#Skate 4’s development is beginning to take shape

Skate 4 doesn’t look like much in some pre-alpha footage that leaked earlier this week. But looks are deceiving, and fans of the series began immediately recognizing the fun DNA that has always made the series work. And that extends to those who have played it.

In addition to verifying the pre-alpha footage, I’ve also heard some of the results of recent playtests for the game. The big takeaway is that Skate 4 is already a ton of fun. Everyone who walks away from the game agrees that it’s already a great skating game. But on top of that, EA is already putting some key features into place.

Those core elements include deep customization features. Multiple people have told me that the Skate development team is going for something in line with modern multiplayer games. Think of Forza’s robust customization tools — so even if you’re driving the same car as everyone else, yours can stand out. EA seems likely to rely heavily on user-generated content for these customizations — but I will speculate that it may also have premium skins that you can buy.

And what is the point of those customizations? Well, that’s the other standout feature from early playtests: community free building/skating. Players can set up a server and then anyone on that server can begin adding and removing skatepark elements. The idea is to hang out with your friends and just lay down tricks. And as you come up with a “wouldn’t it be cool if…” scenario, someone can immediately begin setting that up for everyone to play around with.

Of course, players will also have a fun open-world city to explore. In fact, EA is using “Fun City” as the name for Skate 4’s locale. As you skate along this large open space, you will come across a variety of missions. Those include races, doing weird stuff off of your board, or running through a list of tricks.

But even with all of these features slotting nicely into place, Skate 4 is still a long way off. EA is giving the dev team time to experiment and prototype. That hope at the publisher is those efforts result in something special for Skate fans.