Trials Garage #8: Fun Bikes
Hey, Riders!
In this installment of Trials Garage we’ll be diving into the topic of Fun Bikes. Adding new and different “bikes” into the game increases the replay-ability of tracks by being able to attempt them in a new context as well as offering a wider variety of gameplay overall. This month we will take a look back at the history of bringing fun bikes to previous Trials games and thoughts on why they were a beneficial addition.
Before Trials HD, all the bikes were essentially the same. The introduction of Trials HD brought with it a few new ways to play Trials. There were altered bikes that visually looked more or less the same as the “normal” bikes but had altered attributes for skill games such as having an increased reverse speed for on top of the ball skill game. The micro Donkey brought with it a new level of challenge with its small size and very squirrely handling. We also brought in the afterburner that essentially turns the bike into a flying rocket for short bursts leading to all new types of challenges like the Rings of Fire. The debut of these new ways to play would lead to more new bikes and creative ideas as the series moved forward.
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With the launch of Trials Evolution came a new version of the Donkey that would turn into a fan favorite. Still small and extremely agile but now a bit easier to handle, this version of the Donkey was based on a model of mini-bike that is popular in RedLynx’s home of Finland. Evo also gave us the first pedal powered bike in the Trials series, the Gecko. Super agile with fast acceleration but a low top speed this bike was good at overcoming more difficult technical obstacles. Finally in this iteration of Trials we got The Banshee. This bike isn’t really what we would consider a “fun bike” as it was more just an alternative to the standard Trials bike with slightly different attributes that gave players options when taking on hard and extreme tracks.
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Besides these new bikes the vastly upgraded track editor in Evolution brought with it the ability to adjust bike parameters within tracks, putting the power of creating new bikes into the hands of players. We saw a lot of creative new bikes on Evo’s Track Central including segways, choppers & quads. This new ability also removed the need to create extra bikes specifically for skill games since the bike parameters could be adjusted in the track file and applied to whatever bikes were available.
At the launch of Fusion we brought in the first official Quad, the TKO Panda, which had it’s own set of tracks built specifically for it’s all terrain structure. The BMX style bike also returned, slightly updated from Evolution and renamed as the Rabbit. Fusion also introduced a 3rd iteration of the Donkey as a free update. The Fusion Donkey featured a much smaller body and tougher controls similar to the version seen in Trials HD.
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Then, of course, there is the Cat & Unicorn that made it’s debut in the last DLC released for Fusion, Awesome Level Max. This was a very different kind of “bike” compared to anything that was added before which also came with it’s own set of tracks specifically designed for use with the Unicorn. Some players were turned off by the craziness of a cat riding a unicorn as a “bike” or by the stiff handling but despite this the Unicorn remains a popular choice for players in local and online multiplayers as well as those looking for an extra layer of challenge in their Trials sessions.|
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With our most recent release, the spinoff game Trials of the Blood Dragon, you could say the whole game was basically centered on fun bikes! This let us really stretch our imagination and come up with new types of gameplay within the content of Trials such as shooting on bikes, an 8-wheeler, jet pack, RC flip car and even on foot platforming. This wide variety of new ways to play made Blood Dragon very unique, adding a new spin on the evolution of the Trials vehicles.
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Now that we have reviewed the progression of bikes over the years it’s time to look forward. When we think of what else we can do with fun bikes there are a 2 key ideas that guide or thought process.
First is that new bikes shouldn’t require their own set of tracks. Creating bike specific tracks puts a strain on the level team to provide more content or do less tracks for the traditional modes to support the new bike. Bikes that can be used on “normal” tracks create new replay opportunities and allows our level team to focus on the core game modes while still supporting these alternative bike options. This means that new bikes should create a different way to play without being “better” than the traditional bikes in terms of overall speed and agility.
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The other is the physics gameplay. At it’s core Trials is all about the physics and so any new bikes need to work within the context of those physics. A great example is a unicycle. This is a somewhat popular request from players that we have investigated in the past. In order to make a unicycle work we have to “fake” the physics to keep the rider from immediately falling on their face. This “faked” physics causes the gameplay to not feel as natural or intuitive as riding one of the bikes and therefore not an ideal addition to the Trials roster of vehicles.
Now that we’ve shared many of our thoughts on fun bikes we’d like to hear from you. What do you like about fun bikes? What don’t you like? Are there any new kinds of bikes you’d like to see make their way to a Trials game? Sound off in the comments below and as always take a few minutes to complete this month’s Trials garage survey.
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Normally by this point in a Trials Garage article, we would have pointed you towards our monthly podcast to get some further insights on our topic from devs or players but there will be no podcast link this month. The Trials Garage Radio podcast is going to be on hiatus as we reorganize our podcast recording set-up and restructure the content of future podcasts. Subscribe to our Trials Garage Soundcloud to get notified when new podcasts are released.
That’s it for February, riders. Until next month, we’ll see you on the leaderboards.