TINYSKATE
TinySkate pixel-art skater flying high off the first kicker in The Park at sunset, above the K letter, with the text ONE BUTTON, FIVE VERSIONS

One button, five versions

Speed is everything in TinySkate. Every gap, every kicker and every rail needs you to arrive fast enough, and the hills in my levels don't care how good your flip game is. So the most important button in the game isn't the trick button. It's the pump.

That one button took me five versions to get right. Here's how it went.

Version 1: hold downhill, let go uphill

The first idea was the classic one from phone games: hold your thumb down while you roll down a slope, let go as you go up the other side. It sounds smooth, and on paper it is.

But there was a problem: you got stuck on every hill. Miss the timing once, run out of speed halfway up, and you'd just sit there. That's not a skate game, that's a waiting game. v1 is long gone, you can't play it anymore.

Version 2: tap on the beat

So I flipped it around. Now you tap the left thumb in a rhythm, anywhere, and the game rewards you for keeping time: hit the beat and it says PERFECT, keep it going and you get PERFECT ×2, ×3, ×4, each worth more speed. Tap too early and you get TOO EARLY and the chain resets.

Two other things came with it. The hills now give you speed on their own, so pumping is a bonus, not a chore. And there's a minimum crawl speed, so you never stop dead again, even if you don't touch anything.

Version 3: push or pump

Then it felt weird to "pump" on a flat schoolyard. So the same tap now does two things: on flat ground (or when you're going slow) it's a foot push with a proper kick animation, on a slope it's a body pump. Same thumb, and you don't have to think about it.

Version 4: hold, then pop

The right thumb is the board. Hold it and your skater crouches (on Hill Bomb and Big Jump that's a tuck: less drag, more speed), let go and you pop the ollie. These days the longer you hold, the more it charges, and a full charge is a MAX POP, the highest ollie in the game.

Version 5: drag down to pump

The last piece: while you're holding the board thumb, drag it down and you pump instead of jumping. Letting go after a drag-pump doesn't pop an ollie, so you can pump with your right thumb alone and never fly off by accident. Drag back up and down again for the next pump. The game's very first tip in The Park says it: tap left (or drag right down) to pump on the beat.

v5 is what you play now.

Tips for pumping on the beat

  • Find the rhythm first, then chase PERFECT. The beat is a bit under half a second. Tap, wait, tap. Too fast and it's TOO EARLY.
  • Build the chain early. PERFECT ×4 gives the most speed, so start the rhythm on the first rollers, not right before the kicker.
  • Let the hills work. Going downhill already gives you speed. Pumps give less the faster you go, so use them where you'd slow down.
  • Charge on the way in. Keep pumping with the left thumb, then hold the board thumb as you reach the kicker and let go at the lip. A full charge is a MAX POP.
  • Practice spots: the opening rollers in The Park, the deep bowls in Backyard Pool (one goal is 10 PERFECT pumps in a run), and the mini ramps in Indoor Park.

I made a Short about all five versions: My indie game's pump button took 5 versions

Which one would you have kept? Tell me in the comments on the Short.

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