Lore and Legend behind The Lost City of Radlantis and Gail Force

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 enlargement – Discovering the Flowzone. So, right here’s a short lowdown on how we developed the setting and characters – and the way the town of Radlantis went from an underwater metropolis to a skateboarding paradise within the skies!

Let’s start initially; once we began engaged on the second OlliOlli World enlargement, the very first thing we knew was that it was going to be set underwater. Chances are you’ll discover – primarily based on the prevalence of clouds on the brand, and the flying ship within the cowl artwork – that this didn’t find yourself occurring! However once we began out, we have 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 historical occasions. So, in between researching currents, tides, and numerous sea creatures (we developed a selected fondness for Nudibranchs, often known as Sea Slugs), we did a deep-dive into the lore of Atlantis. I ended up studying a bunch of Plato because of this, since he was the primary particular person to write down concerning the fable of Atlantis – I’ve to say, once I began writing for an all-ages skating sport, I wasn’t anticipating the necessity to examine Historic Greek philosophy! I’m not complaining, because it was fairly fascinating stuff (and presumably the primary time that my historical past diploma has ever really turn out to be useful in my day by day life). Anyhow, the Historic 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 a part of the participant within the seek for Radlantis. Lizz (Lead Narrative Designer, Author, most likely the best particular person ever) labored on Squid and Christopher Licht, and I labored on creating Professor Planks. We appreciated the thought of a rag-tag crew who don’t essentially all the time get alongside however are sure collectively by a standard purpose. They’re all explorers in a means, however they convey 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 wished this new trio to really feel completely different to the companions you’ve within the base sport, in order that they have a barely extra argumentative vitality to them. It’s nonetheless very lighthearted and enjoyable, but it surely’s a little bit of a change from the ‘previous buddies’ dynamic of the unique crew.

So, there we have 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 via improvement, we determined that we would have liked to vary path, and transfer the setting to a metropolis within the clouds. Why? Effectively, it seems that from a gameplay perspective, skating underwater simply isn’t as enjoyable as skating via the sky, propelled by the mighty Windzones towards greater air, cooler methods, and better scores. Additionally, it labored rather a lot higher from an artwork fashion and a map house perspective to take issues up into the environment. So, a change of path was referred to 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 under the ocean labored, and we may additionally preserve the skate competitors angle.

What we did want was a brand new Skate god to fulfill on the finish of the enlargement – anyone who mirrored the brand new sky-based setting. And so Lizz created Gail Drive – a god who controls the wind and skies above Radlandia. Gail Drive is tremendous enjoyable, very vibrant and she or he positively lives as much as her title! She’s a power of nature. We additionally determined to incorporate B.B. Hopper and a number of the main-game Skate Godz within the enlargement – with so many enjoyable new characters to fulfill, it felt essential to additionally embrace some acquainted faces. Whereas it is a separate story to the principle 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 arduous on it, but it surely largely concerned looking at clean pages and cursing on the sky, so it’s not tremendous fascinating to examine. We additionally did a bunch of labor with the artwork crew to assist carry the environments, characters, and animations to life, and as soon as all that was completed we despatched it off to be translated so followers all all over the world can benefit from the sport. And now – many many months later – all of you’ve 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 enlargement as a lot as we loved writing it. Bon voyage, good luck, and comfortable skating!