• Interview
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SkateBIRD developer talks skateboarding culture, ska, and animating birds

A whole lot of research went into making SkateBIRD, including watching birds to see how they move.

Sam Chandler

January 19, 2022 8:00 PM

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SkateBIRD lets players become a tiny little bird that skateboards around everyday objects. While the concept is simple, actually creating a skateboarding game like SkateBIRD is anything but. We here at Shacknews recently had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with the founder of Glass Bottom Games, Megan Fox. In our chat, Fox told us about how SkateBIRD came to be, what the process was like learning about birds, and even touches on ska music and the skateboarding video game genre as a whole.

Fox talks about how a lot of people’s perception of skateboarding culture comes from the Tony Hawk series of games. Those that are interested in skateboarding also seem to gravitate toward the ska genre, which was heavily present in the first Tony Hawk game. So this perception of skateboarding culture and the rise of ska are intertwined.

During our chat, Fox also spoke to how skateboarding games handle animation. For most games, the player character is what’s being animated and the board is attached. For SkateBIRD, the team went the other route, creating a physical board and then the bird and everything else is “trickery”, as Fox puts it.

The chat with Fox covers a whole lot of ground, so it’s worth checking out the full interview, especially if you’re interested in how porting to various platforms work. SkateBIRD is available now across a variety of platforms including Steam, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. For more developer interviews, head on over to the GamerHubTV YouTube channel. You can also check out the Shacknews channel for exclusive gameplay and guides.

Sam Chandler

Guides Editor

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as a Guides Editor. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler