Side Streets

Skid Road

Downtown Los Angeles

A fast, nasty, top-down crime sandbox on the real streets of downtown LA. Take a job, set off the cops, the crowds and the traffic all at once, then try to live through what happens next.

Short demo, v0.5 · about 600 MB · Windows, or any Mac (Intel or Apple Silicon)

What you're getting into

Jobs are the excuse. The chaos is the game.

Real downtown streets

The map is built from real DTLA street data inside the freeway ring. San Julian, 5th Street, the parks. If you know the area, you'll know your way around.

Everything collides

Traffic, crowds, cops and contraband all run at once. A simple pickup turns into a pileup, a brawl or a chase, and you deal with whatever it becomes.

The heat keeps coming

Push your luck and the response gets heavier: LAPD, then SWAT, then the FBI, then the National Guard.

In-game

On the block

A sidewalk encampment of tents and tarps along San Julian Street, seen from above

San Julian Street. The dealer you need is somewhere on this block.

A small downtown park at night with benches, tables and street lamps, seen from above

The park on 5th after dark. Ceres runs this turf.

Who's after you

Badges and colors

The four police tiers side by side: LAPD officer, SWAT, FBI agent and National Guard

The heat

LAPD★☆☆☆
SWAT★★☆☆
FBI★★★☆
National Guard★★★★

The ten street crews in their colors: Ceres, Traction, Santee, Midway, Frank Court, Azusa, Mercury Court, Harlem Place, Winston, and Eighth and Wall

The turf

Ten crews split the blocks between them, from Ceres to Eighth & Wall. Each one wears its own color, so you can tell whose street you're on before they tell you.

Getting it running

Your computer will complain once

This early build isn't signed yet, so Windows and macOS warn you the first time you open it. Here's how to get past that.

Windows

Download SkidRoad-Windows.zip and extract it (right-click, Extract All).
Keep SideStreets.exe and SideStreets.pck in the same folder. The game won't start without the .pck.
Double-click SideStreets.exe.
If you see "Windows protected your PC", click More info, then Run anyway.

Mac

Download SkidRoad-Mac.zip and double-click it to unzip. You'll get Side Streets.app.
Drag it into Applications if you want to keep it, then open it. macOS will refuse the first time.
Open System Settings, go to Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway next to Side Streets.
Confirm with your password. After that it opens normally. Runs on Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.