Small updates to allow player to do a back flip while gripping a ledge. Try it out :)

[ 2024-07-17 23:05:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Just a bit of cleanup

[ 2024-06-03 21:23:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixes for minor bugs introduced with the last build's changes.

[ 2024-05-31 22:44:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

A few updates based on community feedback and suggestions:

• Added a link to the Discord on the main menu
• Added total time for playlist if you've completed all levels within the playlist
• Added total time for the game if you've completed the game
• Prevent movement at the start of the level unless the movement is to begin running (helps when rebinding controls that are the same as preview level controls)
• Improved collision detection for kong vaults
• Added a hint / tutorial for level 1-16 to help if player falls into a pit instead of rolling successfully
• Fixed a bug in the Level Select UI where Found Items weren't displaying

[ 2024-05-20 19:26:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Summary A little bit of polish and quality of life improvements based on initial feedback: Cloud Saves The game now syncs your progress across different devices using Steam Cloud Saves. You can run up shorter walls, now There used to be a minimum wall height required to run up walls, but the feedback was that this felt a bit arbitrary and unfair. I definitely agree and there's no gameplay reason why you shouldn't be able to run up any wall, regardless of its height, so this has been updated. Fixes Assist Mode's "Auto run up walls" setting Some previous changes to how running up walls works broke the Assist Mode functionality for automatically running up walls as you approach them. This has been fixed. Ability to rebind shortcut buttons The shortcut buttons for viewing controls and retrying were a much-needed improvement. However, having these inputs permanently mapped gets in the way of mapping other gameplay actions to them. So now you can rebind the shortcuts for Show Controls and Retry, allowing you to more conveniently use those buttons for other actions if you want. Ability to disable shortcut buttons Related to the change above, if you don't want to use the shortcuts, you can disable them. Adjusts time in 8-6 8-6 had a layout change during development, but the goal times weren't updated accordingly, leading to some impossible goals for the level. These have been corrected and should automatically update your score without needing to redo the level. Adds settings for day/night cycle You can now adjust some settings related to the day-night cycle. For those who felt blinded by the sun during certain times of day, you can now disable the intense sunlight effect. You can also manually set the time of day and adjust how quickly the day-night cycle progresses (even pausing it if you want to play at a specific time of day all the time). All great suggestions--thanks! Daniel

[ 2024-05-12 01:58:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi! Im Daniel, the developer of Parkour Legends. Parkour Legends is finally here! I see that some players have already created incredible records in the rankings, which was far beyond my imagination. It's amazing to see you enjoying the game! It's exactly what I was hoping to see--creative feats of impossibly awesome "parkour!". To be honest, some of these scores are better than I could do... if I'm not warmed up ;) I hope to see the community grow and the competition on the leaderboards intensify! With 280 levels in the game, there's a lot to learn and discover. You can learn from others by using the game's Replay system. After you beat a level for the first time, just hit Pause, go to Replay, and select from any score to watch or race along. I've been reading all the reviews and gathering feedbacks, so please remember to share your thoughts on the game after you've had a chance to experience it. Keep parkouring! Daniel Enter Grip

[ 2024-05-09 10:54:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! Did you have fun with the demo? In the last week, I've been fixing some bugs and doing some optimization for the full version, so that you won't get too much pressure in your gameplay in the future. But, I just wanted to quickly wish everyone a happy International Workers' Day! Parkour Legends is going to be released in 8 days. I feel hyped and also a bit nervous. I'll keep polishing the game right up to launch and beyond, and am grateful to be working with Paras Games for support launching the game in China. Have a good day! Daniel Enter Grip

[ 2024-05-01 02:21:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's been a long 2 years, but I've finally crossed the finish line on Parkour Legends. I'm so excited for you all to play the final game and compete with each other on the leaderboards. The game releases May 8th 2024 at 6:00 AM EST. See you then! In the meantime, feel free to check out the updated demo, containing all 24 levels from the first (of 11 total) zones in the game. And here are the main things that have been added or updated to the final game since the last announcement:

• Completed all 280 levels
• New UI and main menu where you can access settings more easily
• Replays of your best runs and the ability to race against your best time--or other players' best times!
• A handful of performance improvements and settings to help achieve a solid 60 fps if possible
• Adds a dedicated retry button to quickly retry a level or go back to the latest checkpoint
• Buffing up the Sprint ability: if you press sprint while in air, you'll immediately begin sprinting upon touching the ground. Sprinting also maintains your multiplier, making it easier to earn another sprint if you continue performing well. Finally, sprinting will knock obstacles out of your way. Sprint as often as you can!
• The purple star collectibles have been replaced with souvenirs you can view in a gallery
• You can control the camera during the Level Preview now to carefully plan your route
• Collectibles are only unlocked on level completion, making them more of a challenge and a puzzle to secure
• New and improved sound effects for the different surfaces in the levels (grass, dirt, concrete, etc)
• 3 voice options
• Controller rumble for specific events, like hitting a wall or using adrenaline
• A streamer friendly playlist with unlicensed tracks, free of any copyright claims (more songs to come in future updates)
• More visual settings (resolution, full screen, v-sync, frame rate cap)
• Summary stats for the end of run, such as obstacles cleared, distance traveled, etc
• As always, various bug fixes and polish

[ 2024-04-22 14:34:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone, I wanted to give a quick update on the project. I've finished blocking out all the levels. There will be just over 300 main levels in the full game, across over 10 different zones. You use all your parkour skills to overcome the levels as best you see fit, but each zone will focus on introducing and reinforcing a few concepts at a time. With all the levels mapped out, the game is much closer to launch. However, I need to push the release back to Q1 2024. This will give me time to incorporate feedback I've received from recent playtests, plus polish, test (and re-test) all the levels as one cohesive game. Thanks for your patience and support along the way. Sorry for the delay, but it's almost done and will be better with the extra dev time! I'll probably be ready to announce the official release date near the beginning of the new year. Daniel

[ 2023-11-24 15:30:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, please check out the latest demo! Lots of quality of life updates and some more power behind some of the parkour moves!

[ 2023-10-09 22:43:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, please check out the latest demo! Lots of quality of life updates and some more power behind some of the parkour moves!

[ 2023-10-09 22:42:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update brings mostly bug fixes, but also the ability to select a different hair style. Now you can finally customize your runner in the demo with all the available options. Features: - Select different hair styles - Jumping up from a vertical wall run will give you forward momentum if you make it over the edge of the wall Bug fixes: - Fixed an issue where different languages might cause an error in the level selection screen - Improved grip physics. It's more reliable now, even at lower frames per second - Fixed some Assist Mode related bugs having to do with detecting dynamic objects - Updated the player view in the settings menus to better reflect customized skin tone, hair, and outline style On the backend (for the full game): - Many new levels - Some physics updates related to new mechanics - Some new background art The release is fast approaching. Until next time!

[ 2023-09-09 04:35:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

The biggest changes in this update are the abilities to edit your player's skin tone and hair color. You can also go bald if you want. More hair styles will come in future updates. The rest of the updates are performance tweaks, bug fixes, and adding some levels on the backend (not playable in the demo). That's all. See you next time. And good work on those leaderboards. Although, I can see no one has quite cracked the best times :)

[ 2023-08-04 00:18:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another batch of updates. I would say it's the biggest set of changes since the introduction of the new parkour moves, hence jumping to version 0.2.0. But, I'll let you be the judge. Here are the changes:

TL;DR

• New leaderboard chart
• Use Steam IDs for leaderboard entries
• Best score for you online will download locally, and best score locally will update to leaderboard if not already set
• Checkpoints before gaps in levels
• Objects have more dynamic physics
• New levels with physics objects (not in demo)
• Simplified inputs / controls
• Mouse input (left mouse button for vault and rebound; right mouse button to grip and balance)
• More air when jumping while sprinting and rebounding from grip
• Updated shader logic for surfaces and effects applied to surfaces
• Throttle some methods for better performance
• Fixes bug where scores were submitted from tutorials

And here's a more detailed account of some of the changes:

GAMEPLAY

Leaderboards

Let's start with leaderboards. A lot of things happened at once that led to the latest changes. First, I integrated Steam on the backend in an earlier update. This sets the stage for uploading scores onto an official Steam Leaderboard. I think it will be awesome to track high scores on the game's community page. It also means that, instead of faceless numbers and IDs assigned to player scores, I can now show actual Steam usernames. No more "Runner 2258301". Because Leaderboards are tied to Steam usernames, I can also make sure to download your latest high scores onto any new devices you're playing from. This isn't a full implementation of Cloud Saves, but a small stepping stone. Proper Cloud Saves, which recognize gear collected and objectives completed should be possible in a future update. I also received some feedback that the leaderboards should be more like a chart to show all the scores at glance. For this, I've added a histogram that shows how many people got scores within a certain range. It makes it easy to see the fastest and slowest times and compare everyone's score to yours. And finally, I made it so that you can actually scroll through the list of scores. All of these changes were planned for later, but I had to do them now. Because, if you looked recently, you would have noticed a lot of impossible looking scores. Levels with top times of only a few milliseconds. These weren't cheaters--this was a silly bug that got introduced in the last update. It has to do with the slightly revised tutorials. Anyway, the bug made it almost impossible to decipher the real scores from the bugs, so I needed to clean up the leaderboards and kind of start over. I couldn't do that without at least improving the experience overall, so that's why I also took the time to go ahead and introduce the Steam usernames, chart-based leaderboard, and all. So that's the story on leaderboards. Hopefully the new stuff makes up for the clean slate. Glass half full, it's your chance to be #1 :)

Checkpoints

Levels that have gaps that cause a reset now have checkpoints. This is most useful on the final level, Proving Grounds, but also comes into play for levels 2 and 3. The way it works is, your time will freeze at the moment you fall and trigger a reset, so you probably won't be getting a good score for the run, but you can at least practice the troublesome area over and over until you're ready for a full retry (which you can still start from the pause menu). This is going to make practicing and sharpening your skills much easier and less of a chore.

Dynamic physics on objects

Objects are no longer bolted to the ground! Running into objects like boxes, newspaper bins, trash cans, post boxes, etc will actually react to you. Sometimes it's subtle, but they can get knocked over, pushed, and you can even sway them back and forth while gripping onto them by holding Left or Right. This paves the way for some new levels I had planned which will incorporate this reactivity into part of the challenge. And along with these objects, I'll be adding some more physics-type challenges to later levels, like swinging from ropes and bouncing off of trampolines. It's pretty fun and it'll add some great variety to later levels. But most importantly, it just helps the world feel more alive and reactive to you, the player.

CONTROLS

Mouse Input

I think this is now my preferred way to play if I don't have a controller at hand or I'm not testing on the Steam Deck. It's low-key the biggest change in this update. You can use the left mouse button to perform rebounds and vaults and the right mouse button to grip ledges, balance on rails, or perform a safe-landing. Scrolling the mouse wheel performs flips. Clicking the mouse wheel sprints (when adrenaline is full). So, this means you can fully play the game on a keyboard using just the left hand at WASD + Spacebar and the right hand on the mouse. It feels great. This was made possible, because...

Tweaking / Simplifying controls (again)

I hope I finally got it right this time. There could be need for improvement, but only more play testing and feedback will say for sure. I wanted to get the controls down to as few buttons as possible. To that end, Vault and Rebound now share the same button. To better control when certain movements happen, they've moved to a double-press vs single press. Running up a wall is double-tapping jump, now. This way, you can more easily control whether you're doing a wall run or just jumping towards a wall. Vaulting is also a double tap, now. This makes it easier to perform a kong or dive roll. You can now hold vault before jumping, then when you jump, you will perform a dive. This is a bit easier than having to press vault mid-air (and since vault and rebound are the same button, it prevents confusing one for the other). Konging and dive-rolling are awesome, so I'm really glad it's easier to pull off those moves. I also go rid of the precision jump. First, it requires an additional button. But it's also rarely useful. Even if I design a level to make use of it, it's always faster to try and overcome the obstacles with skillfully placed jumps. In a game about speed, it just didn't make sense to have a move that requires the player to come to a complete stop, charge up a jump, and then perform a jump that ends with zero momentum. I've also mapped balance and precision to grip to reduce the overall number of buttons used. With all these changes, I was able to get the mouse input working, and on keyboard, you can control everything from the home keys (WASD + Spacebar for movement and jumping, then JNKIH are used for grip, vault, flips, and sprinting). So whether you're just keyboard, mouse and keyboard, or using a controller, everything should be simpler to do with fewer buttons to keep track of. Please have a run through the tutorials again if you want to make sure you get the new controls down.

PERFORMANCE AND VISUALS

Shadow surface shaders

A bit of a technical note, but I've updated how some shaders related to applying shadows (or other sprites) onto surfaces work. It's a much more organized workflow that makes some subtle shadow effects possible. It also means that it will be easier to apply effects like reflection on ice or windows much easier.

Throttling some work

There were some functions running every frame that didn't really need to, so I've throttled them. This should help boost the framerate on lower end devices. I'll keep looking for performance improvements like this. My goal is for the game to be able to run at 60 FPS on the Steam Deck even at 3 watts (the lowest power setting, out of the maximum 15 watts). Some levels already achieve this, but some are between 30-50 depending on how much is going on in the background. Everything runs at a locked 60 FPS at as low as 5 watts. I'm at about 55-60 for 4 watts. It's getting there. So, save your battery. You don't need 15 watts for Parkour Legends :)

LEVELS

These aren't in the demo, but as mentioned above, a few levels that make use of the dynamic physics objects and trampolines are in. They're pretty fun and I like the variety they bring to the table.

[ 2023-07-19 20:37:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, I have a new update this week for the demo. This might be the last for a while before I go heads down on new content and features for the full game. Here's what changed: Custom controls You can now map the buttons / keys to whatever gameplay action you like. For a game like this, this is a must-have feature and I'm glad it's finally here. There is one caveat: input binding does not work on the Steam Deck. But based on the info Steam provides me, I don't think many (if anyone) will be affected. A tangent on the history of the inputs for the game and a recommended mapping For a little backstory / history, rebound and jump used to be mapped to the same button (jump). But after some playtesting, I saw that people could easily fall into a trap of accidentally rebounding when they were really just pressing jump multiple times to make sure they performed a jump. Let's call this... a less deliberate style of play. Once rebound moved to its own separate button, that informed a few other button mappings. But, I encourage you to try mapping rebound to jump and see how you like it. Now that you can jump from a vertical wall run, it means a double press is necessary to rebound from a vertical wall run (one for the jump, and a second for the rebound) -- but that just means even more air, right? You could then map vault to be what was rebound, and sprint to what vault was. I think this makes for a pretty nice button and keyboard configuration. It would be the default, but people just love spamming the jump button... Use with care. Tutorial updates Teaching all the moves in the game has always been a challenge. The introductory tutorials at least made sure to cover all the moves in one place where you could easily go back to practice more. But then flow of those tutorials wasn't quite right. Now, those tutorials are grouped by sections of importance. First, just the basics, then advanced techniques, vaults, and finally precision moves. And the tutorials themselves are now structured in a way that allows you to practice the move as much (or as little) as you want before moving on. The tutorials themselves could change in the final, full version of the game (where there's more time to gradually introduce concepts), but I hope this strikes the right balance for a short demo that wants to show as much as possible. Bug fixes, Polish, etc A little pit of polish and fixing up some small bugs that slipped through the cracks at some point.

• Precision lands are much more effective as reducing inertia now
• Fetching and displaying the leaderboards is working again
• Fixed shadows popping in when they enter the camera's view
• Fixes some camera zooming issues at the beginning of levels
• Added clouds to the level "Rooftop Parkour"
• Fixed a brick texture not rendering on level 2 of the demo
• Adds hints for how to cross the larger gaps in Proving Grounds

That's it for now! Daniel

[ 2023-05-22 21:57:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Full Steam Deck support! I'm happy to announce I've been testing Parkour Legends on the Steam Deck for the past week and it runs incredibly! No need to adjust any inputs, the UI scales, and all the button glyphs match up (except one instance where the prompt for pause displays the left menu button instead of the right one). Rock solid frame-rate, air-tight controls, and bite-sized levels make this an awesome game for your Deck!

[ 2023-05-15 15:16:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's been a while since the last demo update, but this will be worth the wait. For the past several months I've been making the animations even smoother, adding new parkour moves, updating the art, and adding lots and lots of quality of life improvements to the game. Major Gameplay Updates The biggest gameplay change comes with the introduction of speed boosts. Now, when you perform certain vaults and moves, you will receive a temporary boost of speed. Strategically chain these boosts together along with the adrenaline sprint and you'll decimate your level times! New moves There are 3 new moves you can pull off. - First, the Dive lunges the player forward and sets you up for some interesting maneuvers. You can dive into a roll, perform a kong vault on nearby obstacles, or just use the extra forward momentum to grab a just-out-of-reach ledge. - You can also lunge further when jumping from the edge of platforms at the very last second. This gives you just a bit more air time and forward momentum, but can be used to great advantage. - Finally, you can now get one last bit of vertical momentum by jumping up at the end of a vertical wall run. This is perfect when your wall run was just out of reach from the ledge above. What's on the Menu? The UI has been updated. You can now click through menus and control them through more traditional keyboard and joystick controls What are my options? And with better menus come more options. - Rebind the controls to your liking - Change how far or close the camera is framed - Change the outline style of the player and foreground art -- get that nice retro outline stye! - Enable visual aids to see key trigger areas used for pulling off moves - Use the new Assist Mode to help cover up your mistakes. Assist Mode options include auto jumping when appropriate, grabbing ledges for you, running up and across walls, and more Art Updates There are some new backgrounds and some pixel art lighting effects to really set a nice vibe. Speaking my language The game has been localized into French, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, and Ukrainian (based on regions I've seen the most traffic from). Those are the big ones! I hope you enjoy the new demo. Please check it out and let me know what feedback you have!

[ 2023-05-15 07:21:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is what happens when you rush a build out, folks. My sincerest apologies to anyone that downloaded/played the demo between 09/25/2022 and 09/27/2022. There was a game-breaking bug in the intro that would affect brand new players for the game. The bug prevented the player from moving, and displayed a level title for the first level when it shouldn't have. The result? A screen displaying "What a newb" and the player unable to move. Looked like I was straight trolling players. Very embarrassing.
Only newb here was me ^_^;; Thanks to the player that alerted me to this bug, and apologies again!

[ 2022-09-27 15:31:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Prepare yourself for the challenges to come...

The Proving Grounds Demo includes the first 36 levels of Parkour Legends, which serve as an introduction to the game's main mechanics and goals. Learn the ropes and prepare for your journey to legendary status!

[ 2022-09-20 11:49:52 CET ] [ Original post ]