Skatesterre: Where Classic Arcade Skateboarding Meets a New Generation

I’m Dieter from Headup, and along with Goon Squad we created Skatesterre, an arcade skateboarding recreation that takes you again to the golden period of the style. At present, I’ll inform you about how the sport got here to be, why we selected to work with Sterre Meijer on this venture, and the place the journey from the preliminary thought to the now completed recreation took us.

Skateboarding video games have developed enormously because the early days, however way more within the course of precise sports activities simulation than the unique arcade skateboarding really feel.  So after we began the event, bringing again the precise stream and really feel of the unique style flagship titles like Skate or Die, Dave Mirra, Grind Session and naturally the early THPS video games was our final objective. These are the video games we all know greatest and really feel extraordinarily at residence with. They provide much less frustration than extra real looking simulation titles and have a “decide up and play” nature about them, that makes them way more accessible.

Gamers ought to rapidly really feel like an actual skate professional, ripping the very best tips simply by means of the extremely intuitive management scheme whereas additionally simply feeling the enjoyment of driving their boards. Getting all these components in line was an unlimited problem, particularly contemplating that this was a real indie venture.

Our objective was to seize that core feeling whereas including trendy quality-of-life enhancements, leveraging Unreal Engine’s newest options, and introducing character customization by means of Sterre’s distinctive sense of fashion.

Earlier than our lead developer joined the studio, he was already a passionate skateboarder, even constructing his personal miniramp in his backyard, and had been engaged on skateboarding recreation prototypes in his free time. He and I shared a imaginative and prescient of making an excellent recreation pushed by that non-public ardour. From my perspective because the producer, and having adopted Sterre’s social media presence, I felt that she represented most of the constructive developments taking place in skateboarding right this moment. It appeared like an excellent match: we may assist the rising presence and empowerment of ladies in skateboarding whereas creating the sort of arcade sports activities recreation we had all the time envisioned.

I’ve been personally following many skaters on the social channels and was very impressed by Sterre and her journey in Skateboarding. So, I reached out to her, and we met within the Netherlands. She has been tremendous supportive from the beginning, and dealing together with her and her brother was an actual pleasure.

Sterre has this infectious power and authenticity that instantly felt proper for a skateboarding recreation. She has her personal fashion, does issues her personal method, and genuinely loves skating. That spirit of freedom and self-expression is strictly what I really feel Skatesterre ought to be about.

The primary focus with Sterre was getting her appears and magnificence proper, in order that she felt authentically represented. At one level, we even scrapped a lot of the mannequin’s work to a sure level and had the entire mannequin redone. I hope you’ll really feel the love and time invested particularly in making this really feel genuine to her.

Sterre has all the time adopted her personal path somewhat than making an attempt to suit a selected picture of what a skateboarder ought to be. We wished the sport to replicate that perspective: it’s playful, colourful, and slightly unconventional, and it encourages gamers to experiment, discover their very own strains, and develop their very own fashion.

Whenever you begin seeing a stage differently- not as a group of ramps and rails, however as one steady line – and all of a sudden pull off an enormous combo, Skatesterre actually clicks.

Capturing that feeling from the traditional arcade skate video games I grew up with, whereas giving it our personal character, is one thing we’re very pleased with. For those who bear in mind only one factor about Skatesterre after booting it up for the very first time right this moment, I might need it to be that it makes you wish to play yet another run. We would like Skatesterre to seize that straightforward pleasure of skating: experimenting, getting higher, discovering your individual fashion, and having a good time doing it.

Skatesterre is offered on Xbox Sequence X|S now.