Hippy Skate

About

Hippy Skate is a minimalist skateboarding game built around a stripped-down control scheme. Tap the left side of the screen to move your skater forward, hold it to brake, and use the right side to crouch or perform an Ollie. The goal is to gather peace signs scattered across a looping pump track by mastering timing and momentum. The circular track design lets you retry sections mid-run without resetting, creating a fluid, endless flow. Speed and rhythm are key as you navigate hills and transitions to snag every target. The game’s physics feel distinct, thanks to a custom-built system that lets the skater’s movements respond dynamically to terrain. Animations adapt in real time instead of looping, giving the character a loose, realistic sway. While the track is simple, the challenge lies in chaining boosts and jumps to maximize efficiency. With no penalties for mistakes and a focus on pure motion, it offers a zen approach to skateboarding gameplay. Early players note its addictive pace and the satisfying feedback loop of improving personal bests.

Storyline

There's a feeling in skateboarding that's hard to describe. When you drop into a transition and roll up the walls, you're able to feel a tremendous build of energy that's a combination of muscle, gravity and momentum. It's a feeling that almost any skateboarder will confirm and understand but it’s very unrepresented in skateboarding games. With Hippy Skate, I tried to emulate, accent and simplify this mechanic. While all games are an illusion, Some games are able to achieve an authentic expression of physics that makes the player really understand and feel the movement. With hippy skate I built the rig from scratch in the engine out of primitive joints. This allowed me to let aspects of the character move and swing with the momentum at random so the animations don’t feel stiff or recycled. Also the character is programmed to animate with the environment rather than running a set animation. This makes the character look loose and realistically responsive to the environment. The explicitly nonviolent, and positive purpose of the game is to skate around collecting a set number of peace signs (like coins in most games) as quickly as possible. Gaining the speed, height, and rhythm to collect each of these peace signs is the challenge. In typical side scrolling games of this nature, a player is required to attempt the goal and if they fail the game will pause, player disappear, level rewinds and player is able to attempt again. Hippy Skate is set on a circular track called a pump track in skateboarding culture. With this type of track the player is able to attempt the goal, miss, keep moving for a quick attempt again and more flowy, endless style gameplay.