full game isn't done yet.

Thanks for reading!



👇The "more info" part 👇

The SNØ Demo store page just went live, so if you want to be among the first to hit the (semi) infinite slopes of SNØ, wishlist the demo now (yeah, I know, you can wishlist demos now, what has the world come to...), and you'll get notified as soon as it drops.

Wishlist the SNØ Demo here

The demo build is still getting its final touches. Expect it to drop real soon!

Best
Alex
SG

TLDR; I thought we didn't need skins. Turns out we did.

If you've read any of my previous entries you might have picked up that we strive for a sort of elegance when designing SNØ - meaning that we trying to make the most with as few elements as possible. On the surface, skins don't fit this idea. They don't add anything to the core gameplay, or create gameplay synergies or whatever. It's cool - but not strictly necessary.

But people kept asking: Will there be skins? Will I be able to customize the player? Will there be hats, a fishing mini game and a dog to pet? And I'm like: No, we're keeping the game simple! Elegant! Very design philosophy. Such artistic integrity. I was adamant.

Until one day we couldn't decide on whether the skiers' goggles should be white or gold...

Hmm, maybe skins might not be such a bad idea after all 🤔

So one weekend I started testing with the simplest form of custom skins: Just randomizing the player colors - true randomness. I suspected it would be horrible - and it was. Without color direction the system produced mostly "støgg mainnskit" (ugly color combinations):



^🤮

So I added swatches for the different body parts, making sure we only select between nice, vibrant colors, and a couple of muted ones, inspired by colors found in both modern and retro hiking gear.

I made some additional rules for picking and distributing the colors to the different body part types to ensure a good color composition. Some simple ones, from the top of my head: The skier's base underwear color can only be colored white or black. It should take a back seat role, since the jacket and the gear are the most interesting body parts. Also the skier's gloves and boots are not recolored to ensure there is always something black providing good contrast to the snow.

This is becoming TLDR - so the next steps quickly:

• Use the already existing "catch the rabbit" mechanic to unlock new skins
  
• Pick the skin colors deterministically based on the current mountain seed
  
• Add rad patterns!

The skin patterns are simply black and white repeating textures, where the black and the white can be recolored individually. The white gets the base body part color, and the black gets a contrasting color - typically black, white, or in some cases (depending on the b/w balance of the pattern) one of the other colors in the current skin pallette.

As a final touch, we made it possible to define a custom size and position for the patterns being applied to the glider - Because we needed 👇 this 👇 particular glider design to exist!



^That right there are two muskoxes colliding btw. For the record.

So, to sum up: Skins are awesome! And while they might not affect the core mechanics of the game, they do enhance almost every aspect of SNØ! They make you feel extra stylish when pulling off rad tricks, they make chasing those down those rabbits even more exciting and rewarding, and well... skins + photo mode = 🤩🤩🤩

Thanks for reading!

(Should I write these things shorter? Nah.)

Best
Alex
SG

TLDR; We added tricks to SNØ. I thought it would be hard, but it was actually pretty easy.

For a long time - all the time, really - SNØ was missing one important feature.

The ability to do RAD TRICKS!!!

It's one of those things we knew we should do - deep inside - but didn't want to do. One of the core pillars of SNØ is simplicity - elegance - and trick systems the way I know them just seemed like a big can of worms I didn't want to open.

But tricks are an important part of freeriding so it would be really nice if we found a way. So one day we finally decided to open the worm can.

Criteria for a SNØ trick system:

• Be consistent with the minimalistic nature of SNØ.
  
• Enhance the gameplay by providing interesting choices for the player
  
• Should be possible to implement fast
  
• Must work with our skier's "høkkert" home made, procedural animation rig.
  
• Look cool!!!
  

The solution:

We came up with a one button trick system. While in air, hold the trick button to enter trick state. Release it to exit trick state. Exiting takes a little time. If you land while in trick state you die. If you deploy the speed glider while in trick state, you lose the points you have gained from the trick.

Trick points accumulate a bit differently from the other points in the game. All the other points are collected instantly. Trick points accumulate in its own little point container. You collect trick points as long as you are in trick mode. Exit trick mode, and enter it again to chain together different tricks that accumulate points even faster. The points accumulated in the trick container are collected for your combo once you land safely on the ground or on an obstacle.

That takes care of risks, rewards and cool gameplay synergies. But how about animation and feedback?

Actually, what I said about our complicated animation rig now proved super valuable. All I had to do was implement a new function in the script that we use for moving the skier's limbs between target points to accept a target override. Then I define some trick positions for each limb, put them lists and upon doing a trick - draw a random position for each limb and set them as overrides.

Et voilá: Procedural tricks!



I had to go in and moderate the randomness to ensure the system produced some iconic poses - not JUST a randomized mess (we don't like randomized messes). You can still expect to see some... unconventional moves though. The the trick system works perfectly for SNØ we feel. Simple, fun and gameplay enhancing.

I can't help myself - coding is such an unthankful business at times so I just have to brag a little. The system fit so well inbetween all the other parts of SNØ that it in the end it took only 1(!) day (full day, that is) to implement. Thank you past Alex for making robust systems that allowed present Alex to so easily slot in new functionality. Humble regular brag over.

Finally - as a cherry on top - the trick system provided a natural place to slide in one of the top most requested features for SNØ. Joakim - our office neighbor (he knows how to ride a skateboard) always wanted a way to do spins around the players own axis (the up axis). So, while in trick mode, the player will do a spin instead of the usual roll if players give sideways input. You can now helicopter to your hearts content.



Thank you for reading.

Best
Alex
SG

It's summertime! That means we have taken a well deserved break from working on SNØ. We'll be back in August to continue work, but right now, we're doing (mostly) not game dev related stuff.

Oh, in the spirit of summer: Here is a silly screenshot from when I tried making the snow look like sand. Mind you, this was just a test I did for fun, so don't expect it in the final game 😅



Not quite the beach vibe I was hoping for, but hey, it's more summery than our snow! Now, please excuse me, for I have a sci-fi novel to return to. I hope you do to.

Enjoy your summer! 🍹

- Alex

TLDR; We added a glider, and it's awesome!

Up until recently, we have mostly been focusing on the skiing movement physics and basic terrain generation. This has resulted in skiing that feels great, and that terrain offers a proper challenge. The result is that our local testers have a lot of fun playing SNØ, and that the skill ceiling feels high enough for such a little game.

Perfect, let's wrap this up!

*turns around in the doorway*

Just one more thing...

Despite all the good feedback, we felt that something was missing - or the raisin in the sausage, as we say in Norwegian - something to add a little more depth and variation to the movement. We considered stuff like double jumping, boosting, and wingsuit flying. We even tested with boost pellets scattered across the mountain, but they changed the dynamics of the game in unfortunate ways.

At this point it has been a while since we have referred to our original inspiration for making this game - our guiding star, if you will. Looking back at some inspirational footage, the solution seemed clear as day:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We should make a glider. The very first test was extremely crude - just add a constant forward force when you're off ground.



SUPERMAAAN! 🦸

Ok, this was way over the top, but after tweaking some values we had a new, smooth method of locomotion. The glider had to stay.

How it works:

• Deploy or retract with the press of a button
  
• The glider automatically retracts when you touch ground
  
• You can only deploy the glider once per airtime
  

How it affects the gameplay:

• Pacing: Deploying it can slow down gameplay, allowing each run to get periods of both high and low intensity.
  
• Mobility: The glider yanks you upwards when deployed. This makes it useful as a dodge mechanic. It can also quickly reduce your speed if angled correctly.
  
• Player Agency: Deploying the glider is a choice with gameplay consequences. Since it reduces your speed, you will score less points after deploying the glider, but it might be worth it if it got you out of a hairy situation. The glider also disables your spin points, so you might find yourself unintentionally cashing in a combo, resetting your built-up multiplier. The glider has to be used with care.
  

^Crisp 🍤🍤🍤

I hope I managed to get you at least a little bit excited about our glider. In any case, it is here to stay! And yours to play around with as soon as SNØ is available for play.

Until next time,
Alex & Christer