Welcome back to The Weekly Grind, San Vanners! Let’s roll!
What’s going on?
Season 5 kicks off next Tuesday! Dive into the blog, get ready for S.U.M.R. Camp, Player-created Spot Battles, Underflips, Improved Footplants, and more. Check out the interview below with Brad and Elliot from the World team to get more details on S.U.M.R. Camp.
X Games San Van leaves next Tuesday, so this is your last week to get your X Coins and score those X Games San Van rewards to be the legend you are. Hit the X Games San Van blog if you need a refresher, and get out there and shut it down.
On Sept 8, the Stadium will go back to the San Van Open design. We've heard the feedback on loving the X Games San Van design, so keep sharing your thoughts as we continue to work on the game.
Don’t forget: Keep sharing your bugs/issues so we can squash ‘em flat.
Let’s dive right into the calendar.
The Weekly Grind returns (that’s today!)
New Weekly Tasks (also today!)
S.U.M.R. Camp Interview with Brad and Elliot
X Games San Van Week 6 with Open Access (July 21 - Sept 8)
Update 0.32.0 Notes (Sept 7)
Update 0.32.0 Goes Live and Season 5 Launches (Sept 8)
The Weekly Grind Interviews
Underflips
What other types of interviews would you want to see? Let us know - gameplay, tricks, world design, etc.
We’re back with Brad and Elliot (our World Art Director and World Design Director) to talk about Super Ultra Mega Resort (S.U.M.R.) Camp.
How did you guys take the legendary flow of iconic spots like the Hawaiian Dream, The Quarry, and Skate 3's Super Ultra Mega Park, crank it up for this new S.U.M.R. Camp Mega Park, and inject those classic vibes to keep everyone's playstyle feeling absolutely fresh?
Elliott: One thing we decided when we first began ideating this space was to make it a destination rather than just a spot. We went back and evaluated all the Mega Parks from previous games and found that one thing they did well was anchoring to a specific theme and setting. Another thing they all shared was a pretty clear golden path through them. So that's where we began. Establishing a theme and setting, and making sure we focus first on the main path down the mountain, ensuring it's easy to read and follow for the full ride. After that, as the theme evolved, we layered in branching elements that are both easy and hard to spot, allowing players to explore as much of the space as possible from all kinds of creative directions.
Brad: If you look at each of those classic locations, they are all insane skateable places that are grounded in some kind of locational fiction that makes them somewhat believable. We wanted to do the same thing again, but create a megapark that was even bigger and more over-the-top. The trick was to find a reason for a park like this to exist- so pretty early on, the big question became "WHAT IS IT??". We ended up finding great inspiration in mountain bike/ ski hills. They feature Nature, Downhill, Jumps, Flow, and Branching paths. So we created a hybrid of traditional megapark structures and a downhill mountain bike park. Once we had this core concept, the gameplay and visuals all started to fall into place.
Leaving the poured concrete behind for S.U.M.R. Camp's organic, wood-built aesthetic is a sick switch-up. What drove the decision to go with a more natural vibe?
Brad: We wanted to create a space where players could escape the city and experience something fresh. It’s that feeling of getting out into nature—going for a hike or camping—a chance to get away from all the noise, just to reset and realign yourself. Also, if I'm being honest, having lived in the Pacific Northwest my whole life, I absolutely love this biome, so selfishly, I wanted to share it with others!
In doing this, we wanted to be really careful not to make it feel like our park was stomping on the natural environment. Early on, we found ourselves basically deforesting the whole side of the mountain to cover it in concrete and skate park elements. It just felt like a clear-cut forest, so we went back and added a bunch of the trees back in. Then, we started incorporating more natural materials, like wood-slat ramps and using log-built structures to hold them up instead of just building massive concrete structures. It ended up feeling much more integrated with nature.
How did the Worlds and Gameplay teams collaborate to ensure that high-speed grinds and gaps feel buttery smooth across a fully connected, massive downhill mountain zone compared to traditional, segmented skateparks?
Elliott: One of the harder aspects of building this kind of thing was working at such high speeds. It's the highest speeds we've ever tried to play with, and so that was kind of new territory for us. The Worlds team needed to work closely with the gameplay teams to fine-tune aspects like physics, camera, and high-speed grinding. Some of them are subtle enough that you might not notice right away, but it's the way all the elements work together that makes the experience so fun and exhilarating. There is quite a bit of back-and-forth ideation on solutions throughout this map’s development, as we on the world design team continue to test constantly to make each small and big idea work as consistently as we want it to.
Skate 3’s Mega Park had those massive, obvious transfers, but this new one has hidden lines everywhere! How did you approach burying those sneaky gaps for players to hunt down?
Elliott: Well, one thing Super Mega Ultra Park from Skate 3 did really well was hinge its layout on a switchback design. Doing this allowed for some interesting lines to form naturally when facing the switchback straight down. So we used that as a starting point to design our version of a Mega Park destination, as we felt we could translate it well into a larger-scale mountain setting. We want players to constantly ask, “If I go off here, where could I land?” With our layout being quite long and large, we created a waterfall running down the center to help players landmark the space and create really interesting over-the-top gameplay along the main switchback path.
The hangout spots scattered around the mountain have that perfect DIY, community-built energy. What past Skate vibes inspired those chill zones?
Brad: Because nothing quite like this exists in real life, we needed to find some ways to anchor skate culture into it. To do this, we did a bit of "what if" type of thinking- as in "what if the skate community inherited this downhill mountainside training facility?" The community would probably bring a lot of DIY, similar to what you see in real-life community-built skate parks like Burnside. Along with this would come all the little community hangout spots you find around the map.
Elliott: We also wanted to keep in mind the social possibilities of our game. We want players to find great spots to hang out with both large and small groups. Dressing them up to make them a pleasant place to hang out, or a spot with a beautiful view of the park and the players, was really fun to do.
Over 30 different paths down the mountain is mind-blowing! Did watching how the community shredded Hawaiian Dream and The Quarry help map out all these crazy new routes?
Elliott: Oh, for sure! One thing we liked about Hawaiian Dream is its “destination” mood, and it's an area that really pays off for exploration. We looked at it from a top-down perspective and played a bunch of “what ifs” to help us get inspired about where we wanted to take our Mega Resort.
Also, in all honesty, I'm not even sure there are only thirty paths down the mountain. As usual, I'm sure our players will show us something we never imagined possible.
Brad: Watching how creative players got with locations from all the skate games - old and new - absolutely motivated and inspired us to make something that will give them a ton of opportunities to find their own lines!
That’s it for this Dev Interview, so roll on Sept 8! We can’t wait to see you shredding the trails in S.U.M.R. Camp when it drops Sept 8th* for Season 5, whether you’re kicking it at Campers Glade, the Fishing Hole, checking the sights on the Nature Walk, or tearing it up in the Squatch Chilling Park, Tube Mountain, or Upper Ramps. *Season 5 skate.Premium Pass holders can access S.U.M.R. Camp early, from Sept 8 until Oct 6, 2026. From Oct 6 to Dec 1, those without skate.Premium can grab a 24-hour day pass via the Water Taxi to S.U.M.R. Camp for 500 Rip Chips (earnable through completing Challenges and Bounties).
We wanted to share a few pieces of content that caught our eye. Remember: if you want to be featured in The Weekly Grind, make sure to share yours (screenshots, videos, clips) via skate.reel.
Construction foreman taking a breakin' break. Credit: RICHIEBEAR
Now you're just making things up - crooksmith. Credit: nora
First hippie flip for dot.echo (give it up, y'all!)
Part of The Weekly Grind will be dedicated to sharing the current Known Issues the team is tracking, any active deployments/fixes, and next steps.
Fixed an issue where performing a footplant would cause a one-foot grab to be added to future scoring sequence.
Fixed an issue where boards were clipping through Hedgemont ledge in M-corp Plaza.
Fixed an issue where Gap Distance was not registering correctly in Block Parties.
Fixed an issue where the "Add EA Friend" option would be missing when using the "Find Skaters" feature.
Fixed an issue where teleporting to a spectated player could cause an infinite loading screen.
Fixed an issue where Block Party rounds would count sequences started before the round.
Fixed an issue where Dark Lipslides were not counting towards "Any Slide" objectives.
Fixed an issue where an Own The Lot could have an All Players objective for only one player.
Fixed an issue where launching the game would change display modes causing a black screen on some PC setups.
Fixed an issue where Block Party UI elements would disappear after returning to session marker.
Fixed an issue where the "Total Airtime with Grabs" task was counting sequences with grabs and not airtime.
Fixed an issue where you could see through your skater's legs when wearing Ripped Jeans.
Fixed an issue where some gesture animations would stop playing in the Co-op celebration screen.
Fixed an issue where equipped stickers would obstruct Board Art previews in the Shop and skate.Pass.
Fixed an issue where doing a spin then late body flip would cause the skater's orientation to snap.
Fixed several issues where the skateboard's wheels would get caught on the lip when landing in transition.
Fixed cases where the skateboard would get bumped out of grinds, especially when going fast.
Fixed an issue where the flip trick after finishing a grind would skip frames.
Fixed an issue where low nollie pop-shuvits would push the skater to the side.
Fixed an issue where the skater's feet would sometimes sink into the board after a running mount.
Fixed an issue where Runouts could occur from a Coffin.
Fixed an issue where scoring for Judo and BS Footplants were swapped.
Fixed an issue where high-speed grinds could cause the wrong grind type to be detected.
Fixed several cases where the skater's feet would clip through the board during a trick.
Fixed some visual issues with mounts and dismounts.
Fixed an issue where Stalefish Grabs were incorrectly called Stale Grabs in Skatepedia.
Fixed an issue where the report confirmation screen would always display "Inappropriate Name" regardless of the selected report reason.
Fixed an issue where an unblocked user could not be re-added as friend.
Fixed an issue where owned items would not display a check mark in the Store.
Fixed an issue where the Comms radial menu would not remember the last selected tab.
Fixed an issue where the neighborhood info panel would not correctly display a max level neighborhood.
Fixed an issue where disabling subtitles would hide the Character Icon and Skip Button functionality in Cinematics.
Fixed an issue where the Challenge Player Visibility setting would not follow the party leader's setting when in a party.
Fixed an issue where the compass would show an incorrect neighborhood level after completing a challenge.
Fixed an issue where a ground seam in Stadium caused skaters to float and forced unwanted bails.
Fixed an issue where flags were unintentionally floating in South Hills, Isle Of Grom.
Fixed a typographical error on Billboard in Steamer's Reach (Brickswich.)
Fixed an issue where skaters couldn’t climb the top of the ramp using the Climbing bar or ledges in the Market Mile Community park.
Fixed a section of the floor, pavement, and foliage in Brickswich that was hovering above the ground and clipping through the skater.
Some Players are unable to export in MP4 Format.
Workaround PC ONLY: Using WebM format when exporting works.
Changing the graphics preset doesn’t update the settings shown at the bottom of the Graphics screen as it should.
Tailslides and Noseslides are not correctly detected when approaching a ledge from its end.
Wallride detection often causes skater to flip unnaturally.
Smith to Tailslide task often fails to register when done correctly.
X-Games Intro Video, Mission, Tasks and Challenges are missing on first login.
Quick Ollie/Nollie into No-Foot Grab causes leg clipping with board.
Some flip trick animations appear different in the Replay Editor when done by other skaters.
Some specific landing animations make the skater's upper body snap upright immediately.
Game intermittently fails to enter Quick drop mode from the radial menu
Workaround: Hold D-Pad Left as a shortcut to enter Quick Drop mode.
Traffic and Pedestrians are sometimes Present During Challenges.
Workaround: Turn off Challenge Player Visibility in Settings.
Switch or nollie 360 inward heelflip rotates the skater if PS5 power saving is enabled.
Workaround: Disable Power Saver for skate.
Skater spawns off-board and camera tracking freezes when resetting Session Marker set at a ledge in drop-in position.