05 is here!

tldr;

• Track 05 is now live!

• 9 patches in 6 days, plenty of Controller UX buffs

• 1154 finishes on Track 01

• 19 track 04 ninjas

• 6 Tower climbers

Next Fest is coming to a close, and it's been awesome—a HUGE thank you to everyone that checked out the game.

It's scary to build something and show it to the world; and I couldn't be more grateful for all of the positive comments, the constructive criticisms, and the silent ballers that gave Ballest a shot this week.

Thank you.

Now, here's what changed this week. If you want to see the patch notes as I push updates, please join us in the Discord:

General:

• Added a first-time user "How To" controls graphic

• Adjusted the respawn camera angle

• Increased leaderboard preview to top100

• Leaderboard now refreshes automatically after you get a new high score

Controller buffs:

I didn't test the controller experience nearly enough going into the demo, but I think it's on par with KBM for gameplay, now. Menu navigation still has a ways to go.

Gameplay:

• Added separate controller inputs for forward/back, left/right.

• Added a "Center camera" input to redirect the camera towards your movement direction

• Increased default sensitivity by 20%

Menus:

• Footer now shows focus and interacts like you might expect

• Closing popups now resets focus like you might expect

• B & Back buttons now navigate like you might expect

• B & Start now close the pause menu like you might expect

• Items in settings now show focus and interact like you might expect

The Tower

Feedback on The Tower is SO interesting. Players tend to be pretty frustrated with it until they have that moment where a trick that took them 20 tries is suddenly a breeze.

The Tower intended as an Only Up / Deep Dip style experience, and I think the difficulty is just about right. In the full game, we will have a variety of Trials that build the skills you need to take on the Tower. When we fill out the Trials, I expect the Tower will be a breeze for people that have completed them.

With that in mind, the full Tower will likely be about twice as tall. ːsteamhappyː

• Added arrows where the path was unclear

• Added a graphic fly-in that names each distinct section

• Fixed a handful of textures

Track 04

This track is pretty controversial. It's very different from 01 and 03, which tend to be the favorites. I wanted to show parkour & climb players that I will have tracks for them, but I definitely missed the mark on introducing this track.

This track style isn't going away, but I need to rethink presentation. Either way, I promise there will plenty of flow tracks for the speedsters out there :)

• Locked 04 behind author medals instead of gold. This track is way too hard for how easy it was to reach, causing a lot of frustration for players that cruised in and hit the wall.

• Added arrows where the path was unclear

Localization

Only 35% of our wishlists are from the U.S., and that is super rad. If you look through the leaderboards, you'll see names that suggest all sorts of nationalities.

If you're playing in a language other than English, please let me know if there are issues that you'd like me to fix!

• Adjusted Italian translations based on feedback

System:

• Turned jump sound volume up by 50%

• Turned default master volume down by 20%

Crashes:

Crashes are more common than they should be. I don't have logs in the game yet, so it's tough for me to pin these down.

I've added checks to reduce the frequency of these crashes, but a full investigation will take time. This is a big priority before 1.0.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed an issue where sensitivity and invert X/Y didn't apply until restarting the track

• Fixed an issue where pausing during hte pre-race screen caused players to get stuck

• Fixed an issue where menu buttons were hidden if the player changes settings and didn't restart before finishing a race

• Fixed an issue where setting a master volume saved it to your music volume preference instead