Skate's spots information by Full Circle's senior world builder Marilyn Macdonald
The House of Rolling Reverence (Church)
"As senior world builder I pitched a "Church of Skate" very early-on in the development of the game. This area is a shout out to real-life skaters who transform old, abandoned churches into skateparks and it came with a lot of questions. How do we handle interiors? How do we manage to build an entire cathedral with our time/technical constraints? How do we create a skatepark without each piece needing to be unique? But, it turns out if you have enough people determined to skate a church you can make it happen! The House of Rolling Reverence was almost cut more times than I can count but in the end we shipped it. I'm glad we did; it ended up being one of the most popular places to skate in the entire city. This church wouldn't exist without the expertise of brilliant level designer Claudia Paonessa who created a fully modular kit (both interior and exterior) for this building. Lyelle Bouchet worked as world builder for the interior of the church and was an incredible help with choosing reference and planning materials. World builder Kayla Todd helped me take this church to the finish line. I additionally acted as art director on this plot and had the opportunity to do the level design for the graveyard in the back. Art direction support on the interior of the church from Seb Lineage. A huge shoutout to Brad Dixon and Elliott Walton for their trust and support, who always believed that we could do hard things."
SCAF (Pyramid ledges)
"The Seaside College of Art & Fashion (SCAF) is in San Vansterdam's Brickswitch neighbourhood. As world builder and art director on this area I wanted to combine two real-life references that I felt would work really well together: NYC's beloved skate spot Pyramid Ledges and Vancouver's SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. I created the visual documentation for this neighbourhood and SCAF was its tonal benchmark. My vision for this space was to create a sense of enclosure while still offering a ton of gameplay appeal by utilizing building height variation and interconnected pathways that led to other parts of the neighbourhood. This was one of the first plots we designed for the city and it was a huge labour of love for everyone who worked on it. This plot was finished by the team at Liquid Development."
Isle of Grom
"Isle of Grom was created to give players what they'd wanted since release: a way to return to "tutorial island". To keep gameplay fresh we introduced an old spillway into the map. Because Skate is a live service game, all of the artists on Grom worked under tight time and technical constraints, but we were determined to use our sections as a way to push the game's visual quality forward. I was senior environment artist on this final part of the spillway that flows into the ocean. Materials by Tyler De Block. Environment Direction by Andre Santos"
Strand Street (Image 4)
"Strand Street was one of the most technically difficult areas we developed in Skate. Its shape was heavily based on Doyer Street in NYC which has a unique form due to the river that once ran through it. As senior environment artist I pushed our procedural building generator as far as I could, creating more than 50 buildings all with unique footprints, heights, and pattern templates. During this process it was vital for me to give feedback to the procedural team to improve the tool and pave the way for creating new neighbourhoods more easily in the future. The level design team and I wanted to use every inch of this space from the sidewalks to the roofs. This allowed us to create a grounded skating experience at street level and an over-the-top experience on the rooftops where local skaters built DIY ramps out of found materials. This plot has little pockets of storytelling where gameplay would allow it such as a community garden and a DIY movie theatre. Level Design by Andrew Barker and Kevin Okada. Additional world building support by Xavier Flibotte, Kayla Todd and Lilian Chow."
Casper Hotel (Image 5)
"The Casper Hotel is located in the historic neighbourhood of Gullcrest Village and is one of the first plots we created in San Vansterdam. As Senior Environment Artist I helped plan and build this plaza from the ground up using selected references from NYC and Chicago, Central Park's Bethesda Fountain being a major influence. Senior Level Designer Andrew Barker and I loved the idea of giving players the experience of travelling through a tunnel built directly into the hotel that led them to the seawall on the other side. I worked closely with the surfacing team providing reference and feedback in order to achieve the different styles of brick and stone used in this plaza. We often use trim to guide players through our spaces and this plaza needed a lot of it in order to achieve the flow and material break-up required to make it successful. With its unique footprint this building is deceptively complicated, the final kit was created by Ruben Tavares and executed by Lilian Chow. World building support by Stephen Dobbs. Skate is a live service, open world game currently in early access."
Lucre Financial (image 6)
"Lucre Financial Plaza is one of the largest city plots we made in Skate. I was inspired to utilize the plot's significant elevation to create a "sunken plaza" that players can access from the sidewalk as well as a tunnel network that leads you to other areas of the plot. I used a lot of different building styles here in order to reflect the history of the city (art deco and modern are a few) and to add visual contrast (I love layering brick/glass/metal). I wanted the player to feel "small" in contrast to the height and closeness of the buildings. Senior Level Designer Andrew Barker and I worked together to build every aspect of this spot. We focused on Interconnectivity as a main design principle here; with multiple entrances and exits, players can flow through the plot as they please. Figuring out the footprints and proper height of the buildings required close attention to detail as the buildings in the area were some of the tallest in the city and I wanted to ensure the skyline looked harmonious. This plot was completed by Liquid Development. A big thank you to World Director Brad Dixon who was a huge advocate for this enormous and complex plot. His guidance, reference and commitment to problem solving made this area possible."
Stalefish Brewery (Image 7)
"I was Associate World Art Director on Stalefish Beverage Co. and created all of the visual documentation that set the style and tone of the Brickswitch neighbourhood. I specifically made room in this neighbourhood for plenty of foliage, which provides beautiful colour and textural contrast to break up the brick. This design also functions as visual story-telling, imagining a neighborhood reclaimed and cared for by its new community. Affectionately known as "The Brewery", this area was designed by Claudia Paonessa and Levi Blank. Environment art was completed by Liquid Development."
You can see more images on her website (Google "Marilyn Macdonald")