Introducing the "Thruster Engine"
Last month I asked what special abilities you'd like to see. The answer, apparently, was "more rockets."
So here's the "Thruster Engine". This upgrade bolts a rocket to the bottom of your board. Hold the Ollie button in the air to fire it, and steer it wherever you want to go. Come up a short on a gap? Thrusters. Can't quite reach that upgrade? Thrusters. Think you see a hidden area? Thrusters.
Game design discussion
Rail Blaster, last month's ability that lets you draw your own grind rail, was the first ability built on the swappable special ability slot, and it replaced your dash ability. The Thruster Engine lives in a brand-new ability slot that's tied to the jump/ollie button. You Ollie just as you always have, but once airborne, the button can be used to trigger an ability.
Feeling Lucky?
Luck is a brand-new stat. Positive luck tilts every random roll in the game in your favor, and it makes rare upgrades show up more often. A few upgrades raise it: Lucky Monkey gives you a little, Piety gives you a lot, and Golden Nuts gives you a temporary boost every time you land Perfect.
Which is good news, because there are a lot more upgrades (more than two dozen) and many of them have a chance element:
- Wheel of Fortune: Every flip has a % chance of earning X seconds.
- Machinist: Grinds have a % chance earning their duration back in game time.
- Laser Boots: Every time the board flips you have a % chance of earning 1000 points.
- Turn the Tables: Every second a penalty costs has a % chance of earning X seconds.
- Diamond Nut: Perfect landings have a {chance:0%} chance to add seconds BUT sloppy landings have a {chance:0%} chance to cost seconds.
Open the pause menu and the new Skater card shows your current stats, your luck, and which upgrades are contributing what, so you can see exactly what your build is doing.
New Tricks
One of my goals is for Cybordz to feel familiar to fans of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series. This month, I'm bringing Cybordz closer to parity with the series, by adding 8 new grabs. Hold a direction and double tap the grab button and hold to trigger a second layer of grabs: Method, Stiffy, Rocket Air, One Foot Tail Grab, One Foot Japan, Judo, Cannonball and, of course, the Christ Air.
A few other classics joined them:
- Boneless and No Comply. Double-tap Up, just like THPS, and you can chain a trick right out of them.
- Nose manuals. Down then Up, and pop a nollie flip (flipped off the nose) out the other end.
There are a lot more insane builds possible now, and I want to hear about yours. Bonus points if you can break the game.
Schedule a live playtest and help shape where this goes next.
Until next time,
Robert