‘We write accurate stuff in the pub:’ the comedy first approach to Thank Goodness You are Here
The IGF (Independent Games Festival) aims to foster innovation in game development and to recognize honest game creators who are advancing the medium. This year, Game Developer connected with the finalists for the IGF’s Nuovo and Grand Prize nominees prior to GDC to uncover the ideas, creative choices, and tools behind each submission. Game Developer and GDC operate as sister organizations under Informa.
Thank Goodness You’re Here allows players to explore the sights and meet the residents of the Northern English town of Barnsworth, engaging in absurd jobs and interacting (or slapping) the quirky characters and situations they encounter.
Game Developer spoke with Will Todd and James Carbutt, the creators of the multi-IGF Award nominated title, to discuss the challenges of crafting a town filled with eccentric characters and humorous activities, their motivation for allowing player interaction via slapping, and the complexities of designing the sound and musical style to enhance the overall experience.
Who are you, and what was your involvement in developing Thank Goodness You’re Here?
We are Will and James, the creative pair behind Thank Goodness You’re Here! James handles the visuals and music while Will takes care of everything else (on the computer). We collaborate on writing and lend our voices to various characters, too.
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What is your background in game development?
Will studied game design at university while James has a background in animation. Interestingly, neither of us has professional experience in the industry; we simply got together one weekend and decided to create something enjoyable. It has turned out to be the longest weekend of our lives.
How did you come up with the concept for Thank Goodness You’re Here?
It was a gradual evolution. The initial ‘next game’ concept we had after The Right Time Garden was very different and didn’t include a primary player character or specific dialogue, focusing more on a visual style and loose ideas we wanted to explore. When we started ‘developing’ it, the characters naturally adopted our tone of voice (and accents), which shifted everything towards being set in a Northern English town with an emphasis on the quirky traits and colloquialisms of that area.
What development tools were used to create your game?
We utilized Unity as the engine, Photoshop for the graphics, and FMOD for the audio.
The town of Barnsworth is filled with all kinds of wild, eccentric characters who provide activities to engage in (or at least promise some form of humorous interaction). What obstacles did you encounter in creating a town so packed with quirky activities and funny individuals?
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To be honest, the most challenging aspect is defining how players interact with the characters. Since the player character acts as a sort of straight man in the humor, it was tricky to determine when their interactions with the townsfolk felt too enthusiastic. Additionally, due to the somewhat flat visual presentation, it was difficult to guide the player in recognizing who and what is important in a scene at any moment. I believe we navigated this challenge by crafting the entire experience around a series of quests, which allowed us to be quite straightforward with ‘briefing’ the player.
Furthermore, it was quite demanding (and tedious!) to design so many characters without reusing any assets.
What was your process for designing a character and the humorous scenarios surrounding them? How did you incorporate similar humor into the player’s interactions with the environment and the challenges they face within it?
Our method of development prioritizes comedy first, and then we extract ‘gameplay’ from those moments. This process usually involves both of us enjoying a few drinks and shouting absurdities in a room until one of us comes up with something amusing (often Will). We generate genuine ideas at the pub. However, there are times when a specific visual theme we want to explore, or a specific setting, drives the development, and elements are built from there.
What considerations influenced the game’s art style? What attracted you to this vibrant, whimsical style? How did you develop an artistic approach that supports the humor of the game while also making some of the more unsettling or dark elements feel light-hearted and enjoyable?
The art style is essentially James’ signature, so it didn’t clash with the overall direction…
A significant amount of construction has occurred since it was originally developed. In certain scenarios, the game emphasizes the artistic style rather than following a predetermined path. It could have been a truly distinct, likely more limiting experience if everything was drafted first and then an artist brought it to life.
What attracted you to the concept of using a slap or smack as the primary means of interacting with elements within the game world?
This idea was a carryover from our initial foray into game development, The Appropriate Time Garden, a brief surreal interactive experience we created alongside our regular jobs. We understood that we wanted a somewhat ‘pure’ gameplay experience (no user interface, no dialogue boxes, no complicated control schemes), and since we knew there wouldn’t be standard gameplay in the traditional sense, it made sense to implement a non-diegetic interactive element. Slap turned out to be the most logical and amusing choice.
What considerations went into the music, sound effects, and voice acting that would further enhance the enjoyment and humor? How did you craft the sound of this game to make it entertaining and engaging through these elements?
For the audio, we collaborated with some talented individuals from A Shell in the Pit. Together, we concluded that the visual style and tone of the game’s audio spoke for themselves, making it more effective to create sound effects that were realistic rather than absurd. Similarly, the ambiance is fairly grounded in reality, which hopefully stabilizes the player a bit amidst the chaos.
The music was subtle; if it became overly sentimental, it would detract from the humor and some scenes would feel rather tragic. However, if it was too…