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[Exclusive] OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood Screenshots and Q&A | PSNStores

[Exclusive] OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood Screenshots and Q&A

Posted by on January 20th, 2015 | 2 Comments | Tags:

My most anticipated game of 2015 is far and away OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood from Roll7. PSNStores received some exclusive screenshots [and a video coming tomorrow] of the second world, Curse of the Aztec. The artistic inspiration for this world comes directly from Indiana Jones and the Mayan prediction of the apocolypse.

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Roll7 took extra care in creating something for the fans as well as themselves. They collected valuable feedback from hardcore fans, and even the media, to create a true successor to one of my favorite Vita games of 2014. I asked Simon Bennett how he and his team gathered said feedback from the fans and media and how that became a factor in OO2. Let’s take a look:

[Simon] With the original OO, we knew that we needed to get the core ‘toy’ and gameloop super tight. Along the way, thanks to our awesome community on Twitter/Facebook, we were able to work out what was resonating with people, what wasn’t, and where to make changes going forward. In fact a bunch of feedback from fans and press at E3 was crucial to adding more than just one landing type to the game.

With OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood, we began with a MASSIVE book of ideas and started work… The biggest game-changer was manuals, so we worked it out and added them! The team here and other people across social media were really interested in the idea of Multiplayer so we buckled down and added the functionality… obviously some ideas need to be looked are more carefully than others, but listening to the fans is always important to us…

We do extensive user testing right from the getgo, with 100’s of testers. This really helps us define, refine and lock down the best experience. I think it’s crucial for game designers to have a certain humility when it comes to their games, if people don’t get something – you need to act on that, and not just put them in the ‘well they just don’t get my game’ category.

Then I asked him which comments from fans may have had the biggest impact. To which he said:

[Simon] No doubt, the tweets and comments about manuals… OlliOlli is ALL about tricking your way to the top of the Leaderboards, and what’s a better way to do that than manualing from beginning to end of a stage?!

Even as recent as November, people NEEDED to manual in OlliOlli. There’s no way about it – we needed to make it happen!


https://twitter.com/dkzeitgeist/status/427337250888613888

Finally, I asked Simon what ONE thing he most wanted to include in OlliOlli 2 that the first didn’t include for whatever reason. Of course, I got three:

[Simon] I don’t think there was just ONE thing, as you can see the game has a revamped look and a bunch of other changes, but for me my top 3 must haves were:
Manuals, Ramps and ‘Long Tricks’.

Manuals allow you to chain together combos from section to section, as you can ALSO do revert manuals on Nose AND Front – it means that players can truly start to define their own unique style of skating.

Ramps (along with curved terrain) extend the feeling of flow from OlliOlli1, and allow for super speed and massive air – which changes the whole vibe of the game.

‘Long Tricks’ are my favourite, these are tricks that last for more than standard tricks, eg a Double Kickflip or Kickflip Underflip. You can’t nail these tricks just rolling, they need to be performed with big air, so it’s a risk-reward scenario – when you nail it though, it rocks!

Big thanks to the awesome team at Roll7 for these screenshots, and to Simon for taking a moment out of his busy schedule this week. Check back again tomorrow for the PSNStores exclusive video showing the Curse of the Aztec in OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood, which Roll7 captured directly from PS4 at 60fps.