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Downhill Jam started when Activision wished to pursue a downhill racing ‘spin-off' of sorts to the Tony Hawk franchise. Meant to be more a complement to the forthcoming Project 8 than a competitor, Downhill Jam was slated for exclusive release on Nintendo's next-generation gaming revolution, Wii. When first working with Wii, Toby worried that being forced to use the new Wii control system (as opposed to the time-tested PS2 controller) might hamper the playability of the game, even going as far as saying that higher-ups were "screwing with [our] game." In the end however, once they saw what they could do with the Wiimote, the possibilities became endless. Ideas such as flicking the Wiimote for a No Comply, or shaking the controller for boost all became great prototypes that were continuously tested.
Toby then got to tell me all the great details about making a game he was so fanatical about, and some of the interesting stories that went along with it: "I got to demo an early version of Tony Hawk [Downhill Jam] in front of Tony Hawk himself. So I would go into the character select screen and select Tony Hawk, and he's sitting right there, so I would be like ‘Would it be cool if I play you dude?' [laughter]". Working with Tony Hawk seemed to be quite the highlight for Toby on the title. Mr. Hawk would check in every once in a while when his schedule permitted, and even make suggestions and request changes be made: "If he feels like we are making an inaccurate portrayal of his character then he's gonna speak up, and really, he has veto power." This example was supplemented in Toby's talk with an example of a voice over situation with the title. Originally, the script called for Mr. Hawk to record several voice over's for when his character loses a race, one of which was "I'm gonna go home and cry on a big pile of money!" But after seeing the line, Mr. Hawk felt like that wasn't accurate to his real life persona, and thus had it changed to "I'm gonna go home and drown my sorrows." Another good example came in when Mr. Hawk tried the title for the very first time: "In the first demo session, he said "I gotta be wearing a helmet, this game is going to attract a new slightly younger audience, and kids moms are coming up to me all the time and are like ‘When are you gonna make an E rated game?' so if the audience is young, then I need to be in a helmet." He's very conscious of the fact that he's an influence."
