What is up guys? 1.0 launch day is almost upon us and what a ride it has been over the past 18 months! As we look back on the time in Early Access, it again needs to be said how much we appreciate every one of you that has taken part in the journey. Your support, feedback, and suggestions have allowed us to improve and build on the core ideas behind Skater XL, and took the game to levels we couldn't have imagined. We are very excited to see where this community is able to take the game with the 1.0 launch and beyond.

At its core, our mission with Skater XL was to make skateboarding, in all its forms, accessible to as many people as possible. While street skating gets much of the shine today, ramps are a huge part of skateboarding and crucial to any true representation of skateboard culture. From the backyard vert ramps of the 80’s, to the boundary breaking mega structures of more recent years, skateboarding’s history was written on plywood.

While our outward development focus through Early Access may have appeared to be driven toward a focus on street skating mechanics, in the background we were quietly refining the transition skating experience with the same attention to detail.

Many of the improved transition skating features released in our latest Early Access public beta update have had very positive community reception, and we have continued to enhance the mechanics in advance of our 1.0 launch on July 28th.

As with Skater XL’s controls on other terrain, you are in full control of the board at all times on ramps and have the same ability to add style and nuance to all of your tricks. From the technicalities of the perfect spine transfer, to tweaking a backside 540 melon over the 135’ gap in just the right way, the transition experience is designed to be just as satisfying as all other areas of gameplay.

“But where are we supposed to use all these cool transition skating features? I’ve only seen street maps!” Well, I’m very glad you asked. Welcome to ‘The Big Ramp!’


Modeled after the desert dwelling ramp structures that broke the barriers of what is possible on a skateboard, The Big Ramp is truly insane terrain! Encompassing many different sizes and shapes of vertical variety, this map is where you want to come to GO BIG!



If you’re looking for a real crowd pleasing remake of your favorite gold medal run, start at the roll-in above the 135’ gap jump which lands straight into the massive 60’ quarterpipe. Here we are talking about some serious hangtime. Link together your best tricks, spins and grabs on your quest for the perfect run. You can also take the gap to rainbow rail or kinked ledge if you want to up the level of difficulty. This section is perfect for creating jaw dropping clips in the replay editor.




In the mood for a more straightforward vert skating experience? Check out the vert ramp section, complete with bowl corners and multiple height variations just waiting to be thrashed.



Transition tech more your speed? Hit the mini zone, which is chock full of smaller quarterpipes and spines, just itching for all the lip tricks you can throw at it. Our unique game mechanic allows you to roll into and out of grinds without popping, allowing some of the smoothest coping grinds and stalls ever seen in a skateboarding game.





Explore the area more to find other features like hips, tabletops, bank to ledges, and everything that make ‘The Big Ramp’ a plywood paradise!

Check out this map along with Downtown Los Angeles, Easy Day High School, Grant Park Chicago and more when Skater XL 1.0 drops on Steam on July 28th!

What is up guys! As we get to the last few weeks until the launch of Skater XL 1.0, we have been humbled by the community’s support and the excitement that you have shared with us. Community has always been, and continues to be, at the forefront of our thoughts as we continue to develop the game.

One of the biggest surprises and most rewarding experiences for us over our journey from Early Access to the multi-platform launch has been the emergence of an insanely passionate and dedicated community with immensely talented and inventive mod creators. While we expected the game to resonate with players and for them to want to craft a gameplay experience that was unique to their sensibilities, the sheer scale and creativity that has accompanied that has been nothing short of amazing. The quality and volume of community made maps has been astounding and has really transformed Skater XL into something that we could never have imagined.

Modding allowed us to see the types of content our players enjoyed and how they interacted with different environments. This information, along with countless hours of user testing and design, helped lead us to the official content and environments that you will see in the full game.

In addition to that, we were also able to find some of the most talented individuals that had a unique blend of both skateboarding and game development knowledge that might have been impossible to find through traditional means. After seeing their skills being shown through mods in Early Access, we were stoked to add the talents of map creator Theo and programmer/replay editor creator Kiwi to the team as official members. Since joining the team, these two have played key roles in the development of the game that you will see on July 28th.

As the community continues to grow, it is important that we continue to express our gratitude for all the hard work of mod creators and acknowledge their contributions to the Skater XL ecosystem. In many ways, we know that we are just one part of this game, and the community and player’s role has been a huge part of the success of SXL. Moreover, we don’t view Skater XL as a traditional video game, where we are the developers and the players are the consumers. We see things as more of a collaborative effort between us and the community, each of us contributing in the areas that we are strongest. As we continue to move forward to the official launch of Skater XL and beyond, we want to continue to cement our commitment and excitement about what the community will continue to achieve.

To that end, today we are excited to announce that we will be including three of Skater XL's most popular community created maps available at launch!! These maps encompass multiple terrain and environment styles, and show some of the best the community has to offer. Not only that, but these maps have also been given a new and improved look and enhanced visually by Easy Day's art team in collaboration with the map creators for the 1.0 release. Check 'em out below!



'Streets' by Jean-Olive


‘Streets’ by prolific map creator Jean-Olive is a mash up of street spots inspired by some of the best terrain in the skateboarding world. ‘Streets’ encompass several city blocks of skateable territory, from San Francisco-esque hills, to the unique skateable architecture of Spain. Players will recognize skate spots from Los Angeles and New York, as well as Jean-Olive’s own creative designs. As Jean-Olive simply puts it, “my goal was to create some of the most famous street spots compiled in one map.” Mission accomplished.



Here is a compilation of real skate spots that Jean-Olive has incorporated throughout the sprawling map.




‘Hűdland Training Facility’ by Pactole


An original creation by Pactole, ‘Hudland’ is every skater’s dream private skatepark. Packed full of street and transition features, Hudland is the perfect indoor place to hone your skills before taking them to the streets. Features include flatbars, stairs, hips, handrails, quarterpipes and more. The warehouse setting and overhead skylights give the map a unique look and feel, while the overall flow of the park will keep players perfecting lines for hours.



As Pactole describes the creation process, “This map was created as a collaboration with a really good crew of dudes I met in the Skater XL community. I didn't really plan a design, I just knew I wanted a "circular" layout, where players could do infinite lines by just cruising through the park, never getting bored. Through talking to the guys and some iteration and testing, I finally found a design that really works well for all different types of skating. I really like the lighting and the rest of the environment details, and think it is something really different than the official maps created by Easy Day. I learned a lot of new things with this project (as for all of the maps I made) and I was happy to create it for the crew and the entire Skater XL community.“

‘Grant Park’ by Theo


Skater XL 1.0 will also feature the worldwide debut of the mod map created by modder turned Easy Day Studios team member Theo. Grant Park is one of Chicago’s premier public skateparks. The three-acre waterfront park has a variety of terrain, including street and transition features with a focus on overall flow. Revealed here for the first time, Theo’s version of this real-life skate park holds true to its layout and design, while small tweaks have been added to optimize gameplay.



“Grant is to me, the best way to show what I have learned working with the team over at Easy Day. I have always been inspired by Chaz Ortiz who's a Grant local, and I have watched countless clips of his at this skatepark. It's a really unique feeling to recreate a spot that you see on the internet a lot and it makes you feel like you are there. On top of that, I love Chicago. It's a vibrant place. But winters can be harsh and I wanted to give the skatepark a more gritty feel to it. With Easy Day being located in California, we made a lot of beautiful west coast spots, so I thought it would be a nice change of pace to have a very foggy and cold looking map. It was a very challenging map to make. The ground itself has a lot of subtle variations in colors that were difficult to replicate, but with the help of the team members, we managed to make something feel more immersive. I'm very grateful to be able to share this project with other skaters, gamers and fans of SkaterXL.” - Theo

Announcing Skater XL on Mod.io!
In addition to officially including mod created maps in the game, we have given a ton of thought as to the best way to organize and showcase all the amazing community created mod content, as the audience and playerbase continue to expand.

While Discord has been a great place for the community to engage with each other and share a ton of valuable information about modding and Skater XL in general (84,000+ members!), it lacks a lot in the way of organizing and easily finding the mod you might be looking for. We feel that this is a big issue for players, and also for the content creators, as their hard work can get buried just days after it’s been launched and almost impossible for new users to find. It also makes it difficult to update or improve mods and make sure that all of the original audience are aware of and receive the improvements. Discord is simply not built to house the amount of amazing content that is being created.

After reviewing all available options, we believe the best way to make Skater XL mods searchable, to support tagging and versioning is to use the new mod.io platform. This platform allows creators to create a profile, create listing pages for their mods with screenshots, images and videos and gather & discuss feedback. It’s very similar in design to Steam Workshop but is not tied to Steam or it’s restrictions. What’s more, mod.io is made by the creators of ModDB and IndieDB and we’ve been working with them closely on plans for the last few months. We believe they’re a team that understand and are passionate about modding and make a great fit for the SXL community.

To note that we do not see this as a replacement of the existing SXL modding Discord, mod.io works in a complimentary way in that direct links to mod pages can be dropped into the Discord channels. Discord can continue to operate as the community hub and place for people to discuss + announce new mods moving forward, the addition of mod.io should serve only to improve the experience of finding old mods, managing updates and all the other benefits listed above.

We’ve seen this work really well in many other games including the recent Space Engineers, Snowrunners and TABS and opens up all kinds of new possibilities within the modding ecosystem.

Our page is now live on HERE, and we are excited for the community to check it out and familiarize yourselves with the structure and mod organization. We think you will be impressed by it's functionality and search features. To note, there will be no changes to the current structure of mod implementation or Discord server, and mod.io will serve as a mod discovery platform for now, as we receive community feedback and implement any necessary adjustments. There is no mod.io integration within the game, and you will still install mods as you currently would.

Please feel free to contact us at info@easydaystudios.com with your feedback about this new modding platform.

We appreciate all of our community's support and positivity and look forward even more announcements coming before July 28th!

What is up guys? Today, we are excited to be sharing a NEW MAP REVEAL with the announcement of “Easy Day High School”. Included in the 1.0 game launch on July 28th, Easy Day High School is the quintessential skateboarder’s playground, capturing the California schoolyard vibes and terrain where much of skateboarding’s roots come from.

At approximately 11x larger than the L.A. Courthouse map, here you’ll find a utopia of picnic tables, stairs, handrails, manual pads, and banks, offering lines that are limited only by your imagination.

The level comprises a mix of areas and spots including ones we designed from scratch, and also more than 25 real-world spots from high schools and elementary schools that are staples of skate videos and magazines over skateboarding’s history. We've got the Wallenberg ‘Big 4’ in there, the famous Clipper ledge, the Lockwood Elementary bank-to-benches, The ‘Leap of Faith’ and pieces of a lot of other recognizable locations from throughout skate history.

One thing we learned over the course of building the game is that exact one-to-one replicas of real spots can look great, but don’t often provide ideal gameplay. Given that Skater XL has a completely new game mechanic based on physics and independent foot control and that our core philosophy has always been to prioritise gameplay first, we decided to go back to the drawing board on how we approached level design for 1.0.

Easy Day High school is the result of months of work figuring out how to unlock the most gameplay in an environment. Through countless testing and play sessions, we've learned how each real-world spot can stay true to their real life counterpart, while optimizing them to get the most fun and variety in gameplay. So the angles, the distances, the way things fit together and the combinations of elements are arranged in a way to make sure that there's a lot of runs and as you finish one trick, there's always something more to do next.

Check out the teaser video for a deeper look at Easy Day High School, and check out preview on Game Informer and GamesRadar+ for even more information.



Thanks again for your continued support and we couldn’t be more excited to bring 1.0 to everyone on July 28th. Stay tuned for even more big news over the coming weeks!

What is up, guys! We just wanted to let you know that 1.0 will be launching on July 28, a few weeks later than the original date.

Despite our best efforts, and due in part to things out of our control, we will be moving the launch of Skater XL 1.0 on Steam, as well as the physical and digital launch on Playstation 4 and Xbox One, to July 28th. We will also be announcing a new launch date for Nintendo Switch in the coming weeks. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we work to finalize the game.

Not to worry - between now and July 28th, we will be showing more unreleased content and features that will be available at launch of 1.0, continuing to polish the content and features, and make Skater XL the game that you all deserve at launch.

We appreciate your understanding and want to thank you all for your support! Here is a first look at Easy Day High School to hold you over. You can also see more in a sneak peak from Game Informer 🙏

IMPORTANT: Update features referred to in this post are located in the “public beta” branch of the game. This is a separate stream of development for us to test and get feedback on early features before committing them to the main product.

You MUST opt in to play this version of the game by following the steps at the bottom of this post.

What is up guys! As we prepare for the 1.0 game launch on July 7th, we wanted to start by saying thank you for all of your support and feedback throughout Early Access. Your comments and feedback have gotten us to where we are today, and where we will continue to go in the future.

Just to reiterate, anyone that has purchased Early Access on Steam will receive the 1.0 update automatically at no additional cost. This represents a 50% discount on the 1.0 price and is a small token of our gratitude.

We also want to make the note that while 1.0 is considered by most to be the ‘official release’ of the game and will be packed full of new content worthy of full launch, we look at it as just the beginning. We will not stop working on new features, new content, and new updates to Skater XL for the foreseeable future. We encourage you to keep sending us your feedback and feature requests as the game moves forward post 1.0 update.

Today we are releasing more of your requested features into the Public Beta, and giving you a chance to hone your skills before the 1.0 launch. These mechanic updates will give you even more control, more customization and make your skating look much smoother.

All features that were added in the 0.2.0.0B Update have been moved to the default Public branch, and will no longer require opt in.

Check out the trailer:



NEW FEATURES

Transition grinds (roll-in / roll-out)
We want Skater XL to give people access to every style of skateboarding including transition and ramp skating. This update includes the ability to roll in and out of grinds on transitions and ramp coping using similar controls to grinds/slides on other objects.

• Moving either or both thumbsticks in any direction directly prior to hitting coping will initiate a roll-in coping grind.
  
• Position your board as you get on coping by using the sticks to tweak and angle your board similar to other states (when in air, when grinding etc).
  
• To exit the grind/slide click the thumbstick on the side you want to pop out/roll in on. If you wish to roll out the opposite side, click the thumbstick on that side to roll out

Mini Ramp Test Map
In order to properly give you the ability to test the new transition features, we have built a special warehouse test environment that houses a new miniramp for you to shred. While not a fully fleshed out map, it is super fun and will give you the chance to hone your ramp skills in preparation for the 1.0 update. You can access the map from the ‘Maps’ section in the main menu.



Transition Grinds in Mod Levels
We’ve added automatic detection for any grind objects that have shapes that look like they should have roll-in grind ability. Old mod levels with ramps and quarterpipes that have grind edges on the coping should work with the new transition grind mechanic without any changes, but we’ve also given level creators the ability to update their levels with tags to override our automated system if they wish.

Board Customization
We know that one of the best things about skateboarding is customizing your setup and picking each component. To that point, we have added the ability to customize your deck, trucks, wheels, and griptape with a few options for each to start with. We have a ton more (see Brands/Customization trailer) coming down the pipe, but this is just a starting point to test and get you familiar with the mechanism.

• Access this feature in the main menu and select ‘Gear’.
  
• Press A/X to make your gear selection in each category
  
• The RB/LB buttons can be used to advance to the next component category in the menu

Folder for Mod Board and Character Gear Textures
As with previous updates, we want to continue to facilitate mod inclusion and make it as easy as possible. As with the ‘Custom Maps’ menu that allows you to easily access your mod maps directly from the game, we have added the ability to easily access and implement your modded gear textures from all your favorite fakeskate brands.

• To add custom clothing and gear textures in the gear menu, take any texture which has been named according to the new naming convention, create a folder in your Windows drive’s Documents folder at \Documents\SkaterXL\Gear and place the texture files in there.
  
• Note that we have alerted mod creators how to correctly name files prior to this update and hopefully more and more content will become available on the modding Discord with the correct naming. A complete guide is in Mod Gear Naming Rules Guide.

For more on modding, visit the SXL Modding (https://discord.gg/4eMjGRG) or FakeSkateXL (https://discord.gg/E8kK5uZ) Discord Servers.

Animation Fixes
With the addition of new animations in the last update, there were a few that left something to be desired and needed a bit of tweaking to bring them to more realistic looking movements. Many of the fakie and switch animations have been adjusted as you can see in the gifs below.

Fakie Setup Old


Fakie Setup New


Switch Setup Old


Switch Setup New


Select switch and fakie grinds
Switch 5-0 Old


Switch 5-0 New


Switch Back Crook Old


Switch Back Crook New


Switch Front Crook Old


Switch Front Crook New


Switch and fakie manual animations have also been improved

Bumping out of grinds
Another highly requested feature added in this update is the ability to exit grinds early by ‘bumping out’. This allows you to pop out of grinds with a small nudge rather than an exaggerated pop out.

• To exit a grind/slide early, click either thumbstick to pop out on the corresponding side. The left stick press makes you bump out to the left, right stick press makes you bump out to the right in this mode.

New Tutorial Structure
As an important onboarding tool for new players to get comfortable with the controls, we have improved our tutorial. The tutorial now first allows the player to move the feet and see the independent foot control of the game without the skateboard present, then walks them through the basic trick movements which they repeat themselves before moving onto the next. The game will recognize when a trick has been done successfully three times and allow the player to move on. This will give the player hands on experience with the game rather than just watching it be performed on video. To access this feature open the Main Menu and select ‘Tutorial’.



Replay Editor Moved to ‘Select’ Button
As one of the most used features, we have made the Replay Editor more accessible by taking it out of the menu, and moving it to the ‘Select’ button. Now you will have one touch access to the Replay Editor without having to scroll through the Main Menu.

Language Selection
The game menus have been translated and now support English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, and Portuguese. To select your language please visit ‘Settings’ in the menu.

Bail when landing sideways with speed
We have tweaked the system to trigger a bail when you land sideways with enough momentum, to more closely mimic real world scenarios.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed hoodie and shirt UV layouts
  
• Fixed board getting stuck sideways in certain states like pushing
  
• Bug
  
• 
  
• Fix
  
• 
  
• Fixed hover foot after exiting menu
  
• Bug
  
• 
  
• Fix
  
• 

Known Issues:

• Broken foliage textures in many mod maps related to Unity upgrade to 2018.4.17.

Mod Disclaimer:
While we make every effort to preserve existing mods with each update, we are not able to control exactly how updates to the official game code will interact with every one of them. If you are experiencing issues with the new update, please first try removing your mods and adding them back in one by one to see if the issue can be isolated.

StatsMenu, BabboSettings, XXLMod(version v1.3a not 1.5) and XLMapEditor have been tested and are working.

Jboogie’s SoundMod has an update scheduled for release today which will fix functionality with 0.3b. SilentBaws’s Multiplayer mod is also updating today with an awesome ground-up rebuild that’s 0.3b compatible. Check it out here https://github.com/silentbaws/XLMultiplayer/releases

Any other mods that access gear and player skins will likely experience issues, please check the Modding Discord for further info .

To open the beta, follow these steps:

Right click ‘Skater XL’ and open Properties

Select the ‘beta - public beta builds’ branch.

Steam should start downloading this version of the game. Once it has finished, you will be able to try the update. The game name in your library should now show “Skater XL [beta]”.

If you’d like to switch back to the regular commercial release branch of the game in future simply come back to this screen and select “NONE - opt out of all betas” in the drop down.

Thanks again to everyone for you support and feedback throughout Early Access. We look forward to hearing your feedback on these new features and updates!

What is up guys? We have some big news dropping today that we think you will be very stoked about. As you may have read in the title, Skater XL 1.0 will be launching on July 7 for digital release on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and to brick and mortar retailers on PS4 and Xbox One. Preorder for Xbox One and Playstation 4 discs is available at select retailers.

As we said in our previous post, all PC Early Access supporters will receive the 1.0 content update free of charge, so no need to worry. And if you don’t own it yet, now would be a good time to get in and save when 1.0 launches in just 63 days.

In addition to the news of the exact release date, we also released a new trailer showcasing the hundreds of ways that you can customize your character, in addition to playing with pros Evan Smith, Tiago Lemos, Brandon Westgate and Tom Asta.



We worked hard over the last 12 months to secure official partnerships with skateboarding’s best brands, and are stoked be able to bring real product from 27 different brands into the character customizer. The list of partner brands includes:

• New Balance – Numeric Shoes and Apparel
• Etnies – Footwear and Apparel
• DC Shoes – Footwear and Apparel
• Santa Cruz Skateboards – Decks
• Vans – Shoes
• Primitive – Decks and Apparel
• Element – Decks and Apparel
• Independent Truck Co. – Trucks and Apparel
• Venture – Trucks
• Thunder – Trucks
• Spitfire – Wheels
• Lakai – Footwear and Apparel
• ẻS – Footwear and Apparel
• Emerica – Footwear and Apparel
• Grimple Stix – Decks
• Sk8Mafia – Decks and Apparel
• SOVRN – Decks and Apparel
• Enjoi – Decks and Apparel
• Blind – Decks and Apparel
• Almost – Decks and Apparel
• Ricta – Wheels
• Mob Grip – Grip tape
• Bones – Wheels and Apparel
• Crupie – Wheels
• Grizzly – Grip tape and Apparel
• Dickies – Apparel
• Old Friends – Apparel
• Transworld Skateboarding – Apparel
• 411VM – Apparel
• The Nine Club – Skateboards and Apparel

In addition to revealing our brand partners, we have also shown new clothing items including crewneck sweatshirts, long sleeve button ups, shorts, denim pants, new hat styles, and shoe models. Not to mention that you can customize every part of your skateboard setup including deck, trucks, wheels, and griptape. We have also shown the number of different customizable characteristics including gender, skin tone, and hairstyle.









As always, we want to say thanks so much for your support of Early Access and helping Skater XL create the amazing community that it has become. We sincerely appreciate every piece of feedback, mod created, and hour played from each and every person that has contributed.

We have a few more announcements to make between now and July 7th that we think you’re going to like, so be on the lookout and be sure to subscribe to our email list at SkaterXL.com so you are sure not to miss anything. Be on the lookout for more updates in the coming of weeks!

Thanks and Happy Skateboarding!

What is up guys?! Before we get into today’s big Skater XL news, we want to take a moment to say that we hope everyone is staying healthy and hanging there with the current global pandemic situation. As easy as it is to get wrapped up in our world of digital kickflips, we know that the well being of the community and your family and friends is paramount, and we hope everyone is safe and taking the proper precautions to ride this thing out.

With that being said, today we are excited to make some BIG announcements about the future of Skater XL. We hope that you are just as stoked as we are on today’s news! You can check out the full release and new game trailer here on IGN!

Firstly - we have set the release of the full 1.0 version of the game for July of this year. Although this might seem like an eternity for those of you that have been patiently awaiting our launch, it is only a few short months away and it’ll be on your screens before you know it.

The full 1.0 game will be launching at an increased price point, but as early supporters of Skater XL, you can rest assured that owners of the Early Access game will receive the 1.0 game and all it’s content at no additional charge. We are extremely grateful for your taking a chance on an Early Access skateboarding game, and we are happy to confirm that you will be automatically updated and benefit from the new content when the game launches.

And not to worry, we will be continuing to update the Early Access game between now and July, so you will still be the first to test and give feedback on new features.

In addition to the 1.0 launch date, we have also announced coming playable pro characters! We couldn’t be more stoked to have skate icons Evan Smith, Tiago Lemos, Brandon Westgate, and Tom Asta as ambassadors on our journey. Each a legend in their own right, we are thrilled to bring them into skateboarding’s digital ecosystem, and are looking forward to the clips that the community will create. The pro characters will be available in addition to creating your own in the character customizer. More news on that soon….










And last but certainly not least is our unveiling of a map based on Downtown Los Angeles.
Downtown LA is so iconic to skating and it’s urban West Coast vibe was a no brainer to choose as of the main maps to launch with Skater XL.

This map is 15 times the size of the Early Access LA Courthouse map and is packed with 100’s of spots throughout it’s blocks of plazas, government buildings, and corridors.

With a focus on tweaking and optimizing for great gameplay, we spent considerable time capturing critical details to recreate its many legendary spots as well as taking some creative license to incorporate some of our favorites from around California and the West Coast.

Palm trees, blue skies, smooth concrete and classic spots, we think that DTLA has everything you could want in a street map and fits the vibe of what Skater XL is all about!
















And while we are all excited about getting 1.0 into the hands of the community, we consider it to be just the beginning for what Skater XL will become. As a living product, we have a roadmap to include content and feature updates for the foreseeable future, as the game, community, and skateboarding itself continue to grow and develop.

These announcements are a culmination of more than a year of focused development, and while we have been quiet at times, we have been working constantly on our commitment to bring the community the skateboarding game that has been missing from all of our lives. We couldn’t have done it without your feedback, suggestions, and support and we would not be here without you. We can’t wait for the future of Skater XL and of the skating genre, let’s gooo!!!

IMPORTANT: Update features referred to in this post are located in the “public beta” branch of the game. This is a separate stream of development for us to test and get feedback on early features before committing them to the main product.

You MUST opt in to play this version of the game by following the steps at the bottom of this post.

What is up guys! We hope everyone had a happy New Year and 2020 is off to a great start.
First and foremost, we want to thank the amazing community that has formed around Skater XL over the past year. We have genuinely enjoyed talking and interacting with everyone, and look forward to getting to know more community members in the coming years.

We are really excited to drop this game update with a few new features that the community has been requesting, and bring the gameplay to a more polished state. As we’ve said all along, it is our primary focus in Early Access to completely nail the gameplay, and these new feature additions are a furtherance of that goal and a big step towards complete gameplay and the 1.0 game launch.

We hope that you will try out the new features and contribute to the game's development by using the 'Survey' button to give us feedback about your experiences. Community feedback is a crucial component to making Skater XL the best skateboarding experience possible, and we appreciate your input and time completing the survey.



New Features:

Powerslides
One of your most requested additions, this allows you to control speed as well as create new combinations and add style to your tricks like never before.  True to Skater XL's philosophy powerslides have been implemented in a way that maximizes responsiveness and control to the player, with the possibilities being limited only by your level of skill and creativity.

We hope you agree that these are super fun and unlock an extra level of depth, control and creative possibility in the game.

To utilize powerslides: push either both sticks towards each other or both away from each other and hold it.

Letting go will realign you with the direction you are going. If you let go of a powerslide and the board is rotated more than halfway you will revert to the opposite stance.

You can also do powerslides on the nose and tail by pushing more up or down on the sticks when powersliding, and like in everything else, you can rotate the entire skater with the triggers during powerslides.







Reverts
In addition to standard 4 wheel powerslides, you can also use powerslides to add more style and variation to how your tricks are performed. You can now add reverts during manuals, land tricks and revert them around, do two-wheel powerslides and create combinations that have never before been possible.

Manuals reverting into fakie manuals and other manual / revert combinations are possible with some practice and a lot of precision. None of our private testing group have yet been able to pull one of these off, if anyone out there manages to please send us your NBD clips by DM to our Instagram @skater.xl or through email on the Contact Developer button in-game. We’d love to see the crazy combos players manage to get!

To execute reverts: Use the same above instructions to trigger a powerslide, just make sure the board is more than halfway rotated and quickly let go.














New animations
Completely new character animations are now included and bring new life to the gameplay, making everything look and feel much more fluid and natural. The process has included several motion capture sessions with pro skaters Walker Ryan and Alexis Ramirez, along with many hours spent hand-animating movements to mirror real skateboarding. We have worked tirelessly to improve the character movement, reduce overall stiffness and make the character have good style.

A big challenge along the way has been the fact that Skater XL's is the first ever skateboarding game to be entirely physics-based.  The player is in control of the board at all times and can spin, flip and tweak tricks any way they like, so unlike with skateboarding games of the past there is no single 'canned' character animation that could represent a given trick. 

We had to develop a novel real-time animation system which can move and respond to player input moment-to-moment.  This involved hand cleaning, slicing and editing countless fragments of mocap animation to specific requirements which are then stitched, blended and spliced together by the animation system in real-time to respond instantly to player input and give the character realistic looking movement.

The outcome of this system is a much more polished and realistic representation of skateboarding movement. We hope you'll agree that with this new animation system Skater XL looks and feels like a new game, one that is incredibly smooth, responsive and satisfying to play.

Backside Smith Grind Old:


Backside Smith Grind New:


Courthouse Line Old:


Courthouse Line New:


Sounds
We have remastered and updated the sound effects to the game to reflect rolling and grinding on different surfaces, executing powerslides, character foley, body impacts with the ground, and more. We have also implemented some clean, subtle sounds for the menu and UI which we think fit the feel of the game well.

Sound plays a key, but often underestimated, role in the overall emersion of the experience and it is important that we get it right.  We worked with our friends at Kpow Audio (L.A. Noire, Banner Saga, etc.) to create and implement effects to ensure that sound is feeling accurate and tasty across the range of riding surfaces, tricks, grinds and bails.

Replay Editor Camera Speed
The speeds with which the replay camera moves and rotates have been adjusted to more convenient speeds. Previously there were some very slow camera movements and there is now a lot more control for filming.

Replay Clip Length Editing
You can now trim the length of the replays with the left bumper plus left / right trigger to trim the beginning / end of the clip. This was a useful feature in Kiwi's previous public mod which was integrated into the game and we're happy to now have UI built to include it in the official game.

Grind physics and friction
You can now slide up a rail until stopping and then gravity will make you slide back down again without bailing. All grindables will now have some level of friction. Grindables in mod levels which have not been assigned a specific value by the artist will be assigned a default value adding realistic friction to all previous mod maps.

Autopump & Autorevert
Feedback from the last public beta was that that speed control using the previously implemented pumping mechanic did not provide as much extra control and depth to the gameplay as hoped and many players seem to still use hurried pushing to maintain speed when in ramps and bowls.

The loss of speed when not landing with perfect angle back into the bowl or popping some distance out from the coping to flat was something that caused frustration for beginner-intermediate players without adding much value for more experienced players.

We’ve implemented two small helpers which are currently active only in the bowl in the California Skatepark level. One is “autopump”, a system which will give you a calculated speed boost to counteract what is lost on impact with the ramp. The other is “autorevert” which will automatically revert and slide you around so you are facing the direction of movement when you land. 

Combined these two systems make it much easier to maintain speed when carving through bowls and ramps, bringing the focus of gameplay and use of the available gamepad input back to the bits that matter most.

We’d love to hear the broader communities thoughts on how this feels and if you think it’s a benefit. Please feel free to send us feedback through the beta survey or contact developer buttons in the game menu!

Minor Tweaks and Bug Fixes

• Interaction between character and board during bails now possible
  
• Reducing ‘sharpness’ filter on game camera for smoother details and edges
  
• Increasing sample rate & quality of motion blur in LA Courthouse
  
• Applied “de-light” to khaki pants to remove shadows from 3D scanning process
  
• Tweaked shadow “cascades” so shadows appear sharper in far distance distance
  
• Fix bail momentum stopping randomly
  
• Fix for several causes of glitchy respawns
  
• Character does not start rolling if spawning on slight slopes until first push
  
• Turning when stationary board now pivots on back trucks
  
• Character can be rotated in gear menu with L/R triggers
  
• More reliable grind exit direction, no more getting caught jumping back and forth trying to exit a grind
  
• Pin removed from replay editor
  
• Push speed increases smoothly with each push rather than in one sudden instant
  
• Improved brake friction
  
• Removed wheel sounds from menu
  
• Added collider to LA Courthouse stage roof - have at it!
  
• Performance improvements

Beta update feature integration
After reviewing all of the user feedback and making necessary fixes, we have now moved all features from public beta branch into default branch. As a result, all of the features from the September Beta branch update are now available in the default Early Access game. These features include: New character model, California Skatepark map, replay editor, teleporter/pin dropper, character customizer, map selector, grabs, and pumping mechanics. Full details on those features can be found HERE

To open the beta, follow these steps:

Right click ‘Skater XL’ and open Properties

Select the ‘beta - public beta builds’ branch.

Steam should start downloading this version of the game. Once it has finished, you will be able to try the update. The game name in your library should now show “Skater XL [beta]”.

If you’d like to switch back to the regular commercial release branch of the game in future simply come back to this screen and select “NONE - opt out of all betas” in the drop down.

We thank all of you for your continued support and genuine feedback.

(scroll down for a sneak peak at more buttery new animations)

What is up guys! Today marks the 1 year anniversary of the Early Access launch of Skater XL and we’d like to take a moment to look back and appreciate what’s happened in the world of skateboarding games over the last 12 months.

In one short year the outlook for the skating game genre has flipped a complete 180, from dwindling hope for a sequel to the beloved Skate franchise and an otherwise empty playing field to a flurry of activity.

Skater XL burst out from closed development on core gameplay into public Early Access, and over the duration of 2019 was followed by a renewed energy in the genre and announcements across PC, consoles and even mobile.

In our Steam Early Access we introduced a new level of control, board feel and satisfaction to skateboarding game mechanics which have not only rebooted realistic skateboarding gameplay, but taken it a giant leap forwards, further than even that of big-publisher franchises of the past.

The community and culture around skateboarding games has been revived, with an incredible 40k players joining the community owned and operated SXL modding Discord. The positive and creative culture that has grown around the game is truly unique and we are grateful to have been able to play a part in unlocking and contributing to this passion that is shared by so many skate game fans around the world.

The seemingly impossible has happened and the genre is truly on track not only to revival, but with the explosion of community, modding and content creation in the last 12 months, is set to become something bigger and better than it ever was.

Given that no big publishers have been involved and this is a movement driven entirely by independent development and a passionate community, this is truly amazing and cause to celebrate for anyone who is a fan.


Year in Review:

Here’s what’s happened since Skater XL launched on 19th Dec 2018

• Reached #1 upcoming game out of 2,207 on Steam pre-launch in under two weeks
  
• Amassed more than 2,700 Steam reviews with an avg. rating of Very Positive and recent rating of Overwhelmingly Positive (thank you!)
  
• Community made and operated modding Discord reached an incredible 40k members and growing
  
• Rise of numerous fakeskate teams, streamers and the revival of YZ Magazine (shout-outs at bottom of post), thousands of community videos and edits posted to IG and Youtube
  
• Growing base of users with a staggering 200+hr played, and several with 1k+
  
• Easy Day Studios development team more than doubled in size including welcoming modders Kiwi and Theo
  
• The core Easy Day team relocated from different parts of the US and World to Long Beach CA to be at the centre of the skate culture and industry

In regards to the game’s development itself, this year has seen the beta implementation of a new map, new character avatar, replay editor system, character customization and new gear options, grabs, a teleporting system, map selector, transition skating improvements and numerous bug and gameplay fixes. This might not seem like the biggest volume of content on paper but please trust that we have been working both hard and smart to build the best possible starting point for 1.0 and lay good foundations for the future of Skater XL.


A View Towards 1.0

At Easy Day we are looking at the road ahead and planning how we can best develop the product and work together with the SXL community and creators. As we move towards 1.0 we see this as including:


1 - Core

• Continue to polish the core of the game mechanic and animation system and unlock the sense of control, freedom and connection to the board that characterizes Skater XL through a wider range of tricks
  
• Improve animation assets and system to the point where every well executed movement in the game looks and feels smooth and authentic

We’ve always taken the approach that to unlock the true fun and rewarding feeling of physics based skateboarding, the initial and primary focus should be given to the core mechanics of gameplay. It’s this approach that has given Skater XL the unmistakable control and fluidity of gameplay that the community has come to know and love. We’ve made a ton of progress on both the gameplay and animation sides and content is moving through the stages of development to 1.0.


2 - Content

• Create amazing content to complete the game towards 1.0 and deliver value in ways that best complement or differ from content being made by the modding community

Our belief from the start has been that gameplay should be polished to a certain level first before moving focus to level design and content which fit perfectly with that gameplay. With that in mind, since early 2019 we felt the core mechanic of the game was shaping up enough that we could start focus on content and level design. It's been an interesting journey, we're super excited with what's been in development and look forward to sharing more soon.


3 - Community

• Enable and empower the community and content creators
  
• Increase ease of access and consumption of community and mod content

In addition to the official content and features that we’ve been grinding on, we’ve heard the community feedback about your desire to create and implement modded content in an easy and logical way. Though we’ve made improvements in the accessibility of modded maps in the latest beta update, we are taking steps to make it easier to access modded gear in future updates.


In an effort to keep you guys updated on some of the things we’ve been working on, we’ve dropped some gifs below of a few new animations that resulted from our motion capture with Walker Ryan, as well as subsequent mocap sessions. As you can see, the new animations really breathe life into the character and replicate real life body movements in a much more accurate way. Overhauling the original animations has been a time consuming process, but we hope you agree that the time spent is well worth it.

Old Hardflip


New Hardflip


Old Frontside Crooked Grind


New Frontside Crooked Grind


Old 360 Flip


New 360 Flip


Old Frontside Flip:


New Frontside Flip:


Old Frontside Noseslide


New Frontside Noseslide


Old Kickflip Nose Manual Nollie Tre


New Kickflip Nose Manual Nollie Tre


As our birthday arrives it’s another day in the office for us here. We have our heads down in development and we’re excited at the progress development is making every day. We've said it before and we'll say it again - we can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on, and likewise we can’t wait to see what the community continues to build and create.

We can't help but wonder - if this is the response to skateboarding coming to Early Access on Steam, then what kind of madness will be unlocked when the full power of the game and community is unlocked in full release for PC and Consoles...

And while it would be impossible to thank everyone that has made an impact on the Skater XL community, we wanted to highlight a few notable contributors. Note that those highlighted are clickable links, for those new to Skater XL we highly recommend taking some time to have a look through some of the awesome content from these members:

Content Creators
Hoodlum Family
Demzilla
Mathias Rabat
Snail
Uncle Chippah
Rob White
LowLife Crew
Timekeeper Precision Wheels
Beans Brand
Big Daddy Beans
Binary Shoes
Fleep
Gnubzi
ThumbSquad
RoccityRoller
Eon Skateboards
Bizznacker
Jboondock
JJMartianLive
Fizzle McCoy
Nightspeeds
Something Rad
BodieFPS
5uds
Olay
902Rider
Jboogie
Battlegroundinho
33AnnA3rd
Derry_k
BobGnarly
Dubaazz
Berylz
OneYear Brand
Provosert
BlackDave
Minimus


Mod maker and Community Contributors - All mods can be found in the modding Discord HERE
Pactole
Luke
Hondune
Yaky
GHFear
Figzyy
Matsix
untz
iStreamOnline
Silentbaws
Enox
Jean-Olive
Fermenter
medium_burnt
Kiwi
Theo
Brian Wilde
Desmond McFalls
SquegeeDinoToy
PRIME
Babbo Elu
Ulimon
Pinco
Le Kaiju
BoolmasterJay
Goof
Letsplayalittlegame




Have a happy Skater XL birthday everyone. Let’s keep this thing rolling and see how far just how far we can take it in 2020.


🎂 The Easy Day team

IMPORTANT: Update features referred to in this post are located in the “public beta” branch of the game. This is a separate stream of development for us to test and get feedback on early features before committing them to the main product.

You MUST opt in to play this version of the game by following the steps at the bottom of this post.

**************

What’s up guys? As part of our progress toward 1.0 launch, today we have implemented an update to the Public Beta branch of the game, chock full of new features and content that we hope you will enjoy. This group of new content, features, mechanics and fixes are the result of our team’s hard work over the past several months.

A lot of things have been happening in the background simultaneously, and when they all start to take shape, it can have an extremely positive impact on the game. This major update is a significant step towards Skater XL’s vision of bringing a new level of control, style and freedom to the skateboarding genre.

In recent months, the one and only modder Theo has officially joined Easy Day and is assisting with map creation, and our boy Kiwi has also joined the team and has helped bring his widely used replay editor mod to the core product, as well as assisting in building the new gear selector, menus, and a bunch of other things.

It can be hard to find great coders and content creators who also have a background in and passion for skateboarding and we’re really stoked to have dedicated members of the community be able to officially join the team.

Though still in beta, the majority of features have been tested with our private beta group and we feel are almost ready for the official game. We’d love to get feedback on these new features from the broader community and have included two features to submit feedback in the new menu system (described further below).

Please take a look at the details of the update below and as always, we appreciate all the support and feedback that our community has given us along the way. We look forward to building on these features in future updates that will culminate in the 1.0 launch in the not so distant future.

Have a look at Nightspeeds taking it for a spin


New Character
As mentioned in previous updates, we have scanned a new character model that is now playable in the game. New animations have not yet been implemented, however. You’ll notice that the new character has improved textures and quality. We’re still working on those eyes though :)

Gear Selector + new clothing options
We have implemented the ability to change the character’s clothes, as well as adding some additional clothing options. This will not be the entirety of gear options, but we’re looking to test the functionality of the selector and quality of gear textures.

To access press the ‘Start’ button and select “Gear”. From there you will be able to select gear and see what it looks like on the character. This feature, like others in the menu system have been designed to be quick and easy to access, then get right back to gameplay.

We understand that many of you in the modding community have spent a lot of time designing gear and creating brands using the original character. And while these new gear textures will require new gear mods to be created, it is a necessary step in getting game closer to 1.0 launch.

We appreciate all the time, energy and effort that goes into creating custom gear mods, but hope that you’ll agree that the new character and gear options will make all your clips look much better in the future, and also provide a greater variety of options as we add more clothing types to this new model moving forward.




Southern California Skatepark Map
We've included a new map which allows you to skate a Southern California classic from your PC anywhere in the world - palm trees, warm sunset and all.

This map was originally created as a one-to-one exact replica of a real skatepark but through the development process we’ve come to learn that exact replicas of real spots do not provide for the best gameplay experience.

Beyond the core gameplay, level design is one of the next crucial elements to unlock fun in the game and something we have decided to take very seriously.

There’s no blueprint for how to design great spots and levels for skateboarding games, let alone the first one ever to be completely physics based and with real-time control of the board, so we have spent months doing deep dives into what truly unlocks the fun and creativity in ways that we believe will be far more satisfying than recreating exact replicas of existing spots.

This involves building, testing and re-testing, and in some cases scrapping ideas and starting over. Time consuming but incredibly important work. As a result the park in this beta update may not be included in the 1.0 game, or may be eventually modified, but we are interested to have our community play it and let us know what you think.

It is modeled after Encinitas Skatepark (“Poods Park”), and adds terrain that we hope will unlock some new elements of fun to the overall gameplay.

Stay tuned also in future for the results of our ongoing level design efforts, we’re excited to share some of what we’ve learned and are building as things move forward.




Map Selection
We’ve added a map selection menu that will allow you to quickly and easily switch between the Courthouse, Encinitas Skatepark, your installed Modded Maps, and future official maps. To switch between maps, press the ‘Start’ button and select ‘Maps’ in the menu.

Select the map you’d like to play and you’ll be dropped in. Your downloaded modded maps should also automatically appear in the ‘Custom Maps’ menu by tabbing sideways using LB / RB (Xbox) or L1 / R1 (PS4).

Grindable edges are assigned to objects in custom maps automatically upon loading using a similar approach to that in Hondunes original map importer mod. We’re using an improved technique so the way the player leans on sloped rails will be more correct and similar to that in official maps.

There is an instructions popup available to those who have not yet installed any custom maps, with an option to open the main community-run SXL modding server in Discord.



Grabs
We teased this feature a few months back and have refined the system to a point that we are happy to release it for your enjoyment. Like other elements of the game, the grabbing system includes Skater XL’s highly responsive independent stick control to tweak and style the grab any way you like, adding even more creative possibilities to the game.

Grabs can be done any time you are in the air, to use grabs press the shoulder (bumper) button to grab with the corresponding hand (Right or Left). You can tweak grabs by moving the sticks, just as you would for Shiftys or grinds.

Different grabs are executed by rotating your board before grabbing. For instance, a nose grab can be done by pointing your nose up by pulling down on the sticks and then grabbing with your left hand (if regular).

Tail grab would be pushing forward then grabbing with your right hand (regular stance). Stalefish and mutes can be achieved by doing a frontside shifty (sticks pointed away from each other) before grabbing either your left or right hand.





Pin Mover / Teleporter
You can now easily move around maps and choose your spawn point anywhere you like quickly and easily. Press Y (XBox) or Square (PS4) to activate.

The left stick will move you around the map, the right stick with rotate. Hold LT / RT (XBox) or L2 / R2 (PS4) to raise and lower the camera. Press Y (XBox) or Square (PS4) to drop your spawn point.

An off-board character mode where you can run around, jump and do tricks like Cavemans was experimented with, but we found it didn’t provide enough freedom to quickly move around the map and get straight back into the meaningful parts of the gameplay.

Off-board is a part of skateboarding and something we’re still considering for later inclusion, but perhaps with a deeper rethink of how it should be integrated into the skating experience.



Replay Editor
We have implemented a replay editor based on Kiwi’s original mod so that you can officially replay and capture clips of your skating. The loading time when first opening the editor has been greatly improved so the replay plays smoothly instantly.

To use the editor, press the ‘Start’ button and select ‘Replay. Upon opening the Replay Editor, a menu will appear showcasing the controls for how to operate it.

You will still need to use a screen capture program and external software to save and edit your clips if wanting to make video parts.

A few features such as clip length editing and visible depth of field indicator have not yet been included.




Quarterpipe ollie and landing improvements
We have included many further improvements to transition skating. We hope this will improve the experience in the many skatepark style mod maps based around transition and ramps and in future planned official maps. This is such a big part of skateboarding and we’re stoked to be bringing more and more of these elements to Skater XL.

New mechanics make it much easier than previously to jump off a steep surface like a quarter or bank and land back into that surface, although based on speed and approach you may still pop out of the bank / quarter if desired.

There are also improvements to character lean and spins plus to spinning flip tricks (FS / BS flips etc.) on angled surfaces and transitions.
Old


New


These and other gameplay changes in this update are all done with adaptations to Skater XL’s underlying system based on natural physics to allow for depth and variety in gameplay while giving the player the maximum amount of control.

Pumping
To manage speed while skating transition obstacles, we have added a pumping mechanic. To utilize this new feature press up on back foot stick or down on the front foot stick and then release the stick as you enter or exit the transition.

We’ve found in testing this helps greatly with speed control and flow around obstacles like the bowl in the Encinitas map. Let us know what you think!



Gameplay improvements
Cab flip and other combined flip + body rotation tricks have been improved.
Old


New


Player lean angle on banks and quarters has been improved and feels more natural.


Catch rotations have been made cleaner and with less foot penetration.

Beta Survey and Contact Developer buttons
We have included a survey that can be completed to give feedback on features currently in ‘beta’. There is also a contact developer button which can be used to email with any other feedback or bug reports.


To open the beta, follow these steps:

Right click ‘Skater XL’ and open Properties

Select the ‘beta - public beta builds’ branch.

Steam should start downloading this version of the game. Once it has finished, you will be able to try the update. The game name in your library should now show “Skater XL [beta]”.

If you’d like to switch back to the regular commercial release branch of the game in future simply come back to this screen and select “NONE - opt out of all betas” in the drop down.

Thanks again for your continued support and we are looking forward to getting your feedback on these new features! Happy skating! We'll catch you on the next update