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00:10I'm Darren, welcome to another episode of The Boardroom.
00:14We've seen a lot of you guys asking about character customization, clothing, brands, and boards, and what you can expect
00:21to see in Skate.
00:22So we thought it'd be cool to grab three key members from the team here to chat about how you'll
00:28be able to express yourself and make your mark in St. Bansterdam.
00:30So let's kick it off with some intros. Jeff, can you tell me who you are, what you do, and
00:35what you're most excited about the project?
00:37I'm Jeff, I'm a character art director on the project. I'm a skateboarder, so every day is exciting on the
00:43project.
00:43I'm just stoked to be making something that expresses skateboarding to the world.
00:47Hi, I'm Yolanda, and I'm a user experience designer on the team, so I'm responsible for how players create or
00:54customize their characters.
00:56And personally, I'm also a gamer who just loves to dress up my characters and spend time changing my face.
01:02So I'm very excited that I got to design the feature that I'm most passionate about.
01:07Nick.
01:08Yeah, hi, I'm Nick. I'm a lead product manager on the team.
01:10That means that I help out on the production side. I work with people like Jeff and Yolanda.
01:15We want to do a lot of things on Skate, but first we have to figure out how much we
01:20can do, like what we can do, and what we should do.
01:23So I help make those decisions and help the team be as informed as we can about those decisions.
01:28Maybe we can take a moment and zoom out a little bit and talk about like where we've been, where
01:33we're trying to get to from a directional perspective with characters.
01:36Absolutely. Yeah, we're part of an existing franchise.
01:39We're this new installment, and we're looking to hit the kind of art direction that it's going to bring and
01:43welcome as many people to skate and skateboarding by proxy.
01:46Jumping off from the previous installments in the franchise, we go back, you look at it, it's actually quite stylized.
01:52We're running with it. We're going to try and evolve that.
01:54Again, try and make that as appealing to a broad range of people as possible.
01:57You know, one of the big things that inspired us was looking at skateboarding, at skateboard culture.
02:02There's no one way to look in skateboarding. There's no one style of skateboarding.
02:06Especially now, yeah.
02:07Absolutely, more so than ever. I mean, you look at Deckard, you look at the brand logos.
02:11There's so much visual creativity, and that kind of gave us that kind of permission to really go ahead and
02:16try and bring as much expression to the characters
02:19and how they look and as much personality as we can to the characters.
02:22There's still a balance between, you know, realism and some stylization.
02:25Obviously, the game being stylized in the past and, you know, trying to bring it into today.
02:31It's a really interesting approach because typically, you know, an art style is kind of across all of the things.
02:38Absolutely.
02:38And we're taking kind of a hybrid version where recognizing the things that are most important to land from a
02:44realistic or realism perspective
02:46and then finding avenues and opportunities for exploration for, like, injecting personality.
02:52And obviously, like, we're not there yet. I mean, as we're seeing—
02:55We're still working on it.
02:55We're still working on it.
02:57We're always working on it.
02:57You know, as we say, like, please, you know, continue to give us feedback on all of the things that
03:02you're seeing in-game
03:03and help us steer, as we said, like, everything that you guys are, you know, commenting and providing feedback on
03:09is informing the decisions we're making.
03:13Yolanda, what was exciting to you about, like, the character philosophy when you joined the team?
03:17Yeah, I just want to add on to Jeff's points. I think self-expression, accessibility, and inclusivity are definitely the
03:25core of skate culture.
03:26And I really like how skateboarding is providing a platform where everyone is encouraged to explore and push their boundaries
03:34without gender limitation.
03:36So when I joined the team, I was very surprised to see, like, all of our characters are genderless.
03:41So I think that's also what we want to provide our players with in the customization experience.
03:47Like, the ability to fully express yourself, be whoever you want to be in the game.
03:52So I think we want to provide that freedom and flexibility to players.
03:55It's so great. And one of the things I love that we're doing in that space is no matter what
04:00the player chooses to do
04:01and how they create or customize their body, any of those expressions can wear anything in the workbook.
04:06There's no exclusivity between something that is perhaps a masculine item or a feminine item or anything else.
04:13It's anybody can wear anything.
04:15It's pretty powerful.
04:16Yeah.
04:18It's an honor. It's also, like, a responsibility to be a proper reflection of the culture, which I think, you
04:22know, we're doing our best to do.
04:24And I think I've said this before, but, like, to be the representation of what the culture is today versus
04:29what it was, you know, 14, 13, whatever amount of time it was since the last skate.
04:34The way that we're approaching characters, I think, is, like, one of the most exciting elements that we have for
04:39the franchise.
04:40Yeah, I feel like we could talk about that forever, but I know, Yolanda, we gave you kind of, like,
04:44a homework assignment.
04:45Yeah.
04:45So let's take a look at your character and, you know, kind of walk us through some of the decisions.
04:50Yeah, sure. Yeah, so this is the character that I used recently in the game.
04:54Personally, I want to be someone who is completely different from how I look in real life.
04:59Like, I want to change my hair color every day in the game, whereas in real life, I'm always hesitant
05:04to do so because, you know, like, it's hard to maintain.
05:07And then for the board, I picked this, um, this grip tape that has a Sen Van text on it.
05:13So I think it really offers me a sense of belonging to this virtual city of Sen Van.
05:18I really like all the different deck art options that we have right now.
05:22It's, they are all very artistic and expressive.
05:25Stickers.
05:26Yeah, I wanted to come in on your sticker here.
05:28I love when you put the star sticker on his head. It's perfect.
05:31I picked this sticker because I want my board to be unique, so that's why I picked this one.
05:36I think, lastly, I also picked the light green color for the wheels to echo with the rest of the
05:42color palette.
05:43So I overall feel like customizing the board is really like making an art piece, which is very fulfilling.
05:49I like the checkerboard pin.
05:50It's, you know, the deck, the way people set up their deck is so, so personal and so important.
05:55You know, there's so much you can do in there. There's so much customization.
05:57It's like a little art form in itself or medium in itself almost.
06:01You know, you're picking up your deck art, you're picking up the colors of things.
06:04The thing I'm most excited about is the different heights for the characters, which we've never had before
06:09and totally affects the way that you look skating and feel skating.
06:13and so if there's anything that I do play around with, it's that and the body shapes.
06:18It's totally different. It's super, super exciting.
06:20The way the animation adapts to that, like the systems that the folks on the team have put together,
06:25like the fact that you can have all those different things and yet you can still do all the animations
06:29work,
06:30all the points of contact are there, like super impressive.
06:32It's a non-trivial amount. Oh my god, yeah, yeah.
06:39With that inspiration from Yolanda's character, let's get into clothing and footwear
06:43and what it means for players inside San Vanserdam.
06:46Jeff, can you start us off talking about, you know, the team's overall approach with direction
06:50and bringing these items to life?
06:52I mean, obviously, we talked about we want the player to go to wear all kinds of different things,
06:56to express the person that they are or the person that they want to be
07:00or whatever it is they want to put together.
07:01We're going to see that core skate stuff that we find in streetwear and other places.
07:06You know, alongside that and gradually we want to bring in things
07:08which are not necessarily the kind of things that you would see somebody wearing in a skate park
07:11or you see a pro skater wearing it, allowing people to get into slightly broader fashion,
07:16you know, starting to bring in some high street stuff.
07:20Nick, can you give us a little bit more, you know, insight into what we're doing
07:23with our rewards and our clothing and game currently?
07:26Obviously, the branded stuff, the things from our real-world brands are super popular.
07:31That's unsurprising.
07:32Some of the things that were a little more surprising were like the popularity of our skeleton outfit.
07:38It's like a skeleton mask plus a body suit that looks like someone painted a skeleton bones onto it.
07:44We've set it up as one of the things that's harder to get
07:47and it's become this prestigious thing that players are showing off.
07:50It's great to see that things that aren't from real-world brands are also popular and people like them.
07:54So, I also think it's a good representation of the way that we want to approach that kind of clothing
08:01option.
08:02Like the things that you might not see at the skate park down the street,
08:06but it's not totally unrealistic to see someone wearing it or skating in it.
08:10It's believable. It looks like you might have made it at home.
08:12It's grounded in reality and maybe you just wore it today because that's the mood that you were in.
08:18And then, you know, that's an ongoing balance of finding that right balance of how much stuff is really real
08:24-world,
08:25really, really grounded versus stuff that's a little bit more out there.
08:29You know, that's something we're going to be listening very carefully with our feedback.
08:32If people really don't love that stuff, we can adapt that and we can provide more options in other areas.
08:37So, it's going to be a real learning experience and having the players inform us along the way,
08:42that's really going to help us gather.
08:43Okay, so there's going to be a ton of available gear and shoes and boards for players to get excited
08:48about.
08:49What does that mean for the players that want to earn the rewards versus ones that are willing to spend?
08:55Your time in skate is going to be valued. Like, we're stoked that you're playing the game.
08:59We're going to reward you for playing regardless of how you play or how much you play.
09:04We want you to be earning rewards, getting the customization options that you want,
09:08feeling like you're making progress in the game.
09:10Like, it should be a positive experience for everyone.
09:12So, even if you don't spend, you'll be able to get things that you're hyped about
09:17and customize your character in a unique way.
09:20But, like a real skate shop, we need to keep our lights on,
09:23so there's going to be a store for the people that want to spend.
09:26There's going to be cool clothing options for you to look at.
09:28As a live-service game, it gives us the ability to continue to update
09:34the game and refresh content and, you know, be timely and representative of the culture.
09:39Like, maybe you guys can shed a little bit more light on our goals here.
09:42Oh, totally. Like, launch is just the beginning, right?
09:44Like, this is the launch pad, if you will. Like, there's so much more to come.
09:49Absolutely, and it's going to go beyond just the brands and the types of things that we bring in.
09:54Like, there will be completely new types of clothing that you can wear,
09:57and there will be new ways to engage with brands or we'll have new events.
10:01Like, I think being a live-service, we can capitalize on what's cool, what's interesting right now,
10:05and look for ways for our partnerships to take advantage of that.
10:09So, there's more content potentially for more events.
10:11I mean, Yolanda, is there going to be more customization options potentially?
10:15On the feature side, like for player customization, I think the feature will also be evolving based on player feedback.
10:22There might be more options that we add in.
10:24And for character creation, we are already planning what's going to come after MVP.
10:30So, there's actually a lot of things that we want to do, but just we have to do it step
10:35by step.
10:36We mentioned brand partners a few times.
10:38I feel like that's probably the thing that people are really excited to hear about.
10:42They're super core and super important to us to establish a baseline for our identity
10:48in terms of what we're wanting to represent, right?
10:50So, maybe you can speak to that.
10:51The idea is that we have to have these bigger, more, let's say, lifestyle brands,
10:54getting down to more core skate brands where it's, you know, part of the fabric of skateboarding,
10:59like things like Girl and Chocolate that we've shown already.
11:02These brands have been around for a long time. They're icons.
11:05But then also, you know, we've also shown working with local skate shops or more like hyper-local places.
11:11They're doing super interesting things visually. They've got so much.
11:14They bring such credibility and such authenticity and genuineness to things.
11:19So, we want to have all kinds of different things in the game,
11:21but the one that we're really focusing on right now is Vans.
11:25Vandor and Rubber Company. They've been around forever.
11:27They're part of the fabric of skateboard history.
11:29The original skate shoe. Oh, yeah. The old school is like 50 years old, nearly.
11:33The half-cab is already past the 30-year mark.
11:36These are icons of skateboarding, of fashion. You know, they transcend skateboarding.
11:41You know, Vans is very much a lifestyle and skateboarding brand, and that's perfect for us.
11:45That aligns so well with our goals of being more than just core, core, you know, skateboarding stuff.
11:52The great thing with Vans and with some other, the bigger shoe companies,
11:55is they make all these shoes in 3D. They have them for marketing purposes.
11:57So, we get the 3D model from Vans. Like, you can't really get a pure source of reference, perhaps.
12:03Every detail, every stitch is on there, every logo.
12:06Like, literally, the print on the Pop Kush sole on the inside there is in that file.
12:11But, you know, that's not meant for a video game.
12:12So, we take that. We optimize that to a degree. We get it into something that runs in a real
12:17-time context.
12:18We apply our art style to that thing. We start making all the different colorways.
12:23And, you know, we work with Vans to identify which colorways we want to work on with this stuff.
12:27They send us exactly, like, you know, the perfect color, the…
12:31Pantone.
12:31Exactly. The Pantones come through, the types of textiles in there that sometimes we've never heard of.
12:36So, hopefully, you can have that relationship of, like, I skate these in the game, I wear these, or I
12:41skate these in real life.
12:42And you feel that connection there between the game and the real world.
12:46And then, now that we've got that shoe in the game, it's like a platform for us to build on.
12:50Yeah.
12:50Because the hard work, well, the hardest work was building the shoe itself.
12:55Oh, totally.
12:55But now we can look at new colorways as we, you know, go into the future.
12:59Once that silhouette's established in the game.
13:01That's exactly. And that echoes the real world.
13:03You make the product develop a sneaker or a t-shirt, whatever it is.
13:06You get the fit, the cut right.
13:08If we can start to have that conversation with sneaker culture, it would be so fantastic.
13:12You know, imagine we get our colorway that we've designed with a company in the game.
13:17And imagine one day that comes out in the real world and suddenly we're part of that conversation with fashion,
13:22with skateboarding.
13:25So, that's a wrap for today.
13:27As always, a big thank you to you guys for watching and coming along the ride with us.
13:32And, of course, thank you to Jeff and Yolanda and Nick for being here.
13:35If you haven't signed up to play yet, please sign up.
13:38Become a Skate Insider for your chance to play with us in San Basterdam.
13:42We're stoked to invite even more people coming up.
13:45I'm not sure if you remember, but, like, we're going to be doing console playtesting this year, which is super
13:49exciting.
13:50So, yes, please sign up. Become a Skate Insider and see you next time.
13:55Thank you.
13:56Thank you.
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