For this week’s Xbox Indie Spotlight, we’re taking a look at the gorgeously colourful OlliOlli World, and chatting to Roll7 co-studio head Simon Bennett. What is OlliOlli World?OlliOlli World is a vibrantly colourful skateboarding action-platformer game. It’s in development from Roll7 and published by Private Division. When does OlliOlli World launch?OlliOlli World is just around the corner — it launches on February 8th!What’s it about?We have quite the mission in OlliOlli World: according to Bennett, “In OlliOlli World, you and your crew are on a journey across the land to prove your skill as a potential replacement for the retiring Skate Wizard, Chiffon. As the Skate Wizard, you’ll be an ambassador to the Skate Godz — powerful beings who created the various biomes of Radlandia.” It’s not just the role of Skate Wizard we’ll be aiming for: Bennett adds, “Skate well enough, and you might even be granted access to Gnarvana, the realm of ultimate skateboarding bliss.”How does OlliOlli World play?OlliOlli World describes itself as welcoming to beginners and pros alike, with the game’s Steam page saying, “Not a Pro? Don’t worry — OlliOlli World welcomes you with open arms, allowing new players to tear down streets and pull off sick method grabs without fear of faceplanting the curb. Think you’ve got what it takes? Achieve mastery through millions of unique levels in sandbox mode or compete against rivals around the globe in Leagues with a hugely deep combo system with over 100 moves to master and combine in your battle for the highest score.” Bennett expands on what the game has to offer, telling us, “you’ll be able to play the core game and complete levels to progress through Radlandia while advancing the narrative and your skills. There are also two asynchronous multiplayer modes. The first is Leagues, where you’ll be able to compete against players of a similar skill level from around the world. The second is the Gnarvana Portal mode, which will allow you to select a theme and style of level from a range of options, and then share the unique postcode for that level with friends to compare your styles and scores!” In particular, Bennett says “gamers after the highest scores will often find that the ‘Gnarly’ routes (these are labelled in-game when you take them) offer a better range of obstacles to achieve high-value combos.” Bennett expands on OlliOlli World’s scoring system, saying, “There are a few changes… we’ve included a lot of new tricks such as wallrides and firecrackers that weren’t available in previous games, so naturally that’s brought in some variation. However, the principle of the scoring system is still very much going to be familiar to those who loved previous OlliOlli titles,” Bennett continues. “Players will need to string together long combos of tricks with manuals and hit perfect landings every time in order to achieve the highest possible scores.”We’ll also have our fair share of missions and side quests to face. “Ok, I don’t want to give too much detail and spoil the fun, but I will say that side quest levels might be a little trickier than some of the main path levels in a given area,” explains Bennett. “You’ll get to try out some different styles of play and some more ‘out-there’ challenges, and you’ll also often get to know a little bit more about a character from one of the local crews. In order to get access to side-quests, you might want to try out taking alternate routes while playing the main game — you’re likely to meet some quirky characters off the beaten path who might just give you directions to a secret skate spot…”On top of all this, there’s also a focus on customisation, with you able to unlock rewards to change up your character’s “look, tricks, and style” so that you can skate to your heart’s content wearing whatever you like. This element of customisation looks to add even more to the game’s eccentric tone, and you can change everything from your hair colour and sunglasses to which particular tie-dye hat or onesie you want to wear. All in all, OlliOlli World seems to have a lot to offer — so what is Bennett most excited for players to experience out of all that? “Oh, there’s so much — all the new tricks and styles of gameplay, the different routes and side quests, the gorgeous art style across all the different biomes,” Bennett replies, “but personally, I think I’m probably most excited to see what people do with the character creator. It’s got hundreds of items and it always really makes me happy to see what people come up with when they’re let loose in there!”What’s the world like?OlliOlli World features a gorgeous cartoony art style which looks to give the game a real sense of personality. It’s also quite a change from the art style of the first two games, and Bennett says, “We’d been wanting to work on creating a more illustrative style inspired by comic books for a long time, and with OlliOlli World we finally had the scope and the team size needed to pull it off! We had to create a new renderer from ground up, and the art team really went above and beyond to realize the vision we had for Radlandia.”Radlandia, the setting for OlliOlli World, is made up of a number of biomes. “So far we’ve revealed three of the game’s biomes — Sunshine Valley, a laid-back beach spot, Cloverbrook, a woodland paradise, and Sketchside, the grimy industrial heart of Radlandia’s board-making district,” says Bennett. “There are also more biomes to discover when the game launches on February 8th!”Any news on OlliOlli World achievements?We don’t yet have the OlliOlli World achievements, but we’ll be sure to update you when we do!
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