Tricky Madness channels the spirit of SSX

Would you put your financial future on the line to resurrect a dead video game genre? That’s essentially what Nathan Dearth has done with Tricky Madness, his arcade-style snowboarding game that releases in Early Access on November 15th for PC, Mac, and Linux computers.

After the Kickstarter for the game’s development failed, Nathan took out multiple business credit cards to fund development. “I’ve since dropped my credit score over 130 points and my bank cut me off because I’m now perceived as a high credit risk,” Nathan told me a few weeks ago via email. “This game is 100% all my time, effort, energy, money, and everything else poured into one pursuit.”

He’s helped by a team of generous developers who have agreed to work for IOUs, most of whom reached out after seeing the game on Kickstarter. To Nathan and his team, Tricky Madness is more than a game—it’s an attempt to raise this genre from the dead.

Tricky Madness takes much of its inspiration from the SSX series, games that I also loved and have failed to find a replacement for. In my view, modern snowboarding games are too focused on realism. Nathan, too, found something missing in today’s landscape. “All of the old arcade racing games are huge sources of inspiration for Tricky Madness,” he said. “Back when games were about having fun—simple, arcade-y fun.”

SSX Tricky—the second game in the series—was one of Nathan’s first console games. “Being from Colorado meant me and everyone I knew appreciated the winter sports aspect of SSX that much more.” But Nathan wasn’t interested in just recreating SSX or attempting a fan remaster. “I want to create new things. Spending tons of hours grinding out technical stuff only to recreate something that already existed sounds like a bad time to me.”

At first blush, Tricky Madness might seem like a fresh reskin of SSX mechanics, but Nathan and his team have updated the gameplay to fit modern sensibilities. “The older snowboarding games are just too slow for me. I want a fast-paced snowboarding game with a focus on speed and big air.” To that end, Tricky Madness places a lot more importance on constantly performing tricks—it’s key to keeping your speed up and winning races. “Players have to be tricking at every opportunity, even in race modes… Tricky Madness is heavily based on around hitting elements to trick off and keeping the boost up as close to 100% of the time as possible.”

Tricky Madness is Nathan’s first commercially released game, and he wants to get it right. “Since two weeks into development, there has been a public demo available. Listening to feedback is one of the most important things to me and I use it to shape every aspect of the game.”

Launching in Early Access will be an extension of that—and it doesn’t hurt that it will provide Nathan with some much-needed cash flow. Nathan estimates that Tricky Madness will need to sell between 3000 and 5000 units to break even, and at least 20,000 to be “financially worthwhile.”

It’s been over 10 years since the last entry in the SSX series. “We’re still missing something that fills the void SSX left,” Nathan told me.

But not for long. You can wishlist Tricky Madness on Steam in preparation for its Early Access launch on November 15th.