Roller Champions is coming to PS4 (and PS5 via backwards compatibility) on May 25, offering fast-paced, competitive, free-to-play matches in which you can rise to legendary glory sport. Its roller skating arena action is based on three simple rules: catch the ball, do a lap while your team owns it, and score!
To better understand the game, its origins, and its gameplay decisions, we spoke with Gauthier Malou, creative director of Roller Champions.
The beginning of the gladiator
“Mixing is at the core of Roller Champions, and that’s especially true when it comes to its origins, combining inspirations as diverse as an arcade game and an incestuous movie from the 70s,” Malou said. Prior to Roller Champions, Malou was part of a small team at Ubisoft with two missions: creating free-to-play mobile games and monitoring the market to observe its trends. It was during this time that his team noticed that “the market was moving increasingly toward the interaction between players, spectators, and organizers,” he recalls, citing examples like Twitch and other media outlets. e-sports competition.
“Streamers were like a Roman emperor who had to entertain the crowd, and the more the game was watched, the more viewers asked the streamers to replay the game,” Malou said. there. So, at first, we thought of a classic gladiator game with swords.”
But the team wanted to approach the idea in a unique way, and that’s where Malou flashed his inspiration: Rollerball, one of his favorite movies from the ’70s. Depicting a dystopian world in which corporations take over and create scenes to satirize the masses, the film is violent and dark – but that’s not what drew him to it.
“The fact that this movie features rollerblading fighters in a circular arena, like Ben-Hur, is an original approach,” he said. “The inline skate is based on physics and inertia – it gives us a fun game where we will push each other, knock each other down.”
Of course, the colorful and dynamic Roller Champions is nothing like the dark and cruel world of Rollerball. Instead, the team began working on creating a prototype in a rollerblading arena that puts competition at the heart of the game while remaining fun and inclusive.
By combining football, basketball, handball, roller derby and several other sports, the team has created a completely unique sport. With no guns, cars, or power struggles, Malou explains that Roller Champions is a “genderless, testosterone-free game, and it’s also an ultra-modern way, in my opinion, because roller skates are an eco-friendly way to reclaim concrete cities. ”
But competition is still a core part of it. “We have always believed in the strength that comes from confrontation. Malou said. “And to confront good values and fair play, we created a sport.”
Have fun watching it
While researching the details of this new sport, the team followed a clear, central principle: the game must be as enjoyable to watch as it is to play and a person who doesn’t know the rules of the game should be able to enjoy the action. just by watching the players move on the track.
During development, Malou found creative ways to check if the game was on the right track. “I showed my mother a game when she didn’t even know what the game was,” he recalls. “She was like, ‘Oh, he’s good because he does the upside down and falls on his feet so well. Ah, he sucks because he fell on his ass. ‘ Without understanding the rules, she was able to enjoy the game.”
These characteristics of the game – instantly accessible, easy to understand and fun – are important not only to the gameplay, but also to the fact that the game is free. Malou notes that Roller Champions may seem complicated at first; The game introduces a whole new sport and players will need to learn everything.
“However, our strength,” he said, “is the instant joy that comes when people pick up the controller to try it out.” The price tag creates a barrier to entry, Malou says, but free means “just try it and get it”.
But while the game is instantly understandable and fun, that doesn’t mean it’s simple. The basic concept – picking up the ball, making a round with it, and scoring a goal – is amplified by moves that can be combined to create exponential possibilities.
“What gives a lot of variety is the fusion aspect,” says Malou. “Kick right after you jump, jump again when you are in the air, do a double dodge, do a pass when you are just falling.”
The same combo concept applies to many of the game modes the team is testing. “Example: hot potatoes,” says Malou. “It’s exactly one game, but if you don’t make a pass after five seconds, the ball explodes in your hand. And that game mode can be combined perfectly with the 2v2 game mode.
“Every time we add more game modes, the number of possible combinations grows exponentially,” says Malou.
Superstars
Although the development team has been experimenting with other combinations, the main game mode will always be 3v3. “We want the players to feel like superstars,” said Malou, “so everyone has a chance to shine, to have a moment of glory, to be cheered on. We are keeping it as intimate as possible in terms of player count. “
To emphasize the idea that the players are celebrities, there are no classes in the game; Everyone gets the same equipment and equal opportunities. “Those are really players with their stories and abilities,” noted Malou, “so if you want a good defender on your team you should hire a player who is a good defender. The players are the champions, not their characters.”
Map design is another gameplay decision that puts the focus on the player. “The game does not have a large map with hundreds of players. Instead, it’s very intimate,” says Malou. To add effect to its small size, the map is also fully visible; Its center wall is transparent to always draw the audience’s attention on the champions.
To ensure that the audience has the same experience, the team has also reduced the number of subjective elements in the game as much as possible. For example, players will not see their opposing team as red; Teams are neutral, yellow and blue. By removing this opposing element, the development team was able to ensure that the audience appreciates the player’s skill more than the clash between the teams.
“Everything is conceived so that the audience sees the same things, because then they share the same experience,” says Malou. “There’s a sense of community, because they’re talking about the same thing at the same time.”
Roller Champions launches for free on May 25th for PS4 and can be played on PS5 via backwards compatibility. Get ready to put on your skates and bounce to glory – superstars await!
