Lonely Mountains: Downhill is one of the video games that best understands the concept of game-feel, to replicate as best as possible the feeling that you want to convey through the control. In this case, the action of riding a bike.
How did they do it, you ask? Well, in some statements for the middle Gamasutra, a developer named Jan Bubenik gave the answer. We leave them here below:
Although we did not want to create a complex simulation, it was very important to capture the real feeling of riding a bike. This is why the first year of development focused primarily on testing and manipulating the physics and controls of the bike, as these two concepts go hand in hand in creating the core experience. Riding a bike in real life (once you learn it) is simple, and that was our goal for the game.
In addition to this, animations, subtle particle effects, and audio design played a huge role in perfecting the game-feel. There is a dynamic system that takes into account different attributes such as speed, sliding, braking, type of ground, wind, etc. in order to create the even more realistic sounds of the bicycle. We have this to Lukas and Alex from Syndrone for spending so much time with it.
A most interesting explanation, have you tried this game? Leave us what you think in the comments!
