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'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5' was designed with YouTube in mind

Secrets have always been a big part of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. However, when players get stuck trying to find Easter eggs in any game now, they don't turn to glossy strategy guides like they did in the 1990s and early 2000s -- they open Twitch or YouTube on their smartphone. Developer Robomodo had this in mind when creating Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. Lead designer Patrick Dwyer says that his team's tucked away the hidden skateboarding DVD -- a series staple -- pretty well this time around and that's a direct result of how the community responded when the studio released Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD back in 2012. "The day it came out there were videos of how to beat all of our missions," he says. "How's that possible? It's weird hiding stuff knowing that."

Dwyer says that there are aspects of the modern tech landscape that they're taking advantage of in order to make the game a bit more punishing.

"We've made challenges that are like Pac-Man: There's a certain set path to reaching a few goals," he says. "The only reason that'd fly nowadays is because people would be able to find out how to do it.

He continues: "The hidden combos? We're not telling you anywhere in the game that you can do them. It's one of those things that, the first day, the community's going to share."

In a way, Robomodo's taking the game beyond just playing it on your PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, and extending it into the real world. Now part of the game is finding the secrets first and getting them up on YouTube or Twitch before anyone else.

"[Hidden combos] are one of those things we can put in the pause menu," Dwyer says. "But isn't it cooler to let the community discover it together?"

Image: Robomodo/Activision