Interview: Robomodo on Reinventing Tony Hawk

IG: The Wii version went to Buzz Monkey. How come Activision didn't have you work on that as well?

JT: We were working with a very aggressive schedule for PS3 and Xbox 360, so we wanted to concentrate on those two SKUs. But because we knew another company was doing a port of our game, our code was designed to make it easy to port over. So it's not like it's a separate game by any means; in many ways we are doing the Wii version. That actually gave them some time to do more little things here and there on their own. To be honest, we really would have liked to have done the Wii version ourselves because we've never done a Wii game before, but it just came down to time.  

Tony Hawk Ride board in action...

IG: Speaking of the Wii version, I find it interesting that there's no implementation with the Balance Board peripherals, which would have seemed logical since over 15 million people already own that.

JT: We had discussions about it and we all pretty much agreed that it had to be the same peripheral [across SKUs]. There are things that you do on the Tony Hawk: Ride board that just cannot be done on the Wii Fit board. If you look at a game like the one that came out from EA [Skate It] and you have to hold a controller, and that wasn't the way we wanted it to be. 

IG: The disadvantage though is the peripheral bumps up the price. I realize that Activision hasn't confirmed the price yet but it's listed around $120 on GameStop. Are you worried about the price holding back adoption?

JT: I think when people see the technology we have in the board and how it integrates with the software, people will understand that this is a great package; it's a really great experience.

PR Rep: And the board could have future applications...

IG: So you're planning to use the board for future titles too? Perhaps snowboarding?

JT: Yeah, anything where you're standing on a board. Internally, we have a bunch of game ideas that are very unexpected, that people would never think about, that would work great with it. So we look at it less like a peripheral and it's almost like a platform unto itself. Nothing against Guitar Hero – it's a great game – but a guitar's a guitar and this [board] really has an immense amount of flexibility behind it.

IG: I know Robomodo is independent, but it seems you have an exclusive relationship with Activision. Are you considering working with other publishers down the line?

JT: Obviously being independent gives us that flexibility, but we really enjoy working with Activision a lot, so we want to maintain that relationship. But one of the beauties of being independent is that if there's something we really want to do, we will pursue it. 

IG: So you of course have had the opportunity to work extensively with Tony Hawk. What's that experience been like?

JT: The first time we met, it was intimidating, but within minutes [we got comfortable]. Besides being the nicest guy in the world, he's very smart. He's just been in gaming a very long time, so we don't need to talk down to anybody – he knows his stuff. He's had input on every part of the game, especially with animation. He's a stickler when it comes to the motion of the characters. He'll know as he's playing the game when something doesn't look right, and he'll call it out right then and there. He's been a huge influence. We also had a lot of motion capture for Tony to do. And there's a new [skateboarding] pro on the scene, who's also in our game, named Mike Mo – Tony himself specifically asked for him to be in the game because Tony understood that this is the next generation of great skaters. So Mike did a lot of the mo-cap too.

IG: So with this game almost done, what else do you have going on at Robomodo? A new project you can share with us?

JT: Obviously, we're very focused on getting this done, but being the creative types that we are, we're always writing up new game proposals and things we want to do. It's just a matter of timing. With Tony Hawk: Ride finishing up [we have to think about] the sequel to the game and where that fits into our schedules. It's a lot of juggling at this point.

IG: Any closing thoughts before we wrap up?

JT: I just want to emphasize how excited Robomodo is about this opportunity with this game. We understand what a big franchise it is in this industry, and I think we really pulled it off. People will be really surprised when they try the game.

IG: Well, from what Mike Griffith told us, it seems he's very confident in what Robomodo has done with the project, so that must be great for you guys to hear.

JT: Yeah, a couple of the big guys from Activision came out to Chicago, and the moment they told us, “Hey, you guys have  found the 'special sauce' for the game,” it was almost like this big weight lifted off our shoulders. The production of this game was very evolutionary... It was very different for a lot of people, and Activision was used to a game coming out every year, but here we were with a blank slate and we didn't even have a controller yet. The whole process has been amazing.

IG: And you had never worked on a peripheral like this right?

JT: No, although ironically a lot of us started our careers back in the arcade industry when it was hardware and software combinations – they would do different joysticks and layouts of the buttons depending on what the game was like.  At Midway they had games like Cruisin' USA where you had a whole cockpit that moved. In a sense, we've come full circle where that arcade experience is brought into the home. We actually pinged a lot of our old colleagues to help us with the production of this board – they really helped us a lot in prototyping.

IG: Thanks very much Josh.