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Former Neversoft and Tony Hawk developers trying to Kickstart 'Epic Skater' for iOS/Android
Kurt Gutierrez started out working at Activision on QA for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. He was later promoted up the chain, and ended up working on Tony Hawk games as a level designer all the way up to Project 8 and even THPS: Ride.His friend Andy Gentile was also hired young as a player and fan of the series, and eventually worked on the games as a designer. After building hundreds of Tony Hawk versions together over the years across various platforms, Gutierrez and Gentile decided at one point to try and flip your normal behind-the-back 3D camera around to the side, effectively making the game into a 2.5D skating game. The two considered what the game would be like with the camera in that position, "restricted to just X/Y movement," says Gutierrez. "And we thought it was awesome. We always wanted to make a 2D slash 3D level after that."Neversoft eventually moved on to other games, but Gutierrez and Gentile have always been fans of skating games, and they've now decided (along with a few other artists and developers) to try to bring a 2.5D skating game to life as Epic Skater, courtesy of a $50,000 Kickstarter pitch.
