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Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
In 2006, I earned a Design Co-op position at Vicarious Visions. I had the amazing opportunity to work on-site, full time, as a member of the design team for Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam DS!
As I earned the trust of my team, I was given a lot of responsibility - including my own tasks and the creative freedom to execute them! Below are some highlights of my work.
> Visit the Downhill Jam Online Community
As I earned the trust of my team, I was given a lot of responsibility - including my own tasks and the creative freedom to execute them! Below are some highlights of my work.
> Visit the Downhill Jam Online Community
Game Story
One of my tasks was to take the first pass at developing the story of Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam. I knew that players would be skating around the world in a variety of downhill competitions, unlocking new playable skaters along the way. Here's the story arc I came up with:
Tony Hawk "gets served" in the first cut scene - a rival skater who's a pro in the downhill skating circuit challenges Tony Hawk to gather a skate crew, and try to defeat him in races around the world. In each new location, Tony Hawk would convince top downhill skaters to join his crew.
From here, other members of the development team got involved to flesh out the story with me. A team including writers, designers, producers, and artists developed a villain named Antonio Segul, his wacky, washed up 80's skate crew, and tons of clever scenarios and dialogue!
Dialogue Quips
I loved writing the in-game dialogue quips for all the skaters. I got to put my feet in the characters' shoes and come up with the taunts and cheers they'd say on the downhill circuit!
- Skater passes opponent
- Skater is passed
- Skater bails
- Skater approaches opponent
- Skater gets big air
- Skater wins / cheers
- Skater is on home turf
- Skater on character select
My favorite line was one I wrote for Tony Hawk:
"Hi, I'm Tony Hawk - Pro Skater!"
When recording, Tony caught the joke (the old Tony games were called Tony Hawk's Pro Skater) and his chuckle can be heard in game on the character select screen!
"Move it or LOSE it!"
"I am the KING of cool!"
"You're in Segul Territory - cacaw!"
"Calculate my score,
I'm too cool for school!"
"This is where the flock learned to fly!"
"You want to race ME?
Puh-leeeeeezzzze!"
"You may be fast, but you're no Segul!"
"Join my... Flock of Skaters!"
"Tony Who?
It's all about Antonio Segul!"
100 Downloadable Goals
One feature that I loved from Tony Hawk's American Sk8land was initially cut from the scope of Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam! The feature was additional downloadable content - extra challenges that players could find online by connecting to Nintendo Wi-Fi.
I wrote up a realistic proposal and a convincing argument for why this feature should be put back into the game. I also offered to build all one hundred downloadable goals myself!
The feature was approved, and I went to work!
I wrote a bonus story following the events of Downhill Jam's World Tour. This involved skating around the world in eighty days with Antonio, and a fun series of Uphill Jam challenges.
I also made the goals accessible to everyone:
Fifty goals were balanced to be fairly easy, giving players of all skill levels access to bonus content. The remaining fifty goals were VERY hard, giving the best skaters a real challenge!
The feature was approved, and I went to work!
I wrote a bonus story following the events of Downhill Jam's World Tour. This involved skating around the world in eighty days with Antonio, and a fun series of Uphill Jam challenges.
I also made the goals accessible to everyone:
Fifty goals were balanced to be fairly easy, giving players of all skill levels access to bonus content. The remaining fifty goals were VERY hard, giving the best skaters a real challenge!