

The finished skatebird is cute and capricious and, as Fox wanted, is full of “doing the best” birds. “And it’s not ideal because you can’t perform all the tricks of the game this way, but you can play the game perfectly this way.” You can allow one button to perform grind and flip tricks,” she says. “You can fold almost any button into one button. I tried to combine it with the elimination of the side of the arcade. To do this, she looked at the very clear button assignments in the Tony Hawk game (meaning you could easily relocate or map to another controller if needed) and be more accurate with the EA skate franchise. In parallel with the investigation, Fox wanted her skateboarding game to be accessible in the way the famous skateboarding titles knew, but in the end it wasn’t enough. Fox, who had previously skateboarded “in combat boots in a trench coat,” chose not to return to the board during development to avoid injury, but now that the game has begun, again. She wanted the skatebird to truly reflect the sport, rather than include a lot of crafted tricks. She also hired a skateboarding expert to teach her various tricks and techniques. Well, if they flap a lot and look awkward, they’re skateboarding birds.
#Skatebird gif how to#
The former happened organically after she moved to the Seattle area and began feeding birds as a hobby, gradually learning how to name and identify different species. The idea for Skatebird started out as a bit of a idiot, but as its scope expanded, Fox soon had to become an expert in two things she didn’t know much about: birds and skateboarding. It’s not that big, but I think it’s the size of most skate games. “I think people think it’s a lot bigger than that,” says Fox. What started out as a “hell” gag has become a complete and serious project. She planned to enjoy this next project alone, but Fox began working with others again to support the development of Skatebird. There was tremendous support for Fox to expand the range of the game from fun little skate gag to purpose, story, and much more birds than originally planned. At E3 2019, Fox found a Skatebird slot in the Kinda Funny Games Showcase and launched Kickstarter at the same time. “įox wasn’t the only one who thought skateboarding birds would be fun. When you put a bird on a skateboard, no one knows how it should stand on the skateboard. “I know what a human on a skateboard looks like,” says Fox. Fox began tinkering with it, leading the inspiration from the gifs she saw, and soon realized that it was much easier to put a bird on a skateboard than a human.

First, fellow game developers using KevKev realized that putting humans on a skateboard was “inconsistent and weird,” and then provided a physics-based skateboard prototype codebase to those who needed it. Whatever she did next, Fox at the time was convinced that she needed to do it almost alone.īut that conviction didn’t last long. She says she had to start working on Skatebird in 2018 after the Spartan Fist “bombed” and let go of the entire development team. Megan Fox (🛹🐦OUTNOW) glassbottommeg) June 15, 2020įox is a veteran developer, working for AAA at LEGO Universe before becoming an indie, releasing games such as Jones on Fire, Hot Tin Roof, and Spartan Fist. Others are caused by real-world events or love for other media.įor Megan Fox, the developer of skateboarding, it all started with a bird gif on a skateboard. Some games are inspired by the deep personal experience of the developers.
