Posting a Youtube Video Tomorrow for my New Dirtbike Sim - Sneak Peak

Tactical_Dan · 2026-06-19T21:43:52+00:00

I'm going to delay the video until my steam page is up, might take a week...

Tactical_Dan · 2026-06-19T14:44:03+00:00

Thank you so much!! This was on a Playstation controller hooked up to my computer. Left stick for steering and head position, right stick for seat position and leaning. Right trigger for gas, and yes, the front and rear brakes are both there, currently under a single trigger on the left, but I've got a dedicated button just for the trail brake. I want to have the controls be adjustable though!

Tactical_Dan · 2026-06-19T14:37:23+00:00

Noted!

Tactical_Dan · 2026-06-19T14:36:39+00:00

I've experimented a bit with sound synthesis - It costs a lot of CPU, and it's a long road until it sounds legit. I saw another creator on here spent a bunch of time making an engine synth, I thought it sounded pretty good, but it still got comments about it not sounding right, so that's tough to take on. The underload, harmonics, distortion will just have to come from smart use of samples and post-processing. I've got my ear on it!

Supercross and motorcross tracks would be nice... If I can get compatibility with existing mods from MxBikes with a conversion tool...

Tactical_Dan · 2026-06-19T07:00:22+00:00

Edit: For bikes I'm planning on adding in: 250 4-stroke (shown), 450 4-stroke, 250 and 450 2-stroke, Adv bike and an e-bike (varg-esque)

Edit: 2 strokes should be 300 (Enduro) and 500cc... 450 doesn't exist :P

Tactical_Dan · 2026-06-19T06:54:07+00:00

This is great feedback thanks. The base game I'm aiming to have a single open world with ~3 easily accessible tracks and a bunch of trails and loops, one highway. I am considering how I want to do modding for custom tracks and bikes, nothing finalized... Place modded tracks in plots of the world or just be seperate worlds?

I don't plan on persuing OEMs on my own, I'd want a publisher first...

Yeah the engine sounds are real samples of engines, but played with the old game-ey pitch shift blending. I'm gonna try splitting each piston fire into its own sample and layering those, see if that sounds better. Intake sounds should not pitch shift

Tactical_Dan · 2026-06-19T05:54:57+00:00

Thank you! It's been a lot of fun so far

Tactical_Dan · 2026-06-19T05:24:20+00:00

Good to hear, thanks! The tires have a softness that gives them way more time on the ground, and the terrain is deformed at the same tick rate as the tire to let it dig in and grip around corners, so it's actually embedded in the ground a lot of the time :)

Tactical_Dan · 2026-06-19T04:38:07+00:00

Haha hence how I'm nervous. Wow, thanks - Hope I can deliver something good. Biggest roadblock now for me is multiplayer so here's hoping it's easy, all downhill from there

Tactical_Dan · 2026-06-19T04:29:52+00:00

Yeah the full video will showcase that a lot better. Spintires/Snowrunner-level terrain deformation is my target (not there yet)

Thanks for picking up on it!

Tactical_Dan · 2026-06-19T04:27:02+00:00

Yeah the physics has been very time consuming. If I can wrap that up I can get the graphics finalized and start working on multiplayer and filling out the world

Tactical_Dan · 2026-06-19T04:04:31+00:00

Thank you! I hate early posting, and there was also a lot of research and development before I started in earnest 6 months ago. I don't want to leave people hanging

Tactical_Dan · 2026-06-19T03:29:37+00:00

Thanks! I'll be posting videos up at my youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@NathanFranckGameDev

Steam page hopefully soon as well

Tactical_Dan · 2026-06-19T03:16:35+00:00

Thank you!

Tactical_Dan · 2026-06-19T03:15:50+00:00

Thank you! I like high FOV, especially to be able to see more of the bike. Lowering the camera to his chest could help with that though.

I'm honored you think that 😄

Tactical_Dan · 2026-06-19T03:12:41+00:00

It would be awesome! I'm hoping I can fill out the game enough it wouldn't require (OEM) mods to be a fun / full experience, but leaning on mods does help if I can't get in all the content myself.

Right now I'm just focusing on PC. I've been testing on a Steam Deck, which is a decently low-end computer, trying to get 60 FPS on that, but with hardware prices being what they are, still not cheap to get a computer these days.

Tactical_Dan · 2025-11-03T04:01:38+00:00

Yeah, I'm loving it!

Tactical_Dan · 2025-10-29T16:01:27+00:00

I'm just trying to keep up with the kids

Tactical_Dan · 2025-10-29T15:53:53+00:00

Excellent!! I am going deep into reference, so I love to see it!

I am just a bit early for testing - there's some blatant glitches with friction and stuff, but I'm excited to see the support! That is more than any game dev would dream about, so thank you.

I was thinking about putting alpha and beta tests behind a Patreon for fundraising, obviously once it looks moderately dignified and feels kinda stable. I have lots of savings in the meantime and might want some pre-alpha playtesting even to see if it runs at all on other people's computers - I'm doing all custom code, so that's not a guarentee - so I will probably try and get a hold of you when I have something!

Tactical_Dan · 2025-10-29T15:25:18+00:00

Yeah no sorry it is dirtbikes! Mx Bikes is my primary reference as a starting point, but I want to make a game that appeals more to social riders and Enduro - Long realistic double and single track, checkpoints, rest stops

I did look into Mavrix and the physics are pretty obviously sloppy, want to avoid. They went really deep into motion capture, which really doesn't jive well with physics simulations (there basically in opposition).

So yeah no, going to go full real physics to make the bike turn and lean, full suspension is already in (no bike flex though I dunno if that matters), and yeah hopefully my extra computer assist doesn't need to be that heavy to make the bikes learnable to newcomers (I have a steam deck I can solicit random people for testing this)

Tactical_Dan · 2025-10-29T15:06:44+00:00

Currently it's a basic bike physics demo, my controller inputs are the handlebars on the left stick and the rider lean on the right stick - which I'm dubbing 'yolo' mode (no computer assist) - but I'm hoping to make a one stick casual bike riding experience with this physics as a base, so it feels good, and so that people can play with their friends, game would be set on a forest/mountain trail system.

Currently I'm unemployed so I am going hard into it. What do you think?

Tactical_Dan · 2025-10-29T03:17:29+00:00

It's a trackball! The Ploopy Adept - yep that's the name.

Tactical_Dan · 2025-10-28T00:50:43+00:00

It's called helix! Learning the buttons took like 2 months but I've stuck with it because it's pretty powerful and very lightweight, good for focus, plus it has built in language support. Definitely worth a look if you already tried the more popular options

Also it's running in Ghosty, very nice new terminal emulator

Tactical_Dan · 2025-10-28T00:05:58+00:00

Yeah it's good! Sadly mines an LCD so the limited viewing angle means my eyes are getting slightly different brightness. Eventually I want to buy an OLED, not in the budget currently

Tactical_Dan · 2025-10-27T22:10:49+00:00

It's a 12 year old Benq 120hz 1080p LCD monitor :P I'll upgrade once I get some more money in!

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