The problem is when you do that without restraint, when you give too much of yourself to your work, you won’t realise the damage that you’re doing to your physical and mental health until it’s too late. Burnout doesn’t happen overnight. When you let your passions burn for too long, eventually the fire will go out. And when all you’re left with is ash and smoke, you’ll wonder what it was that you loved in the first place. OlliOlli World is not a game about crunch. Roll7’s colourful and innovative return to the skateboarding genre does not have lengthy debates on the intrinsic relationship between creativity and burnout. But it is a remarkable success story, one born from a studio coming to terms with its own relationship with crunch, taking the time to recover, and coming back to find that there’s a better way.


LASER FATIGUE The game is Roll7’s first full release in four years – and seven years since the last game in the series, OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood. But the best way to understand OlliOlli World lies outside of its franchise. The story of OlliOlli World’s development begins with Roll7’s previous game, their 2018 title Laser League.


April 2022 MCV/DEVELOP | 57


“We had an interesting period after finishing Laser


League,” says Roll7 Tom Hegarty. “We were really pleased with how the game turned out, but the process to get there was fraught. You know, we openly admit it: We were crunching. We thought that was part of what you had to do. “We got to the end of that process and had to ask ourselves some hard questions – because we should have enjoyed that process, we’re making video games.


OlliOlli World, as you might have guessed, introduces a colourful new world and wacky characters to the franchise


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64