Skatebird cover
Skatebird screenshot
Linux PC Mac XONE Switch Series X Steam
Genre: Racing, Simulator, Sport, Indie

Skatebird

Minor update on 1.4 (localization)
This just adds the missing localization strings for the recently added 1.4 stuff like bird petting.

Steam cards are live (and next priorities)
The big one you probably care about: Steam cards are live! So those will be dropping, or maybe you got a bunch in your inventory when you first logged in, whatever. Those are there now. Yay!

For anyone reading this for console news: Xbox and the Win10 Store version are all patched up to current, and we submitted the Nintendo patch last week. With some luck, that'll go live here in the next few days.

As far as next development priorities go:

  • The first item on our roadmap is pet-the-bird. It's one of the Kickstarter stretch goals wherein we'll let you, you know, interact with and pet the bird. Which will have some small gameplay applications.
  • I also want to take a stab at handling in narrow spaces. At least give folks more options for how to turn around in narrow spaces.
  • Maybe a lil secret piece o small content. You'll see.

I expect this to take somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 months before it's live on all platforms, so figure December-ish. That'll be about the pacing on these as we move forward. New content drop every 2-ish months, until I've finished all the stretch goal stuff from the Kickstarter. This one will probably be a bit sooner than 2 months, but still, figure somewhere in that neighborhood.

I've also updated the roadmap post over in the forums, if you want a preview of where things are headed.

1.0.6 (fixes music-unlocking bug)
If you played 1.0.5, you might have noticed music that was previously unlocked, was re-locked. You lost progress on tape collectibles. This patch addresses that, and your progress should go back to the way it was.

(if you were playing on 1.0.5 and collected new tapes, that progress will now be shuffled, sorry! that's why I wanted to get this up ASAP, to minimize how many folks would hit that- you should be able to recollect the tapes as per normal)

patch 1.0.5 (Music n things)
Here's the full changelist:

1.0.5
- Added first-time popup that highlights important accessibility/control options
- Added option toggle that can disable mission time limits
- Replacing the mission music with the longer album mixes
- Overhauled mission music, so it's back in, and can be turned off, but also plays as part of regular music
- Should no longer show a black screen while the title screen loads (hopefully)
- Made forks in Opening Day easier to collect
- The OST now has .FLAC files as well as MP3s.
- Added option that makes birds always happy (by giving them extra treats, we're not monsters)
- Added camera angle for hats in create-a-birb
- Birbified dialog no longer attempts to birbify the bold tag itself
- Added more backers to credits

I think that's it for the quick patches. Barring anything major popping up, the best step is to throw up a basic roadmap, and get working on the first "big" update. Probably petting the bird? Maybe that and one of the remaining it'll-take-longer fixes I want to attempt? Dunno! But that's why I want to think about it and do up a roadmap first.

Patch 1.0.4 (The "did you know there's a minimap?" patch)
1.0.4
- Fixed the feets color on the zebra finch
- Removed white marker boxes at corners of rooftop edge ramps
- Made minimap indicators larger, added tutorial explaining minimap
- Camera can now keep up with you even when you launch off a fan
- Lowered default overall volume, for a less ear-exploding first launch
- Fixed camera jitter during kickflips (as reported here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/971030/discussions/3/2954915322301164964/ )

1.0.3 is live (The Camera Update)
Here's the full patch details, but the gist is: Fixed the camera (and some other stuff).

1.0.3
- Significantly improved the gameplay camera, and made it much more stable
- Added additional camera angles in create-a-birb
- Made it so that if you sequence break to a later level, level select window respects your hustle and lets you go there again even if you didn't beat the prior level
- Adjusted "manual" tutorial to be clearer
- Added reset bounds for if you manage to fall out of level 4 or 5
- Removed the stub/non-functional "Save GIF" button binding

v1.0.2 - disabling DoF Blur / disabling lensing options
1.0.2
- Added accessibility toggle for the disabling of depth of field (distance blur)
- Added accessibility toggle for the disabling of the vignette / lensing (the black border and slight lens distortion and chromatic aberration)
- Made G I B S O N letters in server room slightly easier to collect

Update Plans (yes we're fixing the camera)
First, yes, we're super aware of the camera issues. It's at its worst when you're at the very start, learning the controls and bailing a lot. We missed that because we ran out of dedicated playtesters who hadn't seen/tried the game before (we're an extremely small studio). Sorry! We're on it. That's going to take a bit longer, so in the mean time:

1.0.1 launched last night, and addresses some immediate pain points, chief among them was the tutorial for going fast / getting higher was confusing folks. I added some small but important tweaks that I hope address that, so if you were one of the folks hitting that? Check out the updated Find Big Friend's Charger mission (or flip through How To Skate to the second to last page), and let me know if that helps.

1.0.2 will probably hit next week on around the 21st, and that'll include an accessibility toggle to disable the blur, along with the next sweep of high-priority quick fixes I can stuff in. This will likely also include more camera angles for create-a-birb (so you can clearly see all the clothes/decks).

Next one after that will probably be a camera patch, but that one will take a bit longer. The current camera represents how far I was able to take Unity Cinemachine without it shaking itself apart, so the fix is to essentially throw out the camera system and write my own up from entirely bare metal. Totally doable, just takes a bit longer.

Anyways, glad folks are enjoying and finding the game. Launch was surprisingly big. We hit the top 10 sellers on Steam there for a bit? Kinda wild! Just stick with us here for a bit while I put out a bunch of the usual post-launch fires and such. Thanks!

Update Notes for Sept 18
This is a smaller release we wanted in ASAP, primarily to address some early issues players hit in the tutorial / learning to gain speed. Also fixed some later-game mission bugs.

(And yep, we're working on the camera, that'll just take longer to fix and test)

1.0.1
- Expanded the instructions on how to go faster and higher
- Updated "Find Big Friend's Charger" mission to have clearer goal, with better instructions
- Added extra platform to make top-of-vent tape in level 3 easier to reach
- Moved "Big Friend's Lucky Pin" in level 3 to an easier to reach spot
- Missions no longer interrupt the currently-playing music
- Improved race gate positions in first mission of level 5

SkateBIRD 1.0 IS LIVE
That's kind of it, that's the post. Game's live. Enjoy!

Pending seeing if the game is going to bomb or not (which doesn't seem super likely but hey), I'll throw up a roadmap post and all that good stuff. Short version is in the near term, I'll be assembling a patch to address early pain points. Players struggling with a few key skills in the first level, with gaining speed and realizing they need to look around with the camera, being a few of those. Also any actually-critical crashes or whatever that crop up in the near future that can be isolated.

But yeah! We're HERE! For now, just ya know, go have fun.
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