Skater XL News

(scroll down for a sneak peak at more buttery new animations)

What is up guys! Today marks the 1 year anniversary of the Early Access launch of Skater XL and we’d like to take a moment to look back and appreciate what’s happened in the world of skateboarding games over the last 12 months.

In one short year the outlook for the skating game genre has flipped a complete 180, from dwindling hope for a sequel to the beloved Skate franchise and an otherwise empty playing field to a flurry of activity.

Skater XL burst out from closed development on core gameplay into public Early Access, and over the duration of 2019 was followed by a renewed energy in the genre and announcements across PC, consoles and even mobile.

In our Steam Early Access we introduced a new level of control, board feel and satisfaction to skateboarding game mechanics which have not only rebooted realistic skateboarding gameplay, but taken it a giant leap forwards, further than even that of big-publisher franchises of the past.

The community and culture around skateboarding games has been revived, with an incredible 40k players joining the community owned and operated SXL modding Discord. The positive and creative culture that has grown around the game is truly unique and we are grateful to have been able to play a part in unlocking and contributing to this passion that is shared by so many skate game fans around the world.

The seemingly impossible has happened and the genre is truly on track not only to revival, but with the explosion of community, modding and content creation in the last 12 months, is set to become something bigger and better than it ever was.

Given that no big publishers have been involved and this is a movement driven entirely by independent development and a passionate community, this is truly amazing and cause to celebrate for anyone who is a fan.


Year in Review:

Here’s what’s happened since Skater XL launched on 19th Dec 2018

• Reached #1 upcoming game out of 2,207 on Steam pre-launch in under two weeks
  
• Amassed more than 2,700 Steam reviews with an avg. rating of Very Positive and recent rating of Overwhelmingly Positive (thank you!)
  
• Community made and operated modding Discord reached an incredible 40k members and growing
  
• Rise of numerous fakeskate teams, streamers and the revival of YZ Magazine (shout-outs at bottom of post), thousands of community videos and edits posted to IG and Youtube
  
• Growing base of users with a staggering 200+hr played, and several with 1k+
  
• Easy Day Studios development team more than doubled in size including welcoming modders Kiwi and Theo
  
• The core Easy Day team relocated from different parts of the US and World to Long Beach CA to be at the centre of the skate culture and industry
  

In regards to the game’s development itself, this year has seen the beta implementation of a new map, new character avatar, replay editor system, character customization and new gear options, grabs, a teleporting system, map selector, transition skating improvements and numerous bug and gameplay fixes. This might not seem like the biggest volume of content on paper but please trust that we have been working both hard and smart to build the best possible starting point for 1.0 and lay good foundations for the future of Skater XL.


A View Towards 1.0

At Easy Day we are looking at the road ahead and planning how we can best develop the product and work together with the SXL community and creators. As we move towards 1.0 we see this as including:


1 - Core

• Continue to polish the core of the game mechanic and animation system and unlock the sense of control, freedom and connection to the board that characterizes Skater XL through a wider range of tricks
  
• Improve animation assets and system to the point where every well executed movement in the game looks and feels smooth and authentic
  

We’ve always taken the approach that to unlock the true fun and rewarding feeling of physics based skateboarding, the initial and primary focus should be given to the core mechanics of gameplay. It’s this approach that has given Skater XL the unmistakable control and fluidity of gameplay that the community has come to know and love. We’ve made a ton of progress on both the gameplay and animation sides and content is moving through the stages of development to 1.0.


2 - Content

• Create amazing content to complete the game towards 1.0 and deliver value in ways that best complement or differ from content being made by the modding community
  

Our belief from the start has been that gameplay should be polished to a certain level first before moving focus to level design and content which fit perfectly with that gameplay. With that in mind, since early 2019 we felt the core mechanic of the game was shaping up enough that we could start focus on content and level design. It's been an interesting journey, we're super excited with what's been in development and look forward to sharing more soon.


3 - Community

• Enable and empower the community and content creators
  
• Increase ease of access and consumption of community and mod content
  

In addition to the official content and features that we’ve been grinding on, we’ve heard the community feedback about your desire to create and implement modded content in an easy and logical way. Though we’ve made improvements in the accessibility of modded maps in the latest beta update, we are taking steps to make it easier to access modded gear in future updates.


In an effort to keep you guys updated on some of the things we’ve been working on, we’ve dropped some gifs below of a few new animations that resulted from our motion capture with Walker Ryan, as well as subsequent mocap sessions. As you can see, the new animations really breathe life into the character and replicate real life body movements in a much more accurate way. Overhauling the original animations has been a time consuming process, but we hope you agree that the time spent is well worth it.

Old Hardflip


New Hardflip


Old Frontside Crooked Grind


New Frontside Crooked Grind


Old 360 Flip


New 360 Flip


Old Frontside Flip:


New Frontside Flip:


Old Frontside Noseslide


New Frontside Noseslide


Old Kickflip Nose Manual Nollie Tre


New Kickflip Nose Manual Nollie Tre


As our birthday arrives it’s another day in the office for us here. We have our heads down in development and we’re excited at the progress development is making every day. We've said it before and we'll say it again - we can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on, and likewise we can’t wait to see what the community continues to build and create.

We can't help but wonder - if this is the response to skateboarding coming to Early Access on Steam, then what kind of madness will be unlocked when the full power of the game and community is unlocked in full release for PC and Consoles...

And while it would be impossible to thank everyone that has made an impact on the Skater XL community, we wanted to highlight a few notable contributors. Note that those highlighted are clickable links, for those new to Skater XL we highly recommend taking some time to have a look through some of the awesome content from these members:

Content Creators Hoodlum Family
Demzilla
Mathias Rabat
Snail
Uncle Chippah Rob White LowLife Crew
Timekeeper Precision Wheels Beans Brand
Big Daddy Beans
Binary Shoes
Fleep
Gnubzi
ThumbSquad RoccityRoller Eon Skateboards
Bizznacker Jboondock JJMartianLive Fizzle McCoy Nightspeeds
Something Rad BodieFPS 5uds
Olay 902Rider Jboogie
Battlegroundinho 33AnnA3rd Derry_k BobGnarly Dubaazz
Berylz OneYear Brand Provosert BlackDave Minimus


Mod maker and Community Contributors - All mods can be found in the modding Discord HERE
Pactole
Luke
Hondune
Yaky
GHFear
Figzyy
Matsix
untz
iStreamOnline
Silentbaws
Enox
Jean-Olive
Fermenter
medium_burnt
Kiwi
Theo
Brian Wilde
Desmond McFalls
SquegeeDinoToy
PRIME
Babbo Elu
Ulimon
Pinco
Le Kaiju
BoolmasterJay
Goof
Letsplayalittlegame




Have a happy Skater XL birthday everyone. Let’s keep this thing rolling and see how far just how far we can take it in 2020.


🎂 The Easy Day team

IMPORTANT: Update features referred to in this post are located in the “public beta” branch of the game. This is a separate stream of development for us to test and get feedback on early features before committing them to the main product.

You MUST opt in to play this version of the game by following the steps at the bottom of this post.

**************

What’s up guys? As part of our progress toward 1.0 launch, today we have implemented an update to the Public Beta branch of the game, chock full of new features and content that we hope you will enjoy. This group of new content, features, mechanics and fixes are the result of our team’s hard work over the past several months.

A lot of things have been happening in the background simultaneously, and when they all start to take shape, it can have an extremely positive impact on the game. This major update is a significant step towards Skater XL’s vision of bringing a new level of control, style and freedom to the skateboarding genre.

In recent months, the one and only modder Theo has officially joined Easy Day and is assisting with map creation, and our boy Kiwi has also joined the team and has helped bring his widely used replay editor mod to the core product, as well as assisting in building the new gear selector, menus, and a bunch of other things.

It can be hard to find great coders and content creators who also have a background in and passion for skateboarding and we’re really stoked to have dedicated members of the community be able to officially join the team.

Though still in beta, the majority of features have been tested with our private beta group and we feel are almost ready for the official game. We’d love to get feedback on these new features from the broader community and have included two features to submit feedback in the new menu system (described further below).

Please take a look at the details of the update below and as always, we appreciate all the support and feedback that our community has given us along the way. We look forward to building on these features in future updates that will culminate in the 1.0 launch in the not so distant future.

Have a look at Nightspeeds taking it for a spin
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

New Character
As mentioned in previous updates, we have scanned a new character model that is now playable in the game. New animations have not yet been implemented, however. You’ll notice that the new character has improved textures and quality. We’re still working on those eyes though :)

Gear Selector + new clothing options
We have implemented the ability to change the character’s clothes, as well as adding some additional clothing options. This will not be the entirety of gear options, but we’re looking to test the functionality of the selector and quality of gear textures.

To access press the ‘Start’ button and select “Gear”. From there you will be able to select gear and see what it looks like on the character. This feature, like others in the menu system have been designed to be quick and easy to access, then get right back to gameplay.

We understand that many of you in the modding community have spent a lot of time designing gear and creating brands using the original character. And while these new gear textures will require new gear mods to be created, it is a necessary step in getting game closer to 1.0 launch.

We appreciate all the time, energy and effort that goes into creating custom gear mods, but hope that you’ll agree that the new character and gear options will make all your clips look much better in the future, and also provide a greater variety of options as we add more clothing types to this new model moving forward.




Southern California Skatepark Map
We've included a new map which allows you to skate a Southern California classic from your PC anywhere in the world - palm trees, warm sunset and all.

This map was originally created as a one-to-one exact replica of a real skatepark but through the development process we’ve come to learn that exact replicas of real spots do not provide for the best gameplay experience.

Beyond the core gameplay, level design is one of the next crucial elements to unlock fun in the game and something we have decided to take very seriously.

There’s no blueprint for how to design great spots and levels for skateboarding games, let alone the first one ever to be completely physics based and with real-time control of the board, so we have spent months doing deep dives into what truly unlocks the fun and creativity in ways that we believe will be far more satisfying than recreating exact replicas of existing spots.

This involves building, testing and re-testing, and in some cases scrapping ideas and starting over. Time consuming but incredibly important work. As a result the park in this beta update may not be included in the 1.0 game, or may be eventually modified, but we are interested to have our community play it and let us know what you think.

It is modeled after Encinitas Skatepark (“Poods Park”), and adds terrain that we hope will unlock some new elements of fun to the overall gameplay.

Stay tuned also in future for the results of our ongoing level design efforts, we’re excited to share some of what we’ve learned and are building as things move forward.




Map Selection
We’ve added a map selection menu that will allow you to quickly and easily switch between the Courthouse, Encinitas Skatepark, your installed Modded Maps, and future official maps. To switch between maps, press the ‘Start’ button and select ‘Maps’ in the menu.

Select the map you’d like to play and you’ll be dropped in. Your downloaded modded maps should also automatically appear in the ‘Custom Maps’ menu by tabbing sideways using LB / RB (Xbox) or L1 / R1 (PS4).

Grindable edges are assigned to objects in custom maps automatically upon loading using a similar approach to that in Hondunes original map importer mod. We’re using an improved technique so the way the player leans on sloped rails will be more correct and similar to that in official maps.

There is an instructions popup available to those who have not yet installed any custom maps, with an option to open the main community-run SXL modding server in Discord.



Grabs
We teased this feature a few months back and have refined the system to a point that we are happy to release it for your enjoyment. Like other elements of the game, the grabbing system includes Skater XL’s highly responsive independent stick control to tweak and style the grab any way you like, adding even more creative possibilities to the game.

Grabs can be done any time you are in the air, to use grabs press the shoulder (bumper) button to grab with the corresponding hand (Right or Left). You can tweak grabs by moving the sticks, just as you would for Shiftys or grinds.

Different grabs are executed by rotating your board before grabbing. For instance, a nose grab can be done by pointing your nose up by pulling down on the sticks and then grabbing with your left hand (if regular).

Tail grab would be pushing forward then grabbing with your right hand (regular stance). Stalefish and mutes can be achieved by doing a frontside shifty (sticks pointed away from each other) before grabbing either your left or right hand.




Pin Mover / Teleporter
You can now easily move around maps and choose your spawn point anywhere you like quickly and easily. Press Y (XBox) or Square (PS4) to activate.

The left stick will move you around the map, the right stick with rotate. Hold LT / RT (XBox) or L2 / R2 (PS4) to raise and lower the camera. Press Y (XBox) or Square (PS4) to drop your spawn point.

An off-board character mode where you can run around, jump and do tricks like Cavemans was experimented with, but we found it didn’t provide enough freedom to quickly move around the map and get straight back into the meaningful parts of the gameplay.

Off-board is a part of skateboarding and something we’re still considering for later inclusion, but perhaps with a deeper rethink of how it should be integrated into the skating experience.



Replay Editor
We have implemented a replay editor based on Kiwi’s original mod so that you can officially replay and capture clips of your skating. The loading time when first opening the editor has been greatly improved so the replay plays smoothly instantly.

To use the editor, press the ‘Start’ button and select ‘Replay. Upon opening the Replay Editor, a menu will appear showcasing the controls for how to operate it.

You will still need to use a screen capture program and external software to save and edit your clips if wanting to make video parts.

A few features such as clip length editing and visible depth of field indicator have not yet been included.




Quarterpipe ollie and landing improvements
We have included many further improvements to transition skating. We hope this will improve the experience in the many skatepark style mod maps based around transition and ramps and in future planned official maps. This is such a big part of skateboarding and we’re stoked to be bringing more and more of these elements to Skater XL.

New mechanics make it much easier than previously to jump off a steep surface like a quarter or bank and land back into that surface, although based on speed and approach you may still pop out of the bank / quarter if desired.

There are also improvements to character lean and spins plus to spinning flip tricks (FS / BS flips etc.) on angled surfaces and transitions.
Old


New


These and other gameplay changes in this update are all done with adaptations to Skater XL’s underlying system based on natural physics to allow for depth and variety in gameplay while giving the player the maximum amount of control.

Pumping
To manage speed while skating transition obstacles, we have added a pumping mechanic. To utilize this new feature press up on back foot stick or down on the front foot stick and then release the stick as you enter or exit the transition.

We’ve found in testing this helps greatly with speed control and flow around obstacles like the bowl in the Encinitas map. Let us know what you think!



Gameplay improvements
Cab flip and other combined flip + body rotation tricks have been improved.
Old


New


Player lean angle on banks and quarters has been improved and feels more natural.

Catch rotations have been made cleaner and with less foot penetration.

Beta Survey and Contact Developer buttons
We have included a survey that can be completed to give feedback on features currently in ‘beta’. There is also a contact developer button which can be used to email with any other feedback or bug reports.


To open the beta, follow these steps:

Right click ‘Skater XL’ and open Properties

Select the ‘beta - public beta builds’ branch.

Steam should start downloading this version of the game. Once it has finished, you will be able to try the update. The game name in your library should now show “Skater XL [beta]”.

If you’d like to switch back to the regular commercial release branch of the game in future simply come back to this screen and select “NONE - opt out of all betas” in the drop down.

Thanks again for your continued support and we are looking forward to getting your feedback on these new features! Happy skating! We'll catch you on the next update

What is up guys! Since the last update a few weeks ago, the development continues to push forward and we are making great progress toward a complete game.

For this update, we wanted to share the results of the character and gear scan session that took place a few months back. We worked with Human Engine in Los Angeles for our photogrammetry scan of a new character model as well as various changes of clothing and accessories.

The photogrammetry process involves taking shots of a person and clothing items on a rig of over 100 DSLR cameras which are then processed via several steps into 3 dimensional digital objects.

The 3D objects are then "skinned" to the underlying skeleton of the character, a process that involves telling all the points on the 3D object how to bend and move as the underlying bones of the character are animated. This makes sure his joints, fingers, clothes, etc. all retain a realistic shape and volume through his range of motion while skating.

The outcome, as you can see in the photos and videos, creates an incredibly lifelike character, with super realistic skin, hair and clothing textures that can bend and move around.





Note the hair in the model above is a placeholder stock asset.

The model and clothing items will create the building blocks for our character customizer, where you will be able to choose from several different clothing options and visual attributes to create a unique character to skate with. We also have more clothing items coming which will be ready in the coming weeks.

See below some clips of the character in motion. Note that this is not yet using the new animations captured in our recent motion capture session.

Thanks for your patience as we continue to tie all the pieces together on this and other parts of the game as we move towards full release. Thanks to all the players who chose to buy and support the game in Early Access so far and stay tuned for the next update soon!

Today's Deal: Save 20% on Skater XL!*

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends Monday at 10AM Pacific Time

Happy Go Skateboarding Day! Today we are proud to be partnering with The Sheckler Foundation to help further their mission of enriching the lives of children through skateboarding. We will be donating a portion of the proceeds from today’s Skater XL sales to the foundation, aligning with our shared commitment of giving back to the skateboarding community. We hope you'll join us and 'Be The Change'! Now get out and go skate!!!