OS: First off, let’s talk about the over-arcing vision for Infinite Air. Where did the idea come from?

Peter Garcin: For us we wanted to make the most authentic snowboarding experience ever. Most of the previous games in this genre have either been full-on arcade racers, or straddled the line between arcade button-mashers and sims. We wanted to make something authentic that captured the spirit of the sport, the skill involved in the sport, and the culture around the sport. So that was super important for us as the core vision for the game. And when we had the opportunity to deliver not just a game that hasn't been done before, but work with a world class rider in Mark McMorris - it just made total sense to us.

OS: People are obviously familiar with The Golf Club and how customizable it was, how customizable will the experience in Infinite Air be?

PG: Infinite Air really does pick up from The Golf Club and extends that level of customization into the world of mountains and parks and resorts. Anyone who's familiar with the editor in TGC will be totally at home in the Infinite Air editor - but we've just tried to cater it to the play style of a snowboarding game. So we've focused on making getting in and out of the editor much faster - so that you can easily drop a ramp or rail on a line you like without having to leave the game. You'll have the ability to sculpt the landscape, but also build lines inside that landscape - so whether that's your own Big Air setup, or a Slopestyle course, or just your own park nestled in a secret bowl in the backcountry - it's totally up to you.

The Golf Club, the previous HB Studios Project.

OS: Again, hearkening back to The Golf Club — the gameplay was unapologetically sim. It also featured uniformity amongst player characters with no attributes — so everyone was competing on a level playing field. Is that entire approach something you are bringing to Infinite Air?

PG: Absolutely - that same approach is fundamental to the approach to gameplay in Infinite Air. No attributes, level playing field, skill-based gameplay that is realistic and physics driven. It's not a combo-masher, you perform the tricks by manipulating your body and board through space. It's incredibly satisfying to land tricks in this game - and you really can't go back once you've tried this style of gameplay.

OS: Let’s talk about the game modes within Infinite Air. What are some of the ways people will be able to play?

PG: We've got a number of styles of play - whether it's just pure open-world riding, where you can ride the chopper and drop in anywhere inside a huge mountain range, or if you want to enter authentic competitions like Slopestyle/Halfpipe/Big Air - which all feature realistic scoring and structures - then you can do that. You can ride against your friends' lines and ghosts as well - so if your friend finds some sick line in the backcountry, they can post that online, and you can both watch that line and then ride it and try to beat them. We've also got a cool challenge based mode where we're trying to bring you from being a novice rider in the game to the point where you can compete with Mark and be able to perform the big tricks in the game - and lots more that is still in development!

"It's not a combo-masher, you perform the tricks by manipulating your body and board through space."

OS: Let’s talk about the controls. With a game like Infinite Air, the controls are obviously much more important (and harder to implement) than in The Golf Club. What are some of the things you are doing to make the control scheme especially good?

PG: Controls has been like our #1 laser focus from the beginning because we knew that having killer controls was the key to the game being good. And that's why we've moved away from the memorizing combos method and towards a physics driven method that allows for deep personal expression and style in your riding.

For us, one of the keys has been keeping it consistent and simple in terms of inputs. You play the game primarily with just the analogs/triggers and then using those higher resolution inputs to manipulate your body/board. By keeping it simple, expressive and consistent across all different situations (for instance: crouch is the same controls whether you are on the ground, in the air, on a rail, etc.) - people can quickly internalize the controls, commit them to muscle memory and then really just be able to focus on expression and creativity in their riding rather than trying to remember what button combo does what trick.

Maintaining control over your character at all times, and allowing for maximum expression has been central to the approach we've taken, and we are super happy with where we've ended up. We all find ourselves playing the game here for ages just for fun when we should be going home for the day because it's just so engaging and has so much depth. There's an incredible amount of mastery and deep fun to be had with this control method - reading terrain, spotting lines, spotting landings, and understanding the mechanics of the sport all become fascinating gameplay elements that just have never been present in any other game in this genre.

I think that is going to really resonate with players - we can't wait to see what some people are going to be able to do here. You can really develop your own riding style - and I can't wait to see what the best players are able to lay down.

"There's an incredible amount of mastery and deep fun to be had with this control method - reading terrain, spotting lines, spotting landings, and understanding the mechanics of the sport all become fascinating gameplay elements that just have never been present in any other game in this genre."

OS: And on that note, what are some of the toughest challenges which have gone into creating Infinite Air thus far?

PG: Well for sure the physics/animation has been a really rewarding but challenging aspect of the game. Because it's so physics driven, and so much of how you move is procedural, finding that mix where it all looks realistic and lifelike, but you can maintain control over your character and it behaves reliably in a realistic way has been a tonne of effort - but I think it is totally on display when you play the game and it's just a totally fresh way to play a snowboarding game. And then generating the mountains - at first you think - ok, well how hard can it be? But there's so much nuance and detail in real mountains and real snow formations not just from a visual side, but from a gameplay side - how do you make things that are fun to ride and look cool? And how do you generate them in a way that is realistic? How do you generate a world that is big enough to explore that fits inside the system constraints? These are all really, really hard problems - and it's been fascinating and really interesting to explore and solve them throughout development.

OS: Last but certainly not least, is there anything you’d like people to know about Infinite Air we haven’t discussed?

PG: I think really just stay tuned - there's a lot more to share about the game, a lot more to be revealed in the coming months - we're still pre-Alpha in our development right now, so there's still a ways to go. For us, that authenticity, expression, and sharing that people came to really love with The Golf Club is the starting point for us on Infinite Air - and we're trying to bring that as well as some innovation to the genre so that Snowboarding gets a true simulation of the sport.


We'll have much more on Infinite Air as we head towards the game's launch this fall on PS4/XB1/PC simultaneously.