Hey everyone!

We know you've been enjoying Descenders, but we also know you've been wishing for something a little more... uphill. We've been experimenting with new ways to play Descenders, and we've come up with something we're sure is a great way to reach new heights!

We hope you like our new game, Ascenders!

You can play for free right now! To play you'll need to be on Windows, go to Descenders properties in your Steam library, go to the BETAS tab, enter "AscendersTheGame" as the password, and click CHECK CODE. You can now select Ascenders in the dropdown menu.

Be careful whlie you're enjoying this new game, because Rep is carried over to your regular Descenders progress. But so are any unlocks you may get ;)

Have fun <3

Hey everyone!

We know you've been enjoying Descenders, but we also know you've been wishing for something a little more... uphill. We've been experimenting with new ways to play Descenders, and we've come up with something we're sure is a great way to reach new heights!

We hope you like our new game, Ascenders!

You can play for free right now! To play you'll need to be on Windows, go to Descenders properties in your Steam library, go to the BETAS tab, enter "AscendersTheGame" as the password, and click CHECK CODE. You can now select Ascenders in the dropdown menu.

Be careful whlie you're enjoying this new game, because Rep is carried over to your regular Descenders progress. But so are any unlocks you may get ;)

Have fun <3

(Windows only at the moment. Mac&Linux coming soon!)


Hey all!

Last week's update gave the game a few new sound effects. Unfortunately some of these effects weren't properly categorized so the volume sliders had no effect on them. Because this is quite intrusive we wanted to get this hotfixed instead of waiting for a next bigger update, so here we are!
In addition to the sfx fixes we are happy to announce that we've partnered up with German mountain biker and youtuber Fabio Schäfer. His brand of gear, #SCRAPE, is now unlockable! #SCRAPE gear is the first brand we're collaborating with this is something we want to do more often, so tell your favourite youtuber/biker to get in touch with us and we'll try to work something out to get their brand in the game!

Changes:

• Added #SCRAPE gear by Fabio Schäfer to the gear pool.
  
• #SCRAPE items include 3 new goggles, 2 long sleeve jerseys, 1 short sleeve jersey. The items are of uncommon, rare, and extraordinary rarities.
  
• Bugfix: categorized sound effects so that volume sliders affect them.
  
• Minor CPU performance improvement.

Mixer integration
The idea was to enable Mixer integration in this hotfix but after we publicly tested it in yesterday's stream we decided that it's too easy to abuse it in its current state. We'd like some more time to tweak it to make sure that it's solid. We'll release this when we get back from event season that's starting next week (PAX/EGX Rezzed).

Community
If you want to keep up to date with the known issues and our current plans, join our Discord, or have a look at the Roadmap! As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts!

Much love,
RageSquid

(Windows only at the moment. Mac&Linux coming soon!)


Hey all!

Last week's update gave the game a few new sound effects. Unfortunately some of these effects weren't properly categorized so the volume sliders had no effect on them. Because this is quite intrusive we wanted to get this hotfixed instead of waiting for a next bigger update, so here we are!
In addition to the sfx fixes we are happy to announce that we've partnered up with German mountain biker and youtuber Fabio Schäfer. His brand of gear, #SCRAPE, is now unlockable! #SCRAPE gear is the first brand we're collaborating with this is something we want to do more often, so tell your favourite youtuber/biker to get in touch with us and we'll try to work something out to get their brand in the game!

Changes:

• Added #SCRAPE gear by Fabio Schäfer to the gear pool.
  
• #SCRAPE items include 3 new goggles, 2 long sleeve jerseys, 1 short sleeve jersey. The items are of uncommon, rare, and extraordinary rarities.
  
• Bugfix: categorized sound effects so that volume sliders affect them.
  
• Minor CPU performance improvement.

Mixer integration
The idea was to enable Mixer integration in this hotfix but after we publicly tested it in yesterday's stream we decided that it's too easy to abuse it in its current state. We'd like some more time to tweak it to make sure that it's solid. We'll release this when we get back from event season that's starting next week (PAX/EGX Rezzed).

Community
If you want to keep up to date with the known issues and our current plans, join our Discord, or have a look at the Roadmap! As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts!

Much love,
RageSquid

Hey all!

We're back again with a small update! We've heard your feedback on the rep system and world map and we agree with you, they really need some work. We're super eager to rework these things but that's going to be a big project. Before we can start on a major overhaul like this we wanted to get a few smaller things out of the way. One of the things in this update is the newsfeed. This way we can communicate more information to you without having to upload new builds. This is also a place where we can highlight community clips and images.
Apart from this we did a lot of small fixes and updates, which I'll list below.

Changes:

• Added multiple UI sound effects.
  
• Added new character voice sounds and removed the temporary voice effects from the rider (goodbye Cedar!).
  
• Added a newsfeed in the main menu. This is where we'll place information about the game, its updates, and community highlights.
  
• Physics raycasting update, this new method for wheel collision is about 16x faster and should even be more precise as well.
  
• Mixer integration. Streamers who stream on Mixer.com can now enable interactivity in the gameplay options menu. In career and practice mode the viewers can influence level generation and hand out extra reputation when the streamer performs sweet tricks. In freeride mode the viewers can submit level seeds for the streamer to play. We've had to disable this because of issues while building the executable. Expect this in a hotfix some time next week.
  
• Added a few more unlockable items ;)
  
• GPU performance improvements across the board. We mainly tried to pull the FPS in the forest environment more in line with the rest of the environments.
  
• Big CPU performance upgrades, should be most notable for people with low end CPUs.
  
• Bugfix: removed bonus objective UI from freeride mode.
  
• Bugfix: UI buttons would sometimes randomly scale up.
  
• Bugfix: Button navigation in game modes menu fixed.
  
• Bugfix: Couple of localization errors fixed.
  
• Bugfix: 1460 is now 1440 lol
  
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHpetnUFQMA&t=0m35s

Next up:
As stated above we are super hyped to start working on the new world map and the new reputation system. We want to move away from a percentage based penalty system and towards a system which rewards taking risks and doing sick moves, rather than spending as much time as possible grinding levels in a safe manner. While we're working on this we're definitely going to keep you up to date through our social channels and on Discord. Do keep in mind that this next update could take a month or two, this is quite a big undertaking for the small team that we are.
Next to these big overhauls we're also going to be travelling a lot in the near future. There are several events we'll be going to and if you happen to go to any of these, please drop by our booth and say hi, we'd love to meet you all in person <3
You'll be able to find us here:
- GDC (Right now, San Francisco, USA) - Mike
- PAX East (April 5-8, Boston, USA) - Mike & Rosie
- EGX Rezzed (April 13-15, London, UK) - Mike (& Roel/Lex?)

If you want to keep up to date with the known issues and our current plans, join our Discord, or have a look at the Roadmap! As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts!

Much love,
RageSquid

Hey all!

We're back again with a small update! We've heard your feedback on the rep system and world map and we agree with you, they really need some work. We're super eager to rework these things but that's going to be a big project. Before we can start on a major overhaul like this we wanted to get a few smaller things out of the way. One of the things in this update is the newsfeed. This way we can communicate more information to you without having to upload new builds. This is also a place where we can highlight community clips and images.
Apart from this we did a lot of small fixes and updates, which I'll list below.

Changes:

• Added multiple UI sound effects.
  
• Added new character voice sounds and removed the temporary voice effects from the rider (goodbye Cedar!).
  
• Added a newsfeed in the main menu. This is where we'll place information about the game, its updates, and community highlights.
  
• Physics raycasting update, this new method for wheel collision is about 16x faster and should even be more precise as well.
  
• Mixer integration. Streamers who stream on Mixer.com can now enable interactivity in the gameplay options menu. In career and practice mode the viewers can influence level generation and hand out extra reputation when the streamer performs sweet tricks. In freeride mode the viewers can submit level seeds for the streamer to play. We've had to disable this because of issues while building the executable. Expect this in a hotfix some time next week.
  
• Added a few more unlockable items ;)
  
• GPU performance improvements across the board. We mainly tried to pull the FPS in the forest environment more in line with the rest of the environments.
  
• Big CPU performance upgrades, should be most notable for people with low end CPUs.
  
• Bugfix: removed bonus objective UI from freeride mode.
  
• Bugfix: UI buttons would sometimes randomly scale up.
  
• Bugfix: Button navigation in game modes menu fixed.
  
• Bugfix: Couple of localization errors fixed.
  
• Bugfix: 1460 is now 1440 lol
  
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHpetnUFQMA&t=0m35s

Next up:
As stated above we are super hyped to start working on the new world map and the new reputation system. We want to move away from a percentage based penalty system and towards a system which rewards taking risks and doing sick moves, rather than spending as much time as possible grinding levels in a safe manner. While we're working on this we're definitely going to keep you up to date through our social channels and on Discord. Do keep in mind that this next update could take a month or two, this is quite a big undertaking for the small team that we are.
Next to these big overhauls we're also going to be travelling a lot in the near future. There are several events we'll be going to and if you happen to go to any of these, please drop by our booth and say hi, we'd love to meet you all in person <3
You'll be able to find us here:
- GDC (Right now, San Francisco, USA) - Mike
- PAX East (April 5-8, Boston, USA) - Mike & Rosie
- EGX Rezzed (April 13-15, London, UK) - Mike (& Roel/Lex?)

If you want to keep up to date with the known issues and our current plans, join our Discord, or have a look at the Roadmap! As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts!

Much love,
RageSquid

Hey everyone!

Unfortunately the previous update (Freeride mode update) shipped with a couple of bugs. Today we're pushing a small hotfix to resolve these issues. Please keep your feedback coming so we know about these bugs and we can keep fixing them as soon as possible!

Changes:

• Freeride levels can now be quit without having to stop riding. You can now also respawn while riding when you have health set to infinite.
  
• In Freeride mode, trying to select environments the player hasn't unlocked yet will now trigger a popup explaining why. The same goes for trying to select the Boss Jump physical modifier.
  
• Level seed now always shows on the bottom right of the screen in the post-game UI.
  
• Bugfix: Freeride UI labels now localize properly when selecting non-latin languages.
  
• Bugfix: achievements are no longer triggered in Freeride/Practice modes.
  
• Bugfix: post-game UI health bug fixed (1 HP bug).
  
• Bugfix: rep now properly displays after a Freeride level.
  
• Bugfix: Golden Run, Made it, and True Descender achievements now trigger again.

Known issues:

• macOS stability is a big problem, crashes occur more frequent than on other platforms and framerates are lower than we want them to be. We're aware of this and currently looking into getting external help to fix these problems.
  
• Steam leaderboards bug. Some players have no entry on the leaderboards and we're having a hard time reproducing the bug but we're still well aware of the bug and working on it.
  
• General performance levels are not yet where we want them to be. We're constantly looking at ways to improve this.

If you want to keep up to date with the known issues and our current plans, join our Discord, or have a look at the Roadmap! We'd love to hear your thoughts!

<3
RageSquid & Friends

Hey everyone!

Unfortunately the previous update (Freeride mode update) shipped with a couple of bugs. Today we're pushing a small hotfix to resolve these issues. Please keep your feedback coming so we know about these bugs and we can keep fixing them as soon as possible!

Changes:

• Freeride levels can now be quit without having to stop riding. You can now also respawn while riding when you have health set to infinite.
  
• In Freeride mode, trying to select environments the player hasn't unlocked yet will now trigger a popup explaining why. The same goes for trying to select the Boss Jump physical modifier.
  
• Level seed now always shows on the bottom right of the screen in the post-game UI.
  
• Bugfix: Freeride UI labels now localize properly when selecting non-latin languages.
  
• Bugfix: achievements are no longer triggered in Freeride/Practice modes.
  
• Bugfix: post-game UI health bug fixed (1 HP bug).
  
• Bugfix: rep now properly displays after a Freeride level.
  
• Bugfix: Golden Run, Made it, and True Descender achievements now trigger again.

Known issues:

• macOS stability is a big problem, crashes occur more frequent than on other platforms and framerates are lower than we want them to be. We're aware of this and currently looking into getting external help to fix these problems.
  
• Steam leaderboards bug. Some players have no entry on the leaderboards and we're having a hard time reproducing the bug but we're still well aware of the bug and working on it.
  
• General performance levels are not yet where we want them to be. We're constantly looking at ways to improve this.

If you want to keep up to date with the known issues and our current plans, join our Discord, or have a look at the Roadmap! We'd love to hear your thoughts!

<3
RageSquid & Friends

Hey everyone!

Another week, another update! It's been 3 weeks since we launched and it's been one hell of a ride so far. We're overwhelmed with your love and feedback and we're changing the course of the game to make sure we can implement the things you want to see. As an example of this we're introducing the 'Freeride' mode in today's patch! In this much requested mode you're able to generate levels by setting the variables that are used in the generation process, as seen in the above screenshot.

Another highly requested feature we're adding today is the ability to load up a level by its generation seed. If you see a level you like, write down the seed (seen in bottom right corner of the pause menu) and play it again in the Freeride mode. You can also share this seed with others so that they're able to play the exact same level!

Changes:

• Added Freeride mode. In this mode you can generate a level to your liking, play with or without health, and rep changes will not be saved.
  
• Added the option to load a level from a generation seed! This means you can screencap or write down the seed when you see a level you like and replay it at a later time, or share it with others. The seed for the level you're playing can be found in the bottom right of the pause menu.
  
• Added the option to immediately equip an item when you unlock it.
  
• Added a new t-shirt of Extraordinary quality, created by the Foodz company.
  
• Added a shirt for people who participated in the beta back in October 2017. Codes for this item will be going out by e-mail.
  
• Bugfix: updated a few grammar mistakes in translations.
  
• Bugfix: team nodes are now correctly named when hovering over them in the world map.
  
• Bugfix: fixed 2 wrongly labelled songs.
  
• macOS/Linux: applied the hotfix that was rolled out last week on Windows. This contains fixes for a world map bug (game booted up in an empty world map), and it adds a few missing keybinds in the key rebinding menu.

Known issues:

• macOS stability is a big problem, crashes occur more frequent than on other platforms and framerates are lower than we want them to be. We're aware of this and currently looking into getting external help to fix these problems.
  
• Steam leaderboards bug. Some players have no entry on the leaderboards and we're having a hard time reproducing the bug but we're still well aware of the bug and working on it.
  
• General performance levels are not yet where we want them to be. We're constantly looking at ways to improve this.

If you want to keep up to date with the known issues and our current plans, join our Discord, or have a look at the Roadmap! We'd love to hear your thoughts!

Much love,
RageSquid & Friends

Hey everyone!

Another week, another update! It's been 3 weeks since we launched and it's been one hell of a ride so far. We're overwhelmed with your love and feedback and we're changing the course of the game to make sure we can implement the things you want to see. As an example of this we're introducing the 'Freeride' mode in today's patch! In this much requested mode you're able to generate levels by setting the variables that are used in the generation process, as seen in the above screenshot.

Another highly requested feature we're adding today is the ability to load up a level by its generation seed. If you see a level you like, write down the seed (seen in bottom right corner of the pause menu) and play it again in the Freeride mode. You can also share this seed with others so that they're able to play the exact same level!

Changes:

• Added Freeride mode. In this mode you can generate a level to your liking, play with or without health, and rep changes will not be saved.
  
• Added the option to load a level from a generation seed! This means you can screencap or write down the seed when you see a level you like and replay it at a later time, or share it with others. The seed for the level you're playing can be found in the bottom right of the pause menu.
  
• Added the option to immediately equip an item when you unlock it.
  
• Added a new t-shirt of Extraordinary quality, created by the Foodz company.
  
• Added a shirt for people who participated in the beta back in October 2017. Codes for this item will be going out by e-mail.
  
• Bugfix: updated a few grammar mistakes in translations.
  
• Bugfix: team nodes are now correctly named when hovering over them in the world map.
  
• Bugfix: fixed 2 wrongly labelled songs.
  
• macOS/Linux: applied the hotfix that was rolled out last week on Windows. This contains fixes for a world map bug (game booted up in an empty world map), and it adds a few missing keybinds in the key rebinding menu.

Known issues:

• macOS stability is a big problem, crashes occur more frequent than on other platforms and framerates are lower than we want them to be. We're aware of this and currently looking into getting external help to fix these problems.
  
• Steam leaderboards bug. Some players have no entry on the leaderboards and we're having a hard time reproducing the bug but we're still well aware of the bug and working on it.
  
• General performance levels are not yet where we want them to be. We're constantly looking at ways to improve this.

If you want to keep up to date with the known issues and our current plans, join our Discord, or have a look at the Roadmap! We'd love to hear your thoughts!

Much love,
RageSquid & Friends