Speaker 1: Technology with tech Stuff from dot com. Hey there, and
Speaker 1: welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, executive producer Jonathan
Speaker 1: strick Lind at how stuff works dot com. Happy Friday
Speaker 1: the third teen. This episode's originally going out on October
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, and I was originally just going to publish
Speaker 1: a regular tech Stuff episode, but then my producer Extraordinariy
Speaker 1: Ramsey came up to me and said, Hey, I put
Speaker 1: some feelers out with some of the folks who are
Speaker 1: behind the development for Friday the game. Would you be
Speaker 1: interested in talking with them so we could have a
Speaker 1: special Friday that thirteenth episode. And I thought, I've never
Speaker 1: done a Friday the thirteenth episode. I've done Halloween episodes,
Speaker 1: and I've done other holiday episodes, but never Friday that thirteen.
Speaker 1: And I thought, this is an opportunity I cannot pass up.
Speaker 1: And so what you were about to hear is an
Speaker 1: interview that I conducted with Chuck brun Gard, the CEO
Speaker 1: of l Phonic, that's the company that developed Friday the
Speaker 1: thirteenth the game, and he was very forthcoming and very
Speaker 1: straightforward about the development of Friday the thirteenth the game,
Speaker 1: the challenges that is company faced and the reactions of that.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's a very honest interview, which I appreciate.
Speaker 1: So I hope you guys enjoy this and I will
Speaker 1: join you again on the other side of the interview.
Speaker 1: I'd like to welcome Chuck brung Gart to the show. Chuck,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining tech Stuff. And Chuck
Speaker 1: is a co founder of el Phonic LLC. It's a
Speaker 1: company that developed Friday thirteenth the game. Obviously that's uh,
Speaker 1: you know, there's the relationship between game developers and game publishers,
Speaker 1: something that I think a lot of people who aren't
Speaker 1: really familiar with the way video games work, they kind
Speaker 1: of conflate the two. Of course, they're some companies that
Speaker 1: are both developers and publishers, and that makes it even
Speaker 1: more confusing. But you're the guys who actually went and
Speaker 1: started making a game that now is Friday the thirte
Speaker 1: As I understand it, when you were first looking at
Speaker 1: developing a game in this space, uh, it was it
Speaker 1: was certainly inspired by properties like Friday the thirteenth or
Speaker 1: something like Sleepaway Camp, but it was from what I understand,
Speaker 1: it was a kind of an original. I p at
Speaker 1: that point. The licensing agreement came later. Is that correct, Yes, definitely.
Speaker 1: And really kind of how it all started was, um,
Speaker 1: you know Gun Media, who's our publisher on this project.
Speaker 1: They actually kind of came up with the original concept
Speaker 1: and it was, you know, a game that they always
Speaker 1: wanted to make that they were kicking around. And I
Speaker 1: remember I got the call from West Suser CEO one
Speaker 1: day and said, hey, I'm you know, looking for a
Speaker 1: developer to develop this game, and you know it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's called Summer Camps. And the first thing I thought
Speaker 1: of was I was like, well, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you did too much research about us, but we don't
Speaker 1: make kids games, so I'm not sure if we can
Speaker 1: help you. And he's like, well, let me show you
Speaker 1: this trailer. It's actually called Slasher Volume one Summer Camp.
Speaker 1: And I think immediately I got it, like you know
Speaker 1: it it it kind of oozed Friday the thirteen, even
Speaker 1: though it wasn't yet that um it was, you know,
Speaker 1: it was called Summer Camp at the time, and um,
Speaker 1: but they brought on a lot of the original people
Speaker 1: from Friday thirteenth, like um, you know, like Harry Manfredini
Speaker 1: and uh. Um, you know, like just kind of all
Speaker 1: the different guys, Tom Fazzini and I think they you know,
Speaker 1: they were all talking about making this game and it
Speaker 1: was really just a game that they wanted to make
Speaker 1: from growing up and watching these films. And uh so
Speaker 1: I think that was always the tricky part, is like,
Speaker 1: you know, what do we do uh for the killer
Speaker 1: um if we can't really you know, have the hockey
Speaker 1: mask and all that. So so yeah, when we were
Speaker 1: approached eventually it kind of all made sense and really
Speaker 1: tied together that we were originally moving forward on a
Speaker 1: prototype and had you know, put out some some material
Speaker 1: that we were kind of showing early of what Summer
Speaker 1: Camp was to hopefully build interests within the consumers in
Speaker 1: the press. Um. But then that led to uh, you know,
Speaker 1: Sean Cunningham and his estates seen it and approaching Gun
Speaker 1: and us about it, and it was such a clever idea.
Speaker 1: It's it's an example of a type of gameplay, the
Speaker 1: asymmetric approach, And for people who are not familiar with that,
Speaker 1: asymmetric means that you typically have at least two teams
Speaker 1: or or two parties of players. Uh and in this case,
Speaker 1: we're talking about a single player taking on the role
Speaker 1: of Jason Vorhees, obviously the antagonist of the Friday the
Speaker 1: Thirteenth series, the iconic character who through parts two and
Speaker 1: on is the main antagonist. Obviously, if anyone is listening,
Speaker 1: I know Mrs Vorhees was the bad guy in part one.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows that. But from part two forward we have Jason,
Speaker 1: and asymmetric means that you have one person acting as
Speaker 1: Jason Vorhees, you have the other players acting as camp counselors,
Speaker 1: and the the goals are for one side to escape.
Speaker 1: That would be the counselors to get away or potentially
Speaker 1: even to take down Jason, although that is particularly difficult,
Speaker 1: as is warranted by the mythology of the movies. Of course,
Speaker 1: Jason's goal is to eliminate as many, if not all,
Speaker 1: the counselors as he possibly can. And UH, to me,
Speaker 1: it's interesting because it combines elements of gameplay that I
Speaker 1: find really compelling. You have the competitive aspect of Jason
Speaker 1: versus the counselors, but you also have co up with
Speaker 1: the point of the counselors. You know, if they if
Speaker 1: they work together, they stand a much better chance of
Speaker 1: having success. At least for some of them than they
Speaker 1: would if they all go Lone Wolf. Yeah, definitely. And
Speaker 1: I think what was so crazy about the concept is
Speaker 1: when I first heard it, I'm like, oh, that's that
Speaker 1: just works right. It works in and you know, almost
Speaker 1: a real life scenario where uh what, you know, everyone
Speaker 1: wants to know would you survive a horror film? Like
Speaker 1: what would you do? And I think early tests it
Speaker 1: was kind of funny because, um, you know, Jason is
Speaker 1: so powerful and that's definitely intentional, and I think the
Speaker 1: the asymmetrical aspects behind it. We worked on other asymmetrical
Speaker 1: games in the past and that was one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why Gunn reached out to us. Um, but we
Speaker 1: didn't really um you know, a lot of times it
Speaker 1: was trying to make it balanced, and you know, trying
Speaker 1: to make one person or one thing against multiple people
Speaker 1: balanced was very tricky and it could also sometimes ruin
Speaker 1: a bit of the fun. But when we kind of
Speaker 1: threw that out the window, I mean, there's still balance
Speaker 1: that goes into this stuff. But when we realize, like
Speaker 1: you know, Jason is going to be able to take
Speaker 1: on um, you know, more than one person at a time,
Speaker 1: it really started fitting, and it kind of essentially created
Speaker 1: almost a few games where you're either the powerful Jason
Speaker 1: hunting people down and and killing them and um, you know,
Speaker 1: stocking and kind of just all the different elements involved
Speaker 1: in that. And then as counselors, you're you're getting away
Speaker 1: and you kind of have those big horror elements and
Speaker 1: everything like that where you know, you're you're scared, you're
Speaker 1: trying to hide, and really just saw everyone kind of
Speaker 1: playing into what happens in horror films, like when you know,
Speaker 1: you're always like, oh, don't go in that room alone,
Speaker 1: or you know, if you're with your friends, or you're
Speaker 1: gonna stick around and like help them, but you know,
Speaker 1: everyone just kind of scatters and runs all different directions
Speaker 1: and that's usually when when all the bad stuff happened.
Speaker 1: So it was really, uh, it was really interesting because
Speaker 1: you have the human element and I think that um,
Speaker 1: that power, you know, the power struggle or power balance.
Speaker 1: It really worked well with a symmetrical gameplay and I think,
Speaker 1: you know, there's so many things you could kind of
Speaker 1: apply that to you when it comes to either other
Speaker 1: films or other ideas as well. Oh sure, and and
Speaker 1: it's interesting. It's very in a way. It's affirming, in
Speaker 1: another way terrifying to see that the tropes of the
Speaker 1: horror film play out in actual gameplay, because I've I've
Speaker 1: I've watched more than my share of let's plays in
Speaker 1: this in this game, and I've played a couple where
Speaker 1: as you say, it is more frequently than not. As
Speaker 1: soon as the game starts, you just see the kels
Speaker 1: are scatter like ants, and immediately you're thinking, like, well,
Speaker 1: we're we're all gonna get picked off one by one now,
Speaker 1: so that's gonna be interesting. I am a little curious
Speaker 1: about this because, as you say, you know, you you
Speaker 1: didn't have to worry. I mean, obviously, balance is always
Speaker 1: something you've got to think about. Otherwise, if you create
Speaker 1: a game where it is impossible for one team to win,
Speaker 1: then really you've just created a murder simulator. There's not
Speaker 1: really any way to to to get out of it.
Speaker 1: So you have to figure out, all right, well, what
Speaker 1: are the what are the parameters here for victory on
Speaker 1: both sides? And uh, and how can we make sure
Speaker 1: that if you are not the killer, that you're still
Speaker 1: having a good time. Can you talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about what that process was like about just kind of
Speaker 1: finding where that balance was. Yeah, I mean, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: to be to be honest, I feel like there's a
Speaker 1: bit of a pendulum swing, um, you know, and even
Speaker 1: uh you know sometimes little Patch and we think we're
Speaker 1: we we take a lot of feedback in from the
Speaker 1: community what they like, what they don't like, so UM,
Speaker 1: you know, I guess to back up and kind of
Speaker 1: start from the beginning. We did prototype really UM early
Speaker 1: on and I think you know, the biggest thing we
Speaker 1: found is it was really fun to play Jason, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't fun to play counselors. UM. So we spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time on the counselor angle. And you know, uh,
Speaker 1: we have a lot of things like fear, and the
Speaker 1: more you get scared, there's things that happened, the screen darkened,
Speaker 1: you tend to lose your hud. Um. You know, there's
Speaker 1: just an alteration that goes on, um like visually as well.
Speaker 1: And then there's some audio cues that happened, uh to
Speaker 1: kind of intensify everything. And we have this tripping mechanic
Speaker 1: where you know, the more scared you were, the more
Speaker 1: you attend the trip and stumble and that was you know,
Speaker 1: a very delicate mechanic because it was very frustrating in
Speaker 1: the beginning when we first tilt it. So you know,
Speaker 1: you're running around and then you have this thing kind
Speaker 1: of constantly taking control of your characters. So we made
Speaker 1: this figure out how do we give that effect that
Speaker 1: not make it as annoying. So um So there were
Speaker 1: some levers to kind of pull there and and you
Speaker 1: know that'll balance back and forth um on that end.
Speaker 1: But it's just you know, in the beginning, it just
Speaker 1: wasn't great to be a counselor because Jason was your
Speaker 1: sails with powered But then we kind I've got the
Speaker 1: counselors still in right, but then it wasn't fun to
Speaker 1: be season So we had to figure out how to
Speaker 1: kind of just go back and forth. And it was
Speaker 1: really just a lot of play tests, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, iteration is key in games, play test teams key,
Speaker 1: so he kind of went through that process and play
Speaker 1: tested a lot, and you know, all these kind of
Speaker 1: took feedback. There was we brought in some people early
Speaker 1: on and had them play the game and kind of
Speaker 1: got feedback from them. And the initial reaction as everyone
Speaker 1: really loved the game so that was great. But once
Speaker 1: you know, they spent a little more time with it,
Speaker 1: we're able to kind of identify the problems. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: and even today though, I think we're still kind of
Speaker 1: potentially swinging the pendulum because well, you know, there'll be
Speaker 1: some really good ideas and thoughts if the community brings
Speaker 1: up and then just thinks that we've sat was for
Speaker 1: a while during our play test, and you know, we'll
Speaker 1: kind of alter some numbers, and then sometimes that goes
Speaker 1: out and people are like, oh no, like you know,
Speaker 1: now Jason isn't fun to play, or you know, and
Speaker 1: and you know, now he's too over powered and a
Speaker 1: lot more fun to play, but it's too hard to
Speaker 1: be a counselor so it always is a bit of, um,
Speaker 1: kind of massaging to make it right. And you know,
Speaker 1: for the most part, I think we're we find a
Speaker 1: good balance between the two. But you know, I think
Speaker 1: everyone kind of has their own opinions, and sometimes even
Speaker 1: our opinions changed the longer we kind of sit with
Speaker 1: the game. So it is kind of interesting. And I
Speaker 1: wouldn't tell you like we you have it exactly right,
Speaker 1: but um, but you know, for the most part, I
Speaker 1: mean there's a lot that goes into what makes it, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of fun as it is now well,
Speaker 1: and I think it's really interesting. I mean, you bring
Speaker 1: up a great point in the idea of massaging this
Speaker 1: game and being able to tweak things and alter things.
Speaker 1: It points to a very different landscape today than games
Speaker 1: just ten years ago, where once the game shipped, that
Speaker 1: was pretty much it, right. You didn't really have the
Speaker 1: opportunity to create a lot of patches or updates, and so, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, if you if you created a game that
Speaker 1: that had some mechanic that apparently just just displeased players,
Speaker 1: then you were kind of stuck with it. But now
Speaker 1: you're in a world where if there's good parts and
Speaker 1: bad parts, one thing is that you can go back
Speaker 1: in and you can take in this feedback and you
Speaker 1: can make adjustments to the game and thus hopefully create
Speaker 1: a better experience for players so that they're having more fun,
Speaker 1: or or you're adding in elements so that the game
Speaker 1: is constantly fresh for players. But of course, the flip
Speaker 1: side of that is that you are you are fostering
Speaker 1: a game much longer. You know, it's not that it
Speaker 1: ships out the door and you immediately turned to the
Speaker 1: next thing. So is that is that something that is
Speaker 1: I assume it's very different from your perspective, From a
Speaker 1: player's perspective. I love having a game where I'm constantly
Speaker 1: getting h tweaks and updates and it is refreshing the
Speaker 1: game and it makes me makes me want to play
Speaker 1: it again because I want to see what the new
Speaker 1: experience is like. I'm not sure what it's like on
Speaker 1: your side of though. Yeah, though it's I mean I
Speaker 1: would say, um, you know, to be honest, it's it's
Speaker 1: a blessing and a curse, right, I mean, I think, um,
Speaker 1: we're you know, we were a small team that worked
Speaker 1: on this. We're a small company and um, you know,
Speaker 1: there was a certain amount of people internally that we're
Speaker 1: on this project, and um, you know, so being a
Speaker 1: small team, it's it's tough to um continue to roll
Speaker 1: out content and you know, luckily, with the success of
Speaker 1: the game, we've been able to grow. But you know,
Speaker 1: when we're kind of getting towards launch, it's like, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: we know we're gonna need to keep working on this
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get feedback from the community, and we're
Speaker 1: you know, we're uh, you know, guns like five people.
Speaker 1: They're getting a little bigger now. But uh and I
Speaker 1: think we had about you know, twenty people on the
Speaker 1: game as well internally here, so we weren't like with
Speaker 1: a big publisher where they could have hundreds of people
Speaker 1: that could go at it, and you get all these
Speaker 1: different studios and um, you know, people at the publishing
Speaker 1: company to kind of give a lot of feedback and
Speaker 1: kind of help with certain areas. So you know, we
Speaker 1: kind of knew that we were throwing this thing out
Speaker 1: there and we would get some feedback, but we were
Speaker 1: committed to supporting that. So it is it is awesome
Speaker 1: from our standpoint because it's like we got to launch
Speaker 1: the game, people liked it. I mean, obviously there was
Speaker 1: issues when it launched, um but for the most part,
Speaker 1: people really liked it. They had a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: We knew, uh, you know, moving forward that we would
Speaker 1: kind of fix and address these issues and constantly spend
Speaker 1: time updating adding new content into it. But it was
Speaker 1: a bit of a growing process for us as well. UM.
Speaker 1: And really it's just it's it's interesting because um, I
Speaker 1: started before this actually in the music industry, and it
Speaker 1: was nice because when you finished an album, you know,
Speaker 1: there's so much work you put into it, and then
Speaker 1: you kind of you know, it goes off to like
Speaker 1: mastering and then you know, the artist tested them kind
Speaker 1: of take it from there and promoted. But we were
Speaker 1: more behind the scene, so we could just say, okay,
Speaker 1: we're we're done. That's awesome. They could go to sleep
Speaker 1: at night. It's either gonna fell well maybe you know,
Speaker 1: is a hit or maybe not, and then it's kind
Speaker 1: of onto the next thing. But you know, with this
Speaker 1: kind of being a game as a service, we're constantly
Speaker 1: updating it, constantly thinking about it. You know, there's some
Speaker 1: night where you can't sleep just due to some issues
Speaker 1: you might run into or issues that end up out there.
Speaker 1: And then there's other times where you can't sleep because
Speaker 1: you're like, how do I make this even even more better? Um?
Speaker 1: You know, how do I keep refining it? So? You know, so,
Speaker 1: like I said, I think it's a it's been a
Speaker 1: big learning experience for us in the team, and it's
Speaker 1: you know, we've been um kind of getting into the
Speaker 1: groove now is really kind of supporting it and turning
Speaker 1: around content and patches and updates and all that but
Speaker 1: you know, something that we had to really work into
Speaker 1: and we kind of as a company had had to
Speaker 1: learn to work that way. And we brought on some
Speaker 1: really talented uh developers um here at the Phonic that
Speaker 1: actually had experience with that at other company needs, so
Speaker 1: they're able to kind of help us shift our company
Speaker 1: towards that direction. Um. But even before then, I mean
Speaker 1: I would say, like even our early games or work
Speaker 1: for higher games we did, you know, there's still were
Speaker 1: um online multiplayer games, so they were still updated and
Speaker 1: kind of uh you know, move through, but nothing really
Speaker 1: to this level. UM. So yeah, it was definitely a
Speaker 1: learning experience, but it but it's great. I mean it's
Speaker 1: allows you you know, if the game wasn't that successful,
Speaker 1: it kind of allows us to you know, support it
Speaker 1: still until the community kind of eventually starts dying down. Um.
Speaker 1: But in this case, it kind of allows us to
Speaker 1: support it a lot longer and put a lot of
Speaker 1: things in there that originally were like this would be
Speaker 1: great to have, but you know it's not in the
Speaker 1: budget or the scope at the time. So I think
Speaker 1: that's as cool as we get to really always kind
Speaker 1: of put those ideas that um, you know, games in
Speaker 1: the past to kind of leave on the cutting room floor,
Speaker 1: and and that kind of leads us into You've talked
Speaker 1: about community, and there's clearly of a very vocal and
Speaker 1: and active community in the Fright the Third the game.
Speaker 1: I mean, like I said, I've watched lots of let's
Speaker 1: plays in this as well as well as playing the game.
Speaker 1: I was one of the backers of Fright the thirteam
Speaker 1: full full disclosure. Yeah, so you guys had a very
Speaker 1: successful crowdfunding campaign, which I assume was very gratifying because
Speaker 1: it showed that there were players out there who were
Speaker 1: feeling just as strongly about this concept of, uh of
Speaker 1: really diving into this world of classic slasher horror kind
Speaker 1: of fiction and bringing it into a a you know,
Speaker 1: a playable experience. Uh. Can you talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about the the you know, how that how that worked
Speaker 1: when you did the crowdfunding and sort of the feedback
Speaker 1: you got, And I assumed that was pretty energizing to
Speaker 1: the group to see that kind of level of enthusiasm
Speaker 1: before you you even had a game to ship. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: it was really awesome because I think, you know, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of work that goes into you know, making
Speaker 1: a Kickstarter and are doing Kickstarter and just you know,
Speaker 1: all the videos and all the content we have to
Speaker 1: make to keep people engaged and to really have them
Speaker 1: buy into our vision. It's like, you know, we all
Speaker 1: have it in our heads, but how do we show
Speaker 1: the community of people of that. So. Um, So we
Speaker 1: were really you know, really nervous going into it, like, oh,
Speaker 1: this are people gonna gravitate towards this? I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: luckily we had Friday their Teeth in the franchise behind us,
Speaker 1: but it's really tricky because we just didn't know. Um,
Speaker 1: we felt like people would be into this and were
Speaker 1: as much as we were, but we just didn't know.
Speaker 1: So when a lot of people you know started kind
Speaker 1: of coming out and saying, hey, this is great, this
Speaker 1: is exactly what we're looking for and really supporting us
Speaker 1: and backing us, I mean, it was it was an
Speaker 1: amazing feeling, but it was it was a crazy, um,
Speaker 1: you know, months kind of thirty day roller coaster ride
Speaker 1: of trying to make sure. Yeah, I mean, we had
Speaker 1: an initial plan and then I think you know, after
Speaker 1: we launched, probably three or four days into it, um,
Speaker 1: we still kind of executed on that plan, but there
Speaker 1: was a lot more we started doing because I think
Speaker 1: that's when we started building a community. There became a
Speaker 1: lot of questions and you know, people wanted to understand
Speaker 1: how the game played more and what things are going
Speaker 1: to look like and how it's going to run and
Speaker 1: work and all that, and so I think it, um,
Speaker 1: you know, it was pretty crazy, but I think it
Speaker 1: became very I guess a lot more work than we
Speaker 1: figured it would be because we wanted to try to
Speaker 1: answer all those questions and um, continue to show people
Speaker 1: we're building. Obviously we knew that would help the crowd funding,
Speaker 1: but we also wanted to just have fans really buy
Speaker 1: into the vision. So um, so yeah, it was. It
Speaker 1: was a great experience. Um, really cool, I mean it,
Speaker 1: you know, but also at the same time, it was
Speaker 1: a ton of work. And like Randy and those guys
Speaker 1: that on all really put so much into a um
Speaker 1: as well as they just kind of really stayed on
Speaker 1: top of everything in and made sure that everything was
Speaker 1: kind of laying smoothly and that people were getting a
Speaker 1: question answered and all that stuff. So it was experience.
Speaker 1: I imagined some of those questions even lead to developing
Speaker 1: things that you had not initially considered because in my experience, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you have a brainstorming group, you get people together,
Speaker 1: you start coming up with ideas, then you start to
Speaker 1: put those into some form of structure and you move
Speaker 1: on from there, and then you you think you've got
Speaker 1: a pretty good idea of what you have from beginning
Speaker 1: to end. You you know, it's maybe not complete, but
Speaker 1: you gotta you've got You're fairly confident. And then you
Speaker 1: open it up and people started asking questions and they're
Speaker 1: asking things that you You're like, wow, I really I
Speaker 1: really should have thought of that, and I totally didn't.
Speaker 1: And that's a legitimate point. Yeah, or we did think
Speaker 1: enough about that, right, you know, because maybe that won't
Speaker 1: work that we thought would work so well. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you know, once we got the ideas that there,
Speaker 1: I mean, it was kind of tricky though, because anything
Speaker 1: you would say sometimes could be taken as gospel essentially,
Speaker 1: So we would, you know, someone would throw out an
Speaker 1: idea and maybe we weren't communicating to each other, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden we noticed that that idea
Speaker 1: would really stick in the community. So it's you know,
Speaker 1: I see, that's why games for so long have been
Speaker 1: kind of developed in this very closed, I guess dark
Speaker 1: environment where you know, you don't even really hear about it,
Speaker 1: and maybe a year or two years on some of
Speaker 1: these big Triple A projects before they come out, they
Speaker 1: might announce it, but they're careful with what they show,
Speaker 1: and you know, everyone starts having ideas and kind of
Speaker 1: questions and and all that kind of stuff. But I
Speaker 1: think because we were so open with what we were
Speaker 1: trying to build, you know, you would throw out an
Speaker 1: idea and it would be something that we might have
Speaker 1: just talked about briefly, but we didn't bet it yet,
Speaker 1: and everyone would gravitate towards that, and then it's like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe this is a great idea and now
Speaker 1: we have to figure out how to make it work.
Speaker 1: It was definitely a different way of developing. UM I
Speaker 1: would say, I mean it, but I think it it
Speaker 1: was for the better, right. I think it's allowed us
Speaker 1: to kind of talk about things early on that um
Speaker 1: maybe we were understanding like, oh, people don't really understand
Speaker 1: what we're trying to go for here. Maybe two come
Speaker 1: to a complex of a mechanic, you know, how do
Speaker 1: we make it simpler, and I think you know, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, there was a lot of
Speaker 1: There was one point where we felt no one was
Speaker 1: going to understand how to play this game, how to
Speaker 1: play as Jason, how to play as counselors, and what
Speaker 1: the missions and objectives were for. So we started going
Speaker 1: into this like, Okay, we need way more u I
Speaker 1: so people can understand this stuff, and you know, we
Speaker 1: need way more feedback on things. And I think there
Speaker 1: were some parts where we started going a little too
Speaker 1: overboard um and hand holding, and then there was parts
Speaker 1: where it needed it kind of just made the perfect
Speaker 1: balance of someone seen a mechanic, getting some visual feedback
Speaker 1: and understanding what it was. So we're pretty surprised when
Speaker 1: we did the data that people are able to just
Speaker 1: kind of pick it up and play for the most part. Um.
Speaker 1: But it was kind of interesting because you know, we
Speaker 1: didn't know if that would happen or not. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, we're kind of putting people
Speaker 1: in a bit of real life, you know, survival kind
Speaker 1: of instinct areas, I guess, so it didn't work out well.
Speaker 1: It's it's the sort of game that kind of rewards uh,
Speaker 1: some experimentation as well, where you know, if you if
Speaker 1: you're casting about a little bit, you might discover a
Speaker 1: strategy that works that you would not have necessarily thought of.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, it's not like it's a
Speaker 1: game where you jump in and you can pick up
Speaker 1: absolutely everything and you have no idea which thing is
Speaker 1: relevant and which one isn't. I've played those style game
Speaker 1: games to which are you know, it's very immersive to
Speaker 1: be in a world where your character can manipulate practically
Speaker 1: anything in the environment. But then at that point you
Speaker 1: start asking yourself, oh, but is this does this matter
Speaker 1: that I can do this? Or is this just a
Speaker 1: cool gimmick that's distracting me? And uh so that it's
Speaker 1: nice to see balance there too. I appreciate a game
Speaker 1: where where you can more easily hone in on what's
Speaker 1: really important, especially if you happen to have a seven
Speaker 1: foot tall behemoth with a machete bearing down on you
Speaker 1: at the time. Snap decisions are pretty important in that case.
Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit. So what are some
Speaker 1: of the challenges that you did encounter in the development
Speaker 1: of this game. You know, we talked about how obviously
Speaker 1: the balance was something and and figuring out, you know,
Speaker 1: how to communicate with the community, almost a collaborative process
Speaker 1: with the community in some respects. But but obviously this
Speaker 1: was this was a pretty ambitious project, and as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: it was a relatively modest team, A small team, not
Speaker 1: a talented one, but a small one. So what are
Speaker 1: some of the challenges you encountered throughout the development process? Oh?
Speaker 1: I think, I mean, to be honest, I think we
Speaker 1: bumped our heads every which way. I mean I could
Speaker 1: probably I could probably go on on this topic, um
Speaker 1: for a while, but no, I think you know, anytime
Speaker 1: you're creating some something new and different, there's you know,
Speaker 1: especially in games in generals, you're pretty much encountering issues daily, right,
Speaker 1: I think you know, some of it would um would
Speaker 1: be I don't know as big as when you know,
Speaker 1: when we launched, our technology wasn't really able to scale.
Speaker 1: We built a lot of this stuff internally, and we
Speaker 1: never had a game that was just successful. So we
Speaker 1: we would you know, on day one, we can him
Speaker 1: off the data basically said oh okay, well we had
Speaker 1: maybe I don't know, five thousand concurrent players or something
Speaker 1: on the data, so let's you know, if we get
Speaker 1: four or five times, that would be good, um, but
Speaker 1: I think we had let's see, probably twenty times that
Speaker 1: so we weren't really um in day one, so we
Speaker 1: really weren't ready for that. And you know, we didn't
Speaker 1: have enough servers up. It didn't scale properly. I mean
Speaker 1: that was that was a big one. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: some of the technology and just that we used and um,
Speaker 1: you know, console development in general's pretty difficult and beam
Speaker 1: a small team working across three platforms is another big
Speaker 1: challenge as well. But even just gameplay, getting things right,
Speaker 1: it would always be you know, okay, um, you know,
Speaker 1: do we have players play more inside houses? Like? How
Speaker 1: do we draw more into the house? Like, I think
Speaker 1: the gameplay styles changed a lot. Like in the beginning,
Speaker 1: I think Illphonic had lot of ideas for it being
Speaker 1: more of an outdoor game, where I think Gun felt
Speaker 1: it should be more of an indoor game, um because
Speaker 1: they wanted a lot more of those uh like survival
Speaker 1: horror elements of like hiding and barricading and you know,
Speaker 1: using the cabins as cover and all that kind of
Speaker 1: stuff um from Jason. But I think we had a
Speaker 1: kind of a different um maybe style of play in
Speaker 1: our heads. So a lot of it was kind of
Speaker 1: coming together between both teams to say, you know, okay,
Speaker 1: we get what you want here, this is kind of
Speaker 1: what we're thinking here, and you know, we kind of
Speaker 1: meat in the middle and I think, um, and then
Speaker 1: sometimes it would even swing more towards uh, you know,
Speaker 1: one team's suggestions versus another. But I think we were
Speaker 1: you know, very aligned on what we wanted, and there
Speaker 1: was a lot of communication. I mean there was daily talks,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, like we were in so many meetings
Speaker 1: with this game because I think a lot of things
Speaker 1: kind of swung forth. But another thing that was challenging
Speaker 1: too is you know, what features really need to go
Speaker 1: in there? And after a while we just felt early
Speaker 1: on like, okay, well this is a fun game, but
Speaker 1: it's it's starting to leave it's fun, so we need
Speaker 1: to give the players a bit more things to do. Um.
Speaker 1: And at first we never were going to have the
Speaker 1: car driv a bowl. Um. It was just gonna be
Speaker 1: you know, you get the car parks and kind of
Speaker 1: put them on the car, and you know, you you
Speaker 1: end up um getting in there's like a cut scene
Speaker 1: or something, and then you escape um, but we felt
Speaker 1: after kind of testing a lot that that would happen
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. Um. And then you know, I think Jotting
Speaker 1: those guys over there basically suggested, hey, we just think
Speaker 1: about a driveable car, and we were kind of terrified
Speaker 1: because they're like, well, we don't really have the time
Speaker 1: for that right now, and those are you know, that's
Speaker 1: a whole new element to the game. So the car
Speaker 1: was really challenging, but I think we all kind of said,
Speaker 1: you know, it could be a little bit jaky, because, um,
Speaker 1: you know, we think it's going to bring enough moments
Speaker 1: to the table that if the car does have some
Speaker 1: problems here there, we just kind of try to figure
Speaker 1: out how to solve those. But we knew we were
Speaker 1: kind of opening up and buying off a lot, so
Speaker 1: you know, it forced us to kind of work a
Speaker 1: bunch of eight hours. But I think we were all
Speaker 1: passionate about the idea because we knew would make it better.
Speaker 1: And I think we got the car in pretty quickly
Speaker 1: in a rough state. But you know, most games, when
Speaker 1: you look at like out of grant that auto or
Speaker 1: even like a um, you know, some of the other
Speaker 1: racing games out there, I saw very track based. Those
Speaker 1: areas where the cars can and cannot go, you can
Speaker 1: take them a bit off road, but for the most
Speaker 1: part the games are built for vehicles, whereas this it
Speaker 1: wasn't really from the beginning built four vehicles, who are like, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: what happens if they started driving the car off into
Speaker 1: the forest or hit big rock boulders and all this
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. So we tried to really, um like
Speaker 1: contain the car a little bit more of the road
Speaker 1: so that I would make it easier for gameplay, but
Speaker 1: at the same time it could really go anywhere the
Speaker 1: player wanted to go. But I think that was something that,
Speaker 1: you know, turn the game around to be really fun
Speaker 1: and add this extra element I think lent really well
Speaker 1: for for streaming and all that kind of stuff. Even
Speaker 1: the voiceover I p and was was kind of an
Speaker 1: idea that came up at one point and said, Oh,
Speaker 1: wouldn't it be cool if you know, you could hear
Speaker 1: each other talk with proximity, so counselors could talk to
Speaker 1: each other. And then that kind of lent to the
Speaker 1: walkie talkie idea. We wanted it where it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: Jason could kind of yell at people or you know,
Speaker 1: you could have people as Jason running after stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: after them saying stuff to them. So we thought that
Speaker 1: would add an important element. But that was very challenging
Speaker 1: because we didn't really have you know, the engine UM
Speaker 1: has very basic voice over I P and not all
Speaker 1: platforms supported the ability to kind of take the voice
Speaker 1: over IP and put it in the three D space. So, um,
Speaker 1: that was a big challenge. But once we thought it
Speaker 1: was a good idea and kind of prototype it out,
Speaker 1: we had to have it, and you know, we did
Speaker 1: whatever it took to make it happen. So did your team?
Speaker 1: Did your team actually, uh developed the various versions for
Speaker 1: each of the platforms, so PC, Xbox, and PS four.
Speaker 1: We actually ended up doing all three platforms. We used
Speaker 1: on Ronging four, which had um, you know a lot
Speaker 1: of that stuff already in there. So it allowed us
Speaker 1: to kind of develop one game and then um go
Speaker 1: to the other platforms and kind of hit all the
Speaker 1: certification standards. So I mean, there was still a ton
Speaker 1: of work. They're getting me wrong, I name, I think, um,
Speaker 1: we did it very quick as far as supporting all
Speaker 1: three platforms. So that was a really big challenge because
Speaker 1: we're also you know, we worked on in Xbox one
Speaker 1: and a PlayStation flour game before, but not a game
Speaker 1: where we had to take it kind of from A
Speaker 1: to C you know, start to finish by ourselves as
Speaker 1: a group. So there was a lot of areas that
Speaker 1: we kind of learned and you know, bumped our heads
Speaker 1: on and and uh but for the most part, I
Speaker 1: mean there was a lot that is, they're already from
Speaker 1: unrealni in four, but you still have to kind of
Speaker 1: view all the user facing stuff on your own and
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of work there, and there's a
Speaker 1: lot of work that goes into just you know, making
Speaker 1: sure that when you unplug a controller or something like that,
Speaker 1: that it displays the right message and the message and
Speaker 1: it is different between the different platforms by different standards
Speaker 1: and all that kind of. Yeah, the reason why I
Speaker 1: was asking is because, uh, you know, obviously there are
Speaker 1: a lot of companies out there that will develop a
Speaker 1: game for a specific platform and then they end up
Speaker 1: using you know, a third party to go and port
Speaker 1: that over to other platforms. So to have this this
Speaker 1: one type team working on building a game, you know,
Speaker 1: really building the game for the most part once but
Speaker 1: then having to make those adjustments for the various platforms.
Speaker 1: That is not a trivial problem. That's that's a lot
Speaker 1: of work, and I think a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: necessarily think about that when they're looking at a game
Speaker 1: that's across multiple platforms, not they don't necessarily know that.
Speaker 1: In many cases that's been worked on by different companies,
Speaker 1: not let alone different teams. So I think it's just
Speaker 1: very impressive to see a single group tackle all of that.
Speaker 1: It's a very ambitious kind of approach. Uh And uh
Speaker 1: So when you talk about some of these challenges and
Speaker 1: bumping your head and things, I mean, you you guys
Speaker 1: were tackling really a big, big challenge. You're talking about
Speaker 1: a beloved property, so there's high level of expectation among
Speaker 1: the the potential audience there. You're talking about, uh, fairly
Speaker 1: relatively fast turnaround. I mean, as I understand it, summer
Speaker 1: Camp was you know, you got started on that somewhere
Speaker 1: around and you know, there's some games out there that
Speaker 1: have infamously long development cycles, so that's pretty fast. And
Speaker 1: you had a relatively small team. So while you ran
Speaker 1: into a lot of challenges along the way, and the
Speaker 1: launch was rough, and the scaling was was an issue.
Speaker 1: You know, when you know the whole story, when you
Speaker 1: know what was going on behind the scenes, you start
Speaker 1: to see like, well, it's it was a monumental undertaking
Speaker 1: really when you get down to it. So, uh, I
Speaker 1: certainly appreciate that. That's one of those things that when
Speaker 1: you learn more about how the industry works and you
Speaker 1: see this particular approach, you get a greater appreciation for
Speaker 1: the work you guys were facing on a day to
Speaker 1: day basis. One other thing I wanted to talk about really,
Speaker 1: and this is something that my my producer Ramsey, really
Speaker 1: wanted me to talk about. Two is just how how
Speaker 1: much this fee les like Friday. And in large part
Speaker 1: that's due to the involvement of people who were who
Speaker 1: were part of the Friday the Thirteenth film franchise as well.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Harry man Bernini, who made the music for
Speaker 1: Friday the Thirteenth, and he worked on the music for
Speaker 1: the game and did the composing for the game, and
Speaker 1: you know Sevini who did effects working on design for
Speaker 1: the game, and of course Kane Hotter, who played Jason
Speaker 1: Vorhees in various chapters of Friday the thirteenth doing motion
Speaker 1: capture for the game. What was it like working with
Speaker 1: people who actually created the stuff that you're trying to
Speaker 1: emulate in a video game format. Yeah, I mean that
Speaker 1: was that was amazing. I mean because I think, um,
Speaker 1: you know, and I don't know, you know, like Mysonse,
Speaker 1: I pe games and they kind of get a bad
Speaker 1: rep because you know, they they don't necessarily go through
Speaker 1: all the details. And I think that's something in that
Speaker 1: that really brought to the table. Was you know, even
Speaker 1: just when we shot the Kickstarter video at Sean Cunningham's house,
Speaker 1: It's like we all got to just sit around the
Speaker 1: table while people were doing interviews or you know or whatever,
Speaker 1: the cameras were setting up and all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: and we just got to kind of talk about, um,
Speaker 1: you know, oh hey, so in like you know, where
Speaker 1: did this come from? Or like what was this idea
Speaker 1: based on? I mean, I think there's a lot more
Speaker 1: thinking that goes into this kind of stuff. I think
Speaker 1: where you know, I mean, these are people that these
Speaker 1: are their stories. They kind of created them, they helped
Speaker 1: tell these stories. They were around when it was shot.
Speaker 1: They were next to the writers, they were next to
Speaker 1: the actors, and you know, I think some of it
Speaker 1: just kind of happens to just fall together naturally and
Speaker 1: they don't you know, overtake it too much. But then, um,
Speaker 1: you know, I think later on down the line, they
Speaker 1: start thinking about a lot of things like, oh, so
Speaker 1: you know, just different references to different part to the
Speaker 1: films and if they're going to bring something back or
Speaker 1: you know, what was the intention of making this part.
Speaker 1: So having access to those kind of guys and and
Speaker 1: you know, in having came for example, just tell us
Speaker 1: like how you would get in the character and how
Speaker 1: you know why he moved the way he did in
Speaker 1: the films as Jason, and um, you know what his
Speaker 1: kind of uh stint is. Jason's like brought to the
Speaker 1: table along with him kind of knowing all the other
Speaker 1: guys that played Jason, whether loss through convention or whatever else. Um,
Speaker 1: he was able to kind of understand like what their
Speaker 1: body types of like body language, so there's a lot
Speaker 1: of details there. And just being close with those guys
Speaker 1: and those guys just kind of living this for a
Speaker 1: number of years, um, you know, twenty plus years or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's they were able to, um really like they knew
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of the answers the questions
Speaker 1: we had. I mean, I see, like Ronnie and West,
Speaker 1: we're kind of the Friday thirteen Bible. I mean there
Speaker 1: were times where they knew more than I think some
Speaker 1: of the guys that actually worked on it or created
Speaker 1: it did. And and I think that's why they worked
Speaker 1: really well because they're able to throw out a lot
Speaker 1: of that stuff when we were talking, and they kind
Speaker 1: of got all these guys as blessing to Um really
Speaker 1: like either fill in blanks or kind of continue moving
Speaker 1: forward with certain things. And so I think that that's
Speaker 1: what was really important between that relationship. But I mean
Speaker 1: it just helped us really study the films and and
Speaker 1: everything like that, so we're able to i don't know,
Speaker 1: really nailed down kind of what the fuel is. Like.
Speaker 1: I mean, there was a day when we kind of
Speaker 1: sat around and just talked about color all day, and
Speaker 1: I think having to be a conversation left had with
Speaker 1: maybe as Tom Savini or or Shawan Tunningham. But at
Speaker 1: one point Um they were just talking about like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, the cinematographer, like we would put you know,
Speaker 1: this kind of paint on the walls to indicate certain things,
Speaker 1: and I think it just really translated well into the
Speaker 1: game as we were just kind of talk about how
Speaker 1: they shot it, how they filmed it, you know, what
Speaker 1: kind of film it was shot on, Like how we
Speaker 1: would get that kind of effect and really go for
Speaker 1: the cinematic look and feel. But I think, you know,
Speaker 1: bringing Keen into it and bringing Hearing into it, I
Speaker 1: mean and Tom, it really just kind of added that
Speaker 1: extra element of Now we got the movement, we got
Speaker 1: the feel of the mo cap, everything is coming from
Speaker 1: the people that originally business and I like also, you know,
Speaker 1: we didn't really mentioned this earlier, but in the game,
Speaker 1: there are different versions of Jason Vorhees based upon the
Speaker 1: different film films, because obviously his look changes from some
Speaker 1: films to another. Sometimes it's a dramatic change, sometimes it's
Speaker 1: more subtle. His preference for weapons can change, and of
Speaker 1: course the iconic kills can change. So in the game
Speaker 1: there are iconic kills you can you can do as
Speaker 1: Jason against the Councils, and they depend upon which Jason
Speaker 1: Jason you're using. Uh, my own personal favorite for reasons
Speaker 1: of nostalgia is that you created a Friday the thirteenth,
Speaker 1: Ney s version of Jason for the game You Get
Speaker 1: your Purple Jason. Uh. If people are not familiar, there
Speaker 1: was a Nintendo Entertainment System Friday the Thirteenth game that
Speaker 1: was a very odd take on Jason Vorhees and I
Speaker 1: love that that was a that was the character that
Speaker 1: you could play in your game. Yeah, so it's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1: I mean we you know, we we actually call it,
Speaker 1: uh metro Jason. Uh yeah, but yeah, I think the uh,
Speaker 1: you know, for all these reasons there, but but we um, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was one that we were all like so strong
Speaker 1: about here. Um. I think it was even early on
Speaker 1: something we kind of did and you know, like you
Speaker 1: get a debug format. We would have like a lot
Speaker 1: of Purple Chases running around before we had to model
Speaker 1: all finished and stuff. So it was only kind of
Speaker 1: natural that we would kind of get that finished up
Speaker 1: and release it out to the wild. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean that was something as as a kid, I totally well,
Speaker 1: I guess I don't you know, I would say I
Speaker 1: remember it well, I don't remember the exact game, and
Speaker 1: we kind of went back and watch YouTube videos and stuff,
Speaker 1: but I definitely remember playing that game. And you know,
Speaker 1: Nintendo games are always super hard day. So yeah, now
Speaker 1: if you think, if you think winning as a counselor
Speaker 1: is hard in Fight the Thirteenth game, play any old
Speaker 1: school Nintendo game for five minutes and and just take
Speaker 1: a moment to appreciate how things have changed. Um, not
Speaker 1: that the old games weren't fun. They were, they were
Speaker 1: just maddeningly difficult. Uh So, I've got a couple of
Speaker 1: other more kind of goofy questions for you. One is,
Speaker 1: is there a particular, like favorite detail that you have
Speaker 1: of the games? I mean, obviously it's like picking your
Speaker 1: favorite kid, but there's so much detail that goes into
Speaker 1: this this game. Is there any particular either an Easter
Speaker 1: egg or version of Jason or anything along those lines
Speaker 1: that you you are particularly tickled by? Yeah? I think.
Speaker 1: I mean it was cool with the savine Jason, just
Speaker 1: seeing how popular that became and how everyone really wanted
Speaker 1: that case. And I thought it was cool to watch them,
Speaker 1: you know, to watch Tom and like create that new
Speaker 1: Jason right like it's like, oh wow, we're kind of
Speaker 1: adding on to that. I think the same for the
Speaker 1: Famili tapes as well. I mean that was something, um
Speaker 1: that that was really interesting because it kind of brought
Speaker 1: in a whole new story of of what happened kind
Speaker 1: of previously. Um, I won't give it away too much
Speaker 1: in case people haven't listened to all or collected all
Speaker 1: of them, but but it it was the new elements
Speaker 1: of the story. I mean, I don't know. I was
Speaker 1: really tied to the audio of the game because that's
Speaker 1: kind of what I worked on a lot. Like I'm
Speaker 1: a programmer as well, so I wrote a lot of
Speaker 1: like the music systems and stuff like that. So that's
Speaker 1: just kind of the area that I was always in.
Speaker 1: But I don't know, the kills are really cool to
Speaker 1: see come along and just don't It's it's tricky. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I could kind of pick one one
Speaker 1: detail because there was a lot of attention to detail.
Speaker 1: I think winning um came into the you know, came
Speaker 1: into making this game, and and that was something that
Speaker 1: that Gun did a really good job bringing to the table.
Speaker 1: There had to be all the little details because they knew,
Speaker 1: you know, they neither be a vocal community with the
Speaker 1: Friight third team community, and if we didn't do it right,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we would have to run the
Speaker 1: other dittrection right so so they really to hit all
Speaker 1: of that on the head. And there was a lot
Speaker 1: of times where it's be like even just a scratch
Speaker 1: on the mask, where it's like, oh, no one's going
Speaker 1: to see this, but you know, sure enough we would
Speaker 1: put it on there. We would think, oh, maybe we're
Speaker 1: wasting our time, and do we really need to go
Speaker 1: back and try to add this extra detail that we
Speaker 1: might have missed or something. And you know, when when
Speaker 1: that stuff came out, I mean it was analyzed under
Speaker 1: a microscope, so we're kind of like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: thank god we put that in there. Um, because the
Speaker 1: community noticed things like that, they noticed imperfection. There's there's
Speaker 1: a lot of like imperfections when it kind of comes
Speaker 1: to the mask and even just like the eyeholes for
Speaker 1: dimple or not symmetrical and kind of getting those right
Speaker 1: and just all the angles of that in the shape
Speaker 1: of them. I mean, there was details down to that level,
Speaker 1: and it all went totally noticed by the community. So
Speaker 1: I think those were kind of for me probably the
Speaker 1: the touches that I felt in the game that just
Speaker 1: went a really long way. That works special. Well. My
Speaker 1: last question for you is what is your favorite film
Speaker 1: in the Fright of thirteen franchise. Wow, I know, tough one, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is. It is a tough one. I mean it's
Speaker 1: like I think when you know, when personally I went
Speaker 1: back to kind of revisit the films when we started
Speaker 1: this game, it's like I totally forgot probably as the
Speaker 1: original Friday and thirteen. So I think that one was
Speaker 1: kind of special because you know, I think growing up
Speaker 1: as a kid, like, you know, we were watching them all,
Speaker 1: but they just all kind of playing together, and you
Speaker 1: always remember like the hockey mask, right, I think you know,
Speaker 1: seeing uh, seeing Sackhead and seeing um, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of Pamela originally being the Killers. I think that was
Speaker 1: that was probably more interesting to me. But I don't know,
Speaker 1: I think I still really like Part three, probably just
Speaker 1: kind of when and everything started shaping up a little more. Maybe.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, it's you know, there's it's definitely
Speaker 1: like something you really love and then some that you're like,
Speaker 1: I don't think good, but you know, I don't know
Speaker 1: what about I mean, okay, so you're gonna laugh. It's
Speaker 1: legitimately my favorite. I like Jason X. I love Jason
Speaker 1: and Space. It is. It is unapologetically ridiculous, but I
Speaker 1: it's kind of celebrating in that, and I find joy there. Um.
Speaker 1: I'm a big horror fan, so I love watching these two.
Speaker 1: And you know, there have been times where the entire
Speaker 1: series has been available for streaming and I would find
Speaker 1: a day and I'd say, all right, today, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: work through parts one through three, and tomorrow it's gonna
Speaker 1: be four through six, and I would just, you know,
Speaker 1: I just binge because I really like the filmmaking approach.
Speaker 1: I love the effects. Uh you know, I like the
Speaker 1: the innovation when it comes to things like how are
Speaker 1: we going to top what we did in our last
Speaker 1: film and not get it in a way where it
Speaker 1: just becomes parody. Although I think you could argue Jason
Speaker 1: Next kind of falls into that line. But that's kind
Speaker 1: of why I like it. Um. And also, I'm friends
Speaker 1: with a guy who for a while was working on
Speaker 1: a scripted development that was was going to be the
Speaker 1: next Fright the thirteenth film. It is since they've moved
Speaker 1: on to a different writer, but for about two years
Speaker 1: he was working on it, and to to see it
Speaker 1: from that side was really cool. This would have been
Speaker 1: the one after the reboot, so not the not the
Speaker 1: Fright the Thirteenth reboot, but it would have been the
Speaker 1: the next one. Um and uh yeah, so so chatting
Speaker 1: with him in Atlanta, we have a ton of of
Speaker 1: people in film, and this guy has been working in
Speaker 1: movies for a while and so it was kind of
Speaker 1: cool seeing it from his perspective as well. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so I guess my favorite Friday the Thirteenth movie is
Speaker 1: the one that was never made. Yeah. Yeah, well, you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully hopefully one day, right, Yeah, you never know, it
Speaker 1: may end up morphing into something else or or even yeah,
Speaker 1: you never know. Things come around. But this has been
Speaker 1: fascinating and I've, like I said, I've been following the
Speaker 1: development of the game since the crowdfunding days, uh and
Speaker 1: watching as it as it came out. And one of
Speaker 1: the things I love about it is that it has
Speaker 1: become a a wealth of of content for people who
Speaker 1: live stream. It's one of those games that is frequently
Speaker 1: being live streamed, either on YouTube or on Twitch or
Speaker 1: other platforms, and so even if you're not ready to
Speaker 1: jump in there just yet, you can watch as other
Speaker 1: people play. I've watched groups who play it together and
Speaker 1: then they'll which is great because you'll you'll get the
Speaker 1: the conversation that goes on within the room itself if
Speaker 1: they're all playing in the same room, as well as
Speaker 1: the action that's going on on screen. And those are
Speaker 1: some of my favorites because you get to especially when
Speaker 1: people do something like they happen to pick the car
Speaker 1: that only a lot has too seats in it, and
Speaker 1: there's a third person there. That's always the best idea, right,
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen? Who's gonna get left behind? And it's
Speaker 1: fun watching a group a group of friends play it
Speaker 1: and just you know, a group of group, a group
Speaker 1: of good streaming friends that are kind of used to
Speaker 1: playing and streaming together. It's there's some real special elements
Speaker 1: you kind of see from that. It's it's pretty funny.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's just probably hours and hours of content
Speaker 1: that you could just watch that um that we see
Speaker 1: and that's just I don't know, it's it's hilarious. It's awesome. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's funny watching people get scared sometimes, and just even
Speaker 1: just watching people that have played it for so long
Speaker 1: and have so many hours in it and they still
Speaker 1: have those moments of them like jumping or getting scared
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, yeah, those those I mean, it's clearly
Speaker 1: that hearkens back to the spirit of the films. So
Speaker 1: when you've got that, when you can see that happen,
Speaker 1: you could think, oh, yeah, we got that right, you
Speaker 1: got got that right. That's actually the way you're supposed
Speaker 1: to be. If you were watching this, you have that
Speaker 1: that jump scare um and thankfully there's there's not like
Speaker 1: a thousand fake jump scares with cats jumping out at
Speaker 1: you everywhere. That's that would get old really quick. Uh well, Chuck,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining the show and talking
Speaker 1: about this. I really look forward to seeing how this
Speaker 1: game continues as well as your future work. I'm really
Speaker 1: curious to find out more about that further down the line.
Speaker 1: And thank you again for joining tech Stuff. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: thanks for having us. It was it was great talking
Speaker 1: to you. And uh yeah, thanks thanks for the support
Speaker 1: and everything. All right, that was it. That was Chuck
Speaker 1: brung Gart of Elphonic talking about Friday the thirteenth of
Speaker 1: the game. We are so appreciative for his time and
Speaker 1: uh and and getting to talk to him about what
Speaker 1: this process was like. It's definitely something that I really
Speaker 1: was interested in from the it go, and I think
Speaker 1: it is a really fun experience. From a personal perspective,
Speaker 1: playing Jason is a thrill. Playing a counselor is a
Speaker 1: real challenge, and if you're playing with people who know
Speaker 1: what they're doing, you can actually get pretty far in
Speaker 1: this game as a counselor. It is still really really
Speaker 1: hard and you'll probably die, but there's a chance you'll
Speaker 1: make it out. And so if you are interested in
Speaker 1: this game, you can always go and check out YouTube
Speaker 1: videos or or let's play so that you can kind
Speaker 1: of get a feel for what the game is like.
Speaker 1: It's available on PC, at PlayStation four and Xbox One,
Speaker 1: so it's on all the big consoles right now besides
Speaker 1: the Nintendo Switch. And you can check that out and
Speaker 1: try it out yourself see if you have the what
Speaker 1: it takes to be a killer Jason or a surviving counselor.
Speaker 1: Don't go in the lake. If you're a counselor. Jason
Speaker 1: can move wicked fast in the water. I found that
Speaker 1: out the hard way. And if you are in a
Speaker 1: car and you see me, let me in the car please.
Speaker 1: I have been left behind so many times. But thanks
Speaker 1: again to Chuck brung Garten, the team over at Illphonic
Speaker 1: for letting us have this conversation. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: We rarely get a chance to actually hear the behind
Speaker 1: the scenes process of what it was like to create
Speaker 1: a piece of technology and release it to the world,
Speaker 1: and to really get an understanding of where those challenges
Speaker 1: are and how do you overcome them, So I greatly
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Guys, if you have any suggestions for future
Speaker 1: episodes of tech Stuff, maybe there's a technology you really
Speaker 1: want me to cover, or a company history that you've
Speaker 1: always wanted to hear more about, or a person in tech,
Speaker 1: or maybe there's just someone else you want me to
Speaker 1: interview or have on as a guest host. I need
Speaker 1: to hear from you, guys. Write me an email and
Speaker 1: that email address is tech Stuff at how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com, or you can drop me a line on
Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter. The handle for the show is text
Speaker 1: Stuff hs W. Remember on regular episodes, not interviews, but
Speaker 1: regular episodes, I do stream live and you can watch
Speaker 1: as I record and make mistakes and cry and Ramsey
Speaker 1: has to comfort me until I've gotten through that emotional turmoil.
Speaker 1: You can see that happen. If you go to twitch
Speaker 1: dot tv slash tech Stuff. I record Wednesdays and Friday's.
Speaker 1: The schedule is right there at twitch dot tv slash
Speaker 1: tech Stuff. Pope to see you there, and I'll talk
Speaker 1: to you again really soon. For more on this and
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, staff works dot com