Schlagwort: easy day studios

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Hey everyone! Skater XL launch day is upon us and we honestly could not be more excited to bring the evolution of skateboarding games to the PlayStation platform!

Without a proper entry into the skate genre in over a decade, and fans clamoring for a new title, the question that we had to ask ourselves was; what would a skateboarding game designed from the ground up today look like? We’ve spent the last few years looking to answer that question, designing and improving Skater XL through Early Access, and now moving towards the full launch of the complete game.

From early in development, we were very decided on bringing something new to the genre. We felt there was another big step that this genre could take and we were very well positioned to have a go at it. This is our interpretation of the skating game people really wanted the whole time.This is where things were moving to.

The most important thing to understand about Skater XL is that it’s designed to be fun in the same way that skateboarding is fun. The core of the gameplay is designed more as an expressive and creative tool than a traditional video game with pre-set challenges to complete. The game is unique in that it doesn’t have any tricks programmed into it, only control of the movement through the thumbsticks. Each thumbstick is connected to the character’s corresponding foot — the right stick controls the right foot, the left stick controls the left foot.

This control scheme is consistent through all parts of the gameplay, making it easy to learn and rely on when inventing new tricks and movements.

There are a range of basic movements, with a ton of freedom in how they are performed. Skater XL uses physics controlled by the sticks to drive all movement in the game, which is a huge shift from traditional ‘canned animation’ based systems which all past skateboarding games have been based upon. Precise movements made through the thumbsticks will make your tricks look and feel different each time, adding a level of expression, personalization, and style to the gameplay. There are so many ways to combine and style the same few tricks, and there are a lot of tricks possible in Skater XL.

The resulting gameplay is very much free-form, sandbox and creative in nature. Think of it more like a musical instrument than a conventional game.

And while much work was put into pushing and evolving the controls and game mechanics, careful consideration and testing were put in so that the controls were not difficult to learn. One of our goals in developing the controls and gameplay for Skater XL was to make skateboarding accessible to anyone with even a casual interest in skateboarding. We didn’t want the controls to be the challenge of playing the game, but rather have them be intuitive and allow the player and challenge themselves to develop their skills, allowing a huge amount of depth for those who choose to progress their skill-set and creativity. We’ve seen countless times in testing and through the game’s Early Access that once players have experienced the level of control available in Skater XL, they can’t imagine ever taking a step back to previous control schemes.  It’s that satisfying.

And while the core gameplay mechanic is at the center of everything Skater XL was designed around, the environments, pro skaters, customization, challenge system, and community content provide the authentic window into the skate world that make the game a must have for anyone with even a casual interest in skateboarding.

In building Skater XL we feel that we have really created something that gives people the tools to enjoy, express and appreciate skateboarding, and we can’t wait to see what PlayStation fans create with it. Thank you so much for all your support.

Website: LINK

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Welcome back to yet another Skater XL map reveal! We really think you’re going to like this one, especially if you like going big…

At its core, our mission with Skater XL was to make skateboarding, in all its forms, accessible to as many people as possible. While street skating gets much of the shine today, ramps are a huge part of skateboarding and crucial to any true representation of skateboard culture. From the backyard vert ramps of the ‘80s to the boundary-breaking mega structures of more recent years, skateboarding’s history was written on plywood.

While our outward development focus through Early Access may have appeared to be driven toward a focus on street skating mechanics, in the background we were quietly refining the transition skating experience with the same attention to detail.

Many of the improved transition skating features released in our latest PC Early Access update have had very positive community reception, and we have continued to enhance the mechanics in advance of our launch on PlayStation 4.

As with Skater XL’s controls on other terrain, you are in full control of the board at all times on ramps and have the same ability to add style and nuance to all of your tricks. From the technicalities of the perfect spine transfer, to tweaking a backside 540 melon over the 135’ gap in just the right way, the transition experience is designed to be just as satisfying as all other areas of gameplay.

“But where are we supposed to use all these cool transition skating features? I’ve only seen street maps!”  Well, I’m very glad you asked. Welcome to The Big Ramp!

Modeled after the desert dwelling ramp structures that broke the barriers of what is possible on a skateboard, The Big Ramp is truly insane terrain! Encompassing many different sizes and shapes of vertical variety, this map is where you want to come to GO BIG!

If you’re looking for a real crowd pleasing remake of your favorite gold medal run, start at the roll-in above the 135’ gap jump which lands straight into the massive 60’ quarterpipe. Here we are talking about some serious hangtime. Link together your best tricks, spins and grabs on your quest for the perfect run. You can also take the gap to rainbow rail or kinked ledge if you want to up the level of difficulty. This section is perfect for creating jaw dropping clips in the in-game replay editor.

In the mood for a more straightforward vert skating experience? Check out the vert ramp section, complete with bowl corners and multiple height variations just waiting to be thrashed.

Transition tech more your speed? Hit the mini zone, which is chock full of smaller quarterpipes and spines, just itching for all the lip tricks you can throw at it. Our unique game mechanic allows you to roll into and out of grinds without popping, allowing some of the smoothest coping grinds and stalls ever seen in a skateboarding game.

Explore the area more to find other features like hips, tabletops, bank to ledges, and everything that make The Big Ramp a plywood paradise!

Check out this map along with Downtown Los Angeles, Easy Day High School, Grant Park Chicago and more when Skater XL drops on PS4 July 28!

Website: LINK

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Hey PlayStation fans! As we get to the last few weeks until the launch of Skater XL on PS4, we have been humbled by the community’s support and the excitement that you have shared with us. Community has always been, and continues to be, at the forefront of our thoughts as we continue to develop the game.

One of the biggest surprises and most rewarding experiences for us over our journey from Early Access to the console launch has been the emergence of an insanely passionate and dedicated community with immensely talented and inventive mod creators. In Skater XL, this has taken the form of custom clothing, physical attributes like beards and tattoos, physics and gravity mods, and additional environments. The quality and volume of community-made maps has been astounding and has really transformed Skater XL into something that we could never have imagined.

In addition to the growth of the modding community, we were also able to find some of the most talented individuals that had a unique blend of both skateboarding and game development knowledge that might have been impossible to find through traditional means. After seeing their skills being shown through mods in Early Access, we were stoked to add the talents of map creator Theo and programmer/replay editor creator Kiwi to the team as official members. Since joining the team, these two have played key roles in the development of the game that you will see on PS4 July 28.

It is important that we continue to express our gratitude for all the hard work of content creators and acknowledge their contributions to the Skater XL ecosystem. In many ways, we know that we are just one part of this game, and the community and player’s role has been a huge part of the success of SXL. Moreover, we don’t view Skater XL as a traditional video game, where we are the developers and the players are the consumers. We see things as more of a collaborative effort between us and the community, each of us contributing in the areas that we are strongest. As we continue to move forward to the official launch of Skater XL and beyond, we want to continue to cement our commitment and excitement about what the community will continue to achieve.

To that end, today we are excited to announce that some of the most popular and awesome community created maps will be included at launch! These maps encompass multiple terrain and environment styles, and show some of the best the community has to offer. Each map has also been given additional visual enhancements by Easy Day’s art team in collaboration with the map creator and PlayStation owners will be among the first to experience it!

Streets’ by Jean-Olive 

‘Streets’ by prolific map creator Jean-Olive is a mash up of street spots inspired by some of the best terrain in the skateboarding world. ‘Streets’ encompass several city blocks of skateable territory, from San Francisco-esque hills, to the unique skateable architecture of Spain. Players will recognize skate spots from Los Angeles and New York, as well as Jean-Olive’s own creative designs. As Jean-Olive simply puts it, “my goal was to create some of the most famous street spots compiled in one map.” Mission accomplished.

Here is a compilation of real skate spots that Jean-Olive has incorporated throughout the sprawling map.

‘Hűdland Training Facility’ by Pactole 

An original creation by Pactole, ‘Hudland’ is every skater’s dream private skatepark. Packed full of street and transition features, Hudland is the perfect indoor place to hone your skills before taking them to the streets. Features include flatbars, stairs, hips, handrails, quarterpipes and more. The warehouse setting and overhead skylights give the map a unique look and feel, while the overall flow of the park will keep players perfecting lines for hours.

As Pactole describes the creation process, “This map was created as a collaboration with a really good crew of dudes I met in the Skater XL community. I didn’t really plan a design, I just knew I wanted a “circular” layout, where players could do infinite lines by just cruising through the park, never getting bored. Through talking to the guys and some iteration and testing, I finally found a design that really works well for all different types of skating. I really like the lighting and the rest of the environment details, and think it is something really different than the official maps created by Easy Day. I learned a lot of new things with this project (as for all of the maps I made) and I was happy to create it for the crew and the entire Skater XL community.“

‘Grant Park’ by Theo

Skater XL will also feature the worldwide debut of the mod map created by modder turned Easy Day Studios team member, Theo. Grant Park is one of Chicago’s premier public skateparks. The three-acre waterfront park has a variety of terrain, including street and transition features with a focus on overall flow. Revealed here for the first time, Theo’s version of this real-life skate park holds true to its layout and design, while small tweaks have been added to optimize gameplay.

“Grant is to me, the best way to show what I have learned working with the team over at Easy Day. I have always been inspired by Chaz Ortiz, who’s a Grant local, and I have watched countless clips of his at this skatepark. It’s a really unique feeling to recreate a spot that you see on the internet a lot and it makes you feel like you are there. On top of that, I love Chicago. It’s a vibrant place. But winters can be harsh and I wanted to give the skatepark a more gritty feel to it. With Easy Day being located in California, we made a lot of beautiful west coast spots, so I thought it would be a nice change of pace to have a very foggy and cold-looking map. It was a very challenging map to make. The ground itself has a lot of subtle variations in colors that were difficult to replicate, but with the help of the team members, we managed to make something feel more immersive. I’m very grateful to be able to share this project with other skaters, gamers and fans of SkaterXL.” – Theo

We’re excited to share these unique community creations with the world when Skater XL launches on PS4 July 28, as the community expands and gets into the hands of PlayStation fans worldwide.

Website: LINK

Reading Time: 5 minutes

What’s up, PlayStation fans! My name’s Dain and I’m one of the creators of Skater XL, a new skateboarding game that we’re excited to announce will be coming soon to PS4.

It’s been ten years since a new, authentic skateboarding game hit the market, and a lot has changed in that time. Skateboarding franchises were some of the most played and beloved video games of the 2000’s — many of us have fond memories of Friday nights chilling on the couch with a few buds passing the controller around playing EA’s Skate or the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series.

Fans of the genre have famously been clamoring for a new Skate and a revival of an old franchise, but the question we’ve been asking ourselves at Easy Day Studios is — what would a skateboarding game designed from the ground up today look like? We’ve spent the last few years looking to answer that question, designing and improving Skater XL through Early Access, and now moving towards the full launch of the complete 1.0 game.

The most important thing to understand about Skater XL is that it’s designed to be fun in the same way that skateboarding is fun. The core of the gameplay is designed more as an expressive and creative tool than a traditional video game with pre-set challenges to complete.

The game is unique in that it doesn’t have any tricks programmed into it, only control of the movement through the thumbsticks. Each thumbstick is connected to the character’s corresponding foot — the right stick controls the right foot, the left stick controls the left foot.

This control scheme is consistent through all parts of the gameplay, making it easy to learn and rely on when inventing new tricks and movements. See below where the same movements have been made on the sticks in different modes of the gameplay. The front foot is pushed left and the back foot is pushed right, creating the same movement of the board in each situation.

While jumping

While rolling

While jumping and grabbing

and while grinding

There are a range of basic movements, with a ton of freedom in how they are performed. Skater XL uses physics controlled by the thumbsticks to drive all movement in the game, which is a big step away from traditional ‘canned animation’ based systems. Precise movements made through the thumbsticks will make your tricks look and feel different each time, adding a level of expression, personalization, and style to the gameplay.

Below is an example of flipping the board while jumping to create tricks like kickflips and heelflips. How you flick the front foot creates different movement during the trick.

Flicking the front foot fast

And slow…

Flicking diagonal-forward

And diagonal-backward

This same level of control is available in all types of tricks including jumps, flips, grinds, powerslides and manuals.

As your level of skill and creativity grows, you can combine and chain these tricks together in any way you like. For example, see here three different trick lines possible using just three basic tricks – kickflip, powerslide and crooked grind.

Grind to powerslide down the bank…

Powerslide to bank drop-in

Big kickflip down the bank gap

There are so many ways to combine and style the same few tricks, and there are a lot of tricks possible in Skater XL!

The resulting gameplay is very much free-form, sandbox and creative in nature. Think of it more like a musical instrument than a conventional game.

The final piece of the puzzle is the environment. You can take this set of basic skills and tricks and re-invent the environment any way you like. Whether you push yourself, perfecting the subtle nuances of a highly technical trick, or just want to catch some air, our environments are yours to leave your mark on.

This creativity in reinventing real-world environments is a big part of skateboarding and the final release of Skater XL will contain several real-world locations based on iconic skate spots from California and the West Coast.

Here are a few more of the limitless tricks and combos possible in different areas of the levels:

Kickflip backside smith grind

Hardflip hippy jump

Nollie flip back tail backside flip out

At its core, Skater XL is about the journey of challenging yourself and expanding what you can do each time you play — whether it be trying to perfect a line with a tough sequence of moves or a just chill and free-skate, doing what you feel like in the moment.

The freedom and depth in the controls is something we think that every skate game fan has been wanting since the birth of the genre. When we saw a Skater XL modding community spring up with more than 50,000 players and thousands of “very positive” reviews on Steam with some playing for more than a thousand hours, we felt humbled, but also that we were onto something.

We’re constantly finding amazing new things that the community has created, including an onlinezines, video parts, fake skate brands and hundreds of mods. It’s crazy and awesome.

Our work on the core game is just one part of a bigger ecosystem and our goal is for Skater XL to be the home for digital skateboarding. We can’t wait to discover where the players, modders and content creators will go next, and are really excited to bring Skater XL to PS4 and PS4 Pro. I hope you’ll sign up for our email list as we have lots more to announce very soon.

Website: LINK