While Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series has been the dominant skateboarding game since the late 1990s, EA's Skate series carved out its audience by delivering a more free-form, laid-back skating experience, allowing players to build their cred in a semi-open world. Full Circle, the developer behind Skate's upcoming free-to-play reboot, see its comeback as a long time coming – but has other ambitions in mind as well.
With many of Skate's original developers involved, the upcoming Skate reboot – now simply called Skate – brings the series to an online, shared world experience where players will complete global challenges and modify the cityscape with new skating opportunities. Ahead of its early-access launch later this year, I played the opening hours of the new Skate game and spoke with head of creative Jeff Seamster and senior creative director Deran Chung about remaking Skate and how the growing Skate fandom on social media prompted the original developers to revisit the series.
Building a better skater
Check out our Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 review for more freewheeling antics
The premise of a city run by the skating community is one of the defining aspects of the series. Compared to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and its arcade-style gameplay, Skate leans more into a sort of light realism for skating – but still features a healthy dose of over-the-top stunts that capture the thrill of growing as a skater.
For the reboot, the developers placed a keen focus on building upon the physics from Skate 3 while also enhancing the series' Flick-It system, an analog stick-based method for pulling off moves and other skills.
According to Full Circle, the Skate reboot was designed as a jumping-on point for newcomers to the series while also giving long-time fans a sense of coming back to a familiar series – and that involved revisiting what worked well in Skate 3.
"Coming back to this series [for this reboot], we needed to make sure it felt like Skate, which was everything," says Jeff Seamster, head of creative for Full Circle. "The feel of the game, of being on the board, is the epicenter of what this franchise is about. When we started, we reached a point where we had fully restored the entire Skate 3 engine and integrated it into the current Frostbite engine. Getting that feeling was important, and we nailed it. I know this is the best Skate has ever felt; it's the best it's ever played, and we're super excited for people to get their hands on it."
Much like previous games of the series, Skate has players take on the role of a new skateboarder in town, aiming to leave their mark. Set in San Vansterdam – an amalgamation of iconic cities like San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles – the city has been reclaimed by the community from its corporate overlords and become a haven for skaters.
With the aid of technology to amplify their creativity and safety, the growing skate community in the city will work together to achieve goals that rebuild the town's reputation as the skate capital of the world.
The Skate reboot keeps the plot light and instead leans hard into the vibes of skate culture to shape a player's perspective of their growth in San Vansterdam. During my playtime, I got to explore the city and took on a set of stand-alone challenges while unlocking new cosmetics. These challenges included pulling off a set of tricks in succession without bailing, reaching certain tucked areas of the city, or simply pulling off solid runs to earn a top score. I botched several stunts, in some cases embarrassingly so, but I still rallied and succeeded with a run.
It was fairly standard in terms of the activities available, but what impressed me was the freedom I had to explore and take in the environment. What Skate does better compared to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is offering a wider berth to explore the environment and build out your flow without the added pressure. I was able to practice at my leisure and explore new opportunities around the city, which was a great way for me to get reacquainted with the smooth, but still tricky physics-based movement and stunts. A particular hang-up I had was trying to nail a kickflip into a grind, which would usually result in an awkward face plant. .
But that sense of failure is all a part of the charm for the series – and the devs even state that "failure is fun" in Skate. What I liked about Skate's unique Flick-it control scheme, which is radically different from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, is that it's so flexible and intuitive. I had fun just practicing my manual balance and transitions into ollies down hill while I was in between missions. It was fun just to explore, and the reboot also enhances this with improved off-board exploration, which includes some parkour traversal, along with the more over-the-top gliding and divebombing abilities for your custom skaters.
Gleaming the cube – with friends
"So you know, we've still got more to do, and we're still not finished just yet."
Deran Chung
According to senior creative director Deran Chung, Skate 3 found modest success in 2010, but its true success didn't come till years later. Eventually, many players – some of whom joined years later – would share stunt videos and trick exhibitions on social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube, leading to an increased interest in the game.
The social aspect of Skate, with players showcasing their outrageous stunts, along with the community trend of "tricklining," is a significant part of the reboot's shared world activities. However, ever since its announcement in 2020, there's been a sense of mystique, and some reservations surrounding the Skate reboot and its focus on an online free-to-play take on the series. That's something Full Circle has been aware of, which led to hosting a variety of playtests and other private community tests to gather feedback from fans ahead of the early-access launch.
"I would describe it as like a virtuous relationship of iteration, with the player community and us, because we're not the first game to incorporate player feedback and stuff like that," Seamster says. "We've kept this very tight relationship with that community to observe their in-game behavior and to see the way that the community is playing the game. We see players doing something tricky, and we're like, 'Is that what people are doing? Well, then, that's the thing to do. Let's make that.'"
For its developers, Skate is seen as something that players can pick up and play, then return to at any time to discover new activities. Skate will also feature cross-platform play and cross-progression for players, with the goal of providing ease of access to the game.
However, the larger pull of the next Skate will be how players explore the setting with others online. While I spent the majority of my time solo and to my own devices, I still observed other players making their way through town and pulling off tricks that I didn't think were possible.
One likely game changer in the shared world is the ability for players to add special skate objects, such as vert ramps, rails, and jump ramps, to the map at any time. Much like the custom skatepark from Skate 3, you can now place an additional object to the environment to customize it – and other players within the server will be able to use your objects and even add to it. I didn't see it used to its fullest potential, but I did observe other players adding ramps to extend their jumps to pull off even more outlandish moves.
From my hands-on experience with what will be available to players in the impending early access release, I found this take on Skate to be a faithful representation of the series and its focus on letting players build their style on their own terms. New Skate is wacky, but its focus on the physics and timing based mechanics really showcase just how remarkable the classic gameplay is.
However, compared to the previous games, the Skate Reboot adopts a more stylized and open-ended approach to being a skateboarder in a city, which I appreciated. In some ways, the town itself felt like a platform for players – solo or in groups – to come up with some wacky and gnarly stunts to pull off, and I dug how the reboot just let me have the run of the city to do whatever I wanted.
Over to you
What Skate does better compared to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is offering a wider berth to explore the environment and build out your flow.
Full Circle feels the lasting impact of the series has come from giving players space to test their skills and immerse themselves in the skateboarding community, which the studio hopes to replicate with the upcoming reboot.
"The fact that we've had an impact on skate culture at all is mind-boggling to me; it's one of the most validating things because we've worked hard on this series, and this game especially – we care a lot about this series," said senior creative director Deran Chung. "To have generations of people who learned about skateboarding through something that we created, and some of whom are now like pro skaters or just love skateboarding. As a result, it is enriching and feels like the best gift you could possibly receive. I would say what's changed most about this game compared to others is the weight of it. People love this thing and are very passionate about it, and it feels great to see people care."
Right now, Full Circle is actively taking feedback from the 100,000 players in the current private playtest who have seen the reboot evolve. From that position, the studio feels the upcoming reboot is the best the series has "ever felt."
"What we have now is, of course, not final," says senior creative director Deran Chung. "We say early access a billion times at this point, but it's not a final product. The most important bit for us was to nail the gameplay, which will continue to evolve, but for now, this is the best [a Skate game] has ever played.
"Like no one could debate me about that: this is the best Skate has ever felt or played. We have this great world that plays well, we have super fun characters, but lots of different things are still in flux and coming together. We've heard some of the feedback, and more than anything else, it just means that people care that much about the product, which we love and we appreciate. So you know, we've still got more to do, and we're still not finished just yet."
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