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Surf World Series is making waves on console
We talk to Climax Studios to get the lowdown on the return of an overlooked sports genre.
Surf World Series is coming soon
© Climax Studios / Vision Games
Surfing may not be the first sport that pops into your head when it comes to gaming, but Surf World Series is on the way and Jamie Fisher, producer at British developers Climax Studios, thinks their upcoming title has struck the ideal blend between fun and playability.
That means an arcade feel, something that’s easy to get into and a game where anybody can grab a controller and simply enjoy the feeling of surfing – even if they’ve never managed to stand up on a board before IRL.
Could Surf World Series be the sea-bound equivalent of OlliOlli? We’ve been chatting to Fisher to find out what’s in store.
So, what’s Surf World Series all about?
Fisher: Surf World Series is, at its simplest, a pick up and play arcade surfing game, with the emphasis on pick up and play. The single-player component is 45 events, where you may need to beat a given score or survive to the end of the wave without getting wiped out, things like that.
Alongside that we have our multi-player mode, for up to 60 people. There's three different game modes, and you party up with people in your group of up to 16. Most of the game modes have a timer attached, so you'll get, say, three minutes to surf as many waves as you can, and then the best scores you achieve in that time are compared to the others to see who's done the best.
What made you want to create a surfing game now?
I think it's a genre and a subculture that hasn't really had much attention recently. There was a time when it was almost mainstream, with Tony Hawk and Skate and a culture that was really in vogue, and I think it's fallen out of fashion. Maybe it's just not getting the attention it used to, but while that's happened the culture has evolved and become something else, and it just seems like quite an interesting time to return to that and bring surfing into the public eye, and show people all the cool stuff that's going on.
What games have you looked at for inspiration?
It's a tricky one because surfing isn't a genre or sport that's had a lot of games made about it, definitely not in recent memory anyway. Kelly Slater is one you have to look at and that was 2009, so we looked at games like OlliOlli and Trials. Surfing specifically was a very hard one to find inspiration for as nobody was doing anything.
And unlike skateboarding, surfing is almost linear; you've got the wave in essentially a kind of straight line that you're performing the tricks on, so it was difficult to find ways to get all the juice out of that. If you're playing something like Tony Hawk or SSX you have a much broader environment to move around and to perform tricks, so looking at games like OlliOlli kept that engaging experience, with Trials for that feeling of manipulating a physical thing through a somewhat 2D environment. Our game isn't 2D but it does have that linear feel.
Does it have the same sort of tricks as the other games you looked at?
The tricks are probably the main thrust of the gameplay; most of our game modes focus on tricks. There's an emphasis on flow, so building up enough momentum, doing nice cutbacks, getting up that speed to then do a big air trick which will earn you points. We also have a set of special tricks where you need to build up a meter, in order to catch that meter and perform the trick, and all of these hopefully flow in a way that gives the game an originality.
We have the real-world tricks, we have floaters and tubes, snaps and cutbacks, but we then have our special tricks, and in some cases we've taken some creative license, perhaps dialed from 10 up to 11, in some cases 12, and some of those possibly get beyond the realms of your average surfer...
What challenges did you face?
The wave itself was a technical challenge that I'm not particularly well equipped to go into too much depth on, but I know that waves definitely gave us a few late nights. It's really come together and we're really quite happy with what we can do with it now, however.
It certainly looks the part
© Climax Studios / Vision Games
Are any of you guys on the development team surfers?
None of us are. Our art director is a surfer, though, and has given us some good insights. We also had a surfer – Tom Lowe – come in and give us some pointers and talk us through some of the bits we were struggling with. Once we had that understanding we could make the game better.
How does it compare with the more traditional games you've made in the past?
There's an almost old-school feel to it, like an arcade game, giving it a retro flavour. You don't see as much of that these days. We were trying to capture a contemporary feel of a sub-culture, that was an interesting process. Finding the right bands, making sure some of the visuals bring out a kind of modern, photographic sensibility and give you that vibe.
What sort of bands did you go for?
Initially we were talking to a couple of indie bands that were friends of people in-house, and trying to use those connections to find some hidden talent, which did bear some fruit. We've got a band called Silver’s got Strings and a couple of others through that, but we also worked with a company called Feel For Music, who helped us. They’re a bit more well practised at finding those cool bands and getting them in games.
What made you go with the arcade style rather than focusing on realism?
The problem with any kind of simulation game, be that surfing, space flight, anything, it becomes difficult for people to get into. The deeper more simulation you have, you’re decreasing your appeal to a broader audience while increasing your appeal to a specific one. I think for us it was important to get as many people into the game as possible. We didn't want to make a game that takes 12 hours for you to get used to standing up on the board, to be able to then surf, we wanted something that was snappy and had an immediate appeal.
How do you actually stand up on a board and how easy it is to surf in the game?
Riding a wave
© Climax Studios / Vision Games
Going from sitting to paddling out and eventually getting up on the board is a single button. There is a timing challenge in there to determine if you've done it just right or if you've maybe fluffed it a little bit, and it is possible to fail at that point – if you don't do it right you will get wiped out by the wave catching you, but it’s not meant to be a challenge, it's just something you can perfect.
What's your favourite part of the game?
It's probably the flow of the game; there's something about when you've got up on the wave and you've got that sense of speed, and it just feels nice to be on the wave and perform the basic manoeuvres. When you go from there and into pulling off a couple of tricks, and one trick feeds into the next, it just feels nice to play. That’s cool in any arcade sports title.
Will it be as fun in single player mode?
It's hard to say. There's the immediate competitive multiplayer, and then there's the leaderboard stuff which is included in our single-player events. I think for those that get really into the game I think it'll be the leaderboards and the multi-player that keep people coming back. You log in and see your friends have beaten you in your favourite event by 100 points, you want to get in there and take that back. Outside of that, just those 45 events and going through that and nailing all the challenges will be what most people enjoy.
Anything else?
We also have a customisation system, which is quite cool – you pick your t-shirt and you can layer different masks on it, change the colour and design your own stuff so your surfer is a bit more unique, some of the stuff you can get out of that system is... interesting! You can change outfits, so you could have tops, shorts, sweatsuits and your board can all be customised and painted in your style.
Heading to PS4, Xbox One and PC, Surf World Series will be available to buy later this year. For more games coverage, follow @RedBullGames on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
