I got bored of Zwift, so I made my own cycling game
I got bored of Zwift, Rouvy and the rest of them. The riding was fine, I just wasn't having any fun.
So I made Pedal Mania. It's a pixel-art cycling game for your smart trainer. Your legs move the rider and the climbs come up through the pedals.
Real roads, in pixels
The roads are real ones, from OpenStreetMap. You ride past Brugge's stepped gables and the little sailing boats on Lake Geneva. There are 36 routes after the classics and the grand tours, and 33 more famous roads from around the world.
The World Championships road circuits from the last twelve years are in too, Richmond 2015 to Montréal 2026, with flags along the finish and a grandstand at the line.
Crits and the track
I've always loved crits and the track, so both are in. Eight real city-centre crits, Gastown, Aalst, Utsunomiya and Athens (the Georgia one) among them, with primes and corners you have to brake for. Nine velodromes with the flying 200, the kilo, the pursuit, points races, eliminations and the keirin behind the derny.
Then it gets a bit silly
Pedalonia is our own island, with 17 short circuits of 10 to 15 minutes a lap: past a chocolate factory, up six snowy hairpins, along a boardwalk in the fog and round a launch pad. There are four cups of four races against 11 robots, with a trophy at the end. The last cup has a road over the clouds, and one of every colour out among the stars.
There's Mars as well. Olympus Mons at its true size is 345 km of climbing, if you're keen, and flying saucers go over.
The robots
The robots race like people do. Sprocket, Wattson, Cog and the others sit on your wheel, attack, go for the sprints and blow up when they've overdone it. They beat me more often than I'd like.
Riding with other people
You can ride with up to 10 friends, run a league with your mates (GC and all), race a Track Cup for medals, or find your FTP in the Lab. Rides go to Strava with the laps and the map. If you use ChatGPT or Claude, you can connect it to your rides and leagues as well.
New this week
Workouts went in this week. There are 22 of our own, or you can upload yours, and you ride them on any course in ERG with a coach on a scooter out front telling you what's coming. There are also 30 cyclocross courses now, with sand, mud, stairs and planks, some of which you'll be running.
Next up is Computer, a companion app that turns your phone into a bike computer and a remote. It can take photos of the ride and send emotes that pop up over your rider.
Getting it
It's on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows and Linux, with Apple TV and Android on the way. It works with smart trainers over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, or a power meter on your bike. No trainer? The simulated one pedals for you, so you can try everything first.
It's free to download. You get 20 km a month on your trainer for nothing, the simulated trainer as far as you like, and Pro makes trainer riding unlimited for US$2.99 a month.
It's early days and rough in places. If you give it a go, tell me what you'd fix first.