Freerunners Flow Update

First off, big thanks to everyone who has bought the game or taken the time to share feedback. It’s been really great (and very useful) seeing and hearing your thoughts.

Originally, I planned for the first patch to focus on fixing a few smaller bugs I noticed during my own playthroughs. But after watching people play and reading feedback, I decided to dig deeper and address some bigger things as well.

This patch is live now, so the next time you play you’ll get all these improvements.

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Biggest Changes:

Camera Rework

The camera previously followed the character’s pelvis bone, which could cause slight jolts and a feeling of slowdown during certain moves (like the dash vault). The camera now follows the actor capsule instead, resulting in smoother and more consistent movement while interacting with obstacles. I also adjusted the code to reduce camera micro-jitters and smooth things out even more.

It's only subtle, but if you watch the video below a few times, you'll see how the camera changes help with the feeling of flow:

Early Game Rebalancing

Originially, the start of the game was intentionally slower to simulate the player being inexperienced at parkour and to contrast with getting better later.

In practice, though, I realised that this made the opening of the game feel a bit sluggish and worked against the feeling of flow that I wanted to give players.

So to fix this, for the early game, I sped up the player and some early obstacle moves, and increased the player’s maximum stamina. I also adjusted the spacing of some obstacles in those early levels to help the flow feel better right from the start.

Below is a behind-the-scenes editor view showing how the levels are built (triggers, Obstacles, and other gameplay elements).

Level Fixes

While playing through the whole game to test the camera and balancing changes, I also found and fixed numerous smaller issues that were getting in the way of the flow.

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Full Patch Notes

General Improvements

• Player camera now tracks the actor capsule instead of the hips, resulting in smoother camera movement through levels

• Reduced camera micro-jitters

• Rebalanced the early game to improve flow (slight increases to player speed and stamina)

• Adjusted star rating times for early levels to reflect the balancing changes

• Slow moves now play at 75% of their original speed, rather than using a fixed speed reduction

• Improved slope detection to prevent jittering

• Sped up several moves to improve overall movement flow

• Step-ups are now more responsive

• Improved breakfall animation blend-in and blend-out

• Improved the blend transitions for the sliding state

• Prevented a speed boost when exiting an obstacle onto sloped surfaces (this could previously cause the player to bounce off and die)

• Stamina no longer drains when sliding down slopes while holding sprint

• Tricks no longer consume stamina

• Improved environmental LODs to reduce popping while running through levels

• Improved character heads and hair LODs

• End-of-level next unlock text now wraps correctly instead of appearing squished

• Removed a duplicate additive out-of-breath animation that caused popping

• Removed collision from some small landscape meshes, such as sticks and rocks

• Improved the dog profile image used in the intro/outro text sections

• Added more sound variation through additional modulation on several effects

• Miscellaneous art improvements across multiple levels

• Increased the weight of falling air-conditioning units so they feel more realistic

• Tweaked various intro and outro level texts

Level Specific Fixes

Chapter01 

• Level: Getting Better

  • Moved some obstacles around for a better flow

  • Fixed an obstacle where the Fast / OK / Slow message wasn’t appearing

Chapter 02

• Level: Put It All Together

  • Adjusted the design slightly to make the step-up easier to use

• Level: Rooftops

  • Fixed a bug that stopped predictive move selection from working on a climb-up

• Level: Too Fast Too Furious

  • Improved grab detection on the lorries

Chapter03:

• Level: Thanks For The Lift

  • Fixed a bug that stopped predictive move selection from working on a climb-up

  • Added a death-area camera adjustment trigger for a better view

• Level: You Spilt My Drink

  • Removed an incorrect camera adjustment

Chapter04:

• Level: Which Way

  • Fixed a climb-up that wasn’t working correctly with predictive move selection

• Level: Breath Of Fresh Air

  • Fixed an issue where the slide after the machines could throw the player off and cause death when performing a fast move

  • Fixed a ladder climb-up that caused a jolt

  • Fixed a ledge grab that caused an upward jolt instead of a smooth transition

• Level: Drug Lab

  • Fixed the end camera volume position so it now triggers consistently

• Level: Don't Shoot

  • Fixed a camera adjustment volume placed incorrectly at the end of the level

Chapter05

• Level: Skip The Queues

  • Improved the starting area camera pop on first play

  • Fixed a bug that made grabbing one of the Ferris wheel cages difficult

• Level: High And Low

  • Fixed a spot where the player could get stuck while climbing into the sewer

• Level: Almost There

  • Fixed an issue with a ladder climb

• Level: Found Tim

  • Fixed an issue with the swing pole

  • Added an additional camera volume at the start of the level

  • Fixed a ledge that caused a pop-up

  • Changed the animation when climbing out of the elevator to a more appropriate one

  • Adjusted an early AI so it now blocks the player’s path instead of chasing them

General Fixes

• Fixed some bad looping animations on background characters

• Miscellaneous environment art fixes across multiple levels

• Fixed an issue where the main menu audio fade-out and fade-to-black did not trigger correctly when exiting the game after returning from a level

• Fixed a small sprint animation bug

• Fixed textures on vans that were using the incorrect world position setup

• Fixed a bug where part of the end-level menu UI would flicker and change shape when revealed

• Fixed a skinning issue with the white T-shirt and long-sleeve T-shirt combination

• Fixed several spelling mistakes in the intro and outro texts

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And there you have it, a range of improvements and fixes all aimed at making the overall experience better and the movement feel smoother and more fluid.

Let me know if you have any more feedback or suggestions.

I also updated the demo with these fixes, so if you're curious about the game, give the demo a try and see how it feels.

Thanks again for all the support!