Interview with Neversoft?s Joel Jewett, Scott Pease, & Chad Findley
- September 12, 2003 13:33 PM PST
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Why wasn?t Tony Hawk?s Underground playable on the E3 show floor? Can you skate with a cabbage head?
Tony Hawk?s Underground features some key changes and enhancements to set it apart from the Pro Skater series. Neversoft President Joel Jewett, Producer Scott Pease, and Senior Designer Chad Findley sat down to discuss why T.H.U.G. ain?t the same old grind.
GamePro: Why wasn't Tony Hawk?s Underground playable by attendees walking the floor at E3?
Joel Jewett: Because in the amount of time people have at E3 to play a video game, there was a risk that they wouldn't necessarily dig in at the right spot or whatever. We wanted to take you [media] guys and really show you that it was a different product. That's why we wanted to give everyone a guided tour, and say, "Check it out, this thing is completely different, here's the different angle." For me that E3 totally worked.
Scott Pease: That's the thing at E3?you've got all these kids and random people coming up, and they almost think they're doing a performance. They just wanna show that they can skate like they did in the old games, but that's not exactly the best demo situation for us. We're not here to show the old stuff, we're here to show all the new stuff that we put in, and you have to go through story mode to have all the new stuff explained.
JJ: The old stuff is still all there, but I'm getting really excited now as this whole story thing is coming together. It's a fun story. It's fun to go play as you and go through the various chapters in the story, and I feel it's got a lot of character to it. The characters themselves are cool, and they're characters that you would find out in the real world of skateboarding.
GP: How did you arrive at the decision to change the focus from pro skaters to created players?
JJ: The entire design process of the game, back from the very start?that's always been there. You want to play as yourself, and you want to feel like it's really you. That's a big part of any video game, to get the player to feel like they're someone different or in this different world, immersed in the game. We had always thought it would be cool to play as yourself, but the professional skateboard thing worked well too. But we worked with that for a long time, had a lot of fun with it, and it just came full circle to where we're like, "Well, how much fun could we have now if we changed it?" And when we brought that subject up and started talking about it, the ideas really started pouring forth. The question was "Are people going to accept that you don't skate as the pros?" And we were like, "Well, there's really only one way to find out." We talked to Tony about it and he was like, "Damn, yeah?that sounds cool." And I mean, he's the main guy, so when he was on board with it, we were pretty much good to go.
SP: That was an interesting phone call. (laughs) We weren't quite sure what he would think of it.
JJ: And when he was cool with it, that was great, because that really opened up the door for us?he's the first guy we go to. We went to Tony and we went to the other pros, and we started interviewing them. "Start telling us about how your career progressed, from starting out as a kid on through to being a professional skater and getting to the point you are now." And with Tony, a lot of things have already been written about him, but we get to sit across the table, sit here with him and go "Yeah, that's great, we all know that, but tell us the humorous little anecdotes?the funny things, the cool things, the things that really stand out." And he says "Oh yeah!" Basically, start telling us stories about your life as a skater. We did that with Tony and a bunch of the other pros that we've worked with before, and out of that material came the story that's in the video game.
GP: What does getting off the board add to the gameplay?
SP: On a certain level, it's just a convenience?like if you just wanna stop and chill and check things out and talk to the dude on the corner, now that's a little bit easier. Then it starts to open up exploration, being able to get to places you couldn't get to before, climbing up ladders to the top of buildings. Then on top of that, we start to build it into tricks. You can get to the top of the building and acid drop down to the ramp, which then gives you a kick of speed and lets you do more tricks on the other side of the ramp--you can really start off a combo in a cool way. I think as you play with it more, you?ll see it can be really useful in combos. When you have areas in the game where you combo, combo, combo, and then you kind of end up in a dead end, and you?re stuck and you?re kinda doing your freestyle?from there, the game has just decided, you?re done, you can?t really do anything from here. But now, if you?re good enough, you can bust out into the run and use that little extra juice to get back on the rail and keep it going.
JJ: It?s new, it?s fun, it?s to a large degree just an additive?it gives you a different way to look at the levels and different way to play the game?it just kinda broadens everything. If you?re a traditionalist, there are some goals in there that we make you get off the board for because we wanna teach you how to do it and show you that it can be fun. But you can still play like a traditional guy. It just adds a lot in how your skater looks--it?s just cool to run, jump into the air, and bomb drop into something. You?re like, ?Damn, I feel cool because I did that, that was bitchin?!? Real skateboarding is about doing it for yourself but at the same time it?s about pushing your creative abilities. That?s what these guys are doing--?I?ve got five standard tricks I can do, now how can I go and incorporate those into a run or a line, and how can I take this area and rip it up?? It?s kinda the same thing?now you?ve got an additional thing that you can use to tear up our levels.
SP: You also have to look at it that it?s not only a game; it?s also a toy for a lot of people. After they beat our game, we know they spend hours trying to do cool tricks and doing what skaters do, and making cool videos that they post online of them filming their friends doing cool tricks and things like that. So to not have the ability to get off the board is almost a detriment to that--it is a part of skateboarding and it?s something that you do.
GP: For the new face-mapping option, users will e-mail you a digital photo and then download it. How will you screen the images?
SP: There is no screening process.
GP: So if someone sends in a photo of a head of cabbage, you?ll give them a head of cabbage?
JJ: We?re not even going to look at it. We don?t have time to screen eight gazillion faces.
SP: The system?s entirely automated. You e-mail a picture to our server, and it will process the picture and send you a reply with your password. You?ll go online with your PS2 and select Download Face. It?ll ask for a password, you put it in, and it?s done. It can all happen in the space of about 15 seconds. There?s some processing that happens on the server side to make sure it will be accepted by the game?scaling and stuff?but in terms of us actually editing it, no. It?s all automated. Part of our learning experience on THPS4 was that we got so many created parks, and we do have to screen those just because of the way it was set up--and it is a nightmare. We?re getting like 300 parks a week. It takes so much time to go through that stuff, sort the good from the bad and see what?s cool. So this year our goal is to automate everything--the parks, the skaters, the tricks, and the careers that you can trade online. That?s going to have an automated system so you can post it and someone can download it. There will be a certain area where we decide that these are our picks for the best, but the rest is going to be the Wild West--kids can upload and download and trade and do whatever. There?s quick turnaround for the user--the player can see their stuff right away. I think that?s going to be cool.
GP: The face-mapping option and online play are only available on PS2. Why not Xbox or GameCube?
JJ: We wound up doing that exclusively [with Sony] as sort of a co-marketing thing online this year. We?ve been working with them for a long time.
SP: We?ve been online on the PS2 for three years, so instead of re-engineering everything, we?re building upon our past experience and extending it and creating this new thing. I think for someone to do it from scratch is very difficult to do. We?re using all our experience to develop this new technology.
GP: How do you guys stay inspired?
JJ: We just don?t hire any wussies. [laughs] A lot of it has to do with the people. Everybody gets off on different things, but a lot of them are into the skateboard thing, or the making-a-better-video-game thing, or the technology thing. We do really jell very well, because under our roof, we have this Neversoft culture. We just all totally get into doing what we do. People do stuff without even being asked.
Chad Findley: It?s also one of the reasons the game changes every year--we like to do something that?s fun for us.
JJ: The reason the game is what it is this year is because, once again, we?re asking ?How do we make this better, how do we mix it up, how do we change it, how do we give people something completely different again, within a year?? And here we are--this year we wrote a story and we let you play as yourself, and hopefully everybody?s going to say, ?Wow, that was a totally different thing?we gotta go buy it.? It?s a big challenge to mix it up. I think we?ve done a pretty darn good job of taking the content and pushing it forward. And a big part of it is that we wanna stay on top?I?d say we?re in the top handful of developers in the world, and we like it that way. So?it?s back to we don?t hire any wussies. We?ll kick your ass!
