SpeedRunners 2: King of Speed News

[h3]Download the trial version from our Steam page:[/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3183760/SpeedRunners_2_King_of_Speed/
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
MAIN FEATURES:

• 6 maps. Each level will have two layouts: an easier one and a more complex one.
  
• 8 playable characters - "runners."
  
• Tournament mode, where up to 64 players will compete in a knockout bracket to find out who's the fastest.
  
• 8-Player online mode.
  
• Ranked, Quick match, the option to create custom lobbies, and offline matches/practice.
  
• Emotes to use during runs and text chat.
  
  ...and more
  

Share your feedback on the demo here. Have fun and don't forget to bring your friends, Speedrunners!

Be fast or be last,

Fair Play Labs & tinyBuild

[hr][/hr][h3]Join our Discord Community to participate in closed playtests:[/h3]

Release time: 19:00 CET / 10 am PST / 5 am AEDT (next day)

[h2]What will it feature?[/h2]

[h3]I. Emotes & Text Chat[/h3]
You'll be able to encourage/taunt your opponents using emotes during play! Also, we'll introduce the much-requested text chat.


There will be an option to turn off emotes altogether if that's something you don't want to see in your game.


[h3]II. Better Movement[/h3]
We've received a lot of valuable feedback from you folks on how the game feels during the Open Playtest in September 2025 and closed playtests on our Discord. As a consequence, our team has done our best to turn that feedback into tangible improvements. Here's a list og changes:

• Camera movement improvements: The camera now moves more smoothly, with new logic to keep the leading runner always in view.
  
• Camera field-of-view settings: You will be able to change the camera’s FOV, choosing your preferred setting from three presets.
  
• Improved wall-jump logic: Players will have more control during wall jumps.
  
• Improved slope surfing behavior: Velocity is now transferred from jumps or any vertical movement, allowing the redirection to give you a small boost that can help you move faster than your rivals.
  
• Runner physics improvements: Changes to how velocity and forces are calculated create movement that more closely matches the behavior of the original game.
  
• More responsive item direction: Players now have more control over the direction in which picked-up items are launched.
  
• Slide Boost nerf: Slide Boost no longer accelerates; it only prevents deceleration.
  
• Item behavior improvements: Tweaks to the Golden Hook and Fireball.
  

[h3]III. Upgraded Visual Clarity[/h3]
We've added outlines to runners to make them stand out more against backgrounds. Speaking of backgrounds, we have lowered the contrast to improve gameplay readability. We've highlighted this change in our latest devblog.



[h3]III. Improved Tournament Mode[/h3]



In SpeedRunners 2 Demo, you will be able to compete with other players in Tournaments and shoot your thoughts on what you think about that mode our way. It's a classic knockout format: up to 64 contestants enter - only one comes out victorious. We believe this mode suits the game well as it encapsulates its competitive nature.


[h3]IV. New Maps[/h3]
You'll be able to run on two fresh levels - Swift Peaks and Secret Lab.

❄️🏔️ SWIFT PEAKS

A classic winter stage returning from SpeedRunners 1.

🏜️⛽ SECRET LAB

This brand new map is the complete opposite of Swift Peaks in terms of setting - needless to say, the temperatures are much higher on this one! Secret Lab is situated in an unforgiving desert inspired by the canyonlands of North America, yet our committed runners don't seem deterred from sprinting through the blazing sun.

📌The demo will offer 6 maps for you to race through. A reminder: Each level will feature two different layouts: an easier and a harder one - for runners who are eager to test their skills!


[h3]V. New Runners[/h3]
Meet Dart and The Falcon - you'll be able to play as these two fine gentlemen in the demo!

📌In total, you'll be able to choose from 8 heroes in the demo.


[h3]Other Notable Features[/h3]

• Multiple modes: 8 Players, Ranked, Quick Match, Local Co-op, Solo with Bots, Practice, Basic & Advanced Tutorials.
  
• An option to change the animation of the Grappling Hook, making it simpler and thus, more easily readable.
  
• Various UI/UX improvements and polishing, including an overhaul of the main menu.
  

Be sure to be there on February 20th to check out the demo. Also, feel free to bring your friends along to kick their asses!

[hr][/hr][h3]Join our Discord Community to participate in closed playtests:[/h3]


Consider supporting us by wishlisting the game; also, follow our Steam page to keep up with the news.

[hr][/hr]
We're back with some good news to share. Our team has spent the last few months improving the game based on your feedback. Recently, we held a closed playtest on our Discord server (please join our community there if you haven't already!), and pretty soon, you'll be able to see for yourself how the game's progressing. Be sure to read this article to the end to find out what and when we're planning for ya!

In this Speed Blog entry, we think it'll be great to talk about the speedy stars of the game—the Runners.

- How do we design them?
- What challenges do we face, and how do we overcome those?
- Can poisonous frogs use their tongues to grapple?! 🐸

Let's get started!

[h2]I. DOING JUSTICE TO THE ICONIC DESIGNS[/h2]
It's no secret that many players from the SpeedRunners community have a deep emotional connection to the original roster. To honor this, our team did our best to preserve the "soul" of those characters while also allowing them to evolve in a new context. Among other things, the sequel will feature a more dynamic camera. That's why we’ve designed runner models to be scalable - they appear sharp and detailed during close-up victory screens, yet remain readable when the camera pulls back.

One of the most beloved characters from the original game, Falcon, will make a comeback in SpeedRunners 2: King of Speed

ㅤDiego Hernandez, the sequel's art director, says, "The original characters resonate because of their 'simple yet effective' design philosophy. Their personalities and humor are instantly likable, and this simplicity makes them highly memorable. They don't look like super-powerful beings; they look like people in spandex suits having a chaotic race, which makes them much more relatable. Also, their designs are approachable and full of character without being overly cluttered, which is precisely why they work so well in a high-speed, competitive environment."

The primary inspirations for our art style are Mid-Century Modern prints and Space Age futurism. We're captivated by that era’s vision of luxury, where everyday objects like cars were reimagined with jet engines and giant panoramic windshields. Our crew has also drawn heavily from Googie architecture, translating its distinct shape language into the runner designs, UI, and environments.


Speaking of environments, we want the runners to ALWAYS pop against them, regardless of their complexity. To achieve that, we've implemented character outlines. Our team also continually refines the backgrounds to achieve better gameplay readability.



Another cool runner-related feature we've thrown in recently is Emotes. Taunting your slowpoke opponents via quickchat is so back - now with visualizers:




[h2]II. THE RUNNER ROSTER IS EXPANDING![/h2]
A sequel is not a sequel without fresh characters joining the chaos, eh?

[h3]It's about time we dropped the reveal of the first brand-new runner. Name's Dart.[/h3]

ㅤ"Drawing from our Central American roots (our dev studio is based in Costa Rica), we modeled Dart after the vibrant poisonous frogs found in our rainforests," says Diego Hernandez. "This fellow is a toxic, competitive hybrid with a totally unique traversal style. Instead of a standard grapple, he uses his long, agile tongue to swing through the levels!"

Dart will play a significant role in the new story, and we straight up can’t wait for you all to see him in action.

Last but not least, speedrunners - we’re bringing more fan-favorite heroes from SR 1 back, as well as more new runners! Don’t want to spoil the surprise just yet, so stay tuned.

[hr][/hr]

That should do it for today, speedrunners! Let me know what you think about this Speed Blog in the comments. And, of COURSE, stay tuned for a rad announcement from us soon - ⚠️we’ve got a PLAYABLE DEMO in the works⚠️ for you to check out as early as this month! All of us are pretty pumped about it over here, and hopefully so are you, so keep on keeping your eyes peeled! Catch you later! (Unless you're too fast to be caught!)

[hr][/hr]
We occasionally hold exclusive closed playtests on our official Discord server. The most recent one, held a few days ago, went well - we've got a ton of valuable feedback from it. If you want to participate in future ones and directly impact the development, wait no longer and...

[h3]...join our Discord Community:[/h3]


Consider supporting us by wishlisting the game; also, follow our Steam page to keep up with the news.

In today's speedrunning news:

- When will SpeedRunners 2 be released?
- Community's favorite character has been revealed! Who may that be?
- Sam's setback becomes one of the Open Playtest's highlights! Who tf's Sam anyway?

Find the answers below!👇

First off, huge thanks to everyone who took part in the Open Playtest in September! During that event, we had almost 70,000 unique players, and many of you shared valuable feedback that'll, zero doubt, help us make a more kickass game.

That said, we have an announcement to make. Based on the playtest's results, we decided to take a bit more time with SR 2 and move the release to next year.

SpeedRunners 2 will launch in 2026.

We’ll announce the exact locked date later—keep your eyes peeled for future updates on that, speedrunners!

[hr][/hr]
[h2]OPEN PLAYTEST FEEDBACK OVERVIEW[/h2]

With the release date news out of the way, let's have a look at some interesting insights from our Open Playtest Feedback Survey. These insights should give you a better idea of why we decided to postpone the launch slightly. BTW, around 2,000 people filled the survey out—a big "Thank you" to everybody who did that. 🤝

[h3]💀FUN STUFF💀[/h3]
If you need proof that the SpeedRunners community is the best out there, look no further than this image below. We asked you to share "the most memorable moment you experienced so far"—some of the replies turned out to be pure gems.



Hopefully, Sam gets their revenge soon. And that guy's friend, too. It's not over yet!

[h3]🏃POPULAR RUNNERS🏃[/h3]
So, who were the most selected characters during the playtest? Cosmonaut Comrade takes the win with 24% of players choosing to run as him. Maneki Neko is a close second, followed by Speedrunner.



Next up, here are the top 5 SpeedRunners 1 characters whose comebacks the community anticipates the most. SkullDuggery beat Falcon by a tenth of a percent!💀



Just a heads-up, we're already working on some of these folks! Check out this guy's outfits:


[h3]🗺️POPULAR MAPS🗺️[/h3]



Here are some teasers of what's to come in the map department:


[h3]📊SOME BORING NUMBERS📊 (You should read this, though)[/h3]

• About 97% of participants have played the first title. On one hand, it’s rad to see the community being so passionate about the series. On the other hand, though, it means there are still many newcomers to bring in who aren't aware of SpeedRunners. Needless to say, we’ll be putting effort into marketing, and next time I'll ask you to invite your friends who haven’t played before!
  
• Around 75% of the player base prefer playing with friends, and approximately 20% prefer online play. Still, two-thirds of those folks in the first group are also interested in jumping into the online modes every now and then.
  
• The survey summary contains some positive comments about the game's setting, maps, level design (especially, the brand-new Museum map), voiceovers, UI, and performance. Visibility is among the weaker points—a lot of work still needs to be done in that area. Expect more effort to also be put into the netcode (to address that input delay) and performance. The extra time we're taking due to the launch delay will be of use to us in this regard.
  
• The replies in our feedback form also show positive input on increasing the number of players in a match to 8. Love yourselves some chaos occasionally, eh? Our team is set to improve the mode according to the feedback we've got on it—e.g., modifiers for playing in a party with friends.
  

[h3]Aaand the key finding from the survey was...[/h3]
...the fact that the majority of players who've participated in the Open Playtest are excited to check the game out when it ships. However, many are choosing to wait for improvements and then see if it's worth playing—and we’re committed to delivering those improvements, rest assured. If you want to learn more about the near-future plan our crew has outlined for ourselves, read this post right here.

[hr][/hr]Anyway, folks, thank you again to everybody who jumped into the Open Playtest to check it out. I'll let you know as soon as I get any news from my team on what's next for SpeedRunners 2 and when's that release date gonna be revealed. We hear all the feedback coming our way and have some stuff in store for you. The next playtest will occur once we’ve changed the game enough so that you can notice substantial progress! So, stay tuned and...

Be fast or be last!

[hr][/hr]Wishlist the game and follow our Steam page to keep up with the latest news.

Join our Discord Community to chat with other speedrunners and share ideas with the devs directly:

[h2]What's up, Speedrunners, [/h2]

Antishyr here, SR 2's community manager. First and foremost, thank you. We appreciate you all joining the playtest and checking out what we have in store for you with the current version of SpeedRunners 2—that was the first and important step of a long, ahem... run, and we are very happy to be on it together with you all.

Almost 70k unique players tried the playtest build, a few thousand have left us feedback using the in-game feedback form, and we also have hundreds of feedback topics I'm going through as we speak on Steam and Discord—with valuable insights, detailed comments, and kind words. It's awesome to see a lot of interest, love, and care for the game.

HERE'S A SHORT LIST HIGHLIGHTING OUR CURRENT MAIN PRIORITIES

• Improving general gameplay flow. Countless improvements for UI/UX to make playing one match after another without interruptions and redundant actions feel more fluid.
  
• Various movement & animation tweaks to make the game feel smoother.
  
• Further improving the netcode based on the data we collected during the playtest.
  
• Adding means of communicating with other players
  
• Bug fixing. In particular, we'll fix that pesky bug where runners disappear at the start of a match.
  
• QoL additions, like saving your last runner choice.
  
• Revamping the Tournament mode.
  
• Experimenting with some new gameplay mechanics we have in store.
  

New content, like new runners and levels, is also on the way! It'll take some time to bring the game to the level we want it to be and to the level you guys deserve; the first game was also released in Early Access back in 2013 and spent some time in that phase before finally releasing Version 1.0 in 2016. We plan to stick to a similar route with SpeedRunners 2, updating it gradually, listening to and considering community feedback on every iteration. Expect our next public beta to happen very soon!

Last but not least, special thanks to Mr. SilentChaos and Edakk for hosting an invitational tournament—Open Playtest Trial Cup—with me. This competition was a collaborative effort between tinyBuild, the game's publisher, and the community. Congratulations to the winners:

🥇 Redz
🥈 Edakk
🥉 David
4️⃣ Ahmad

If you want to rewatch the cup, here's the link.
[hr][/hr]
Anyways, guys, thanks again for playing, follow the page for future news, and join our official Discord server. We'll let you know as soon as we know what's next for the game.

Be fast or be last!
[hr][/hr]
Wishlist the game and follow our Steam page to keep up with the latest news.

Join our Discord Community to chat with other speedrunners and share ideas with the devs directly: