GamerSpeak:

EA's Community Day for skate.

Published August 3, 2007

Imagine gathering twelve skateboarding and gaming enthusiasts in the same room and having them spellbound for hours on end. That's what EA Black Box did on July 10 by hosting a Community Day for their game skate. at their offices in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. After checking in, we were led down a winding staircase to a conference room. On the way, I asked one of the skaters if he could grind the rail, and I could see in his eyes that he'd love to try.

The gang at EA's skate. Community Day.

Another Skateboarding Game?
Yes, there is a need for another game. skate. is a return to realistic skateboarding, while still capturing the sport's culture and community. EA's commitment is evidenced by the number of professional skateboarders, companies, and amount of real-world equipment in the game, along with the huge, detailed environment, and lots of surprises throughout.

We learned from Executive Producer Scott Blackwood that the game was conceived three years ago within the SSX development team. They took to the streets to videotape skaters and gamers talking about their world, and to get their thoughts on current skating games. Armed with this information, EA sought to bring a new perspective to skateboarding games, including new camera angles for capturing panoramic views of the skater, and more realistic physics.

Soon, Chris "Cuz" Parry (the guru of all things skate.) took us on a studio tour, including the amazing "Wall of Boards," which had autographed skate decks from every pro in the game. We also saw teams working on coding, graphics, environments, audio and play testing. But what about the game?

San Vanelona
The world of skate. includes five open locations, and an additional nine locked areas that require an invitation from a sponsor to unlock. This is the city of San Vanelona. Imagine the hills of San Francisco, downtown Vancouver, and the art and architecture of Barcelona, and you'll get the name. It's massive and it can take a full ten minutes of skating to get from one end to the other, even if you know where you're going.

The campaign involves an unknown skater, you, exploring San Vanelona in search of coverage. Every completed challenge increases the "coverage meter" and helps your skater gain sponsors, access to skate stores and products, and opportunities for bigger challenges for even wider coverage. Gamers compete against virtual pros, sixteen in all. When you beat the pros, they become unlocked, and will now help you throughout the game. You can also use them in online play.

Flickit
Producer Jay Ballmer led us through a short demo of Flickit, the control scheme you use to skate. This should be somewhat familiar to those of you who have played EA SPORTS™ Fight Night Round 3. It's an intuitive use of the dual analog sticks, and the faster you move the sticks, the higher your trick. New players should get up to speed on this control scheme fairly quickly.

The virtual Danny Way doing a backflip.

Skating and the skate.Reel
It wasn't long before we got to play. The game started off in the Skatepark area, where we were led through some tutorials by a virtual young man. Soon each of us were rolling and doing some basic tricks. Calls for lunch came, but it would have to wait, since we only had a few hours of hands-on time with the game.

Producer Brian Lindley briefed us on online gameplay and the skate.Reel feature. The former is under a non-disclosure agreement, but I can say, "WOW, it's fantastic!" The skate.Reel feature lets you create videos of your skater in action, and then share them with the online community. We saw a video edited and uploaded to EA's server in a few minutes, and soon we were doing the same. The fresh look of the community site and its ease of use were very impressive indeed.

Waiting for September
Next, we traveled to professional skateboarder Danny Way's in-game compound, complete with a mega-ramp, a fantastic pool, rock ramps, a stone loop, and plenty of places to create awesome tricks and wipeouts. The first time my skater teetered over the mega-ramp I panicked, leading to my skater's face meeting wood with a sickening thud. Fortunately, we learned that save-points can be created to return you to the same place, for the times you're trying to master a trick or challenge.

Throughout the day we competed in contests, but the most spectacular was saved for last. We participated in a mega-ramp trick challenge on the world's biggest skating stage. Playing in front of the entire group we saw massive tricks landed, along with bone-crunching bails. Mike Funk of Podtacular won. His prize was a Plan B "Brian Wenning" deck autographed by the skate. team.

We ended our time with dinner, where the table was abuzz with spirited conversations about the game and the day's events. We left with the intense desire to play the game, knowing we'd only have to wait a few months to begin tricking out again.

Article by Jonathan RAINMAKER2112 Cragle