Skateboarding games are often thought of in the context of simulation, or at least in the context of the real-world. While a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is less grounded than Skater XL, for instance, it's still trying to create an experience parallel to actual skateboarding, just in an arcade context. Those connotations are completely upended by OlliOlli World, a indie game that successfully takes skateboarding into the realm of the surreal.
Through the short hands-on demo that Roll7 provided, it became clear that OlliOlli World is not a skater to sleep on. Between its otherworldly, eclectic aesthetic and impossibly smooth mechanics, the game seems to be without major faults. While there were few levels on display, they all contributed to the notion of the flow state, which is the concept that lies at the heart of OlliOlli World's design.
During the preview phase, CBR had the opportunity to speak with Roll7's co-CEO, Simon Bennett, who expanded upon the game's design tenets. The flow state in particular lay at the heart of the conversation, as it lays the foundation for the moment-to-moment OlliOlli experience. In essence, the flow state is reached by players who find themselves in the groove, hitting trick after trick to the pulsating rhythm of the soundtrack.
This is the driving force behind the experience, and one that Bennett explored in detail. He remarked that "I think what we try and give the player in OlliOlli World is enough agency in enough places to express themselves through the tricks that they're doing while crafting levels that feel and flow in a way that that that sort of gives them that dynamic range for their own performance … When you get to a certain level of OlliOlli, it's like playing a musical instrument. You watch people's fingers while they're playing, it's like they're playing an obscure John Coltrane saxophone riff ... it is this very freeing experience." That is certainly felt, and that is why OlliOlli World is so difficult to put down.
Even for novice real-world skateboarders or players totally unfamiliar with the series, World's mechanics allow everyone to reach that flow state. Over the course of the demo stages, it was easy to enter that zone even without prior experience. From a control perspective to a design perspective, the title is intuitive. Coupled with the incredibly fast load and reload times during runs, OlliOlli World is a delightfully accessible game to get lost in.
Yet, as Roll7 has emphasized, the game does not sacrifice depth in catering to new players. The title holds mastery, fun and accessibility in concert, allowing the experience to scale with the player's skill level. This was immediately apparent, and offered the demo a clear stickiness which turned each level into a rich, replayable experience. Each run becomes a marked improvement over the last, offering the opportunity to better understand tricks and techniques to increase your score by orders of magnitude.
This is a function of masterful design and Roll7's accrued expertise over many titles. Bennett noted that "when [Roll7] made the original OlliOlli game, there were maybe seven of us working on that, [it was] very low budget … Off the back of OlliOlli and the success of that, we decided to build on that with a slightly more smooth look [for the sequel]. And it was less pixelated, and something that had a little bit more clarity visually to it. But it was still ostensibly a 2D game. And since then we've grown from these very small teams working on these very small scope projects to larger projects, like Laser League … OlliOlli World is a response to everything that we've been through as individuals and as a studio. We've got amazing people on this, working at the studio who are ex-professional skateboarders, people who've come from varied backgrounds in video games, who just loved the idea of a game that can encapsulate these sorts of diverse and varied sides of skateboard culture." This talent comes through clearly when playing, and truly sells the experience of OlliOlli World.
The latter point is especially important, as Roll7's passion for skateboarding and skate culture is a cornerstone of the experience. This was not a game developed by people with only a passing interest in skating. The fluidity to which tricks can be combined together and the precision in the course layout can only be accomplished by a team which has harnessed both its past experiences and its insider knowledge of the field.
It's interesting that OlliOlli World brings so much real-life experience and skate ethos into a universe as decidedly foreign and stylized as this. However, these concepts aren't at odds with each other, as Bennett describes. He explained that OlliOlli World "is an action platformer that has skating at its core ... For example, Arthur Tubb, who was on Heroin Skateboards as a professional skateboarder back in the day ... he's our head character artist and an animator and what he brings to that is [an] understanding of the way that the body moves in skateboarding, when the skateboard itself is going to move, and just these small nuances to what you're seeing on screen that only a skateboarder could bring to that process." As such, the core design of OlliOlli World is emblematic of how its multifaceted design is neatly tied together.
From a gameplay perspective, OlliOlli World is literally multifaceted, as its stages are sprawling, interweaving endeavors that hide alternate paths throughout. This is where that action-platformer nature is clearest, as the game feels almost Sonic the Hedgehog-like, wherein every level hides myriad routes to its goal. In conjunction with that core notion of flow - which similarly embodies a Sonic-like momentum - traditional platforming fans alongside skateboarders would do well to keep an eye on this title.
This is especially true when the rich universe of Radlandia is considered. The aesthetic and narrative return to the aforementioned notion of surrealism. From wacky human characters to anthropomorphized frogs, there is a great texture to the world that extends into the environmental design. It seems almost like the myriad aesthetics of a skate shop sprung to life and became a world unto themselves. There is nothing like it, and the sweepingly rich soundtrack complements the vibe perfectly.
There is a deep intentionality that runs through this universe and its narrative too. Bennett illustrated this by stating that "we've created this, I'm going to sort of say, Pixar-like world where skateboarding is everything within the world. [For] all of the characters, [skateboarding is] all they care about, it's all everyone does. It's all everything is in sight. Having that kind of narrative aspect in there has been crucial from day dot. Finding that heart has really been the job of Lizz Lunney, who's our narrative designer for the project, our writer. She's never worked in video games, and we wanted someone who was fresh to video games, someone who's not been entrenched with the process, and Lizz has come in and been amazing and literally thrown that process open by working across art and across design, across audio and everything and just throwing her entire being into the process. And her writing is fresh, it feels like it can attract a wide audience. It's youthful, but then it has these sort of moments where it kind of veers into elements of religion and elements of psychology and the self and ego and all these sort of other areas that it sort of drags influence from." This facet of design will lend further weight to the OlliOlli experience.
Of course, that narrative was only experienced in a circumspect way through the demo. Still, the notes of it that were present did suggest this deeper resonance. What is already apparent, though, is how the game connects to a newer, more diverse skate world. This is a point of great passion for Bennett, who revealed that "[OlliOlli World] is about incorporating what we feel are the most positive and exciting elements of skate culture, from all the way back in the day, right up into this moment, into the game. And really, that's what it's about. It's sort of boiling down skateboarding into this beautiful, weird, fuzzy feeling and creating an entire world from that seed." Well, that seed is quickly growing into a fuller, truly essential skate adventure.
For being a pre-alpha build, OlliOlli World is staggeringly polished already. In fact, the vertical slice of the game that Roll7 put forward is nearly flawless. It dials directly into what makes the game work while exemplifying the design philosophies underneath. If this demo is any indication, OlliOlli World may be another indie gem when it launches later this year.
Developed by Roll7 and published by Take-Two Interactive, OlliOlli World will release in Winter 2021 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC.