We got a chance to catch up earlier in the week with Telltale Games, the way cool folks behind Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People and Sam & Max. Read on to hear about how episodic gaming comes together, the struggles in bring 2D characters to 3D life, and the secrets address of Videlectrix!
Matt: Hello San Francisco Bay Area! Are Segways still banned from riding on sidewalks or is that only right in San Francisco?
Mark: I dunno. I saw some rogue Segway riders just the other day on the sidewalk, but that was not in the city. Still, I didn't want any trouble so I kept my distance.
Matt: For the legal record and to make sure this stands up in court at a later date, who are we speaking to today and what's your gig at Telltale involve?
Mark:
I'm Mark Darin, Lead designer on Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, and if anyone says differently they'll have to answer to my goon squad.
Matt: So Strongbad's Cool Game for Attractive People, whose idea was the name? It's a real mouthful to say when you go to tell someone about it, though all the news headlines pretty much write themselves which is great!
Mark:
We spent about two months tossing around names for this series, all of which had us mumbling the woes of mediocrity. Then, with only two days left before we had to finalize the name, Matt Chapman threw out that title in the middle of a conference call. It stuck, and the rest is history! So yeah, pretty much anything the Chapmans say is pure gold!
Matt: What brought Homestar Runner and Telltale together?
Mark:
Telltale is always looking for talent to partner with, and the Chapman brothers seemed like a perfect match for several reasons. First and foremost, we just love Homestarrunner.com! The characters are silly and outrageous and the stories always make us laugh (something we like to do a lot around here). Also, the Chapmans were already used to releasing their cartoons in an episodic format. They have been producing weekly web content since 2000, so they really understood what we were trying to do. We gave them a call and were happy to learn that they were fans of our work as well. When we talked to them we stressed that we really wanted to partner with them to make a game that fits their vision, not just cash in on familiar characters and throw them into a game that really didn't make much sense to that universe. This was important to them. It was a marriage made in heaven!
Matt: We've been playing the game for a while now and the dialogue really does drip with Homestar Runner style, who's been behind the writing for the game?
Mark:
We have adopted a TV-style approach to writing that allows different writers to pen each episode. The first episode, Homestar Ruiner, was written by Mike Stemmle (Sam & Max Hit the Road, Afterlife), with subsequent episodes being written by Chuck Jordan (The Curse of Monkey Island, Sam & Max Season Two) and myself (Nick Bounty games). The Chapmans have heavy input on the scripts, as well. We'll give the script the first pass and they will review it, making suggestions for changes and even rewriting some lines to make sure everything feels just right!
Matt: How do you folks go about the writing? Do you have a writing team who work over the scripts or do you just have the one funny person who no one argues with for fear of retribution?
Mark:
Since we have a veritable gold mine of funny around here, we want to exploit that as much as possible! One person is responsible for the bulk of the writing for a single episode. Along the way we have internal reviews of the script with the design team, to make sure everything is flowing smoothly and because it's always good to get some fresh eyes on the script and get some fantastic input and new funny jokes. Then it all gets sent off to the Chaps so they can work their magic on the words. It's a wonderfully collaborative effort and the results really showcase the talents of everyone involved!
Matt: Is it the same with Sam and Max?
Mark:
Sam & Max works in a similar way, except that previously we had the same team of writers working on all of the episodes, not the one lead writer per episode like we're doing in SBCG4AP. However, since this new approach has worked so well for us on Strong Bad, we may try it with the next season of Sam & Max games.
Matt: How's working with the Chapman Brothers, the creators of Homestar Runner?
Mark:
Eh, okay I guess… no, seriously, these guys are great! There is no way we could have made this game without their collaboration. They are a constant source of ideas and resources. One of the great things is that if we need an extra line for a character or want to reference some obscure thing from the web cartoon, because they work from their own studio we can get these things right away. I remember taking about the opening Videlectrix running man logo for the beginning of Snake Boxer 5 (the arcade game in Homestar Ruiner). I had said that I would like to get that guy in there, but I probably wouldn't have the time to animate him. An hour later the fully animated file of the running man was in my inbox and I was able to get it in the game. It's a very tight-knit working relationship.
Matt: In a way, this is kind of like the 40 minute TV show becoming a two hour movie, was there any urge to flesh out the characters a bit more for the extended nature of the games? Perhaps give Strong Bad a back story about a hideous childhood that explains why he is a bad ass that's told through grainy black and white flash backs?
Mark:
Nope. Giving Strong Bad a back story isn't something that felt right. We wanted to give players just enough in the first episode so that they could get to know who these characters are, but not how they came to be. Part of the attraction to Homestarrunner.com is how random and surreal it all is. Fleshing out the characters too much would break some of that absurdity. Instead we want to focus on the characters just as they are, and put them in situations that are slightly bigger than their everyday goings on. Lucky for us, even the smallest, most tedious task can quickly become a massive out-of-control catastrophe for these characters!
Matt: So on the presentation front, Strong Bad's look has stayed pretty consistent with the flash series, has that been hard to pull off? (Feel free to get waist deep in tech talk, we have towels on standby). Did you find yourself changing much for the 3D presentation? Character look etc etc?
Mark:
Making a game in a 3D engine that looks extremely similar to a simple 2D web cartoon has had its share of challenges. One of our art directors, Mai Nguyen, has some words to share on the experience:
"Obviously, it was a big challenge because in the Flash cartoons, they can cheat their proportions all they want. Character sizes were inconsistent, so we had to make decisions about sizes for each character. Also, the latest versions of the characters weren't necessarily the best for the game, which is why we ended up with Marzipan's black eyebrows instead of the more recent pink ones.
One of the more interesting challenges is that on the web cartoon, many of the characters are really only viewed from a specific set of angles. When moving to 3D it becomes evident why this is. Characters like Homestar & The Cheat have their eyes on the side of their head. It looks natural in 2D but it is extremely disturbing in 3D! Our tech engineers devised a way in which the characters are constrained to the camera in certain situations so that you rarely see those disturbing views."
Matt: Now with this series, there's some kind of element with carrying across items from episode to episode for the PC version correct? Talk us through that!
Mark:
Throughout the game, Strong Bad will be able to discover hidden costume items that can be worn in a special Photo Booth area in the game. For the PC version of the game, any items that you have unlocked in an episode will be carried over into the next episode. By the end of the season, you will have a pretty hefty wardrobe of silly costumes that you can dress Strong Bad in. These costumes can be worn for photo shoots, where Strong Bad shows off his superior style while the player takes pictures that can then be sent to friends. In Extended Play mode (a sandbox type of experience that is unlocked at the end of an episode), you can wander around the entire world in costume!
Matt: With WiiWare you don't quite have the same freedom for download size that you do on PC, have you had to make any design decisions for that?
Mark:
We kept the small file size in mind when designing, but fortunately it didn't end up having much of an impact on our original concept! The simple shapes and textures of the established Homestar universe aided in keeping the file size small and allowed us to maintain all of the gameplay elements and content that we wanted. We thought that voice files were going to be a major problem and that we might have to cut content because of it, but in the end our technical wizards were able to perform some compression magic and we were able to keep everything from the design, and even added some details (like the Awesomeness Ranking image of Strong Bad that changes as you level up).
Matt: Did those affect the PC version at all?
Mark:
Because they game was being simultaneously developed for both platforms, we didn't really have to make any sacrifices to the PC version to fit the Wii design. We knew from the start that we wanted this to be a very similar experience for both. And the fact that we didn't have to make any design adjustments to fit into the Wii file size meant that we didn't have to make any revisions to the PC version either!
Matt: What's the corporate address of Videlectrix? I want to go visit them!
Mark:
You know, we are still trying to figure that out. We tried to send them a Wii dev kit so they could keep up with our progress, but the package came back labeled NO SUCH ADDRESS. We thought "Mom's Garage" was an odd street name…
Matt: Finally, what's going on with Sam and Max Season Three? And will it be coming to WiiWare? 'Cause you know, it would be way cool if you told us! We'd send you flowers and chocolates, promise!
Mark:
Mmmm, chocolate! Mmmmm, flowers! Mmmm, Max. Sorry, what were you saying? All I can say right now is that work on Sam & Max Season Three will be starting soon. In the meantime, Wii owners should start getting psyched (do people still say that?) about Sam & Max Season One coming to retail this fall!
Matt: Thanks very much for chatting to us! Strongbad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner (SBCG4APEO:HR, can I coin that?) is out now. Is there any last wise words of wisdom you'd like to impart on us? Perhaps how we can improve our home life or get a promotion?
Mark:
No, that's about it really. Oh, wait… send me lots of money. Lots and lots of money. It won't improve your home life much, but it'll do wonders for mine!
Thanks for listening to me ramble!
Matt: Anytime!
21/08/2008
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