Demo Feedback

[Shyny Magikarp]

Most of this feedback is on the game as a whole but just ahead of time I think you should know the trailer that plays at the end of the demo has a lot of "audio pop" (at least for me). It was grating to listen to! Not sure if you can fix this during the demo period, but if so that would be awesome

Anyway, here's more general demo feedback.

First of all, thanks so much for letting us try for free! I really enjoyed it, actually!

I had no technical issues with the game (besides the above audio), however on my controller (A Switch Pro Controller) I felt the vibrations were a bit strange? It felt sort of like rhythmic mini pulses, and didn't seem to correlate much with what I was actually doing on the bike or how fast I was moving. I think this could be improved, or have the option to turn on/off in the settings. I assume it already does, but the demo understandably has limited cutomization options in the settings.

I think the visuals are very cute! Kat's expressions were funny in the few little dialogues that we had, and I actually had a lot of fun talking to every NPC. They added some good character and intrigue into the world, both on the mini-island and the island we're heading toward at the end of the demo. Nice!

I felt the beginning's info dump was a little heavy, though. I liked most interactions but at the beginning I felt it was a lot from Skully right off the bat. Maybe this would play better if we saw Kat be more overwhelmed as Skully continued, so the player doesn't feel alone in that regard?

If not, it might be nice to dole out the early-lore in a little bit more bite-sized chunks.

As for the riding of the bike itself, the bike feels incredibly stiff lol, but I think that's intentional. It's a total rust bucket, and just after a few upgrades the bike already felt better, and I'm sure there is lots of progression for this. I think it's good there's clearly lots of room for the bike to improve, but it might help new players to adjust to just how rough the first bike is by having Kat react to it a bit more?

Ramps are a cute and fun addition! And getting boost meter from air-time as well as near misses is a nice mechanic that I like a lot, as well as drafting. The visual indicator for drafting especially is subtle yet distinct. I love the way you visualize drafting area with the wind trail.

I'm not sure if I wasn't going fast enough or something, but it would be cool to have some kind of cinematic or alternative view if you hit a ramp with enough/the correct amount of speed, even if just for a moment or two. At least when you hit a ramp outside of a race. I'm thinking like in Grand Theft Auto when you hit one of the stunt ramps and you get their cinematic camera. The ramp that gave me this idea was the ramp near the top of the bell hill, not the ones in the races.

If not that (and I know this game isn't a BMX/trick game like Descenders), some very light tricks if you hit the ramp perfect, or boost right at the end of the ramp or something, would be cool. Just a simple lean, or a bar spin or something simple and cute like that might be kind of fun. I don't think we need inputs for tricks or anything, but just something else to add a bit of flavor.

Other than that, I think the world looks very pretty, and the view distance especially adds great enjoyment to the world. I thought the riding animations themselves looked crisp, and the characters so far were visually distinct!

I did encounter an NPC, Portal John, who appeared to have a weird interaction radius, though? I think this is a bug or a mistake. I had to get significantly closer to him to speak with him than anyone else in the game.

Edit: I forgot to say I think the writing so far is very cute! I love how almost everything has some tie-in with bike terminology, like "shifts" seeming to be something like a year in the real world, and chains, etc. Really, really well done, there I thought!

Good luck with Next Fest, and good luck for release. I'm happy to say this is definitely a buy after my experience with this demo