Before TinySkate, there was Skatedash

TinySkate didn't always look like this. It didn't even have the same name.

The first version was called Skatedash, and over a few big rewrites it went through three completely different looks before it became the chunky pixel-art skate game you can play today. Here's the whole gallery, and why each look had to go.

Look 1: the theme park

I've always had a soft spot for RollerCoaster Tycoon, so the first Skatedash looked like one of its parks: a skater rolling through Riverside Park with roller coasters looping behind him, a Ferris wheel, circus tents and a crowd cheering at the side of the track.

It was fun, and honestly pretty cute. You could already ollie, flip and grind.

But there was a problem. With all that going on, you could barely find the skater. The coasters, the wheel, the tents and the crowd all fought for your eyes, and the one thing you actually control was a small guy somewhere in the middle of it.

In a game where you have to time every pop and every landing, that's a deal breaker. So I hit pause and decided the look had to be locked in before anything else.

Look 2: the Commodore 64

Next idea: strip it all back. No roller coasters, just a plain skate park in a Commodore 64 style, with sixteen colours, dithered grass and a row of suburban houses behind the fence.

Much cleaner. Nothing was stealing the show anymore.

But the skater was still tiny. On a phone screen he was a few pixels of white shirt rolling along the bottom, and a kickflip was more of a flicker than a trick. The camera had to zoom way in, and the art had to be bigger and bolder to survive that.

Look 3: chunky arcade pixel art (today)

So the last rewrite went big: chunky arcade pixel art in the Metal Slug style I had wanted from the start. Thick dark outlines, a bright white shirt, big readable shapes, and a camera that's zoomed right in on the skater. And that's when Skatedash became TinySkate.

The rule now is simple: the skater has to pop. Every spot is built around that. The Park is a warm sunset, the Rooftops are a dark blue night, the Mall is shiny tiles and palm trees, Hill Bomb is dusk with the red bridge in the distance. They all look different, but you always see him first, and you can read every flip, grab and grind at a glance.

I made a Short about the three looks: Before my indie game was TinySkate, it was called Skatedash

Which look would you have kept: 1, 2 or 3? Tell me in the comments on the Short.

Play TinySkate free in your browser at tinyskate.com.