- Achievements & Workshop Location Tool Patched / Fixed - 1 July 2026
Hello everyone!It's been a while. Today I've fixed the star achievements, and the workshop tool.Development is going to be slower than when we were in Early Access, but not completely halted.Of course we also need to make money to live and stuff, so we can't fully work on New Heights. But new locations will drop, just a much slower pace. And at least - now the full custom map creation is supported again!
- Climbing System Blog - How we created our climber - Part 3 - 29 April 2026
We added a new part of our 'How we created our climber' blog, with insights how we handled the physics and game design of the climbing system in New Heights. For people who like to know the challenges and considerations when making the complex climbing system of New Heights.Enjoy!https://newheightsgame.com/blog/how-we-created-our-climber-3-how-we-gave-muscles-to-our-ragdollMore coming up soon.
- Patch with fixes for reported issues - 29 April 2026
We released a fixes-patch today! It covers a lot of fixes for reports from both the Discord and Steam forum. Mostly route fixes about checkpoints, star times and geometry fixes on Al Legne, Hanshelleren and Fontainebleau. For example, routes like B.I.G., Change and Ronja are now way better climbable. Happy climbing!
- Small UI / localization fixes patch - 28 February 2026
We fixed a few UI & localization issues with this patch. The Dyno tutorial showed the wrong buttons. The workshop menu didn't localize well for non-latin characters. And some other minor things.
- Full Release! New Heights out of Early Access - 26 February 2026
New Heights is now officially out of early access! It comes with a gigantic update that has cost us 19 months to develop. This update reworks the climbing system completely, optimizes a lot, includes rope based belaying and the legendary location of the Hanshelleren Cave in Flatanger, Norway. Now you can climb some of the world's most famous (and difficult) routes like Silence, B.I.G. and Change. We are very excited to have reached this moment. This of course doesn't mean that we will stop updating the game. We are always looking to add new locations and improve the climbing system.Rope physics belaying systemIt replaces the respawning system with a full rope physics based belaying system! Including a (limited) rapelling mode.Climbing system reworkThe climbing system is being reworked to be much more consistent, flexible, realistic, performant and user friendly.Hanshelleren cave locatio…
- Big Update and full game release date: 26th of February - 18 February 2026
New Heights will go out of early access with an enormous update featuring the Hanshelleren location and more than a year's development worth of features and fixes. We're working on the last bits. And finishing up the absolutely awesome Hanshelleren cave. We'll upload a Beta version a few days before, probably around tuesday. More can be read in previous announcements. Or if you really want to follow the development very closely, you can see more on our Discord server!
- Steam Sports Festival Discount - Just before the update - 9 December 2025
Hello everyone! i everyone! It's Steam Sports fest, and we've joined it with a 20% discount. If you didn't have the game yet, you can grab it for the discounted price, just before the huge update! It was meant to be timed nicely with the new update, but alas, we could not make that in time. Still working very hard on that though. I know that there is the banner that says 'this game has not been updated, it might be abandoned'. Our fault for combining too much in one update. But if you're in doubt: no, we have not abandoned this game and we're working on it very steadily. So a development update that I've also posted on the discussions board and our Discord server: I've been sick for quite a while. Incredibly annoying, totaling about 2 months actually in bed and about 5 months being sick this year. But since this week, I'm feeling fine again!The big update contains rope belaying, the Han…
- The biggest update yet coming in 2025 - 23 July 2025
The biggest update yet coming in 2025We have been working hard on the biggest rework and update for New Heights to date. The update will land near the end of 2025, though a beta version will be accessible in September. Rope physics belaying systemIt replaces the respawning system with a full rope physics based belaying system! Including a (limited) rapelling mode. Climbing system reworkThe climbing system is being reworked to be much more consistent, flexible, realistic, performant and user friendly. Super high fidelity locations reworkExisting locations are being reworked in much higher detail. Most notable Al Lègne and the castle Crèvecoeur have been upgraded significantly. Routes have also been reworked, and a few 'mega-routes' have been added.Textureless surface scan modeAs requested by some members of our community, a 'Textureless surface scan' mode is added to the game. In some pl…
- Steam Workshop & More Fontainebleau - Major Update Live! - 27 July 2024
The Major Summer Update is live! Adding workshop support, 65 new Fontainebleau routes and much more. Now you can really climb on anything in New Heights! You can browse the steam workshop page for user made content, create your own routes from within New Heights or create new locations with a Unity-based workshop tool. New Fontainebleau Locations The update brings three new Fontainebleau Locations: The fortress of Tour Denecourt and some nearby boulders - 18 routes The famous Elephant boulder and some nearby boulders - 12 routes Abaye Notre Dame du Lys, beautiful ruins of a large cistercian church - 35 routes Custom Route Creation You will be able to record your own routes within New Heights, and share them on the Steam Workshop. We are very interested in seeing what kind of routes you can come up with! Many examples and instructions will follow, including tutorial videos on how to use…
- Full Steam Workshop Support & New Fontainebleau Locations - Update Coming Soon! - 23 July 2024
A large update with both Steam Workshop Support and three Fontainebleau locations comes out this week, allowing you to create any custom climbing location or route! Here's a quick preview of the three new locations: And some reads on how to workshop support will work: https://newheightsgame.com/blog/how-to-create-your-own-routes https://newheightsgame.com/blog/how-to-create-your-own-locations More to follow very soon!
- Fontainebleau Fixes Patch - 31 January 2024
Hi people, we have released a new bug-fix patch! Thanks everyone for your bug reports and suggestions 😊 It helps a lot. Fixes include: Ghosts don't turn off (mostly - there were some more edge cases discovered just now) Route 11 OOB Regraded routes AL #60 and CdC #3 Made a volume slider for stamina / beating heart sounds Outfit not saving bug Says 264 stars Get all stars achievement Camera problems on cul de chien (somewhat fixed) Achievement unlock issues Game crash on exit Steam / deep-links to routes Improved steam-deck compatibility Also some suggestions were implemented: Shift / leg toggle keys are now rebindable as well Ghosts are transparent for a bit longer, then become opaque a bit further A few issues were not fixed because they are hard to find / reproduce, mostly the soft-locks. We'll work on them. Also we are not changing the climbing system, because it would kind of inval…
- Dyno's and Bouldering in Fontainebleau - 8 January 2024
The big Dyno's and Bouldering update has arrived! It contains three locations in the boulder-rich Fontainebleau Forest near Paris, many fixes and new features. Plus brand new climbing moves: Dyno's / Jumps! Thanks everyone who participated in the testing and gave us feedback on the dyno's. It helped a great lot. And now you can view the leaderboards online! The season has been bumped to Season 1, but the site also works for Season 0. You can find it here: https://newheightsgame.com/leaderboards/ Congratulations to DK37 for having very much dominated Season 0! Also honourable mentions to runner-ups: pwndnoob, Qbx, Acedog11, SilverFox57, pitti42, NotDK37, Adam_Ondra_Official, Tvinz, Nettur39, Kristoffer, Chlorion, Reaper, ElDull, BBB171, Brand238, Medicated Blunt and SuperJack! Hope you like the new update as much as we do! Patch Notes New Content Training Grounds - Dyno Training - 1 rout…
- Small bugfixing patch - 20 July 2023
A new small bugfixing patch is live! Some of the changes in this patch are: Settins & Resolution are now saved correctly Leaderboard loading problem fixed Sometimes not respawning bug fixed UI bugs in travel screen & menus fixed Stuck on loading screen issue tried to fix, not sure if it's better now More Al Lègne problems fixed Crèvecoeur colliders & clipping fixes Gym's dog is now inside the second route's bounds
- Bugfix Patch - 14 July 2023
We've just uploaded the first Early Access patch. It's focused on fixing bugs. Some of the changes in this patch are: 'L-stick not working' bug with Steam Input is solved Username bugs fixed: error message if you have a duplicate name, more characters supported Restricted username length Aiming when not yet climbing fixed - now selects and shows the correct place and support value A lot of route issues in Al Lègne fixed Crash on ALT+F4 fixed in a lot of cases Difficulty of Crèvecoeur route #4 bumped a bit, route #5 lowered. As route #4 seems to be harder. No shoe glitch fixed Fixed a leaderboard sorting issue A tab to overview bug fixed
- Early Access Launch - 7 July 2023
It's finally time! You can now officially buy and play New Heights, which directly supports us to improve the game and to include as many amazing locations as we can! For who played the demo or the beta: the Early Access version is kind of a big update. The climbing system has been improved a lot, there is much more character customization, and we've included a location that has mány more hours of playtime in store than the others combined. You can find more information about what we'll do this year in the roadmap post. Also if you have suggestions, if you've found bugs or if you just want to talk, you could join our Discord! Hope you have a lot of fun climbing, and let's make this the best climbing game there is!
- Early Access Roadmap - 6 July 2023
We've been hard at work to make sure we have a strong basis of the climbing system and also content with different kinds of challenges in the Early Access release. But of course we won't stop here! We are very excited to share the roadmap with all of you for the coming year of Early Access! More details on which specific location we will be adding in, will be shared at a later time with nice reveal trailers and such. So be ready for those. The focus in the roadmap is on the bigger beats, but of course there are a lot more smaller things that we will also be working on and adding into the game. Including tweaks, optimization and bug fixes. If you have more suggestions of what we should add in to New Heights, bugs that you have found or feedback then be sure to join our Discord server (https://discord.gg/2DqPft9tnk) and share them with us. As a thank you for your early support, the game i…
- How we created our climber - Part 2 - 30 June 2023
Like we mentioned in the previous article: for New Heights, creating a realistic physics-based human climber was key for making a genuine climbing experience. But how does one create such a thing? Well, having a human character with realistic physics is mostly a solved problem by the industry: you use ragdolls. The real trick is trying to control that ragdoll in such a way that you can use it to climb walls and boulders in a realistic way. That is what led us down the rabbit hole of Active Ragdolls. That hole goes deep, way deeper than you’d think at first glance. For starters we needed our ragdoll to stand up, walk and follow animations like a normal character. For this we used an off the shelf solution which simply did that part for us, great! But just having an animated character is not enough to scale walls. We needed to be able to control the limbs separately and aim them wherever…
- Taking our Boulder Gym graphics to New Heights - 23 June 2023
Most of the levels in our game are based on real world locations and put into the game using photogrammetry. These photo scanned levels have a high baseline of quality because they so closely resemble real life. The photogrammetry pipeline we have supplies multiple layers of textures we can apply to a physically based rendering (PBR) material in Unity; These texture maps include occlusion, roughness, normal maps resulting in a realistic looking surface. We do have one level that is not based on a real world location: the boulder gym, where you learn the ropes of our climbing system. It's the first level the player sees and experiences and it has been built by hand instead of using photogrammetry. The level is based around the idea of an outdoor climbing gym at an old/abandoned industrial compound. We blocked out the level using some props and buildings. For the climbing walls we used Pr…
- How we created our climber - Part 1 - 22 June 2023
In this series of articles I’ll tell you all about how we created our climbing system for New Heights. Not only will I explain how it was implemented, but also what steps we took and what decisions we made along the way to get to where we are today. Like many games before us, New Heights started out as a simple prototype. The goal was to create a game with a realistic climbing system to simulate the climbing and bouldering we do in real life. But then meant to be implemented in a more story-driven adventure game! The first version was based on animations and Inverse Kinematics. Our first climbing game prototype We picked some nice walking and climbing animations and we used Inverse Kinematics (specifically: Final IK) to aim the limbs where we wanted them. For the first version this worked well enough. While you were moving along the wall we played a nice “shimmying” animation which we b…
- Next Fest Developer Gameplay Stream - 22 June 2023
A chance to see someone with waaaay too much in-game experience in New Heights! This evening, one of the developers of New Heights will be playing the game, occasionally commenting on how things are made and what we are still working on. He'll attempt to climb the hardest routes and compete for the fastest times on the leaderboard as well. Chat will be enabled, so Ask Me Anything!
