In a recent interview with Red Bull, Roll7 co-founder and director Simon Bennett talked about how the indie skateboarding game OlliOlli almost never came to be.
Bennett revealed that during a pitch meeting with Sony, Roll7 almost did not show Shahid Ahmad, Director of Strategic Content at Sony, the game at all. It wasn’t until a Roll7 director “literally kicked John Ribbins (Roll7 creative director) under the desk” and told him he should show the game that it was pulled out from under a pile of other games and presented to Ahmad.
So we showed it to Shahid Ahmad, the head honcho for anything indie at Sony, and he sat there and played it for about half an hour during the meeting, disengaged with any of the conversation, put it down, turned to us and said ‘Right that it’s. Let’s do it. Let’s make it for Vita, it’s perfect.’
Bennett continues by saying that he and his team had no idea on how to develop games for the PlayStation Vita; but, as we all know, it eventually worked out and OlliOlli became a hit on PS4, PS3, PS Vita, PC, and Mac. OlliOlli 2 is expected to come out sometime next year as a time exclusive for the PS4 and PS Vita.
Are you a fan of OlliOlli? Did the story of how it came onto Sony platforms surprise you at all?
[Source: Red Bull]
