How roll7 made a game that was nearly impossible to beat

[Administrator]

Dubbing the PlayStation Vita's OlliOlli one of the games of the year might not be saying much when we're only a couple of months in, but I'm fairly certain it'll retain that accolade for me when 2014 is out. A deliciously tactile 2D skater that winds score attack around a set of polished trick mechanics and neat level design, it's the kind of game that can consume entire lazy winter weekends.
It's something in the gentle balance of learning as you glide through the opening amateur levels, and in the steely challenge of perfecting the pro levels to unlock the ferocious high-tier 'rad' challenges. They're so ferocious, in fact, that there was a time when developer roll7 feared they couldn't be beaten.
"There's a box you have to tick when you submit the game, and it says have you played the game 100 per cent all the way to the end," roll7's director Tom Hegarty tells us in their New Cross studio. "And I think the first time we submitted we hadn't actually completed rad mode. We were really worried that we'd submitted a game, and ticked that little box...."
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