The developers behind Skate seem to get that skating is a style thing as much it is a lifestyle. The board itself doesn’t make the skater cool, but the bevy of customization options that’ll be present at Skate’s early access launch certainly will.
According to the latest update from its developers, customization will be a crucial part of the experience, and it’s the first thing players will do upon booting up the game. At that point, players will be able to fine tune many aspects of their avatar, such as their body shape, height, as well as tons of aspects of their face, and more.
The way that your characters moves when they’re off the board–a setting that the developers are calling Locomotion–is also customizable, and you can even select gestures, which can be done both on-and-off-board.
Naturally, players will also get to trick out their clothes and boards as well, and completing challenges and missions throughout the game will net them a currency called Rip Chips. This currency is used to buy Skate’s equivalent of loot boxes and increase what the team is calling a Rip Score, which sounds like an in-game leveling system. Raising your Rip Score will be a surefire way to keep unlocking more customization options, such as helmets, skirts, and shoes for the player, as well as trucks, stickers, and grip tape for your deck.
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Speaking of, considering Skate will be free-to-play, it will also offer players the chance to score cosmetics via microtransactions. The Skate Shop will accept the game’s premium currency, called San Van Bucks, and will be used for direct purchases, not loot boxes that leave things to chance. Alongside the shop, seasons, which are expected to run around three months at a time, and the Skate Pass should also be considered avenues by which the player can get even more cosmetics.
At the end of the update, the developers behind Skate acknowledge the possibility of sharing custom gear created by other players considering the new game’s emphasis on user-generated content. Despite this, it doesn’t outright confirm that it will be in the game, at least at launch, saying that when it has “something concrete to share, like a timeline, we’ll make sure to let you know.”
Suffice to say, there will be lots of ways to trick yourself and your board out when Skate launches and beyond. In the meantime, its most recent playtest has already surpassed a million signups, representing an early and promising milestone for the game ahead of its release into early access later this summer. Skate will be available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC, with mobile versions planned to come to iOS and Android at a later time.
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