SKATE STORY

Skating through a cosmopolitan hell in a stylish twist on grind culture

Like moths to a flame, humans are drawn to danger; the inherent risk of an activity only makes it more irresistible. That impulse is captured perfectly by Skate Story’s tagline. ‘You are a demon made of glass and pain’, the game’s debut trailer announces, ‘And yet you must skate’. Was that, we ask creator Sam Eng, the initial pitch for the game? Not quite, he says; the line came a little later. Then, grinning broadly, he adds: “But it’s based on a true story.”

He’s only half joking. Yes, part of the reason for creating a protagonist who reflects and refracts light – and whose fragility makes you more anxious about bailing than if you were a boring old human skater – is because it “looks really cool”. But, Eng adds, it’s also an expression of what he, a relatively inexperienced boarder, goes through every time. “Stepping on this thing makes me feel so vulnerable – like I’m about to shatter into a million pieces.”