Welcome back to another dev update. If you’re new here, this is your direct link to the skate. dev team. You can expect the latest on what’s cookin’, how it’s shaping up, why we do the things we do, lessons learned, and what we’re excited to drop next.

Today, we’re doing things interview-style. Here’s who you’ll be hearing from:

• Jeff (Braddock): Global Community Manager for skate. and interviewer extraordinaire. When Jeff’s not peppering the dev team with questions, you’ll find him deep in the Discord forums or hanging out on the streets of San Van. His favorite spot is Stalefish Bevvie Co., and he’s almost always rockin’ the Drongos hat. 

• Mike: Executive Producer. These days, you'll find Mike skating around the barge trying to earn his red and white Nike Dunks.

• Deran: Sr. Creative Director. Deran’s also loving that barge life, but not willing to blow out any of the weird cutty spots he’s found in San Van. 

Let’s get to it. 

Braddock: Hey Mike/D, thanks for the time. Season 3 has been a ton of fun, and we’ve got Season 4 coming in fast (June 2 is a little over a month away). What are some things you’ve seen so far from Season 3 that the team will be bringing into Season 4 and beyond?

Deran: The way the community has shown up this season has been pretty unreal. We knew some crazy stuff would go down, but none of us predicted how wild it would get right out of the gate. Within hours of Season 3 dropping, there were like 3 or 4 gaps we had never seen before. Seeing my feed just being flooded with skate. is pretty sick, and validating for sure.

Mike: Yeah, it’s not a small amount of work to do these things right, but seeing how much the community appreciates it makes it worth it. We’ve heard you want new places to skate, improvements to the skate.Pass, and more brands. Seeing the choices we’re making now resonate with you all reinforces that we’re moving in the right direction. 

Braddock: We know the team has been continuing to tweak and tune the skate.Pass since Season 1. What’s the update on the skate.Pass for Season 4?

Mike: From a content perspective, we know our players are looking for more, and that’s something we’re working on improving with each season. More branded items, some pretty exciting rewards, and for skate.Premium Pass, even more added benefits than ever before. 

Deran: One of the most exciting updates for Season 4 is that there will be additional SVB rewards. You’ll now be able to unlock up to 1,500 SVB through the skate.Premium Pass (250 for the Standard skate.Pass track, with 1,250 for the skate.Premium Pass track) through bonus pages (and the Tix costs for the additional pages are higher). 

Braddock: Wait, just to be clear, you spend 1,000 SVB for the skate.Premium Pass and you can get up to 1,500 SVB when you complete it? NICE!

Deran: Pretty freakin’ awesome.

Braddock: Next question. What’s the deal with Isle of Grom access in Season 4?

Deran: In Season 4, Premium Pass holders will again get unlimited access to Grom throughout the season as a benefit of the pass. Those without Premium Pass can grab a 24-hour Day Pass to Grom for 500 Rip Chips.

In addition to unlimited Grom access, the Premium Pass will also get you early access to a brand new area at the start of Season 4…

Braddock: A new area… can you tell us more?

Mike: Noooope! We’re going to let the rumor mill spin a bit longer. We can say that it is in San Van.

Deran: We’ve seen some chatter online, and some of you are in the ball park…

At the start of the season, from June 2 to July 7, access to this new area will be another benefit of the skate.Premium Pass. From July 7 to July 21, those without skate.Premium can grab a 24-hour day pass to the new area for 250 Rip Chips. And to cap things off, all players will be able to skate the new area during a special multi-week event from July 21 to the end of the season.

Braddock: Okay, okay. Grom at night was pretty sick. And standing on the top of the island, looking across the water to the city, everyone is asking: when will night come to San Van?

Mike: So, just to be clear, we would love to have night mode in San Van - but it’s a whole different beast from Grom. The city is larger, it’s more dense, and there's quite a lot of complexity there. It's going to take time to work out.

Deran: It's not a flip of a switch, for lack of a better term, right? Even the number of lights we have in the city versus what we have on Grom is vastly, vastly different. We've got cars in the city; these all need headlights. I mean, there's a whole bunch of stuff that requires rework, refactoring, or rethinking that we didn't have to do on Grom. That's what makes it that much harder.

Braddock: Season 3 saw Nike SB come to skate. with a killer in-game pop-up event, complete with an updated barge skate park on the Isle of Grom. We also hosted an IRL event at P-Rod’s Primitive skate park. Bringing together over 70 skaters and gaming creators like ZexyZek, Dashawn Jordan[www.instagram.com], Ricky Glaser, EpicFlyingHorse for an IRL skate. x Nike SB sesh was unreal. Tell us about why that partnership was important to you and for skate.

Deran:  It was crazy. Dylan Jaeb[www.instagram.com] was there, Filipe Mota, Blake Carpenter, Malto, Nicole Hause[www.instagram.com]… Jake Anderson, straight off a plane from Thailand…even Paul came through. We went all out. There was even a churro bar. 

With regards to having Nike SB in skate., I mean, they have had such a big impact on the culture for decades. We’ve taken inspiration from their pros, from the videos that have helped shape modern skating, and of course, from the shoes themselves. The Dunk and the Blazer silhouettes are iconic, and it’s great being able to represent them in skate. for our players. Yeah, it was a big deal for us. And then to have that event with all those pros and community members, getting to see folks play the game and have a session in real life - it was special. 

Braddock: Are there plans to do more of these kinds of in-game/IRL partnerships and crossovers in the future?

Mike: Yeah, definitely, it’s a no-brainer that it’s something we want to do. A lot of what we’ve added so far stems from you guys - the community - and the things you’ve been asking for. And there are a lot of exciting things coming down the pipeline. Big brands, small brands, endemic skateboarding brands, and even broader, lifestyle-type brands. We can’t talk about it yet but we think you’ll be stoked. 

Braddock: I’m stoked, you’re stoked, everybody’s stoked. Let’s hit some more questions. Since Early Access launch, we’ve seen some visual improvements roll out across the game. Can we expect more of that in Season 4?

Mike: For sure, we’ve got a few things planned for the short term, and a whole lot of plans for the long term. In Season 4, you’ll see a few tweaks to give the city more of that lived-in feeling, as well as a really nice shift in lighting. We’ll be sharing some sneak peeks in the coming weeks. 

Deran: I do want to mention our characters because that’s something we see a lot of conversation about. We don’t have any big character changes planned to roll out during Season 4, but we do hear you, and it’s something that’s going to continue to evolve.

Braddock: Another thing we’ve heard a lot about is the community wanting more fresh in-game challenges. What can you tell us about the challenges coming to Season 4? 

Deran: There will be a new crop of challenges this season. I think one of the most exciting things that's coming down the pipe is a new - but familiar - challenge type. It won’t land right at the beginning of the season, but during Season 4 things will get a bit more competitive. I think you’ll all be really hyped on it.

Braddock: We’ve seen some clips of folks “glitching” finger flips across the internet. So they’re sorta already in-game. 

Mike: False. 

Deran: Fake. Those are fake. 

Mike: I mean, they look pretty good if you speed up the replay. But yeah, no. 

Braddock: Well, with Season 4, y’all are officially bringing finger flips to the game. I gotta ask: what improvements are coming, and what types of finger flips will be available?

Deran: So we basically looked at what we did in Skate 3, and saw a few gaps and areas where we thought we could push things further. And, the funny thing is, we’ve ended up with so much variety we're now trying to figure out how to label them all. 

Some of these tricks… is it a finger flip and then a finger heel? Or is it a finger-heel-flip? And then we get to, like, nose grab… is that a finger, is that a finger nose? So, we’ve got all these permutations, and even a couple Easter-eggy finger flips that are a little weird. We’re looking forward to you guys checking them out and finding them.

Braddock: I wanted to touch on what the actual development process looks like. Basically, why can it take a while for a new trick, feature, or area to come to skate?

Mike: Nothing gets added to the game in isolation, right? Every time you add a new element to the ecosystem, there’s a ripple effect of things that need tweaking, adjusting, and testing. 

A single feature may get built out by the gameplay team, but then we need UI to do something with Skatepedia, we need audio to be able to put sound effects to it, we need to nail the physics, there's animation, there's design, there's all these different teams and groups that need to come together in order to make one single feature become a reality. Sometimes things take longer than we planned, and sometimes they don’t come together the way we hoped, and we have to go back to the drawing board. 

So, it’s a complex process. And on top of that, there's all sorts of stuff that a live game needs at any one time, and not all of those things are super sexy features or trick additions. We need people dedicated to making sure our servers are stable, nothing’s crashing, we’re meeting quality expectations, and can squash any bugs that pop up. 

Deran: When it comes to bringing things back from previous games, it’s not a matter of hitting copy-paste. If we’re going to do it, we want it to land right. We’re always looking for opportunities to expand systems that we had previously, improve them and bring more to it than was there before. Like Dark Slides, for example. Rather than just throwing them into the game, we took some time to do more with them, and people are loving it. That’s been reaffirming.

There's so much stuff we want to do. And we’re chipping away at it, prioritizing based on what makes sense for where we’re at, what the community wants, and what’ll make the best game in the long run.

Braddock: Okay,  last question for now. What are you most excited about for Season 4?

Mike: I'm really excited for the event we'll be running in the middle of Season 4. We're gonna be trying out some new things in it, and I think it'll be super cool. I can't say much more right now, but if it works the way we think it's gonna work, it'll be an indicator of some future stuff that we're gonna do in the game that will be really, really exciting. Plus, getting finger flips back into the game and doing it right.

Deran: Yeah, I’m really looking forward to seeing how people are going to use finger flips in Season 4. Season 3 was all about Dark Slides; you see dark tricks everywhere, and then this next season's gonna be about finger flips. We love seeing all the different uses you come up with and all the videos of people having fun with it. 

This is a small one, but I’m also excited about some improvements to social we'll be rolling out mid-season. It’s going to make it much easier for you to connect with friends and skate together, stoked on that.

Braddock: Thanks so much, guys. Really appreciate the time - I know everyone’s super busy getting Season 4 ready and looking to the future on what’s coming next. Stay hydrated! 

That’s a wrap. We’ll be sharing more details on Season 4 in the coming weeks, with a Season 4 Blog and updated roadmap coming near the end of May. Don’t forget we’ve got an update coming May 12, plus the first in-game Creator Challenge. See you in San Van!

The Full Circle team