


“Once we introduced branching paths, we couldn’t just stop doing branching paths because the player will expect that it’s going to carry on,” Robinson said. Finding the right way to implement these was challenging for the development teams. Those offshoots are called “gnarly routes” that reward player skills. A key pillar of the game’s development was “exploration,” so OlliOlli World levels have multiple routes. Slowly but surely, the game gets more and more complex with layers upon layers of mechanics. As long as it’s always acting out at the specific speed I set, it should work.” Taking the gnarly route

“I could slow the player down in the trick section, but I’d need to speed them back up again. “ When you’re entering and exiting a section, the speed should always be the same,” he said. Speed is also an important factor that Roll7 considered with both handcrafted and procedurally generated levels. “A level is only 60 seconds long and may take longer if you respawn or slam, so if I make a level that’s one minute and thirty seconds, it feels way longer than a normal level,” he said. It also sets boundaries, so the developers at Roll7 understand when levels don’t work. Robinson even used this formula when designing the procedurally generated levels of Gnarvana, as the game can stitch these nine parts together to make entire levels. Overall, the nine sections of each level ensure that OlliOlli World has a gradual difficulty curve that is constantly building on what players know.

#Olliolli background how to
It’s technically harder in the second and third act, but because they’ve learned how to deal with it in the first act, they’re ready for it.”Īccording to Robinson, the designers can then break down each act into an entry section, trick section, and exit section. I’ll mutate and remix that for the second act, and then for the third act, I’ll make it a bit more extreme and outlandish. In the first act, I would introduce something that hasn’t been done in the previous level - it might be a different-shaped grind or an uphill grind - and then that becomes the identity of the level. “There’ll be two checkpoints between them. “A level is 60 seconds long and will be split into three acts,” Robinson said. The developers nailed down a three-act design that consistently yields fantastic results, making it the secret formula behind the game’s success. One of the main parts of a level’s identity is its structure. “When you’re designing a level, you’re entering a flow state as you build this thing …” You can look at it and go, ‘I know what that level is.'” “Even before it has been altered and is still in its gray box state. “Identity makes the level feel like a character in the world,” he said. Robinson told Digital Trends that he knows exactly what makes an excellent OlliOlli World level: Its identity. I wanted to learn just what makes the game tick, and Sam Robinson revealed how the structure of OlliOlli World’s levels ensures players will never want to put the game down. OlliOlli World is one of the first critically acclaimed indie games of 2022, with fantastic levels matching the quality of games like Celeste or Sonic Mania. He added: “It’s almost like the game is telling you how it wants to be laid out as you’re making it.” You may put a slope in, so then you put a ramp, and then that takes you to an unexpectedly high place, so now you’ll put something up there.” It’s almost like you stop making conscious decisions. “So then the next thing you decide to implement is what you feel is right. “When you’re designing a level, you’re entering a flow state as you build this thing,” Senior Designer Sam Robinson told Digital Trends in an interview prior to OlliOlli World‘s launch. OlliOlli World – Official E3 2021 Trailer
