Speed Blog: New Runners!.. And a Hint at What's Next?

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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.

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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!)

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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.