Session: Skate Sim Free Update & new DLC

Crea-ture Developer Blog #18

COMMENTS FROM THE STUDIO

Hey Folks, The session team continues to make progress on our core gameplay with some important updates in our FLOW release! Session Roadmap

What’s been delivered?

Goofy Stance

All tricks and animations have been fully mirrored to the goofy stance, ensuring visual and gameplay parity with regular stance
ON & off board transitions have been fixed, and the player will no longer spin in place when getting On / Off board in goofy stance

Flow & Friction Pass This deliverable is the sum of all work in relation to design, functionality, tweaks/balancing, and the debug of many skate features

Includes revisions and updates to powerslides, reverts, manuals, wheel grip settings, and the “Pump multiplier” option for example

Powerslide updates

Powerslides are now aligned with player direction upon completion, and the board
Reworked the ability to control the depth of the powerslide, both frontside and backside
Improved the friction gradient & breaking rates in powerslides providing more opportunity to manage player speed in a line
Including powerslides with all four wheels AND “tail” or “nose” powerslides, which previously did not influence player speed
We have added the ability to Slalom between frontside and backside powerslides while staying in the powerslide state
Performing a revert by entering a powerslide and completing the rotation with the triggers will allow you to better check your speed while “reverting”
Cleaned up the animation transitions in the powerslide states leading to an overall smoother feel

Reverts Pass

Reverts will no longer over rotate upon completion, ensuring the player is aligned with their initial direction but in their opposite stance
Reverts do not impact player speed
Revert sensitivity settings have been updated
Reverts “ON Bail” have been debugged
Revert animations were cleaned up leading to an overall smoother feel

Manuals

You can now land in manuals without all four wheels touching the ground
This applies to:

Dropping off a ledge or grind into a manual
When performing a revert in a manual
When in a manual and changing directions 180 degrees

Manuals have been added to the trick display

When “Trick Display” is set to “On” in the Options à Display Settings

General

Board Breaking

When your board breaks you will now have the option to load a replacement from your inventory. This includes deck, griptape and deck / rail combos rather than a default orange blank board.
The board replacement is preselected according to your inventory and will:
- Try to replace the same set-up
- If the same items are not available in your inventory – it will build your loadout based off the order your items are displayed in the store / apartment
In-Game News
- We’ve added a news pop-up on game launch that allows us to share the latest news directly with players in game. Including our release notes for this update!
Beyond these updates, we’re happy to be providing some free content with this release!
Free Content
Welcome to Jacuzzi Unlimited Once Louis Barletta announced the launch of his brand, we knew we had to get it in game. You can now find Jacuzzi boards and apparel in your in-game skate shop!

Socks

It’s long overdue but sock variants are finally in game!
Socks are available in 2 Styles with multiple heights and colour Variants for each style – Socks are now available to all players in the skate shop!

BUG FIXES

Fixed Jam mission Softlock: Exiting game mid Jam will no longer block you from starting the Jam and game won’t crash upon trying to change missions.
Fixed inputs for 180 to 50-50 when using Front / Back Foot input mode.
Fixed FS / BS Revert registering opposite in Goofy / Regular's switch.
Fixed skater disappearing / fall during cutscenes.
Fixed nose and tail drags not having friction.
Removed invisible collision while on foot in Prague.
Fixed skater being flung far after bail *Ragdoll velocity.
Fixed character spin when getting On / Off board.
Fixed small manual before Ollie / Nollie crank.
Fixed camera shake when walking / running while board is broken.
Fixed Camera Lens keyframe nullifying effects of FOV.
Fixed Powerslide over rotating while using Front / Back Foot inputs.
Fixed camera position defaulting to right side of screen when launching game / loading map.
Fixed Nollie / Fakie Bigspins and Body Varial trick registration.
Fixed misaligned feet while riding / pushing after respawning.
Fixed Daily Challenges being validated without performing required tricks.
Fixed not being able to Revert while in Nose Manual / Switch Nose Manual.
Fixed flip tricks appearing as Ollie directly after revert.
Fixed lag during Manuals in Paris missions.
Fixed lag while grinding / sliding while having lots of untracked missions available.
Fixed player being knocked down and reset out of Jam zone at beginning of Banks Jam round 2.
Fixed character jolt back when releasing powerslide input.
Late Shoves no longer flip.
Late Shoves function in all stances.
Fixed Manual Catch timings with backwards board.
Quarter Pipe typo fixed for “DIY Quarter” and “Ramp Quarter”
Fixed collision for movable object in Creature Park.
Fixed Goofy / Regular Switch Pressure Hardflip flipping too slow by default.
Fixed evoking Filmer Mode out of bounds leading to camera lowering / raising indefinitely.
Fixed Philly's Finest mission task “Grind the Ledge”
Reverts no longer cause character to jolt forward or backwards.
Fixed auto pop when holding cranking inputs on bank.
Fixed Session Marker decal appearing on quest giver NPC.

QOL FIXES

Objects are now selectable while out of bounds.
Skater no longer stands straight up when entering Powerslide stance.
Updated Rock Ride mission final task.
Updated NYC Banks Wall mission task description.

Known issues in this release

When entering Powerslide stance while in-air & turning with the triggers before landing, the player will land in a permanent Powerslide stance until providing additional input.

Finally, we’re excited to present our latest DLC offering.