Lore and Legend behind The Misplaced Metropolis of Radlantis and Gail Power

Hey all – I’m Jemima, I’m a author right here at Roll7, and I’ve been requested to share some particulars concerning the course of of making our newest OlliOlli World growth – Discovering the Flowzone. So, right here’s a quick lowdown on how we developed the setting and characters – and the way town of Radlantis went from an underwater metropolis to a skateboarding paradise within the skies!

Let’s start originally; after we began engaged on the second OlliOlli World growth, the very first thing we knew was that it was going to be set underwater. You could discover – based mostly on the prevalence of clouds on the brand, and the flying ship within the cowl artwork – that this didn’t find yourself occurring! However after we began out, we had been engaged on the idea of an underwater journey.

The thought of a deep-ocean skate paradise immediately made us consider Atlantis, the legendary metropolis supposedly misplaced beneath the waves in historic instances. So, in between researching currents, tides, and varied sea creatures (we developed a selected fondness for Nudibranchs, also referred to as Sea Slugs), we did a deep-dive into the lore of Atlantis. I ended up studying a bunch of Plato consequently, since he was the primary particular person to put in writing concerning the fable of Atlantis – I’ve to say, once I began writing for an all-ages skating recreation, I wasn’t anticipating the necessity to research Historical Greek philosophy! I’m not complaining, because it was fairly attention-grabbing stuff (and probably the primary time that my historical past diploma has ever really come in useful in my every day life). Anyhow, the Historical Greek affect is a part of what drew us to the thought of a skating competitors – the thought was that this journey would finish with a sort of skate Olympics held deep underwater by the individuals of Radlantis.

With this in thoughts, we created the Radlantis Three – the skate crew who be part of the participant within the seek for Radlantis. Lizz (Lead Narrative Designer, Author, in all probability the good particular person ever) labored on Squid and Christopher Licht, and I labored on creating Professor Planks. We favored the thought of a rag-tag group who don’t essentially all the time get alongside however are certain collectively by a typical purpose. They’re all explorers in a approach, however they create various things to the desk – Squid is a seasoned sea captain, Licht is an astrologer and a mystic, and Planks is doing analysis for her college… or possibly simply avoiding her college students! We needed this new trio to really feel totally different to the companions you have got within the base recreation, so that they have a barely extra argumentative vitality to them. It’s nonetheless very lighthearted and enjoyable, nevertheless it’s a little bit of a change from the ‘previous mates’ dynamic of the unique crew.

So, there we had been, merrily researching away and planning to create an underwater cityscape, stuffed with cheery sea creatures and funky new skateboarding buddies – after which, all of it modified…

Partway by means of growth, we determined that we would have liked to alter course, and transfer the setting to a metropolis within the clouds. Why? Nicely, it seems that from a gameplay perspective, skating underwater simply isn’t as enjoyable as skating by means of the sky, propelled by the mighty Windzones towards larger air, cooler methods, and better scores. Additionally, it labored so much higher from an artwork fashion and a map house perspective to take issues up into the environment. So, a change of course was known as for – however all was not misplaced! We beloved the thought of a flying ship – the characters we’d been workshopping appeared even cooler up above the clouds. Placing Radlantis up above Radlandia fairly than beneath the ocean labored, and we might additionally hold the skate competitors angle.

What we did want was a brand new Skate god to fulfill on the finish of the growth – anyone who mirrored the brand new sky-based setting. And so Lizz created Gail Power – a god who controls the wind and skies above Radlandia. Gail Power is tremendous enjoyable, very vibrant and she or he positively lives as much as her identify! She’s a pressure of nature. We additionally determined to incorporate B.B. Hopper and a few of the main-game Skate Godz within the growth – with so many enjoyable new characters to fulfill, it felt vital to additionally embody some acquainted faces. Whereas it is a separate story to the primary plot of OlliOlli World, it’s good for gamers to nonetheless really feel the sense that they’re exploring a cohesive setting that ties into the world.

As soon as all that worldbuilding and character creation was out of the way in which, it was only a matter of writing up some suitably foolish dialogue and placing it into the sport. This really took ages! We labored very laborious on it, nevertheless it largely concerned looking at clean pages and cursing on the sky, so it’s not tremendous attention-grabbing to examine. We additionally did a bunch of labor with the artwork group to assist convey the environments, characters, and animations to life, and as soon as all that was carried out we despatched it off to be translated so followers all around the globe can benefit from the recreation. And now – many many months later – all of you have got the prospect to discover the Flowzone, discover Radlantis, and possibly even win a trophy in a contest thrown by the Skate Godz themselves…

We hope you get pleasure from taking part in this growth as a lot as we loved writing it. Bon voyage, good luck, and comfortable skating!