Tony Hawk Ride Preview

VideoGamer.com: You'll be able to play as your Mii in the Wii version. Will we be able to use our Avatars in the Xbox 360 version?

PD: We haven't investigated that yet. Avatars were new and came out when we were already down the path of development for our game, so... maybe later.

VideoGamer.com: There are quite a lot of critics of Nintendo Wii waggling gameplay. What have you done to improve these critics' perception of motion gaming?

PD: I would say a lot of the motion gameplay, a lot of them build the hardware after the software is already there. We had a peripheral and we made this thing from the ground up. We prototyped tons and tons of different iterations of any kind of mechanics we wanted to on this thing, which is the same thing you do as a developer on the software side. So we were able to iterate on this while iterating on the software. If you're going to make a unique gameplay experience and you're going to use a motion controlled peripheral, then that software better be made after you already had that thing created. A lot of them are just after market products. They don't take advantage of what the peripheral does and the peripheral doesn't take advantage of what the software can do.

VideoGamer.com: The Wii Remote has smashed televisions, lamps and hospitalised people, and it's a six inch piece of plastic. What is a full size skateboard going to be capable of?

PD: Initially we were curious ourselves to see what people were going to do. We haven't had any injuries in the office at all. We haven't had anyone fall off the board. It's only two inches high. You can step off at any time. If people get crazy with it then people get crazy with it. We recommend that you don't actually do kick flips and heel flips and ollies and stuff. To play our game you don't have to get crazy. So, don't go crazy!

VideoGamer.com: With peripherals like Project Natal and others on the horizon, do you think there's a possibility that peripherals like the skateboard will have to step aside and make way for completely controller-less gameplay.

PD: Project Natal is interesting as far as the whole gameplay experience about it and just me controlling everything. We investigated that stuff and it is a ways out. But as far as the technology goes, we like that the board gives you feedback. When I'm standing on the board and I'm doing a manual and both my feet are on it and I'm feeling the sensation of the board and when I'm tilting I feel something that's moving underneath me, well you can't get that kind of experience just reaching out and grabbing things because I'm not reaching out and grabbing anything. I'm not lifting something or tilting something. The feedback you get while you're standing on the board is definitely something that's unique and adds a lot to our gameplay experience. The combination of the two would probably be way, way into the future. I think that would be more of the thing to look at.

VideoGamer.com: You're not worried then that Natal and the like will overshadow what you guys might bring out with the skateboard in the future?

PD: Not really. We'd be excited to use that technology. If we get a title and then we look at the gameplay experience we want to create, the art style, the control scheme and everything, and it comes together, and the board is the best way to handle that or we need to create something new to handle that, whatever works to make the best product.

VideoGamer.com: Why do you think it's taken so long since the days of the arcade Top Skater for us to finally be able to play games on a board?

PD: If you've ever seen Top Skater, you've seen that thing, it's a big, huge thing. It has handles. The easiest thing is the technology is finally here. Cell phones, everything has accelerometers in it. So we just put two accelerometers in here, infra reds. The technology has come down in price, that makes something like this accessible. We're seeing the benefits of taking a gameplay experience and bringing it out with a peripheral or some other control scheme that's different from what people have been used to.

Tony Hawk: Ride is scheduled for release on December 4 for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.