Descenders (Is that you Downhill Domination?) - PC/PS4/XOne/Switch

[Syphon]

I looked everywhere on the forum and found no posting of this game.



The release date for the PC/Steam version is Feb 9. The console versions still do not have a release date.

Descenders is being made by RageSquid who also did Action Henk a few years ago. They have partnered up with a company called No More Robots to publish the game. Here are some bullet points from the steam page.

A Modern Take on an Extreme Sport

• Procedurally generated worlds: Take on different jumps, slopes and hillbombs every time you play
  
• Freestyle bike controls: Control every subtle movement of your rider, with an in-depth physics system made for slick whips and scrubs
  
• Risk vs reward: Push your rider for massive scores and combos -- but bail too many times and you might lose it all
  
• Build your Rep: A fully-featured online Rep system lets you show off your worth, and earn new bikes and threads
  
• Fully licensed soundtrack: We've partnered up with drum & bass label Liquicity to bring you the perfect soundtrack for hitting the mountains
  
• Become the next Descender: Can you survive the game in a single run, and reach the ranks of the legendary Descenders?

Click to shrink...

 

[Phil32]

I'm not fully competent on procedurally generated worlds as meant for this game. Is it the same basic layout for each track, but with varying placement of those jumps, slopes, and hillbombs? I loved Downhill Domination because there were so many different ways to go through the tracks, so many shortcuts and routes to find and determine which route suited you as the player best. I'm open for this anyway, and I'm sorry if my question was dumb.

 

[LewieP]

No More Robots is Mike Rose, starting his own publishing label. He was one of the main writers from the early days of indiegames.com the weblog, and prior to this he did good stuff for tinyBuild (and is a buddy of mine).

Game looks great, I can't wait to try it. Action Henk was fantastic.

 

[ZeroXZee]

Cool! Downhill Domination was my jam a few years back! =D

 

[Syphon]

I'm not fully competent on procedurally generated worlds as meant for this game. Is it the same basic layout for each track, but with varying placement of those jumps, slopes, and hillbombs? I loved Downhill Domination because there were so many different ways to go through the tracks, so many shortcuts and routes to find and determine which route suited you as the player best. I'm open for this anyway, and I'm sorry if my question was dumb.

Click to shrink...

I actually do not know. I have tried to look up what is actually affected by the procedural generated worlds but, came up with nothing. I could ask the devs and see what they can tell me.

 

[jdstorm]

So its sort of a Steep/Trackmania type game but with BMX bikes?

Cool. They sure have come a long way from Action Henk. Definitely looks interesting.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Invoking Downhill Domination is not something to do lightly


but this does seem worthy

 

[KORNdog]

saw the thread title and got all excited. they seem to have captured the speed of downhill domination really well. looks fast and fun... but the tracks (based on that trailer) look REALLY boring. downhill domination without the absolutely outlandish jumps, crazy shortcuts and general well designed layouts just wouldn't be as fun, and i have a feeling that's exactly the issue this will face. so at least based on that, it's close, but no cigar.

 

[Teppic]

It looks good, but with procedurally generated tracks (?) I'm not that interested. Every racing game I've tried with such systems has only given me a lot of very samey looking tracks with nothing interesting on them.

I'm not fully competent on procedurally generated worlds as meant for this game. Is it the same basic layout for each track, but with varying placement of those jumps, slopes, and hillbombs? I loved Downhill Domination because there were so many different ways to go through the tracks, so many shortcuts and routes to find and determine which route suited you as the player best. I'm open for this anyway, and I'm sorry if my question was dumb.

Click to shrink...

I agree with this. Learing the track is what makes a racing game fun. Perhaps they have a system where you can input a code to play the exact same track again.

 

[Mike Rose]

Oh cool, we got a Resetera post! Been lurking here since the beginning, so this is p. cool, thanks :)

The answer the question about the procedural generation stuff: Each level has a "seed", and we've been toying with the idea of allowing players to save seeds so they can play specific tracks multiple times. It's a tricky one, because we also kinda want tracks to stay special as well - It's highly likely that crazy track you find will never been seen again by anyone, which we think is kinda neat. But yeah, it's a conversation we're continuing to have, and if it seems after launch that people are asking for it in droves, that might twist our arms

 

[Patitoloco]

Oh cool, we got a Resetera post! Been lurking here since the beginning, so this is p. cool, thanks :)

The answer the question about the procedural generation stuff: Each level has a "seed", and we've been toying with the idea of allowing players to save seeds so they can play specific tracks multiple times. It's a tricky one, because we also kinda want tracks to stay special as well - It's highly likely that crazy track you find will never been seen again by anyone, which we think is kinda neat. But yeah, it's a conversation we're continuing to have, and if it seems after launch that people are asking for it in droves, that might twist our arms

Click to shrink...

It looks awesome and super fun!

I have two questions: what engine is it? It looks like Unity, but I'm not sure. And two: does it have VR support? Because that could be really crazy

 

[Rand a. Thor]

Invoking Downhill Domination is not something to do lightly


but this does seem worthy

Click to shrink...

Procedural Generated Levels means, no this is not worthy. A game like this needs to have proper levels so that you can master em properly, random trees popping up is never gonna work.

 

[Mike Rose]

It looks awesome and super fun!

I have two questions: what engine is it? It looks like Unity, but I'm not sure. And two: does it have VR support? Because that could be really crazy

Click to shrink...

Yes, incredibly it's Unity! Rosie, the 3D artist on the game, is a bit of a god

We're currently talking to Oculus about VR possibilities, we're just a little wary that we'll probably need to supply sick buckets with the game if we did that

 

[FriedConsole]

Looks good. Procedure generated can be ok sometimes and is not a deal breaker. Action Henk was underrated.

 

[Neon Octopus]

Looks great! Definitely one to keep an eye on.

I'd vote for being able to save the seed for a single run mode. Might not use it, but I must've played the downhill domination demo 100 times with my buddy on the couch trying to one up high scores.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

What the trailer doesn't show you is the 4 hours climbing up the hill you do for each level.

 

[haveheart]

This looks interesting. Definitely a game I would pick up on PS4.

There appear to be two different camera angles. Will there also be one centered behind the player model?

Will there be several paths or do you have to stay in bounds?

 

[Syphon]

Oh cool, we got a Resetera post! Been lurking here since the beginning, so this is p. cool, thanks :)

The answer the question about the procedural generation stuff: Each level has a "seed", and we've been toying with the idea of allowing players to save seeds so they can play specific tracks multiple times. It's a tricky one, because we also kinda want tracks to stay special as well - It's highly likely that crazy track you find will never been seen again by anyone, which we think is kinda neat. But yeah, it's a conversation we're continuing to have, and if it seems after launch that people are asking for it in droves, that might twist our arms

Click to shrink...

No problem Mike!
Also thanks for the info on the procedural generation. Glad to see that you guys are experimenting with "seeds".

 

[The Main Event]

That looks damn good.

 

[Mike Rose]

This looks interesting. Definitely a game I would pick up on PS4.

There appear to be two different camera angles. Will there also be one centered behind the player model?

Will there be several paths or do you have to stay in bounds?

Click to shrink...

Yeah, there are in fact 4 angles you can switch between on the fly: behind the biker, to the left side of the biker (we call that one "Pro Mode" internally), a first person camera, and a sorta aerial "from the helicopter" style camera, for cutting together cool shots

And you don't have to stay in bounds at all, that's pretty much one of the big selling points of the game — you can totally leave the path and just go whereever you choose. There are special jumps and tricks to find off the path too

 

[Jahranimo]

Ah, I remember hearing about this game sometime last year. Looks cool, Downhill Domination was fun back in the day.

Hopefully the latest Unity Engine update for the Switch helps the development on the platform. I'd prefer getting it there, but if not PS4 :)

 

[haveheart]

Yeah, there are in fact 4 angles you can switch between on the fly: behind the biker, to the left side of the biker (we call that one "Pro Mode" internally), a first person camera, and a sorta aerial "from the helicopter" style camera, for cutting together cool shots

And you don't have to stay in bounds at all, that's pretty much one of the big selling points of the game — you can totally leave the path and just go whereever you choose. There are special jumps and tricks to find off the path too

Click to shrink...

Ok, that sounds really good! I'll definitely try this on steam. Hopefully there'll be a ps4 release some time.

 

[Mike Rose]

Hello! Sorry if bumping threads is a MASSIVE GODDAMN NO NO -- just wanted to let you guys know that Descenders is out this Friday on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/681280/Descenders/

We're all a *tiny bit* excited about it, as you might have guessed

If there's anyone around these parts who would like to review/record/stream/WHATEVER the game, lemme know :)

 

[Jahranimo]

Hello! Sorry if bumping threads is a MASSIVE GODDAMN NO NO -- just wanted to let you guys know that Descenders is out this Friday on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/681280/Descenders/

We're all a *tiny bit* excited about it, as you might have guessed

If there's anyone around these parts who would like to review/record/stream/WHATEVER the game, lemme know :)

Click to shrink...

Hey, I might have missed this on the Steam page (looking at it on mobile) but how much will it be when it drops on Friday?

 

[Crayon]

I don't know how much you know about downhill but I'm an expert. Concussions and dislocations are a huge part of it.
...
The movement doesn't look that realistic. It looks less committed than the real thing. Probably for gameplay response purposes. That would make this closer to DH Domination than some kind of sports sim. I'm be keen on this as long as they come thru with that tux version.

 

[Crayon]

I saw this first thing in the morning and I've been thinking about it for hours. The excessive scrubs and whips in the trailer made a good impression on me.

I hope they are looking carefully at the camera and the sound to get that extra bit of feedback.

 

[Deleted member 18951]

Anyone picked this up? I see it's coming to Game Preview on Xbox and just wondered how much content was in this early access release.

 

[Bear]

Anyone picked this up? I see it's coming to Game Preview on Xbox and just wondered how much content was in this early access release.

Click to shrink...

Do we know when it's dropping on Game Preview? Loved Downhill Domination so this looks right up my alley.

 

[ShinUltramanJ]

Doesn't look as wild as Downhill Domination, but still pretty good.

God I wish we'd get a new one.

 

[boris_feinbrand]

Oh cool, we got a Resetera post! Been lurking here since the beginning, so this is p. cool, thanks :)

The answer the question about the procedural generation stuff: Each level has a "seed", and we've been toying with the idea of allowing players to save seeds so they can play specific tracks multiple times. It's a tricky one, because we also kinda want tracks to stay special as well - It's highly likely that crazy track you find will never been seen again by anyone, which we think is kinda neat. But yeah, it's a conversation we're continuing to have, and if it seems after launch that people are asking for it in droves, that might twist our arms

Click to shrink...

Saving tracks is essential. I grew up in the mountains, and redoing certain parts of downhill tracks on ski or bikes or even sleds is a great challenge. Otherwise it might make things a bit too inconsequential no?

 

[Deleted member 18951]

Do we know when it's dropping on Game Preview? Loved Downhill Domination so this looks right up my alley.

Click to shrink...

They say in the next several months. This preview on Xbox Wire makes it sound like something I'd really like.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2018/02/09/descenders-rides-xbox-game-preview-summer/

 

[Wikzo]

Game looks super nice. Really want to try it out when I get through some of my Switch backlog. I also backed Lonely Mountains: Downhill on Kickstarter, which looks a bit like a "Hitman Go" or "Poly Bridge" version of Descenders :P

 

[Dash Kappei]

This is out today?

 

[IbizaPocholo]

This is out today?

Click to shrink...

Yes

 

[VeePs]

Sorry if it's a dumb question, but can you race other AI in this? I didn't see any in the trailers. Or is it just a you and the track and how fast can you get from point a to point b type of game?

 

[Crayon]

Alrighty then. Let's check this out.

 

[bsigg]

How is this for anyone that has been playing on PC?

I'm looking at picking it up next week when it lands on Xbox.

 

[Darkmaigle]

Well, just burned through the hour trial for Xbox Game Preview, wishlisted on Steam hoping for a sale tomorrow. Game is crazy fun, its like third person trials had a baby with skate and olliolli. Great drum n bass soundtrack too.

 

[Aranea]

Downhill Domination needs to come back

Not excited over that random generated map thingy, but this is the closest thing next to a new DD game, so I'll keep an eye on it

 

[Rumenapp]

Tried the trial for the preview yesterday and was surprised by the game.

Will purchase when the full game launches.

 

[Putosaure]

Playstation 4 version to release on August 25.

Switch version still pending because they wait for the carts to be manufactured.

 

[Jahranimo]

This is still on Xbox Game Pass PC as well folks!