Skate 4 — or, as the dev is calling it, skate. including the full stop — was announced a couple of years ago, and it was obvious things were extremely early in proceedings. Fast-forward to this year, and we saw some leaked gameplay, which clearly showed the game is far from done. So, what's the status right now? Developer Full Circle has released a new video to answer that question.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the long-awaited sequel is still a ways off. The video shows "pre-pre-pre-alpha gameplay", presenting the game in various in-progress states. However, it's our best look at the game yet, and while it's obviously got a long way to go, these early snippets are showing real promise.

The animation looks fluid, the tricks look cool, and clambering around the city looks like lots of fun. We really can't wait to take this for a spin ourselves, and we're sure many of you are excited too. Fortunately, Full Circle has also announced it's now accepting sign-ups for closed playtesting to help improve the game. If you're interested in that, you can put yourself forward for the Skate Insider programme on the official website. Initially, playtests will be on PC only, but they'll expand to other platforms later down the line.

There were rumours floating around that Skate was gearing up for a full reveal in July, but we suppose that's off the table now. Are you encouraged by this new look at the upcoming Skate? Crash land in the comments section below.

[source youtube.com, via ea.com]