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Session: Skate Sim News

Crea-ture Developer Blog #6 - February 2023



[h2]COMMENTS FROM THE STUDIO[/h2]

Hey Folks,

We made it to 2023!

We hope everyone managed to stack some clips over their holiday breaks, whether in game or IRL, for those of us north of the 49th it’s been pretty snowy so Session has been a welcome outlet!

[h2]Since the last update[/h2]

We had some big news on the team front with the rapid turn of events for Donovan Strain!

We're happy to report that he is in the hand of some of the best medical and support staff on the West Coast, and surrounded with family and friends. In time's like this we realize how easy it is to take the simple things in life for granted!

On that note - Happy Valentine's day - from us here at crea-ture Studios to all of our fans!

Yes Session, and making games is important, but nothing comes before our family, friends, and our health! Now we can get back to our usual programming.

We continue to work on our Roadmap and align on what will bring the most to our player base as a whole, and will help ensure the longevity of Session. We’re actively building a bug backlog that will also be addressed over the next year of production - so we don’t only add to Session - but actively address player frustrations.

After our latest announcement regarding our upcoming releases this March, we’re excited to share that we will be moving to monthly PC releases for February, March, and April!

The first PC release will be dropping by the end of February, and will include:

[h3]Upcoming Features:[/h3]
  • First Time User Experience - AKA Onboarding
    Updated Mission / Quest tracker
    AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution 1.0

[h3]Upcoming Content:[/h3]
  • New Skateshop content
We’re excited to welcome NEW truck brands to the in game skateshop. We’ve reviewed how trucks are built in game, and the benefits to gameplay, and your board control, are pretty awesome!

We also tasked the art team with producing what they’d love to skate! Here are some examples of the fun and unique skateable assets you can expect to see in future releases.

This specific bundle will be released on PC this February!

[h4]Object Dropper Assets[/h4]

AVE Bench


Tile Kicker


Curved Manny Pad


Pyramid with rail spine


A-frame with rail/box


Skatable Car!


Visit our social pages for clips of these assets in game!

[h3]In game QOL improvements:[/h3]
  • All bug fixes in the December Dev Blog +
  • Impossible’s now wrap around your foot - clipping is to be expected.
  • Donovan’s Skateshop meetup is no longer a “no-bail” line.
  • Continued Mission trigger detection box improvements
  • Bailed tricks will no longer count towards mission or challenge objectives
  • KS Fastplant backers in credits

[h2]What’s Next:[/h2]

Recruitment at crea-ture studios continues, and open positions can be found at https://www.crea-turestudios.com/careers/

Finally we’re looking forward to sharing an updated roadmap for Session production in 2023!.

Keep an eye on our Social channels and Steam page for future updates and Dev Blogs.

Peace,
The crea-ture team!

Crea-ture Developer Blog #5 - December 2022



[h2]COMMENTS FROM THE STUDIO[/h2]

Hey Folks,

We released V1 over 2 months ago, and we’re loving all of the content being pumped online by players and skaters alike. From clips, to full edits, the community posts never cease to amaze us! We’ve seen everything from buttery back tails to recreations of classic skate parts, there’s no shortage of unique gameplay content being produced with the in-game Replay Editor.

September’s V1 release of Session was a major milestone for us as a team, but even bigger for us as a studio. Building a game studio and shipping an original IP is a huge feat, and we’re beyond proud of what we’ve been able to achieve with our limited resources.

2022 was by far one of the more challenging years for the Session team with the release of the Public Update 2 build, the closing of Early Access, and culminating in the launch and release of V1. All of these deliverables were achieved while also managing the ebb and flow with the growth of the studio. The road to release was almost 5 years long, and over that time the size, dynamics, and composition of our team changed considerably. We had departures from Key roles - but nonetheless managed to push on with solidifying our vision and ensuring we provided the most balanced experience at launch.

The two months since launch have therefore been calm after the storm, but we have been more than busy during this time!

Since the last update

[h2]In-game improvements:[/h2]
  • Continued optimization for performance - Our cities continue to get optimised to ensure we provide the best performance on all supported platforms!
  • Pause Menu restructure - In order to improve visibility, as well as ease of access, to core menus & settings, we have cleaned up and restructured the Pause menu.
  • Mission Tracking - Improved mission tracking will allow you to jump between main path, secondary, and Pro missions on the fly.. It will also improve visibility of all mission options available at that time.
  • Mission Completion - If you complete steps of an untracked mission - you are now notified
  • Mission progression - You are now fed side missions to meet the required EXP before proceeding to the “Skateshop meetup” and all other arc gates.
  • Mission detection improvements: Throughout the mission arc based off of player feedback
  • Transit Improvements:
    • The transit map now identifies the single stop nearest to the required location - from any city
    • The transit map now Identifies the nearest stop to the destination within the same city
  • Replay Editor updates:
    • Now stores TOD changes made in the editor
    • Added a check for existing save files with conflicting name
  • Brandalised DLC content is now FREE in the shop - once the DLC is purchased
  • Audio improvements:
    • Wind Effects - Wind sound plays when going fast. Different sounds will play depending if you're in the air or on the ground.
    • Attenuation Settings - Tweaking attenuation falloffs, adding occlusion, focus effects, doppler, reverb distance

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
    • Footstep Materials - Added sounds when walking on different surfaces. Grass, cars, plastic etc.
    • Manuals - Added wheel impact sounds when exiting a manual.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
    • Effects - Testing a stereo delay on certain sounds to give more width.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
    • Grinds - Added unique sounds when grinding the top of a fence.
    • Board - Added improved board impact audio

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
    • General Mixing
  • Daily Challenges
    • Grind challenges are now tracked in Metres
  • Historical Challenge trick detection:
    • NolliePop shuv - M.Mcbride
    • Inward Heel - M.Mcbride
    • Brooklyn Banks 2010 Best Line - Nate Rojas
    • Welcome to Hell - Jamie Thomas

[h2]Onboarding Improvements:[/h2]
We know that we have the best skate sim on the market - our goal now is to improve how we introduce newcomers and players in a fun and progressive way to our extensive gameplay. As of the next Patch planned for early 2023, all new players to the game, or new characters created in your current game, will experience a new onboarding flow.

The original Brooklyn Banks tutorial has been scrapped for a better paced and more transitional introduction to the gameplay mechanics. Feedback from new users was clear - the learning curve was too steep, and was becoming a barrier to entry - creating frustration for players as opposed to empowering them!

In order to tackle the various barriers to entry we had identified, we’re delivering a combination of changes to gameplay and exposure at a base level.

The new default difficulty preset will now account for basic Left Stick navigation, and does not require mirrored input for Switch tricks, amongst other ease of access changes. This default setting will now prove as a transitional step into the full Session feature set, once players have found their comfort in the core navigation and tricks sets.

The tutorial is now considerably longer than before, but provides the foundation of exposing and confirming key elements from navigation, to tricks, and supplemental features. As we found that even as an experienced skater - there were some core gameplay features that were poorly, or not at all, exposed.

Not only are we tackling the First Time User experience, we've also made various improvements to existing features. The Mission Log is now toggled on/off HUD, it now allows for scrolling between current mission options without having to enter the pause menu and skater log, leading to more time for you to work on your tricks and clips. It also provides input per step of the tutorial as to what is expected of the player.

While we’re tackling how to improve the first time user experience, we’re also working on elements for our existing player base. As mentioned before - the content being produced is awesome, so it is only logical that we pursue features that promote the challenging of friends and sharing of content in the game world. To this extent we’re currently scoping and designing the potential for future features that will help transition your offline gameplay with the Session community in a seamless manner.

[h2]Upcoming Content:[/h2]
  • New and unique Object Dropper assets!
    • For both the next free patch & the subsequent DLC
  • We’re working on the next pro-skater who will be coming to Session. He’s a pro known for his absolute love for skateboarding and throwing backside 360’s into his trick sets. Some call him the NBD king, and we really feel he has the same level of passion we have for skateboarding.
  • We’re also working on a new map, this is our first foray into a non-city setting (not including the skateparks), and we’re loving the variety it’s bringing so far. This map will be a part of a future DLC drop, so take a look at the image below and guess where you’re going to be skating next.


DLC dates will be announced after we release our next Free patch in early 2023!

[h2]Whats Next:[/h2]

Our next releases are now planned for Early 2023 - starting with a free patch - and will be tackling the overall accessibility and onboarding of players into Session as well as the many quality-of-life fixes listed above. This free patch will be followed by the first official DLC drop.

Finally - To keep up with our players and fans we just opened our own Tik Tok account - run by our community manager, Donovan Strain!

Keep an eye on our Social channels and Steam for future updates and Dev Blogs.

Peace,
The Crea-ture team!

Session for 'Best Game You Suck At' - 2022 Steam Awards

There's a reason that some people have called us the Dark Souls of Skateboarding and that's because Skateboarding is hard. We wanted to replicate that path to mastery in Session: Skate Sim, repeating tricks, and practicing, before finally pulling off the perfect line.

What the replay misses are the blood, sweat, and tears that went into capturing that clip (luckily, it's a lot easier to recover from a stacked trick in Session). That's why we're nominating Session: Skate Sim for Best Game You Suck At in the 2022 Steam Awards.

We'd appreciate the support for anyone willing to lend us your vote!

P.S: We're currently working on changes to improve and smooth out the onboarding for Session: Skate Sim. We want to make it easier to pull off those cool tricks and lines while preserving that sense of accomplishment and true to life skateboarding. Expect to hear a little more in our next dev blog! (Coming soon)

Session: Skate Sim - Hotfix 1.0.0.34



Sup Skaters!

We hope you've been enjoying the 1.0 launch of Session: Skate Sim! We've enjoyed watching the sick lines people have been uploading, the live streams, and the bails (so, so many bails).

The team has been hard at work on what's next, with the December update being one of the big focuses (more on that in a future dev blog), but we're also making some tweaks and adjustments based on feedback from launch.

That starts with a small hotfix patch below and we'll be following up with some additional tweaks down the line.

[h3]Hotfix Changelog[/h3]
  • Fixed the Achievement on completing Historical Challenges
  • Fixed the FPS drop after bailing a lot of times without reloading
  • Changed the Brandalised items in the Shop to cost no in-game currency
  • Trick Display is now turned ON by default

Session: Skate Sim V1.0 Starts Now



Early Access is over and we're moving to the next level of Session: Skate Sim, full launch. It's full steam ahead, with new locations to skate, new pros to play as, a slew of new boards, new brands, and gear to collect.

We're also introducing some new gameplay features like liptricks (these are still in an early stage of development, but you should already be able to pull off some clean transitions), reworked audio (you'll feel it when dropping from height in this update), a ton of bug fixes, and more. We'll put the full list below, but for now, take a look at the launch trailer!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We've said this before, but launch isn't the end of the road for Session and work has already begun on the first patch and DLC drop planned for the end of this year. Stay tuned for more info on that.

[h2]1.0 Patch Notes[/h2]
[h3]General[/h3]
  • Reworked Journey Mode taking the player through all cities and locations
  • Game has now been fully localized in 12 languages
  • Achievements have been added
  • New gear and brands have been added into the game
PLEASE NOTE: all saves from Early Access will be erased for compatibility with the updated Journey Mode.

[h3]Gameplay Features[/h3]
  • Slams / Bails
    • New ragdoll animations when falling off the board. Also added an option to not get back on the board until you press a button.
  • Transit System
    • Updated all Transit related UI, added the possibility to use it from the Pause Menu and from the Apartment
  • Powerslides
    • Updated powerslide controls and handling
  • Lip Tricks
    • New type of tricks, available when inputting powerslides on coping and transitions to edges
  • True Stance Grinds
    • Trick recognition should now be more faithful to real life usage
  • Camera Filters
    • Screne filters, both for in-game and for Editor usage
  • Full Audio Rework
    • Added tons of SFX, reworked most of the ones already present. Notable improvements on bails, landing from high up, cruising on different surfaces
  • Flip / Scoop desync
    • We now have the ability to desynchronize the Flip and Scoop of tricks, in order to add more variety to the already huge trick list
[h3]New Skaters[/h3]
7 new skaters have been added to the roster:
  • Skaters
  • Annie Guglia
  • Louie Barletta
  • Ryan Thompson
  • Jahmir Brown
  • Torey Pudwill
  • Nora Vasconcellos
  • Samarria Brevard
[h3]New Maps[/h3]
Welcome to San Francisco as you skate across some truly iconic skate spots in:
  • SFC - Pier 7
  • SFC - China Banks
[h3]Removed[/h3]
As part of this update, Legacy Controls and Party Games have been removed from Session: Skate Sim.

[h3]Pre-order Content - Brandalised Pack[/h3]
Everyone who supported the game in Early Access on Steam should have received the Brandalised Pack which has been added with this update.
  • Upper body customization options (x8)
  • Deck graphics (x8)
[h3]Supporter Edition Content[/h3]
The Deluxe Edition has been added to Steam and can be purchased as part of a bundle:
  • Péitruss skatepark in Luxembourg
  • A new training area: the Hangar
  • An exclusive prisoner outfit
  • 2 exclusive grip tapes
  • 2 police deck graphics
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/27649/Session__Supporter_Edition/