Brutal Legend

Here is the second part of our interview with Brutal Legend’s Tim Schafer. Let’s jump right in!

Q: Can you talk about the development lessons you learned on Psychonauts and how that impacted the design and development of Brutal Legends?

A: Psychonauts was kindof developed like an adventure game way. Where we built alot of assets, alot of worlds, built a lot of environments and we built alot of characters. Then on the last minute just pull it all together and make it work. OMG it didn’t work and we’re out of time, so we had to start over on some stuff. Really took a more character centered approach with Brutal Legend where we started with Eddie. We just built Eddie and said what is the central thing for Eddie to do? It’s for Eddie to walk around while playing heavy metal music and swinging his ax around. We just got that working. So we immediately had Eddie and his ax fighting some enemies. That basic visceral feeling of being in a heavy metal world doing ax combat. Then we had the car and you could drive your car over dudes and swing your ax around. That’s when we knew we had something cool.

Q: What was it like working with Jack Black and did you know from the start that you wanted him cast as Eddie Riggs or were there other possibilities?

A: We never thought that we would get Jack Black. I wanted to make a game Jack Black would like. I really thought his sensibility and taste in the school of rock of just like, on the one hand, there is alot of ridiculous stuff in his movies kindof making fun of him and rock itself and the excesses of it. But also obviously done with tons of love. They really love the stuff they are doing. They aren’t just kidding. The whole idea of the awesomeness and the ridiculousness of rock at the same time was something that Jack would tap into. While making this game I hoped that Jack Black plays it because I heard he was a gamer. We thought of him while making the character. We made him look a little bit like Jack, little bit maybe like Danzig too and made him expressive like Jack. When we heard that Jack had played Psychonauts and that he likes Psychonauts we’re like woah maybe we should try and get in touch with him and offer him this thing. We got a meeting with him and I brought down the concept art and laid it out on the table and he said let’s do it. I knew we were making the right kindof game because Jack Black liked it. Working with him was great, he’s a crack up in the studio and a very nice guy.

Q: As a metal fan, what excited you the most about this project?

A: Well alot of different things. I’ve always wanted to do a proper visualization of the fantasy described by heavy metal. I didn’t think the rock videos of the 80s really did it because they didn’t have the budget. I want to create one of these fantasy worlds that is being described in the songs and that you see on the album covers. I want to make a whole world done really elaborately and done really truthfully and let the player walk around in that and have adventures in that. I think we’ve pulled that off and I’m really happy about that. I’m also really excited about people maybe who don’t really like metal, it’s an action game, that has strategy, has a lot of humor, and has alot of entertainment value outside the music. The world of heavy metal makes a cool background to all your adventures. I think that by the end of the game, they’ll have been exposed to so much music that they’ll become heavy metals.

Q: What is your favorite band outside of heavy metal and did any band outside of heavy metal have any influence?

A: I think it’s really about metal. I listen to all kinds of music. Heavy metal is the only one that has lore in their lyrics. There was pressure to include different genres in the game in the first pitching the game, but once we made the world it was this self contained world where heavy metal existed.

Brutal Legend

A: Unfortunately he only knew Cobol so he couldn’t help with the programming too much. Programming joke! *laughs* He mostly was involved in what the character is like and where the character is coming from. He improvised alot. He’ll definitely playing the game and I look forward to his feedback from that.

Q: Will Brutal Legend teach me how to solve a Rubiks Cube?

A: If you watch that video, you’ll learn how to solve a Rubiks Cube. Heavy Metal and Rubiks Cube go together. *laughs* I don’t even know where the idea for the Rubiks Cube came from. But there is one in my hand right now. It’s something I do on the phone.

Q: The most asked question on the community..any chance for a Psychonauts remake for next-gen consoles or a sequel?

A: That would be awesome wouldn’t it? *laughs* I think that would be awesome. I love that game and I would love to do something with it someday. But we aren’t working on that right now. But that would be awesome. If the fans keep talking about it maybe it will happen.

You heard him…keep talking about Psychonauts and maybe it will happen! Stay tuned Sunday for part 3 of our interview…yes it’s not done yet! More awesomeness to come!

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