It’s fast. It’s brutal. If you make one mistake, you’re likely to go flying over the handlebars. But hit the sweet spot in Descenders, the biking-based roguelike which hit Steam back in 2019, and it becomes a soothing, zen journey to the centre of relaxation. A breakout hit that has amassed millions of players, PCGamesN now has the exclusive on the Descenders sequel. Originally pitched to publisher No More Robots as “Spelunky on bikes,” please keep in mind, the follow-up to Descenders won’t be called Descenders 2. Mike Rose, No More Robots’ founder, gives us some insight.
“We’re working with [Descenders dev] RageSquid on a new thing,” Rose tells us, in an exclusive interview, live at WASD 2023. “Descenders was pretty big for all of us. For RageSquid, they don’t know what to do with themselves. They’re just three guys and it’s been played by 20 million people or something like that.
“So doing more in the Descenders universe has certainly been a thing in our minds for a while, and they have been working on something for some time now, and I think we’ll announce it this year.”
Rose however is rather cryptic when it comes to the nature of the Descenders sequel – from what we can tell, it won’t be called Descenders 2.
“I’ll tell you what I can say,” Rose continues. “The number ‘two’ is not involved. But it’s not a remake. Imagine Descenders, but then someone was like ‘what if we took this, and just went too far?’ And that’s what’s happened. Currently we’re talking to A, B, and C about whether they want to announce it with us. Soon, something Descenders-y is going to happen. I’m very excited about it.”
Though Rose can’t specify exactly what or who is meant by ‘A,’ ‘B,’ and ‘C,’ when I think of videogame announcements – big videogame announcements – I think of three names: Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Perhaps, as well as PC, the new Descenders may also make it to consoles.
Nevertheless, the partnership between RaqeSquid and No More Robots is strong. “Descenders in general has always been a really special one with us, because I signed that game before I even founded No More Robots,” Rose says. “RaqeSquid put so much trust in me. They came to me with this demo and said ‘it’s like Spelunky on bikes.’ And then they went with me, based on nothing.”
Mike Rose was interviewed at WASD 2023 by PCGamesN reporter Nat Smith.
Check out some other great sports games if you love Descenders’ focus on biking. You might also want to get ahead of 2023 with all the best upcoming games, or maybe the most relaxing games available on PC.