Amnesia Fortnight
It's time for Amnesia Fortnight, a two-week game jam meant to invigorate the studio.
Duration:
Published: January 20th 2023
Episode Stills Gallery
-
Zak McClendon stands in front of a floor-to-ceiling Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin banner, both hands in the air, as if doing "The Wave" at a sporting event.
-
Derek Brand, Amnesia Fortnight project lead, smiles beautifully for the camera. He is like a Dracula, covered in shadow. Behind him, Jared Mills works underneath a string of party lights.
-
Asif Siddiky, Amnesia Fortnight project lead, sits alone in the "Granny" office. He holds his face in his hands as stress mounts. Behind him, the picture of Granny offers no kind words of wisdom.
-
Jeremy Mitchell, VFX artist, sports an amazing beard in the foreground while Matt Enright, programmer, grins widely at the potential carnage he will soon unleash.
-
Tim leans forward to inspect the work on Devin Kelly-Sneed's PC, which shows some basic animated CG scenes. The rest of the desk is a hodge-podge with monitors propped up on books and at least one empty Coca-Cola can.
-
Zak McClendon poses before a screen of development tools and debugging information as he wears a googly-eye-clad VR headset. His outfit, a foam green shirt and orange shorts, are incredibly loud.
-
-
-
Camden Stoddard playfully accosts Asif Siddiky in the middle of the Double Fine offices. Camden looks into the camera as his left hand is placed on Asif's shoulder. With his right hand Camden gives an enthusiastic thumbs up.
-
Pendleton Ward, Amnesia Fortnight contributor and former project lead, poses dramatically with a notebook and history-worthy beard. Is he a time traveler?
-
Asif Siddiky, Amnesia Fortnight project lead, looks amazingly stylish in a grey suit. All while Tim (as is tradition) lurks in the background and points at the camera.
-
-
Episode Transcript
TIM: What happened last week in the world of business?
GREG: Uh, lots of things!
Uh, the biggest is AF is coming up very soon.
-[TIM RATTLES THE BOX] -Yes!
TIM: What is inside there?
[MUSIC]
Oh-h-h!
[MUSIC]
What's in the box?!
GREG: God! Creepy.
[GREG CHUCKLES]
TIM: So, Amnesia Fortnight is when we take a break
from what we are doing for two weeks.
Forget what we were working on before.
And split the company into small groups.
And they each have two weeks to make a game.
DREW: Oh my god! That's so fucked up!
TIM: And we get to test, you know, four junior project leaders.
-The audio the thing? -BRAD: Yeah, what is that?!
-It's awesome, right? -BRAD: It's cool!
TIM: And also it just generates a lot of ideas
that have turned into some of our best games.
Like Costume Quest, and Stacking, and Once Upon a Monster, and Iron Brigade.
A lot of our games have come from Amnesia Fortnight.
TIM: I have gotten a bunch of pitches in my office already.
We filmed them.
And it just reminded me of why I love Amnesia Fortnight.
Because it's just, like, this huge explosion of creativity
and we find out, like, everybody in the office has an idea.
Look at this game, man! Shit!
He is, like, always on the floor, so, like...
TIM: I love that setup of-- that there is this character that's only on the ceiling.
JEREMY: Yeah, I do too!
MIYUKI: It's a-- it's a, um...
Musical Action RPG...
...where you sing to save the world.
Sing to save the world! That's awesome.
Survive in a dynamic ecosystem
where your actions impact the evolution of other species.
Oh, you are the natural selector?
ASIF: ...before preparing and plating a meal
that will prevent giant ravenous gods from eating the human race.
Oh, you are feeding the gods?
-ASIF: Yes. -Okay.
-Because it's based around, like... -TIM: Giant plants?
Well, small plants, but they feel big!
Tell me your game pitch! Do you have a one-liner?
-No, I don't have a one-liner. -Oh, jeez, okay.
-Too god for one-liners. Let's hear it. -No! Not too good for one-liners.
I just haven't gotten to it yet.
I mean, basically, one-liner is...
It is, a...
Like a social co-operative WarioWare in VR.
A lot of good ones on here.
TIM: Derek Brand!
-Hello! -TIM: Hello.
-Hi. -TIM: Good to see you.
Good to see you. Welcome back!
This is not your first time in the office.
DEREK: No.
TIM: You have in fact pitched and run an Amnesia Fortnight project before.
-DEREK: Yeah, yeah. -TIM: Mnemonic.
-DEREK: Yes, you remembered! -TIM: Mnemonic.
TIM: Yeah, that was a good one!
-DEREK: It was cool! It was fun. -You got picked before!
TIM: What was that like? Pitching and then getting picked.
Uh, it was terrifying.
TIM: I think that's a nice sign that Derek is doing it again.
Because he had been thrown into the lion's den of leading a project
when he never led that before.
Uh, he is a really quiet person
who mostly just sticks to himself and just does-- does his thing!
And here he was put in charge of a project.
And it being filmed.
And having, like, you know, Brad on his team
who is very, you know... the opposite.
You know, very boisterous and outspoken.
What would Brad do?
That's what I-- That's what I ask myself all the time.
What would Brad do?
I would probably look really hard in the mirror and be like:
"I've never fucking made a story-based game in my life!
What the fuck am I doing right now?!"
Um...
-Me neither, so! -BRAD: So then, you take a deep breath...
...and you be like: "Fake it till you make it."
And just keep, you know...
Do it! Just start doing it.
Um...
And he went through all that.
And he wants to do it again, which I think is a great sign.
Because even though it was hard,
he still-- he still found it valuable, I guess, in some way.
DEREK: The game that I would like to pitch to you is a, uh...
I have different names for it, but right now, um...
it's called Empty Vessel.
And it's a game where you use a unique pottery wheel mechanic
where you craft these little golem warriors...
-TIM: Mm-hmm. -...that you then control into battle.
TIM: On the wheel?
DEREK: Yeah, you make them on the wheel.
And then you control them....
-...into battle against each other. -Hm!
DEREK: In, like, a multiplayer team-based game.
There is a kiln over on the side.
-DEREK: Yeah! -That should be the name of the game.
Kill... with an N.
Killn? Oh, that's pretty good.
-DEREK: I'm looking for a name. -Or, um...
Pottery Harm.
-DEREK: Pottery-- oh! -TIM: Right?
-TIM: There is another great-- -Thank you.
[MUSIC]
TIM: No matter what your position is,
if you've pitched a game, and gotten feedback on it,
and seen what people thought of it...
Just getting that out of your system helps you a lot.
It teaches you a lot.
It kind of, like, gets the crusty grime out of the end of the pipe,
the creativity pipe where your ideas come out of.
You just gotta keep ideas moving.
You know, I feel like sometimes momentum is more important than...
...loving this: "Oh, I have this one-- this crusty thing on the end of the pipe
that is just going to be someday a perfect thing.
And I'm going to do it."
And you are just in love with your ideas.
And I think you just gotta share them with people
and have them get either developed or shutdown,
so that you can move on.
Because creativity is this endless process you should do every day of your life.
I just figured out that Amnesia Fortnight is the best thing ever
by saying that out loud.
Okay.
Ah! We are up!
Okay, we are up!
SPAFF: Okay, good.
TIM: It's time for Amnesia Fortnight!
SPAFF: Perfect! It's all working. Okay.
But, yeah, I'm excited! I don't know who is going to win.
I haven't casted my own vote yet.
I need to.
It's going to be political though.
Like, Greg will see my vote!
[SPAFF LAUGHS]
Gosh, it feels like literally anything could get picked.
AMY: I'm a little nervous.
Just because I think I might claw my face off, if I was picked.
But in a good way.
Since we went public, it's all very clearly high stakes.
And I know that creates a lot of stress for people.
But I feel like it makes everybody step up.
And makes, like, some of the best final products we've had.
And I feel bad, because it's not-- you know, not---
Amnesia Fortnight is not here to make people miserable.
That's just the side benefit of it.
Winning is, like, a really exciting, awesome thing,
but also comes with, like, this huge pile of stress.
-[KEE LAUGHS] -DEVIN: And so...
-Oh, sorry! -[DEVIN LAUGHS]
Like, having led a project in AF before,
I also know how super stressful it is
for everyone involved, but especially the project leads, so.
Um...
Yeah, I'm kind of going into it as, like:
"Any news is going to be good news."
TIM: I thought about it for a long time.
But, actually, I feel like I made my selection the moment it was pitched.
As soon as it was pitched, I was like:
"Oh god, I think that's the one I'm going to pick."
TIM: Time to announce...
...our official selections.
BRIAN: It's just called Bad Golf question mark.
[TIM EXHALES]
ZAK: Bad Golf Origins...
TIM: Uh... so, first we are going to start with the hardest decision,
my decision, the executive decision.
But the game that I finally-- I picked was one
that I just thought was really-- it was cool, it was experimental.
And it was really new, but it was also--
I could see it-- It was really simple.
And I could see us making an actual-- really, really fun game in two weeks.
Uh...
And that's I Have No Idea What I'm Doing.
I Have No Idea What I'm Doing, Zak McClendon.
[CLAPPING]
TIM: Come on up here, Zak.
Uh, the internal.
Now it's time to see who you all voted for.
But your official selection for the internal vote is
Kiln by Derek Brand.
-[CHEERING] -TIM: Yeah, Derek Brand!
[CLAPPING]
TIM: Come on up, sir!
Yay!
Good job, good job!
And now the external voting.
My heart is pounding a little bit.
[LAUGHTER]
[TIM SIGHS]
[TIM EXHALES]
Darwin's Dinner, Devin Kelly-Sneed.
[CHEERING]
And the final one! Oh, this can't be right.
This breaks a lot of rules.
The Gods Must Be Hungry, Asif Siddiky.
[CHEERING]
TIM: Holy cow!
Come on, Asif! Come here!
Come here!
[CLAPPING]
The fourth wall!
The fourth wall just crumbled.
Yeah, we don't even know if he shows up on videotape.
-Stay over here! -[LAUGHTER]
No! You don't get to hide anymore.
And you are going to learn about your friends!
[KEE LAUGHS]
Your friends at 2 Player Productions are probing...
And they are going to be asking-- putting you on the spot.
[LAUGHTER]
TIM: Yeah, Chad!
[LAUGHTER]
All right! You only have two weeks!
Get to work! Okay, bye!
[MUSIC]
ZAK: That was an idea-- idea for Bob's level.
Uh... hello!
Uh, Friday was Amnesia Fortnight madness.
Um, and today will be Amnesia Fortnight madness for me.
-Really? -ZAK: Uh, yes...
ZAK: As I try to write a presentation to give to the team.
-[LAUGHTER] -Uh, to give to the future team.
My-- my darling future team.
Um, also today...
Welcome, welcome!
This is the next stage in our Amnesia Fortnight process
where we have selected our games that we are making.
And the project leaders of those games are going to come up here
and tell the team at Double Fine about what those games are in more detail.
And the team gets to ask some questions.
Because they are going to leave this room and they are going to go indicate
which game they would most like to work on.
And then we will start the process of assigning the teams
and breaking up into four groups.
ZAK: Hello, everyone!
Uh, so, my game, which you probably heard of is called
I Have No Idea What I'm Doing.
I subtitled it here: "A VR parlor game."
So, like, a parlor game is like charades or 20 questions
or something that you would play in a mixed group of people.
It's really easy to get into.
It's very rules light.
It's silly, it's fun.
You can kind of play it with anyone, anywhere.
Which was sort of my goal for making this concept.
And the idea is that...
...one player is in VR
and they are thrown into a variety of strange and disorienting situations
where they have no idea what they are supposed to do
or in fact, like, who they actually are.
And then, the people outside of VR,
all the rest of your friends,
are given clues that help-- give them some of the information
about what you need to do,
but they also need you to describe kind of what you are seeing,
and where you are, and: "I'm in a forest,
and I think I might be a bear or whatever."
Um...
And then you have to kind of yell back and forth
to try to figure out what to do in a very short amount of time.
ZAK: It's basically just a minigame collection
at the end of the day.
Uh, a VR minigame collection.
But within that there is just a lot of open-endedness
for each one of those interactions.
And then, there is just other, like, logistical stuff.
Like, we are developing for VR.
It takes a lot of, like, start-up time.
It's hard to test stuff at your desk.
So, that whole, like, logistic part of it, um...
also is going to be a big drain on the project.
So, game setting...
Uh, you are on an island with creatures.
Those creatures within a species
they have natural variation among various traits, uh...
Size, speed, spikiness, things like that.
Uh, and you can hunt the creatures to collect food.
But the important there is the-- the, uh...
the genetic algorithm for passing on the traits
that are still present in the surviving population.
I mean, I'm not sure it's going to work at all.
Uh...
[CHUCKLES]
I think we can make it work, but, like...
it could all go wrong.
Uh... and that's fine.
I don't think it would be as interesting of a concept to prototype
if we knew it was going to work.
DEREK: Okay, hello!
Uh...
This is Kiln!
[CHEERING]
First of all, I wanted to thank you, guys
for voting for Kiln.
Uh...
I'm glad you saw some potential in this weird-ass project
and I can't wait to work on it with you.
Just as an overview, this is a third-person game.
Multiplayer team-based brawler.
And you have two teams,
and you play as these little useless spirits.
And this is a magic pottery wheel
that your little spirit can use to craft a body for himself
that he can go and try to beat up the other-- other side.
And the way that we are going to do that is to take this idea of minigames
and make them huge.
And you are going to be small within that.
And you will be running around and guiding the ingredients
through these ridiculous cooking contraptions
in order to get them ready for plating.
I'll be honest I don't really know exactly what I need, just because...
[LAUGHTER]
...I have not done this before ever.
Uh...
But this is sort of what I'm turning in.
And, yeah, I am pretty much a baby at game design.
Um, so...
Anyone who wants to step in and work on that with me
in making this fun, uh... I could really use your help.
PAUL: But just by having observed game development
for the past eight-- however long it's been, number of years,
that you have a slightly better expectation
of how things happen and how it will come together.
Yeah, I mean, you would think so, right?
It's just, like...
I can watch every episode of CSI
and I have no idea how to, like, solve an actual crime.
So, I think...
what's going to happen in the next two weeks
is going to be the real learning experience.
Asif is trying to hide behind the camera.
Come this way, come here.
This way, Asif. Yeah, this side.
This side, see that? Look at that!
Right there, look at that! See that?
Please summon your first team member.
-Uh, Brian! -In the most dramatic way possible!
TIM: That wasn't very dramatic. Yeah, Brian!
[CLAPPING]
-Zak. -Aaron!
TIM: Aaron!
[MUSIC]
Yep!
TIM: All right, where is... Devin!
Say Oh!
ZAK: Rusty!
[CHEERING] -ANDY: I'm here, I'm here!
TIM: Oh-h! That's, oh-h...
That was awkward.
Tim, you want to come over here?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. -Woo!
Yeah, I would, but it sounds hard.
All right! May the odds be ever in your favor!
Go, team!
PAUL: So...
It's AF again.
-Yeah! -PAUL: And you are here!
Yeah.
Uh... yeah.
And, um, helping out with whatever.
PAUL: Which projects are you going to work on? All of them?
Whatever anyone wants me to do.
I was kind of hoping to do some, like, background rocks in Kiln.
I think that would be cool.
And I've been doing concept for, uh...
Gods Must Be Hungry.
ASIF: A lot of stuff is a little bit alien to me.
Especially, like, where 3D lighting is concerned,
you know, and stuff like that.
And, uh...
I felt like I had...
...maybe five different things that I needed to do.
And time enough to do two of them.
It wasn't, like, a lot of busy work.
It was a lot of, like...
giving people direction on stuff.
I've turned the cooking process into something physical.
So, not abstracting it with a minigame,
but physically carrying stuff around,
manipulating them in the pan, running them through, like, giant blades
if you need to chop them.
ASIF: Everyone here is amazing and they know, that, like...
I need help.
So, like, they are taking a lot of ownership
over their respective roles.
Um, and that's helping a lot too.
So, we can end up having, like, screens and modern technology
but as long as there is, like, the old stuff there as well.
-Yeah, I really like that a lot. -I think that'll be good.
Just having, like, a clay oven or something would be pretty rad.
ASIF: I'll pick your brain and pick a face.
WARD: Face.
This one has a mask.
[ASIF LAUGHS]
WARD: It's got a lot of accessories.
-WARD: I know you want this one. -ASIF: Yeah.
So, do you just want to do this one?
Uh, let me see the other one again.
[WARD CHUCKLES]
ZAK: We had a really great brainstorm.
Generated lots, and lots of ideas.
So, I have to go through that and figure out
what the things we are going to build as sort of pilot content.
ZAK: You are a vampire and you are trying to do your makeup,
but you can't see your face, so...
How do vampires do their makeup?
-ANNA: Ooh! -[ZAK LAUGHS]
ANNA: That's a good one! Actually, that's great!
What if-- what if, like, yeah, what if you had to paint your face,
and people were telling you: "A little over to the left."
Oh, yeah!
And the people on the outside could see what you are doing.
ZAK: And also Pendleton Ward showed up,
and came to our brainstorm,
and did some little doodles of stuff.
And, um... that was a pleasant surprise.
Like, you are going to see an old lady in a chair,
and you are a ghost,
and you might be able to have enough time to recognize that you are transparent,
and then you are just going to go like this...
[ZAK LAUGHS]
And then you are going to scare the person, right?
Thirty seconds? I guess thirty seconds can last longer...
All right, so wait! And then Anna had one.
-And then we actually do have to be done. -ANNA: It's fine, it's okay.
Because I don't want to do this forever.
What I'd like to do is, like...
All right, let's get the one more first!
-ANNA: No, no, it's fine, we shouldn't. -Do it!
-What is it? What is it?! -ANNA: No, no, no, it's dumb!
It could be the best idea! It could be the...
-ANNA: No, no, no. -All right.
AARON: So, yeah, one core feature for our game
is that we need to have interaction between the person who is in VR,
and the people who are outside.
Um, and so, one way of doing that would be
rendering one scene for the person in the VR headset,
and then show something completely different on the TV.
Being Day 1 it's not-- not too bad.
But I'm hoping to get this taken care of sooner rather than later,
because everything depends on it pretty heavily.
ZAK: Emily and the art team worked on kind of initial art direction.
You can actually see-- if you see it on my screen.
This sort of, like, very, very bold, flat colors.
Not a lot of detail, texture, and material work.
Um, kind of going for, like, you know, rubberized plastic sort of look.
Like plasticine clay.
Um, which should look, like, very iconic, very bold shapes,
very easy to see.
Also very easy to make.
DEVIN: Geoff was building the world.
Silvio set up the basic project.
Which I kind of dropped a default a character in.
Gabe spent some time working on tuning the camera.
So, we have the kind of camera angle that we are looking for.
And then, we've just had a whole bunch of meetings
to kind of plan out things that we want to do.
GEOFF: Silvio is still wrestling with, like, getting the light maps to build, so.
Yeah, he is having problems
with Incredibuild on the build machine too.
This is what our environment looks like right now.
-Yeah, I walked by, like, ten minutes ago. -[GEOFF LAUGHS]
And it was great, because, like, on this screen you had this,
and on the screen there was, like, search results like:
-"Why is my landscape black?" -Yeah!
[GEOFF LAUGHS]
GEOFF: Like, things like this...
...look simple,
but are deceptively difficult to make in 3D.
DEVIN: Yeah, and so...
I'm much more concerned about us being able to make the stuff,
because we only have two weeks.
Like, if that seems impossible, don't do that.
-GEOFF: Yeah. -[LAUGHTER]
Uh...
We don't have room for, like, multiple impossible tasks on one project.
GEOFF: Yeah.
[CHATTERING]
-PAUL: There is so much noise! -DEREK: Yeah.
PAUL: This is a nice, quiet pod.
I know, it's so quiet.
You guys were in our meeting this morning briefly.
-PAUL: Yeah. -DEREK: It was very quiet.
PAUL: Yeah, a nice quiet team.
DEREK: Yeah, it is a quiet team. I like it.
-[LAUGHTER] -It's a good-- it's a good quiet team.
Yeah, the bong wins again.
[LAUGHTER]
MATT: The idea starts with one person's experiences,
and knowledge, and, um...
and, you know, creative influence.
And then, when...
there is a team working on it,
you then get everybody's ideas kind of coming together.
And that person helps filter it.
You know, I wouldn't pressure anything that Derek wasn't comfortable with.
So, we are kind of building this tree of possibility space of where
all the possible games that could be made from that core idea.
And he is trimming the tree as we are going.
Um...
And, uh, so, it's-- It's fun to explore that.
TUCKER: How do you guys feel about...
...like, having there be, like, an objective about carrying water
versus just trying to destroy the other teams.
Water-- water is--
It's essentially like a-- Like the flag in a CTF map, right?
Like, there is a fountain that has water, and you...
Yeah, there is a fountain or a waterfall in the center.
JEREMY: And you grab it, and then you have to--
You have to get to the fountain and then get to their base...
DEREK: Then get to their base...
...and dump it.
DEREK: I wasn't sure what to expect.
Uh, I've never...
...made a game like this at all.
Uh...
Never made a multiplayer game for one,
and I've never made a game that relied on physics at all.
And, uh...
I've never made a game really.
I've been a concept artist on a game.
So, I'm just kind of going in
and trusting the people that I'm working with.
ZAK: How is everybody feeling? It's really quiet.
Is it because the cameras are here?
Or is it because we are looking at a broken game?
It's the camera?
There is a strong chance that we just go down a rabbit hole on basic bugs.
And I feel like this, like...
I feel like that demonstrates amazing progress!
Can somebody write down, um: "Get physics working on the hands."
As a task.
AMY: Would probably be under the whole: "Get physics working."
It seems like it's a-- It seems like--
AMY: All related.
ZAK: Yeah, well, okay. All right.
Well, then you'll get both tasks and you'll be able to do both of them at once.
Will be very exciting.
PAUL: Just now when you were playing the game.
Were you like: "I'm having fun!"
ZAK: No, not yet.
I think the thing I'm waiting for is
when we actually get the sort of social fun
of people outside of VR yelling at somebody in VR
who is doing something ridiculous, and they are laughing back and forth.
Any wake-up calls about what we are making,
um, we'll get those pretty fast, because there'll be, like, total randos--
not total randos, our lovable coworkers will be playing our game
and giving us quality, stern feedback on the product as we go, so.
We are getting there. We got a little floppy--
a little floppy fly swatter.
That's-- It's, like, jointed.
It's, like-- It's weird.
ZAK: Yeah, it does. We'll get there.
Um, I have to leave today and tomorrow at five.
Because my wife is out of town,
so I have to pick the kids and feed them, and all the rest of that stuff.
Um, I will be in on Sunday.
Just trying to do catch-up and work ahead...
-PAUL: So... -[ASIF SIGHS]
PAUL: Seemed like a good day.
You had a pretty productive meeting in the morning.
ASIF: The meeting this morning was very productive.
Um...
Yeah, I guess we can just go through this first one.
And then, you know, stop me if anything sounds crazy to you.
Or, like: "We can't do that."
Or: "I have an amazing idea for how to do this."
Starting with the, uh, shrimp car wash.
GAVIN: Sounds crazy to me.
-ASIF: Oop, all right, meeting is over. -[GAVIN LAUGHS]
You want to give a certain amount-- a dose of, like:
"Wait, I'm not sure if we want to do that."
But you don't want to do that too much,
because then it really stems, like...
the creative output, especially at the beginning of the project.
And, like, that's-- that's not a good way to go either.
ASIF: Now I feel like everyone knows what they are doing.
And everyone is just sort of off and doing that.
PAUL: Has this been, uh...
harder than the documentary?
For Amnesia Fortnight specifically.
Uh...
No.
No, because...
that was insane!
No... no one should do that.
I don't know why you guys are doing it.
I think the biggest difference is that...
despite how busy it is
and how much there is going on and how stressed I feel sometimes, like...
there are also the moments where I get to, like...
have that, like, creative rush.
And...
it's easy to get sort of high off of that.
Whereas like when we were doing the doc, like...
we are just in, like, this weird zombie state,
because we are not sleeping and, like...
even though I know that I've edited
the episode that I just shot yesterday to my satisfaction,
uh, I'm still super tired and just, like, not here.
The only thing that, like-- I would say that we've--
I don't think we've ever gotten on camera is just, like...
just finding, like, a secluded corner somewhere.
Just to, like, hide for five minutes.
I needed to do that today for sure.
I just, like, went upstairs to the floor above us
and just, like... stood in the hallway for a few minutes.
And didn't, like, look at my phone or, like, think about anything.
And then I came back and I was fine.
I'm having a lot more sympathy for everyone that's, like...
led the projects before, and for Tim especially.
Sometimes I just come into that room and just take a...
-ASIF: Well... -Take a what?
I was going to say something, but I realized I was being filmed.
[GREG LAUGHS]
(Take a big dump.)
PAUL: What's Jared doing back there?
He is modeling butts.
-I can't stop him. -JARED: So many butts!
He is... unstoppable.
I got some butt-cheek sim on them.
[LAUGHTER]
DEREK: Matt got some work done on the pottery tech.
-DEREK: So we can make... -MIYUKI: Pots, go!
[MIYUKI VOCALIZES POTS REVVING UP]
Pots, go!
[MIYUKI VOCALIZES POTS REVVING UP]
[CAMDEN AND MIYUKI LAUGH]
-WARD: That's great! -That was kind of fun!
-[MIYUKI LAUGHS] -DEREK: That was awesome!
CAMDEN: It was hard not to laugh.
DEREK: I had the smile on my face the whole time.
Oh god!
PAUL: You were here the last Tim when Derek led a project.
-Yeah. -PAUL: Do you feel like...
PAUL: ...you've observed him...
Dude, that guy is chill as hell right now.
Last time he was chill,
but you could him just being like: "I'm not sure."
And then, this time...
Every time he talks to me, he has, like, the calmness in his eyes...
of, like...
a spiritual leader.
He is like...
[LAUGHTER]
"Thanks for coming to work in here.
Thanks a lot!"
PAUL: You are wearing this?
Yes.
Well, I'm...
I'm running out of shirts.
-Um... -PAUL: You are trying to impress Pen.
Actually, I didn't-- I forgot about that.
But, no, I mean, I'm just running out of shirts.
Gotta put on something.
Yeah, I don't think there is as many unknowns.
This game...
has a lot of, uh...
mechanics that are kind of known quantities
that we can just get up and running quickly
without having to figure it out.
We know how to do basic attacks,
and how to pick things up and drop them.
It doesn't-- it doesn't need, like, a...
a brainstorm meeting to figure that stuff out.
PAUL: Are you happy with the art style you ended up with, Geoff?
GEOFF: Um, I mean...
I think if it was a different project,
I would have probably done things a little differently, but...
in the time we have right now, um...
I'm okay with it.
The only--
You know, nobody is really saying no to the shit I'm dicking around with, so.
There is far more shine in this-- in this demo,
than anything we've done in Psychonauts, so...
...that's nice.
PAUL: You like shiny?
GEOFF: Um, not necessarily, but--
but, you know, we are really clamping it hard in--
in Psychonauts.
You know, just because that's the style of game.
It's nice to sort of work outside of that.
And just work on something different for a little while.
RAY: It's fun. And then, the creatures...
They are actually going to have a bunch of different parts.
And this would be, like, the base body.
And then, um...
we will actually swap out different pieces.
-Because they evolve, right? -Yeah.
So, they have evolutionary traits.
[KNOCKING AT THE DOOR]
Hold on. Someone is knocking at my office door.
-I'm being interviewed! Bye! -Bye!
So, you know, it's a different feeling doing AF not there.
PAUL: I bet, yeah.
So, I mean, it's still fun, but it's definitely, um...
doesn't have the, uh...
the energy that you get when you are actually on-site.
TIM: So, um, this would be the point
where you come in, and you cry, and you say, like:
"It was a big mistake."
You wish you would never signed up for this.
It's all falling apart.
Won't I... stop it.
And then I say: "Cheer up!"
Right? Okay. So, go!
DEVIN: Uh...
I think everything is okay.
-[TIM SIGHS] -[DEVIN LAUGHS]
Sorry, documentary guys.
JAMES: So, I have another question.
Sorry for all these questions.
So, what I would like to do in the mornings
is review what we did yesterday, see where we are.
If there is things that people call out of, like
"We have to do this right now."
Let's add task.
If it's just a general discussion about, like:
"Hey, what are we going to do about..."
We should note it.
And then we'll do it after we finish sort of where we are.
Yeah, the short version, we make the game not broken.
And then we can add polishy stuff-- all the polishy stuff later.
AARON: All right. So, yeah, what we are trying to do
is get text to show up on our TV.
-"Hit pickle with a racket." -"Hit pickle with a racket."
Oh, Jesus!
Riveting narrative.
Wait, why are they-- why are you throwing apples?
-[AARON LAUGHS] -AMY: What did you do?
Game development is a very serious job.
Oh, wait! I forgot, that's my bad.
-Okay, you can run it again. -Okay.
Please don't make me the bad guy of this documentary.
[LAUGHTER]
I really don't want to be the heel.
ZAK: And we got-- James got all the, you know, scripting hooked up for it.
But this was our first test of actually, like, running it at all, uh...
And it doesn't work yet.
So, we had our giant brainstorm and had, I don't know...
a hundred ideas that were all-- all over the map.
And then as a team, we sat down and tried to figure out
which ones we'd actually want to build.
ZAK: Uh, speed, but on a butter churn.
Um, this is...
Basically, you've got a butter churn.
You've got two butter churns, and you have to...
[LAUGHTER]
You've got two butter churns.
And you have to churn butter.
And then, you get feedback on:
"This one has to go faster.
And this one has to go slower."
I know what the feedback would be.
[LAUGHTER]
-And so, you are going faster. -[JAMES LAUGHS]
Yeah, butter churning.
JAMES: No, you are chafing! You are chafing!
[LAUGHTER]
It's a very embarrassing game.
PAUL: That's the point.
[RUSTY CHUCKLES]
That is the point.
Yeah, because embarrassment is funny.
ZAK: That one is clearly a winner!
It's clearly a winner.
And so, like, one of them would have to go slow,
and the other one would have to go fast.
-[LAUGHTER] -AARON: Oh my god!
JAMES: Different strokes for different folks.
[LAUGHTER]
[ASIF HUMS]
ASIF: I came in today feeling pretty rested.
And now I don't feel that way at all, so, yeah.
So, while I know that a lot got done today.
I just feel like: "What did we even do today?"
You know what I mean? Like...
I'm sure that when I go back and, like, look at the Slack,
there is actually, like, a tone of stuff that got done, but...
This was the fastest feeling day by far.
-PAUL: Malena arrived today as well. -ASIF: Mm-hmm.
PAUL: What is she going to be doing on the project?
ASIF: Like, right away she hit the ground running,
um, sitting down with Spaff and, like...
um, hashing out, like, the initial direction that I gave them
for writing the characters and all the dialogue and stuff.
MALENA: I have a desk, but I haven't sat in it once
which is awesome.
Because at home I'm pretty much tethered to my desk.
What I saw in today's meeting looked really great.
And I feel like...
Or I hope that we are at that point where shit just starts going in.
And it gets exponentially better.
RYAN: And I guess maybe picking one of them up.
Those probably are not big enough.
But whatever I'm just starting to stub things in
based on some of the cool concepts that have been done.
Oh, and of course, like I'd mentioned, uh...
we got Paul's initial steamer basket in.
So, that's kind of--
It's fun. Fun to see stuff happening.
PAUL: What's going on? Why are you the only person building stuff?
That is a good question!
I made a bread dough ball.
Some nori sheets.
I think he had full confidence...
that I was going to be able to do everything.
So...
ASIF: And, uh... And Pen too, he was saying--
Like, he is leaving tomorrow.
He is going back home, but, uh...
He said that he is happy to just continue modeling stuff from home for us, so.
We are really lucky to have him do that.
[MUSIC]
ASIF: By the end of the week we can have all of, like, the major props in.
So, we'll see how all that stuff is looking.
And, you know...
I think it's just going to get crazy in the last two days next week.
[MUSIC]
Man! What's happening here?!
This looks great!
[MUSIC]
[JAMES SCREAMS]
Perfect.
PEN: And... cut.
And cut.
ZAK: It's hard to sort what actually got done.
So, maybe we can just go around
and we can talk about what got done yesterday.
The game got running!
Which is awesome. You guys--
So, you guys solved the major mysteries...
-...of why things were not working. -Some of them.
Uh... yes.
[AARON CHUCKLES]
PAUL: Sitting through the meetings
and seeing the programmers freaking out about VR
and getting things to work,
does it make you glad that you are not a programmer?
I never want to be a programmer.
Never ever. It's all magic to me.
My brain doesn't function well enough anymore to be a programmer.
AMY: Which ones do you guys want to play?
AARON: Whatever is working.
-Yes! -AMY: Yeah.
ZAK: There we go.
AARON: This is-- It's, you know-- it's here.
-ZAK: Down, yeah. -AMY: Yeah.
-AMY: We can change the offset, but... -Can you see? Does the periscope work?
Yeah.
I have no right hand, but...
-AMY: Yes. -I can't see what the periscope sees.
ZAK: We still don't have one actual game up and running.
If we don't get it working fast enough, we won't have enough time
to actually polish and make it good.
And so, the biggest risk would be...
it's a big pile of nonsense garbage at the end.
Just the usual, just the usual problems.
But don't you think at the end you'll be able to say, like:
"Hey, I told you guys!"
-Yeah, exactly, like, I've got-- I know! -TIM: I have no idea what I'm doing!
I know, I've got my ass covered.
-TIM: It was literally in my pitch! -That's right!
Might as well-- called it Don't Pick This Game.
ZAK: Don't Pick This Game...
-...Tim. -ZAK: ...Tim.
Yeah, this is my personal pick, so you can't... mess this up.
ZAK: Yeah, I mean, this is not testable in this state, so.
-Wait, why is the hand... -Yeah, the hand is below.
AMY: Without figuring out that scale that is very specific,
it's unplayable!
ZAK: Okay, so this is what I'm confused about.
-ZAK: So, the offset is... -AARON: I'm confused too.
ZAK: You are just setting a waterline to the eye height.
If we did that, you wouldn't be able to reach any of the islands.
Unless they were all tiny and right next to you.
Yeah, I get what you mean by that.
I don't-- I don't get what you mean by that.
ZAK: Yeah, but this is...
AMY: This is what you have to do.
Well, no, I mean, this is what you have to do.
Like, you are just looking above--
Like, if this was the waterline and I can't see what's up here
and I'm doing this...
and I pick up this.
I-- I guess I'm--
I'm worried that we are just talking about different things.
No, I think we are talking about the same thing.
And there may be some sort of limitation with the hand tracking
that makes that really hard to do without making things a tiny scale.
Like, it's-- it's weird.
AARON: I'm confused about what the periscope sees right now.
Why are there no islands? And no water, and...
AMY: It's down under for some reason.
All right, let me know when we have sort of seen everything we can see.
This is just... talking about this one particular one, so.
That was our playtest for today!
ZAK: Um...
AMY: I'm sure we'll figure it out when we sit down and actually...
uh, try to place it.
So, what are you doing with the racket?
You said the racket was broken!
You have to grab it and it should go to the next task.
-Well, did you grab the racket? -JAMES: Yes.
-Let's do that again. -JAMES: Okay!
DEVIN: Uh, something was broken.
They were going to have to, like... redo a bunch of things again.
Uh, I don't know.
I didn't-- I didn't understand.
I wasn't getting all of the details.
I was also trying to, like, do work.
[LAUGHTER]
Is this going to aid in your...
-...project leading? -It's going to be a disaster.
-Yeah? -Yeah.
There is-- there is more of this.
-There is more whiskey. -I know, I'm looking forward to it.
So, when you really, like, trying to figure out
what the true difference between the disciplines
of folks who make video games...
The undeniable one is that
programmers cannot program while drinking.
Whereas artists and designers are like: "We are okay."
DEVIN: That's-- so, you are just basically drunk all day?
Is that how you crank all that art?
-Trying to keep the lines loose. -LEE: I wish!
It works really well in video games!
You are like: "I just wanted to stay loose with this,
so I just checked in this polygon soup, and...
clicked the button.
Somebody else fix this shit!"
-Headlander. -[LAUGHTER]
PAUL: So, something, um... we definitely observed is
that Silvio was frustrated about something.
And we are afraid to ask him what that is.
DEVIN: Actually, I'm not sure specifically what problems he was looking at today.
I know there was something to do with audio
that he was trying to take care of.
And I think he got that solved?
There were multiple issues. But the main one for today was that...
We are the first team to get, like, dialogue in.
So, even though no teams had it working,
we were the first ones to try and get it to work.
And that just-- And that took a while.
Uh, it took a while, because we had to, like,
deal with a little bit...
well, my unfamiliarity with the Wwise interface for instance.
Um, and the audio guys' unfamiliarity with the-- our scripting,
our scripts,
to actually build the audio build.
So, we had a problem that no one really had the whole picture.
Um, and that took a while to figure out.
PAUL: We need to make bank refs still for voice and everything in Unreal.
So, once that is fixed, let us know.
And we'll plug that in, and then voice should start working again.
Or working for the first time I should say.
PAUL: Now that we know the problem, the hard part is over.
But now I'm, like, pretty behind
on all the stuff I was supposed to do today.
I just had this fat list.
So, I, like, cracked my knuckles, and was getting ready to work,
and then I got pulled into this for the whole day.
[PAUL LAUGHS]
SILVIO: Any time that I'm not actively hitting the keyboard...
I'm wasting time.
I'm already here late every day.
Um...
Like, I don't know right now if I'm leaving in ten minutes,
or in an hour and ten minutes.
PAUL: Do you feel like you have an obligation to Devin
to put those hours in?
Or make sure you are not wasting any time?
SILVIO: Not so much to Devin,
but I feel an obligation to the spirit of a game jam
to put in as much time as I can.
Um...
And that's what I'm going to do...
PAUL: You'll be around another hour or so?
I think so.
Yeah, I think I'll stick around until, like, 9:40.
It's such a compressed timeline
compared to a normal development cycle.
You know, where a couple of hours is equivalent to, you know,
a couple of days or a couple of weeks on a normal project, so.
Uh...
Every moment counts.
I made this, like, pot smash dust effect.
It's...
I probably spent an hour or less on it.
And as soon as--
Not having it versus having it is just, like, night and day difference
in terms of how the game feels and how exciting it is.
DEREK: Still waiting on, like, a full playable game.
But I feel like we are getting closer every day.
So, that's good.
JEREMY: Seeing stuff come together visually, even if...
it's maybe not the most important part of the game,
I think, is super motivating to other people on the team.
And they can see that, you know,
the game is actually going to become something, so.
So, yeah, that's what it's all about.
PAUL: Your FX Blueprint looks kind of elaborate.
JEREMY: Oh, this? This is the-- the clay material.
It's kind of a mess.
Uh, this is what happens...
[JEREMY LAUGHS]
...in the Amnesia Fortnight.
Don't worry about that.
PAUL: Have you been aware of what Jeremy Mitchell has been doing?
Yeah! Yeah, FX stuff...
Jeremy's been doing cool effects.
PAUL: Did this just look even better?
-PAUL: Did it just become really cool? -Is it better or worse?
-DREW: It just got awesome over here. -PAUL: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
PAUL: Oh, man.
No, keep it off, keep it off.
DREW: This is going in my demo reel for sure.
-[PAUL LAUGHS] -DREW: This shot.
DREW: Thanks, Derek!
How are you guys feeling about implementing the water mechanic
at this point.
Yeah, I think we don't want to start adding the water
until combat is registering properly across the whole multiplayer thing.
And, you know...
DEREK: I don't know.
I keep going back and forth on that, like...
On one hand, like, it'd be really great to have another mode-- like, game mode,
the water game mode thing.
But then also, it's like:
"Well, we only have-- Like, now we have...
three days left."
I don't know if that's going to happen right now.
-TIM: So! -ASIF: Heya, Tim.
TIM: Filmmaking... it's easy.
Not like games. Games is hard.
Games are hard.
-The movies are hard. -TIM: Asif Siddiky or...
Sid, as you like to be called.
-Yes, Timmy Schafe. -[TIM LAUGHS]
You could try!
-T-Schafe. -TIM: It'll never stick.
I'm still trying to make that one stick.
-T-Schafe? -ASIF: Yeah, T-Schafe.
I have nave heard anyone call me T-Schafe.
I just call you that every single time I see you.
[TIM CHUCKLES]
No, you don't!
ASIF: I'm sure that I have.
All right, Sid, anyway...
How do you feel?
Overall, like, I'm at-- pretty at peace with, like...
you know, the prototype just being what it is.
But you are still going to try and make it good, right?
-ASIF: Of course! -[TIM LAUGHS]
It went from having a lot of just simple geometry--
You can see over there, it used to all look like that
probably two days ago.
[LEVI CHUCKLES]
And then everything got a coat of texture paint.
PAUL: What's your process for putting materials together
on a timeline like this?
LEVI: Uh, quick and dirty.
Start off with a hand-painted texture, um, that I do in Photoshop, so.
I went with this kind of--
It's kind of a Miyazaki style.
Simple, kind of, uh...
crazy, plated metal.
ASIF: Yeah, yeah, it's got a ton of character right now.
Even with just the few things that he's done.
Um, I mean, that's-- credit to Levi, you know.
And to Paul as well for the way the props are modeled.
You know, I was expecting something much simpler
given the amount of time that we had, so.
The fact that he was able to, like, achieve so much with so little, uh...
was-- was really inspiring and just very gratifying to see.
And the machines are working the way they are intended to so far.
So, yeah, that stuff is amazing and, uh...
Thanks, Brian, for doing that!
You are the man!
RYAN: I love it!
It's getting-- it's really-- yeah!
Things are happening! Stuff is coming together!
It feels really good.
People are doing pretty great work right now.
I'm pretty excited to see everything as it's coming in.
Like, it might be a little bit of a video game now.
Just a little-- Just a little bit.
That's... that's cute.
ZAK: Uh, okay, I just want to do a quick state of the state
on, like, where we are as a project.
Which is that... nothing is working right now.
We don't have really...
any particular game up and running in a reliable way.
And we do not have the content in for most of the games.
I feel like we are doing a pretty good job on art asset production.
Um, but...
most of our eight minigames do not actually have their logic implemented,
we do not have all the object types we need,
we do not have the tool types we need.
Um, and most importantly the network...
uh, second screen stuff is now disconnecting.
So, we basically need to get that fundamental thing,
because if the second screen does not work,
we don't have a game at all.
[ZAK EXHALES]
If we can't get that fixed today...
...I think there is almost no way that we could actually get
the rest of the content implemented in three days.
-AMY: I believe in us. -ZAK: I believe in us too!
(No pressure.)
Do you guys want to break
and go start drilling into that right now,
while we go update on all the other stuff.
-AARON: I bet you it's this! -AMY: Really?!
-AARON: Oh, yeah! No, okay... -AMY: Oh, is this...
AARON: Wait, stop, stop stop. Stop, let me see.
-I want to disconnect it. -Stop, stop.
-[AMY GRUNTS] -Let me see.
AARON: Disconnect that node. Just see what happens.
-No, no, no. -Nope, it still broke there too!
AMY: But we were doing this yesterday!
AARON: I... I don't know.
I was in the same behavior.
I was in the same behavior.
Which doesn't make any sense.
PAUL: With all the technical hurdles,
is it disheartening to have to keep doing all this stuff
not knowing if it's actually going to turn into a game eventually?
Nah, not really. Like, because...
I mean, I have a lot of faith in Aaron and Amy, and they are--
Like, they are just chugging away doing whatever they can.
For me slinging around a floppy stake is funny enough in itself, you know.
Like, just being in those worlds.
Like, uh... the stupid tennis hell stuff.
Like, just, like...
Just going into that space and laughing at it for the first time is...
is something, right?
ZAK: Yeah, I'm trying to find out information from people,
if there's ever been an Amnesia Fortnight game
that just didn't land.
Just, like, anybody just comes in
where it's, like, at the end of the day it's just, like...
literally a garbage pile trainwreck.
I was in-- I was in a dark place yesterday.
I was like: "This is all not going to land."
Because it's just, I don't know... It's sort of a weird thing, like...
For me the point of prototyping is, like, prove something out one way or the other.
And you can succeed or fail.
Which means... failure is an option?
Like, failure is actually a good thing.
If it fails, like: "Okay, great! That didn't work."
Um, but if that's because of technical issues, like,
that are solvable in the long run, um...
That's what everybody says!
Uh, and I hope we do. I hope we do.
But I've also done this enough times.
Sometimes you don't figure it out.
Like, it's-- you can't just rely on, like:
"Oh, you know, well, everything just comes together at the last minute."
It's like: "Well, no, sometimes it doesn't come together
at the last minute."
[AMY HUMS]
And it's not happening there?
No, it's not.
AARON: We are having a lot of trouble, I mean...
Certainly part of it is likely due to the fact
that we are just not really familiar with it,
and we are trying to get up and running with it as soon as possible.
And so, we are not spending tons of time reading documentation,
and watching tutorials and all that kind of stuff.
We are just kind of hitting the ground running.
Um...
We've had a little bit of trouble on that front.
AMY: This is a much better test.
Okay.
I should put that, like, on a two second timer.
It's one actor. It's this one actor call.
-Freaking... -Yeah, close it.
AARON: Well...
[AARON LAUGHS]
-AMY: Uh... -AARON: It is this node!
-Amazing. -You found it? Yay!
It wasn't actually-- It wasn't actually a systemic problem.
It's really good news!
-Menu! -Woo!
Okay! That was the full game.
That was the game end to end.
That was the whole thing.
That was the whole thing!
Now we are just back to not having enough time.
Instead of it also being impossible.
ZAK: Uh, two weeks on the idea...
And then you'll never touch it again.
So, I mean, this is sort of the shot for this idea to, uh-- to live and die.
And so, you know, you go through the arc
of getting very excited about something and then going, like:
"Oh, actually no. It's just going to...
be stillborn in a way.
And then-- then you'll move on and never-- never make that thing.
Um...
And that, you know, it doesn't matter how long you are in the industry,
that's always-- that's just a bummer.
Um, you just get excited about something
and then it doesn't end up happening.
Uh, but hopefully it should all-- it will all come together.
And we will make something awesome.
And we will have a very hilarious playtest
where we'll make Tim, uh...
do all the stupid stuff in front of everyone.
Um, I'm kicking this guy's ass.
[LAUGHTER]
It's really neat seeing all the systems kind of working.
Sort of.
A lot more than they were yesterday.
Yeah, progress.
Since I had the basic multiplayer working,
we wanted to extend that to the other aspects of the game.
So, we did that, and we got it in,
and it's working pretty good!
I'm looking for Tucker, but, uh, he must be at the beer party.
[CHAD LAUGHS]
Unfortunate timing.
You always lose out to beer when it comes to Tucker.
Wake up, Tucker!
[JARED LAUGHS]
Goddammit!
-JEREMY: Whoa-ow! -JARED: Holy shit!
-JEREMY: You just punched me out of-- -[LAUGHTER]
...to outer space.
JARED: And you, um, hit somebody in the air while they are jumping,
they go flying across the map.
PAUL: That's something you wanted, right?
JARED: Yeah! Well, I don't think it was expected!
[JARED LAUGHS]
I think it just happened.
And we are probably going to keep it.
[JARED LAUGHS]
Because it's awesome.
Derek, are we going to keep it?
-DEREK: Yeah. -JARED: Good.
JARED: And there is a lot of, um...
funny accidents in this game.
[JARED LAUGHS]
It's cool.
Or maybe they are all just really intentional
and Derek is a genius.
Definitely not that.
[DEREK CHUCKLES]
I don't know, like...
I think somewhere along the way the original vision was obsolete.
It's way more fun and interesting
to fly around as little spirits than I thought it would be.
Like, I thought that would be just a boring part of the game.
I guess maybe it's the contrast of different traversal elements.
Like, you have really slow lumbering guys that actually can do stuff.
But then, when you fly out,
you are completely mobile and you can go anywhere.
Uh, so I don't know, it's totally evolved.
CHAD: The combat--
I think the combat still feels a little random.
Just like I'm flailing around.
We can work on tuning that a little bit hopefully over the next few days
to make it feel a little more strategic.
JARED: Yeah!
[JARED LAUGHS]
CHAD: Oh, I got a crash.
DEREK: Crash!
Did you get any text?
DEREK: I tried to get in one of these debug pots and it crashed.
Yeah, next bits I hope to get in some of the game loop
where you can actually kill the base and win or lose,
so you can actually start and finish a game.
You know, like, we don't really have that in.
Right now you can just wail on each other forever, so.
Um...
That's the next bit to hit.
GEOFF: Cool, all right. Well, I'll see you guys tomorrow.
All right, have a good night!
[MUSIC]
SILVIO: So, um...
Um...
So, the pick random spawn location...
[MUSIC]
SILVIO: So, get ground location below is in reality just
project point of navigation.
But that's because there is a navmesh down there.
DEVIN: Wha-at?
SILVIO: There is a navmesh down there.
When you sort of go very slowly.
DEVIN: (What is it on?)
SILVIO: Wait, is this a navmesh or...
Yeah, yeah, there it is. There it is, look at this!
-What's this surface? -It's the Underworld.
[ASIF SIGHS]
PAUL: Asif, you don't drink coffee.
-ASIF: What? -PAUL: You don't drink coffee.
ASIF: That's not true.
[CHUCKLING]
ASIF: Even if it wasn't true before, it definitely needs to be true now.
[LAUGHTER]
Not that, like, other people didn't have work to do today, right?
But, um...
We found out this morning
that Ryan wasn't going to be able to make it in today.
Um...
[ASIF EXHALES]
For me, just personally, like...
I feel like anytime I didn't know something
or was sort of unsure about something,
I could just quickly, like, look over to him and, like, ask.
And, like, losing that was...
a little disorienting.
I already have so much stress...
just completely independent of what anyone else is doing
from the fact that there is only a day left,
that it's messing with my head a little bit.
Okay, I'll find this, I'll send it to you,
and then I'll keep working on the thing.
Cool.
PAUL: What's going on, Asif?
Uh, it's not really a good time to talk, but basically it's just...
Um...
With Ryan being out today unexpectedly, we just have a little bit more, um...
There is a little bit more work to do to place all of the finished assets.
PAUL: Oh, okay.
BRIAN: So, Ryan was sort of responsible for taking all of the completed stuff
and putting them in, like, the level proper.
Textures or materials that needed to be put in.
VFX, stuff like that.
Um, and so, that's kind of being taken over a bit by Asif for today.
He is currently replacing the car wash whitebox
with the big car wash machine that I finished last night.
Um...
PAUL: That was the most complicated machine too, right?
Definitely the most complicated.
Uh... I was up till three.
ASIF: It's-- it's a lot.
I'm asking a lot of everybody, and....
You know, we cut a ton of stuff over the last two weeks.
And there is still a lot to do.
PAUL: But is it mostly just
sort of tweaking the gameplay experience at this point?
Nope, it's finishing the gameplay experience.
It's-- it's crazy!
It's, like, it's really, really, really hard to-- to scope.
I mean, you can know that you have two weeks
and have a sense of, like, what it means to simplify, but...
I don't know, I mean, this is sort of the part where...
...my inexperience is sort of catching up to me.
I just wanted to, like...
I don't know, do something that I thought was--
was big and special while-- while I had the opportunity.
Because these-- all these people will go back to making games.
And I never will.
LEVI: See that, Say?
No more time.
That means no more time.
[LEVI MAKES WHOOSHING SOUNDS]
ZAK: Happy last day, everybody!
No matter what happens...
it's over after today.
Ha-ha!
ZAK: We can look at what's in progress, so.
The periscope camera is messed up.
AARON: We'll deal with it.
-ZAK: All right. -It'd be good if there was a...
ZAK: Hold up! Let's get through all this stuff.
Cameras for end screen and the playground. That's on you.
I need to check on the tennis flow,
because there was not a Press Button step happening at all last night.
So, that's-- that's not a small amount of work
to get that room coming down.
It's not a huge amount.
-We can-- we can find a way to do that. -Okay.
ZAK: I think we can find a way to do that.
AMY: I think playing through would be a really great idea.
Because we probably have a bunch of small things
that we actually do need to address.
Because the scenarios probably have ways
in which you can break them.
ZAK: Yep.
AMY: That we...
-ZAK: ...don't know. -Yep.
ZAK: All right. Who wants to play?
ZAK: Everybody is, uh... is scrambling.
Um, we are actually pretty good on pure content.
So, we have, like, most of our models in.
Which is nice, because Tazio and Will can go through
and focus on polish and effects, and things like that,
which is awesome.
How is everybody else doing?
How are the rest of the teams doing?
PAUL: About the same-- the same place.
About the same place? Okay.
TUCKER: Well, Derek had a little bit of a freak-out earlier
But he was like: "Dude, I'm freaking out.
Okay! Now let's just-- Let's just figure it out."
So, it was very momentary and not terribly exciting.
PAUL: What was he freaking out about?
DEREK: Yeah, uh...
I made a crazy decision to do the water mechanic.
Uh...
Seemed like we could squeeze it in with our schedule.
Uh...
And so, we are going for it.
[JEREMY LAUGHS]
I'm trying to make the spirits barf water.
DEREK: It was pretty late last night.
And I knew I had to make a call.
[CHUCKLING]
And, uh... So, I made a call.
And so, now here we are!
[DEREK LAUGHS]
PAUL: So, now, like, the win condition is going to be
you have to spray water on your opponent's kiln until it goes out?
As opposed to just whacking it with a sword.
DEREK: Yeah, yep.
PAUL: That probably makes more sense.
Uh, we'll see, it is a big-- a bit of a changeover.
Luckily, I was just starting on damaging the kiln and destroying it
to make a victory or loss condition.
So, the fact that it's filled with fire now
and you put it out with water,
it saves me from doing that, so it isn't a total loss.
PAUL: Oh, okay.
CHAD: But, yeah, it's definitely heads down and crank.
TIM: You got pink rocks. Oh my god, you got critters!
You got horrible two-legged bicorns!
You've got-- Oh my god!
I should go away more often. This is awesome!
That's a really comp-- Oh, you just sucked him up like Luigi!
That's awesome. You can't hear me.
-TIM: You got your headphones on. -I can-- I can hear you.
Do all of those attachments mean something?
Yep.
DEVIN: You can kind of get information about the different traits.
Speed, defense, size, and aggression.
And so, the down red triangle means
that this individual is going to be really low on that.
So, I know when I get there, he is going to have small horns.
He's got small horns.
And then, so...
And then, if I go over to this one that's got, um...
Oops.
Uh, a red up triangle, he is going to have big horns.
PAUL: Oh, cool!
It's a quick way to try to locate the individuals in the world
that match what you are trying to do with your, um... selection.
So, yeah, I can't really-- I can't really judge the sim stuff,
because I'm not playing it in that way.
I'm kind of just playing it to listen to sounds and...
...find the stuff I'm working on to make sure it's working properly.
But, uh, it's fun to just run around and suck up animals and food.
It's interesting what you end up with when you just...
get a bunch of dudes with different skillsets together
and put a time pressure on them.
[GABE CHUCKLES]
You don't have time to nitpick anything.
You just have to kind of go with what-- what you come up with.
And hopefully it's cool, and...
You know, luckily, here it is.
EMILY: Tucker!
Just finger guns and walking away.
Finger guns and backing away, that's what I'm doing.
EMILY: Bye, Tucker!
You can film me if you want!
JAMES: "From my perspective, the Jedi are evil!"
That's such a good line!
-AMY: But it is so not true! -Just say how you are feeling!
TAZIO: It's significantly better than I and II.
I'm not sure. To be perfectly honest,
like, I haven't seen any of them since they came out, so.
I just remember by the time I got to the third one, I'm like:
"Surely, they would have fixed
some of the fundamental garbage problems of the last two."
And they had not, so.
ZAK: All right, are you playing?
Hey, everybody! Let's play our video game!
-Yay! -AARON: Yay.
ZAK: Yay!
AARON: Where are the hands?
Stand on the circle facing the stump and press the button to continue.
-That is so perfect! -It's great.
Good job, Emily!
ANNA: Oh, that's awesome!
-ANNA: Nice VFX, dude! -TAZIO: Thanks!
-AARON: All right! -Kill the baby.
-Kill the baby. -TAZIO: Murder!
ZAK: Oh, wait! Did that camera not work?
-AARON: Yeah, it didn't. -ZAK: That was a bad camera.
-That's a bad camera. -JAMES: But that was working earlier.
It was.
-TAZIO: Oh! -AARON: Okay!
AARON: Two friends got to take controllers.
Ah!
Got shocked.
-All right, someone else. -I'll do it, I'll do it.
Hopefully this works better than before.
Two!
Three!
Four!
Five!
Yay! That was a really good jump rope session.
[LAUGHTER]
Churn!
Faster! Faster! Faster!
Slower, slower, slower.
-JAMES: Oh, no! -EMILY: Oh, jeez!
-JAMES: Oh, no! -EMILY: Oh, no!
What are you doing?!
ZAK: All right, this is still too hard!
AARON: Oh, I've never adjusted that!
-AARON: There was no task, so that's why. -ZAK: Oh, okay.
AARON: Make a task, I will happily do it.
[TAZIO CHUCKLES]
I'm sorry!
Yay!
Yeah, I'll make those-- I'll make those more forgiving.
Yeah, basically, it's just the zones shouldn't--
when you are out of a zone, it shouldn't drop as fast.
AARON: That was-- That was pretty good.
There was a couple of things, but that was not bad.
ZAK: All right, these are all pretty small things.
So, hopefully we can get done with this in, like, an hour...
PAUL: Yay, it's over!
Yeah, kind of, pretty much.
Tomorrow. I call--
I would say tomorrow it's over.
After the company plays the game.
And Tim gets to play and stuff.
PAUL: Is there anything you are worried about?
DEREK: Not really.
I mean, I think it's-- I think it's great!
Uh, we-- we just played it earlier.
The reason I'm feeling so good about it is because we just played it earlier.
And...
It's, like-- It's really good!
[DEREK CHUCKLES]
It all came together!
Uh...
Yeah, it's a really good prototype.
[JARED LAUGHS]
Uh...
[LAUGHTER]
Where did he go?!
[LAUGHTER]
This is just chaos!
PAUL: You didn't have nearly as dramatic arc...
-PAUL: ...this time, Derek. -No? I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
PAUL: Are you disappointed or not?
Yeah, it's okay.
PAUL: We gave it to Asif.
-Oh, really? -PAUL: Pass the torch.
I'm sure he is fine.
I think Asif slept on the couch.
And, like, that's something I told myself I would never do... after Psychonauts 1.
I know! I know, he did. He did, he did.
I mean, generally you don't want to-- You don't want to crunch, right?
It's-- it's a little different when it's AF
and it's over a really short period of time.
Overall, like, you--
Crunch doesn't make for a better product.
You want to do this for the team.
You want to, like, you know, deliver for the team.
And, like, that's kind of sometimes is a stronger driving goal
than the creative nature of the work.
Um, and definitely this one, like, yeah.
I really wanted to execute really well for him.
KEE: But, like, we need to play through.
Make sure you could play through a round and it... works.
-[LAUGHTER] -Yeah.
ASIF: Uh, okay.
Well, let's just see where we can get real quick.
And then people can just make notes.
GAVIN: Maybe just, like, try each machine.
Yeah, exactly.
BRIAN: Oh, man we have it...
set up to where the entrance to the extruder is behind.
So, you can't just throw it all the way.
Right.
[IN-GAME MUSIC IS PLAYING]
-ASIF: Oh my god, no! -KEE: Oh, no-o-o-o!
[LAUGHTER]
KEE: Oh, good!
It's just a little burnt.
BRIAN: It's fine, everything is fine.
Do you guys like the idea of...
[LAUGHTER]
-[LAUGHTER] -ASIF: Oh, no!
-Oh-h-h.... -ASIF: Oh my god, all right.
-KEE: ...no-o-o-o! -That's how that's getting in there.
[LAUGHTER]
BRIAN: Kee...
No, okay, so the way it works is that it sees if it's inside.
But because TK just lets you go fucking through the walls.
-[LAUGHTER] -It's like: "I'm inside the bowl now!"
KEE: Man, we made a video game, you guys!
ASIF: Yeah! It's doing stuff!
Ooh, wow!
[ASIF EXHALES]
ASIF: I would have a lot more to say,
but I feel, like, a little brain-dead right now, but...
[LAUGHTER]
Trust me, I-- On the inside I'm super excited.
And this is amazing.
And I can't believe we have this much in there.
So, thanks, you guys!
[ASIF EXHALES]
God, I'm so-- I'm so tired!
But... but... it's cool!
CAMDEN: Learning a lot about Asif.
[CAMDEN LAUGHS]
That guy! God!
And, uh... just watching him go through this, like, walk of fire.
I, like, really feel for the guy.
And I kind of want to be like: "You can do it!"
Um... but I think he is getting a lot out of it.
I really do.
[ZAK EXHALES]
All right, we'll do it real quick! Real quick!
We are going to speedrun the shit out of this!
Was there anything else in here?
JAMES: Um...
AMY: Better main menu buttons.
ZAK: Uh, are you going to make this replicate?
You didn't-- that's fine. I don't care about it that much.
-JAMES: I don't know how to do that! -Yeah, I was giving him...
JAMES: Fucking don't look at me!
If, by any some chance, something that-- something is broken...
ZAK: It's all amazing! It's wonderful!
ZAK: But, yeah, we are done. We are done.
It's a grandma's attic, uh...
It is basically, like...
End of the project when you kind of shove everything in,
and you close the door.
And no one can open it again.
Because if you open it, there'd be, like,
a giant avalanche of garbage that falls on your head,
and a bowling ball,
and a bunch of old clothes, and things like that.
So, you just...
Just don't-- don't open that.
PAUL: What's the current mood, Asif?
What are you doing?
ASIF: It's 11:13... PM on the night before these things are due.
BRIAN: Fuck!
Brian is getting as much stuff hooked up as time will permit.
Uh...
I'm here for...
moral support.
So...
We'll see how long I can hold out.
-What the! -VIC: Ta-da!
VIC: Here you go! Happy first game!
-ASIF: Thanks, man! -Happy first game!
ASIF: Yeah, that's exciting!
-Woo-hoo! -Thank you!
[CLAPPING]
I thought we were all alone.
Where'd you guys come from?
I've been here for two weeks!
[LAUGHTER]
ASIF: I don't really know...
how to feel about...
not working on this anymore.
And going back to not working on a game.
It's a good thing and a bad thing.
Because this is also extremely stressful.
And I don't know how people manage it over longer periods of time
with other people's money at stake.
BRIAN: Booze.
You know, just-- Yeah, clearly.
I mean, I thought it was just a joke.
But now I understand why everyone here drinks so much.
-Uh... -[CHUCKLING]
Soda.
LEVI: I'm gonna take off, I just-- maybe...
I actually have a question for you real quick before you go.
-Is it about me eating this cake? -No.
I wanted to know how I, um...
...can, like, grab a texture and move it around on a smaller piece of geometry.
Ooh!
Is that not an easy--
Never mind, never mind! I didn't ask questions.
But, uh, yeah.
Thanks, man! It's been real.
Ping!
-Good night! -See ya.
[ASIF CHUCKLES]
Uh, I'm getting delirious now!
BRIAN: You should go home.
Yeah, I'm going to fix these two things and then...
BRIAN: God bowls, garnish counter.
[MUSIC]
What?
Oh! I thought you said: "Are we allowed in the universe?"
I was like: "Holy shit!"