Megan Fox: Kookaburras are in, thankfully. Were there any birds you wanted to include in the game but couldn't due to the time constraints like a Shoebill or a Kookaburra? The demo we played featured birds like crows and seagulls. It doesn't have to be perfect, but close enough to pass the smell test. But then you just work back from there to, "Okay, well, maybe they've got two ping pong tables shoved together." And while that doesn't make a ton of sense, you can see a college dorm young adults sort of thing. If you actually stood back and looked at it, that table made no sense, because it was just massive. This was visible in the first Kickstarter demo: there was this huge wooden table. That basically gets you there, but for the longest time. So you know that if your skateboard is this big, then the table has to be this big and the bed has to be this big. And then you work backwards from there to figure out, "Okay, the bird's about this big," and you use a really consistent scale. What you essentially do is space the space like an actual skatepark, appropriate to whatever gameplay physics you're using. Basically end-to-end, it was the same transit time. Because - not so much the current level one or the current rooftop, but - our first dev map, I actually spaced the size of the table based on travel time to be equivalent to Tony Hawk 1: Warehouse. That kind of experience, I really do like that.Īs far as how to design it? Yeah, that's weird. My go-to is usually more the Counter-Strike rat maps where you're running around a kitchen countertop or something. Megan Fox: Micro Machines specifically wasn't, but I have played a ton of that kind of game. Was that an inspiration for SkateBIRD, and how did you go about designing micro-sized stages for birds rather than the regular-sized stages in regular skateboarding games? It reminds me of the old Micro Machines games. One aspect of SkateBIRD I really loved is the smaller stages. I suspect we're going to be a lot of people's first skate game. Which I think tends to make us more approachable than either. Cool things fall out automatically based on whatever you're doing, instead of miss one button press and you bail instantly. The control scheme and game physics are more akin to EA Skate, so that they're more forgiving and more dynamic. But we're not expecting you to do arcade precision levels of control. You have an ollie button and grind button etc., and things do what you expect. We're kind of in the middle between the two, where our control scheme is surfaced very clearly akin to Tony Hawk. Whereas on Tony Hawk, you need to line up button controls or you bail instantly and you fail. Once you figure out ollies and combos, all that's basically doable. Once you figure out grinding, it's not too hard to grind. Where EA Skate is better is that once you get past the control scheme, things generally happen in a controllable way. "Jiggle the stick in this way, so you get an ollie with a kickflip," etc. I like it, but it's really hard to explain to a new player. But they pile that on top of essentially arcade degrees of precision and control. Tony Hawk games use - I don't know if I would call it accessible, but - a relatively straightforward control scheme press button, do thing. Megan Fox: The main difference is we're in the middle between the two. How do you feel SkateBIRD differs from the other skateboarding games in the marketplace, in terms of gameplay? Because the Tony Hawk games have made a comeback and a new Skate game was announced for development. I played essentially every Tony Hawk game, every EA Skate game. I'm guessing you were a fan of other skateboarding games in the past? That was a light bulb moment, and that's why I did it. Partner said, "Hey, look at this!" And they had a GIF of an actual living skateboarding bird on their screen. At the time, I liked birds and was figuring out the next thing I was going to work on. The first question is: Why SkateBIRD? What gave you guys the idea to combine birds with skateboarding?
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