Hi everyone,
After our time in Early Access, Motorcycle Night Ride is officially leaving Early Access and launching into its full release.
Since the beginning, the goal has been simple: build a relaxing night riding experience, then gradually expand it with more progression, more variety, and more reasons to keep coming back to the road.
This full release is our biggest update so far.
It adds a new road type system, a fifth motorcycle, a new progression structure, a Journey screen, unlockable cosmetics, a redesigned garage, leaderboards, achievements, major controller and Steam Deck improvements, better traffic behavior, a new Close Pass HUD, smoother riding, and a long list of fixes across the whole game.
Here is everything included in the Full Release Update:
New Content
Curved Road Mode
A new road type selection has been added to the flow of the game.
The menu now goes:
Game Mode → Road Type → Map
You can now choose between:
Classic Road
Curved Road
All 10 maps can be played with both road types, and both are available in Free Ride and Close Pass.
New Motorcycle + Updated Garage Order
A fifth motorcycle has been added, and the garage lineup has been reorganized:
RONIN SHADOW 250
RONIN STRAY 500
VELOCIA SBR 600
VELOCIA SB2 1000
ATLAS B1000X
Motorcycle Unlock Progression
Motorcycles are now unlocked through total distance traveled:
SHADOW 250 — 0 km
STRAY 500 — 20 km
SBR 600 — 75 km
SB2 1000 — 175 km
B1000X — 350 km
Once a motorcycle is unlocked, it stays unlocked permanently.
Locked motorcycles can still be viewed in the garage, but they cannot be selected. Their cards show how many kilometers remain until unlock.
Early Access players do not lose access to the original four motorcycles.
Only the newly added B1000X is distance-locked for existing players.
Journey Screen
A new Journey screen has been added to the main menu.
This screen brings progression together in one place:
Motorcycle unlocks
Map unlocks
Total distance
Your next target
Remaining distance to the next unlock
It is presented as a single journey track so progression is easier to understand at a glance.
Close Pass progression is also shown separately, including unlock requirements and your best score summary.
Unlockable Cosmetics
Motorcycle cosmetics are now unlockable, and selections are saved separately for each motorcycle.
Unlock conditions:
Matte Paint — 40 km
Metallic Paint — 150 km
Candy Paint — Score 10,000 in a single Close Pass run
Chrome Paint — Score 25,000 in a single Close Pass run
Headlight Color — Score 2,000 in a single Close Pass run
Underglow — Score 5,000 in a single Close Pass run
In-Ride Unlock Notifications
When you unlock a motorcycle, map, or cosmetic during a ride, a card now appears at the top of the screen immediately.
Progress Bars in Pause Summary
The pause screen now shows progress toward the next unlock.
It displays:
Remaining distance to the next unlock
Best run score in Close Pass
Progress earned during the current ride in a separate color
New Steam Achievements
The game now includes 13 new Steam achievements, bringing the total to 18.
Achievements unlock immediately during gameplay as soon as their conditions are met.
Leaderboards
Leaderboards have been expanded significantly.
There are now two leaderboard categories:
Total Distance
Close Pass
New leaderboard features include:
Global / Friends filter
A “Your Rank” card
Steam avatars
The ability to open Steam profiles
New Garage
The garage has been fully redesigned.
It is now presented as a night showroom, with the selected motorcycle displayed on a rotating platform.
The new garage includes:
Performance bars
A technical specifications panel
Per-bike color selection
Riding
A lot of work went into making the game feel better to actually ride.
Improved Riding Feel
The riding feel has been updated in several important ways:
Steering wobble while riding straight has been removed
The sudden lean that happened after releasing input has been removed
The balance difference between keyboard and gamepad has been reduced
Lean angle is now limited to around 40 degrees
Acceleration and gear behavior are now properly tied to each motorcycle’s garage stats.
Camera Shake Removed
The camera shake effect has been removed.
This was the effect many players described in reviews as feeling like the bike was constantly riding over rough ground.
Smoother Movement
Motorcycles and traffic now move much more smoothly.
The micro-stutters visible on 60 Hz and 144 Hz displays have been removed, making both your own bike and surrounding traffic feel more fluid.
Off-Road Safety Net
If you leave the road or fall into empty space, the bike now automatically respawns.
A case where the player could spawn inside wreckage and become stuck has also been fixed.
Distance Tracking
Distance is now counted based on your actual road progress.
Close Pass
Close Pass has received a major gameplay pass.
New Close Pass Rules
Close passes are now graded using three distance tiers:
Perfect — 0.9 m
Close — 1.6 m
Near — 2.5 m
Additional rules:
You must be traveling at least 90 km/h
Brushing or scraping a vehicle does not award points
The off-lane roadside corridor exploit has been closed
Leaderboard Submission Rule
Close Pass scores are now only submitted to the leaderboard when traffic density is 5 or higher.
A warning about this is shown during map selection.
New Close Pass HUD
The Close Pass HUD has been redesigned and now includes:
Score counter
Record line
Colored combo badge
Combo timer bar
PERFECT / CLOSE / NEAR popups
Score Saving
Your Close Pass record is now saved even if you return to the menu directly.
Traffic
Traffic behavior has been improved across the game.
Vehicles now use turn signals when changing lanes
Overtaking behavior is smarter
Oncoming traffic stays in its own lanes more reliably
Vehicles no longer disappear abruptly right in front of the player
A bug on the Snow map that caused cars to despawn too aggressively has been fixed
Vehicles spawning on top of each other has been fixed
Progression and Maps
More Maps Actually Unlock Properly
Four maps that were previously not unlocking correctly are now available as intended:
City 2
Tunnel
Snow
Highway 2
Lower Map Unlock Thresholds
Map unlock requirements have been reduced.
The old sequence was:
15 / 125 / 250 / 375 / 500 / 625 / 750 / 875 / 1000 km
The new sequence is:
10 / 25 / 50 / 100 / 200 / 300 / 500 / 750 / 1000 km
Once a map is unlocked, it remains unlocked permanently.
A bug where locked maps could still be clicked and played has also been fixed.
Progress Restores from Steam
Your total distance now restores properly from Steam, so progression is not lost when switching to a new PC.
Snow Map Boundary Fix
An invisible wall has been added along the side of the road on the Snow map so the player can no longer fall out of the level.
Controller Support and Steam Deck
Controller support has been expanded significantly.
Full Menu Navigation
All major interfaces can now be navigated with both gamepad and keyboard, including:
Menus
Garage
Pause menu
Map selection
Leaderboards
More Gamepad Features
The following features now also work on gamepad:
Horn
Headlight flash
Radio
Brake light
Free look
Dynamic Input Prompts
Input prompts now change depending on the active device.
Steam Deck Improvements
Text on Steam Deck is now easier to read, and overall usability has been improved.
Quick Garage Access from Map Select
You can now jump from map selection to the garage with one input and return to the same screen afterward.
Localization
Localization has been reworked in a big way.
Translations for 8 languages have been rewritten
The game now automatically selects the system language on first launch
Missing glyph issues for Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai have been fixed
Numbers and units now follow the selected language format
Changing language in-game now updates on-screen text immediately
UI and Graphics
A number of UI and presentation elements have been improved:
Menu artwork has been replaced with in-game renders
The loading screen has been redesigned
Scene transitions are now smoother
Map selection now shows total distance and remaining distance to the next unlock
The pause screen now includes a ride summary
The “Early Access” label has been removed
A Motion Blur setting has been added
V-Sync no longer locks to half refresh rate
Resolution settings now work correctly
Other Fixes
And finally, a long list of smaller issues has been cleaned up:
Returning to the menu from pause could cause the main menu to open in a frozen state
In some cases, scene transitions would stop working entirely
Pressing ESC in pause could close two screens at once
On 9 maps, pause was not reducing audio properly
On Sea Morning, the exit confirmation from the pause menu was not working
The scrollbar in the map list could jump around in build
This full release is the biggest step Motorcycle Night Ride has taken so far.
Thank you to everyone who played the game in Early Access, shared feedback, reported issues, and helped shape where the game ended up.
We hope the full release gives you more reasons to keep riding — whether that means a quiet Free Ride at night, chasing unlocks through Journey, or pushing your score in Close Pass.
See you on the road.