ing the positive reception to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, one of the questions lingering on fans’ minds was if and when they could expect a similar title for the third and fourth games. Those same fans would have to wait a little over 4 years for an answer, with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 announced in March and set for a July 11 release date.
ing a recent hands-on event where we played Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4, Game Rant sat down with game director Kurt Tillmanns at Iron Galaxy. During our conversation, we touched on what it was like for Iron Galaxy to get the opportunity to update two of the most critically acclaimed and fan-loved games in the now-legendary Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise. Much like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 aims to carefully balance what players remember with the modern flourishes they might expect from a new release, bridging two distinct eras of gaming and skateboarding culture.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 + 4's Origins
Q: What were the initial conversations like about coming to this game? Were you approached, or did Iron Galaxy reach out? How did that work out?
A: I mean, Iron Galaxy is one of the largest independent game developers, so we have a lot of irons in the fire, a lot of projects going on. It is almost kind of tough to keep track of exactly who starts the conversation. At some point, our phone rings, and it’s like, “Hey, we’re thinking about doing something. How do you guys think you would do with that?” We go, “We would do great at that. We were born for that, let’s do it.” And then, you know, it takes a long time for these things to develop, even after the conversation starts.
Q: Was it always the plan to do 3 and 4 together, or was there ever a consideration to do just one?
A: It was always considered 3 and 4 together. It was always considered as one package.
Q: In terms of combining features or bringing them from 4 back to 3, what excited the team about doing that and being able to take improvements that have been made later and include them in a previous title?
A: For us, the most exciting thing is that the games now feel better than they have ever felt. The controls are tighter and more responsive, it’s faster. The physics, to me, feel great. And Vicarious Visions on 1 + 2 did such a great job of not only incorporating a bunch of moves that were in both 1 and 2, but they added stuff that was not introduced until way later in the series, right?
Now players really have an opportunity to play through both of these tours in a brand new way. The exciting thing for us is that no one has ever played these parks with this feature set before, and we also get to put our own stamp on it, which is really exciting.
Q: What do you feel is the stamp you’ve got to put on 3 + 4?
A: For us, one of the big things is we’ve added a lot to gameplay, right? We’ve got skitching. Skitching is something that wasn’t originally introduced until Tony Hawk 4. You can now skitch in Tony Hawk 3 parks. Not only that, but skitching initially was something that really kind of ended your combo. It was a very isolated feature from the rest of the system. One of the things that we’ve done is we’ve made it so that you can more easily skitch, and you can combo into skitching. It can reset or rebuild your momentum so that you can keep combos going in and out of skitching, and it also has that high skill threshold. Skitching a lot, skitching multiple times in a combo is still something that’s going to be very difficult to master. So for us, that’s certainly one of the things.
Iron Galaxy is really at its heart, when it comes to game development, a multiplayer house. We’ve made a lot of awesome multiplayer stuff in the past, and we take a lot of pride in our multiplayer implementation. Another big thing for us is making this game crossplay across 7 platforms and really bringing it to the widest audience of gamers that has ever been able to experience it online before.
Q: Can you talk about the challenges of implementing that crossplay element, especially with accounting for different inputs and different latencies? What were the challenges involved with doing that? Was it a massive undertaking, or was it something that the groundwork had been laid for in your previous work?
A: Thankfully, we have a lot of experience doing this kind of multiplayer implementation. I think it’s one of the reasons that when I said, “Hey, we were born to do this, ”you know, it’s something that we really hang our hat on. Of course, doing crossplay across 7 platforms is certainly not the easiest thing in the world. Every platform has its own standards and its own ways that it likes crossplay to work, so you have to make sure that all functions and that everybody can talk to each other, all that kind of stuff. But yeah, it’s something that we definitely have experience with, so it wasn’t something that frightened us.
Q: Can you talk about the potential improvements that people might see from Switch to Switch 2 or maybe in a PS5 Pro version? Are there things that you’ve done that are within the same family but with a more upgraded console?
A: Sure, yeah. So on most recent generation consoles like PlayStation, you’ll be able to experience it in 120 Hz at 1080p and also in 60 Hz at 4K, so that’s really exciting. Switch 2 is going to be able to hit 60 frames per second, which is amazing. 60 FPS at 1080, which, yeah, we are very excited about. Being able to utilize the new technology is very important for us and very important for maintaining that really great Tony Hawk feel.
Striking a Balance Between Classic and Modern Eras of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
Q: I imagine when you make a game like this, there’s this idea of giving fans what they imagine the game feels like versus what it actually felt like back then. How do you give an experience that allows players to say, “This feels like how I remember it” versus “This is how it actually was back then,” even though it wasn’t the same?
A: I think one of the ways that this game is almost uniquely set up to accomplish that is that the park layouts are pretty much exactly the same as you remember them. If you had a favorite combo that you would rip off in the Foundry or College, you’ll still be able to do that, but obviously, it looks amazing now. The visuals have been upgraded. Because we’ve added a lot of these different gameplay elements to it, and a lot of that we inherited from 1 + 2, it now feels kind of like a fresh and new way of experiencing that, right? I think that is, for us, where 3 + 4 is uniquely set up to give people that feeling.
Q: When you look at a park or a specific area, are there conversations about things you’d like to change or tweak, or do you want to stay true to the purity of the original games?
A: We always want to stay true, especially layout-wise, to the original games. And then from there, we do a lot of research, right? Like, let’s actually look up feedback from these original games; were there complaints? People have been playing in these parks for 20 years now, so there’s a huge library of feedback that we have. There’s a modding community that has come in on the PC side and made changes here and there.
We have actually made some quality-of-life updates or changes to things. You’ll notice that there are grind lines potentially in places that weren’t there before, you know. Some of those things were added after the original release from the modding community, and these were things that maybe became more standard in later versions of Tony Hawk games that, it turns out, really resonated with players. Our approach to that was really trying to only make changes that were additive, right? We didn’t want to take anything away; we just wanted to give you more options.
Q: When you look at 3 and 4, are there specific elements that you felt were the most essential pieces of the experience that you wanted to preserve for the player? Or were there things you might have set up to try and make them better?
A: Mostly, we tried to stay true to the original. Some additive changes were made. The big thing for us is that, you know, the 2-minute timer is that quintessential Tony Hawk gameplay loop. Especially from this era of games, Tony Hawk 3 is still, I believe, the 7th highest-rated game on Metacritic of all time, right? So if we’re going to have a North Star for this thing, it’s like that is our North Star, and we are going to try and make sure that that 2-minute timer feels as good as it did in the original.
We’re also going to introduce that 2-minute timer to the Tony Hawk 4 parks. Early on in development, we added the goals and the 2-minute timer to the Tony Hawk 4 parks, and it just worked! It was fun. It turns out the 2-minute timer is just fun, it’s a great gameplay loop. We also gave players the option to extend that timer so if they want more time, if they want to do things at their own leisure, they absolutely can. So again, it’s more of that additive approach to things, right? Just giving players more ways to experience it.
Q: Do you feel like the extended timer is a sort of accessibility thing? Do you feel that there are other elements that you’ve added to increase the accessibility of the experience for somebody who might be coming back to the games after a long break, or help onboard those new to the Tony Hawk series?
A: Yeah, absolutely. We are really, really proud of the tutorial. Tony Hawk narrates the whole tutorial and, you know, it works. It’s a very good tutorial, it teaches you how to play. The skill ceiling for these games is still really high. Getting good takes a long time. You’re going to fail. You’re going to fall off your board. That’s how skateboarding works. That’s how the Tony Hawk games work. We definitely have added more, I think, accessibility options. Our mantra is that, whether it’s about the timer or accessibility options, there’s no wrong way to experience the game or play the game.
Some of the other things that we have are gameplay mods that will give you perfect balance, perfect skitching, and things like that. We even added something that allows you to run the game at half speed. If you’re really learning and you want to execute that special trick or you want to execute a certain trick line or something like that — or if something just isn’t working for you and you’re not sure if it’s the inputs or if it’s the layout, something like that — slow down the game, try it in slow motion, give yourself a little extra time. Those types of things, yeah, absolutely. If it increases your enjoyment of the game, who are we to tell you’re doing it wrong?
Designing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4's Newest Level: Waterpark
Q: You’ve introduced your own park. What’s that experience like of looking at Tony Hawk and recognizing the franchise and its many diverse, iconic parks, but wanting to make something that’s your own?
A: It’s incredibly exciting to introduce our own park into the franchise, and I should say “parks.” Yeah, we haven’t announced all of them yet. Waterpark is the first one that we’ve announced. You’ve hit on one of the really interesting challenges, which is that there are a lot of locations that have already been done in these games. The first thing that you have to do is think, “Where hasn’t a Tony Hawk park been set that is going to be interesting for skaters, that is going to be interesting to skate in and fit the gameplay really well?” That is the first thing we need to answer, right? Where haven’t we gone yet? Where is there room to go?
Waterpark is the first thing that we came to. If you Google “awesome skate runs over the last few years,” you’ll see skaters skating around in water parks and stuff like that, right? Doing the loop-de-loop on the funnel slide like Tony has done before. It’s like, “Cool, yeah. That’s a no-brainer. We should totally do that.” And then you need to make sure that when you’re coming up with a new layout now, these parks are made with the full suite of gameplay that has been introduced in mind. The layout for College, let’s say, was made with the gameplay that was created for Tony Hawk 4 in mind. We get to make these new parks with the understanding that we have this massive feature set now, and it’s basically a playground for players to use all of those tools.
Q: In terms of getting feedback, you mentioned talking to players and talking to fans. Do you consult with the skaters at all? Obviously Tony’s involved, but do you show them the game? Do you get their feedback as well because they’re doing it for real versus in a virtual world?
A: Absolutely, yeah. They play the game, they give us feedback, and we collaborate with the skaters on their look, their style, and their special trick. Their special tricks are something that isn’t necessarily something they’ve done in real life. It’s like a heightened version of it, like a fantastical version. Some tricks that we have are based on a trick that they might have done in real life, like Nora’s trick and Yuto’s trick. The basis of those were things that they have actually done, and we sort of translate that into the sort of superhuman skating level of Tony Hawk, right?
It’s a very collaborative process, and we get feedback from them on making sure that those tricks look authentic, they look real, and that we’re calling them the right thing. People try to do these tricks. A lot of people learned trick names from the Tony Hawk games, right? So if they try to do one of these new special tricks, they’re like, “Oh, I need my signature on that trick.”
Q: In addition to the iconic parks and the designs of the parks, one of the other elements of Tony Hawk that most people have strong nostalgia for is the soundtracks. What has that process been like of preserving the music that you know while introducing new tracks and keeping it sounding modern? How does that process work?
A: It’s a very collaborative process. There are a lot of people involved, as you can imagine. There are a lot of opinions on what songs would be good for a Tony Hawk soundtrack. We also get a lot of feedback from the skaters, from Tony. Tony is more plugged into what skaters are listening to in skate culture than we are, so we get a lot of feedback from them on that as well. The soundtrack is one of those things that is a great representation of where skate culture has come from, where it is going, and kind of has to bridge the gap too, right? It’s not just stuff that was in the original game and then stuff from 2025. It’s kind of telling a story of skate culture across the decades now.
Q: The original Tony Hawk kind of taught a lesson about music in general when it comes to licensing. What kind of conversations were there about the legacy of the game that you’re making and the licensing? Any fun stories about getting these older tracks?
A: [Laughs] I mean, I think the days of just asking someone if they want to be in a Tony Hawk game for free is over. Those days are done, you know? The big conversation is like, “Hey, what are the iconic tracks, like the trailer tracks, that we need to have in there that are going to signify to people that we absolutely are bringing back your favorite tracks.” I think that’s the big one. And then, you know, the licensing stuff. I will tell you one thing: I’m happy that I’m not involved very much in those conversations. You could leave me out of those. I get to just be like, “Yeah, that’s a good one.”
Q: When you’re creating a game like this and there’s pacing and fine-tuning of everything to consider, do you have any fun stories about nailing that feel and getting to that point of things feeling “right”? Were there maybe earlier versions where you felt like it just didn’t feel “right”?
A: One of the interesting stories from our early play test on Waterpark is we had a play tester play through Waterpark, and after the play test, they were like, “When I get home, I’ve got to look up a YouTube video of how to complete those goals because I don’t remember how to complete those goals from Tony Hawk 4.” They just fully thought it was a Tony Hawk 4 park, and that was one of those moments where we felt like, “We got it. We nailed it.” The fact that people can forget that that wasn’t part of the originals was a huge “aha” moment for us.
Q: Waterpark, like you mentioned, feels like a park that would’ve been in the original games. When you’re putting together the sightlines and the colors for these new parks, do you look at the previous games to make sure that everything fits thematically? Is there a document that outlines the rules of Tony Hawk Parks? Are there rules?
A: Man, a document is a great idea. We should have done that. Why didn’t we do that? [Laughs]
Thankfully, we have a team of Tony Hawk experts at IG who have put thousands of hours into the game. There’s a lot of care and thought and love that goes into that stuff, some of those kinds of signature things like coming up with the goals for something like Waterpark and making sure that they don’t feel too out of place next to the other Tony Hawk 4 parks. Making sure that they still have humor injected. That humor is a big part of the Tony Hawk games, so making sure that there’s still some humor in them, it’s not taking itself too seriously. That’s one thing that we obviously wanted to avoid as well. There are definitely these kinds of pillars to a Tony Hawk park that we wanted to make sure we hit.
Q: You got this opportunity to make your own park, which means you get to do the iconic things the other parks have, like the “SKATE” letters and the Secret Tape. How do you come up with where to put them?
A: That’s a great question. The “SKATE” line in Waterpark probably underwent the most iterations of any goal in the game, so yeah, very good question. Really, it’s a lot of play testing and a lot of us talking about what our favorite combo lines are. Goals like the “SKATE” goal, one of the things that they’re awesome at is really teaching the player how to play the level. Pick-ups are kind of the same thing, right? You put a pick-up in a place, you’re not sure how to get it, and figuring that out teaches you something new about the park.
So “SKATE” lines, oftentimes, the first time people go through them, they collect them and they kind of do it piecemeal. Then over time, you sort of learn, “Oh, this is all part of the same combo line,” so we have discussions about what our favorite combo lines are. What are combo lines that lead to the most interesting or highest scores? Then we kind of develop a “SKATE” line out of that.
Q: Does working with more modern hardware help with creating unique instances or unlocks, things that you might be able to do in Waterpark? Are you taking advantage of more modern technology there, or is it something that you want to keep within the realm of what the other games did?
A: Well, one of the things I can tell you is that Waterpark is probably the largest Tony Hawk park in the game. If you built it to scale, it’s probably visible from space. Not only that, but you can actually get to the top of those slides and you can see the entire park from the top of those slides. Being able to load into Waterpark and take in that entire vista is something that I don’t think could have been done back in the day, right?
Bridging Distinct Eras of Skateboarding Culture With Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4
Q: When you are playing, who’s your go-to skater, what’s your go-to park, and what is your go-to trick combo or signature trick?
A: For skater, I’ll give you a returning and a new one. For returning skater, Tony Hawk. I often joke that he’s the main character of the game, so you play as Tony Hawk. [Laughs]
For new skaters, it’s really hard to pick. It’s like picking your favorite kid. I like Nora [Vasconcellos]. Nora’s trick, her blunt side finger flip blunt side, she sent us a video of her doing something kind of like it as the inspiration for that trick, and I was like, “That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” So now being able to do that in the game, that’s awesome.
My favorite park has to be Waterpark. Yeah, it’s got to be Waterpark. We’re just so proud of it.
Q: What’s the process like in terms of adding new skaters? You’re able to tell these people, who I would assume are fans of Tony Hawk, that they get to join the roster. What is that experience like?
A: Yeah, we get to meet the skaters and spend time with them, and like you said, kind of let them know that they’ve made the list. These are people who many of them learned how to skate from playing Tony Hawk games. They learned about the culture from playing Tony Hawk games or maybe just got interested in skating in the first place from them. So it is definitely like a stamp of approval. It feels like it’s the ultimate sign of “coolness” being in a Tony Hawk game for a pro skater.
We don’t make all the calls, it’s a very collaborative thing on who gets to be there. But man, just seeing the look on people’s faces when they know that they’re going to be a pro skater in the game is priceless.
Q: How important is it to create this roster that feels diverse, one that’s broader in terms of different skaters, different eras, different age groups? How important is that in terms of giving people who are going to come to 3 + 4 as their first Tony Hawk game and having them see some representation of themselves in the game?
A: It’s incredibly important, and it’s where it’s a representation of where skate culture really is today. Rayssa [Leal] is one of the most popular skaters on social media, maybe the most popular skater on social media. In terms of popularity, she is right up there. This isn’t necessarily just about going and finding skaters from all over the world; skaters from all over the world just happen to also be the best and most popular skaters. Again, it is like a reflection of just kind of where the game is, where the culture is, and where the skill set is around the world today.
Q: What is it like to design a game where you are using a skateboard? What’s that process like? You’ve got something attached to a player-controlled character, but also it needs to obey its own laws of physics. How challenging is that?
A: I will say it is interesting because it is instantly fun in a way that I don’t think I’ve experienced in developing any other game. Spawning on your board and just moving right away, almost like an infinite runner, always having that momentum going, it just instantly engages you. You just immediately want to try to turn, grind, or do something. It just makes these games so easy to play and jump into. There wasn’t a ton of challenge around it, honestly. I won’t say it made itself, but like, the game’s fun!
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