4 color rebellion » 4cr Interview

4cr Interview - Thompsonsoft

A few weeks ago we were all exposed to a new game based on Jack Thompson’s “Modest Proposal“. After playing this game, I became a bloodthirsty monster, just as Mr. Thompson had predicted all along. I mean, this game itself was a murder simulator. After my mind had been warped by the graphic monstrosity, I set off on my own quest to find the twisted persons responsible for it. After finally tracking them down, I engaged in conversation with some of the greatest deviants of our time…

A record of this conversation lies below.

4cr-Michael: Alright guys, if you would be so kind please give us a brief explanation of who you are and what your role was in the creation of I’m O.K.

Derek Hello! My name’s Derek Yu and I did most of the pretty graphics for I’m O.K., and all of the ugly ones. I also paid for all of the hookers and yayo out of my own pocket.

Chris I’m Chris Hanson, I’m the programmer for the game. I’m also responsible for drawing the bullet graphic in the game, which I really think is my crowning achievement.

Alec Hi I’m Alec Holowka / Zaphire. I’m the guy who wrote the original music and did a chunk of the sounds for the game. I’m also one of the hookers that Derek claims to have “paid”.

Wow…hookers and bullets play more important roles in game development then I ever thought they did.

Alec The two tend to mix well we find.

Derek Bullet-filled hookers… yum!

Alec crunchy on the inside

…like a violent, disease ridden twinky. Haha, anyway, so we’ve all heard of Jack Thompson and his ridiculous claims and proposals. What made you guys decide to pull together and actually respond with something like I’m O.K.?

Chris Derek must have had a sudden urge to get some bullet-filled hookers…

Derek I don’t know, it was a pretty obvious thing to do I think… especially for four bored guys who, combined, had all the talents and resources to put it all together. We’re like those dudes from Voltron.

Alec If you look at I’m OK as a finished product, you notice that it’s a creation based on Jack Thompson’s “modest proposal” but it’s also a tribute to classic gaming - which is really ironic. I think we all saw this as an opportunity to show how hilariously out of touch JT is while simultaneously celebrating what we loved in games past.

Derek Aye, the irony was ridiculous.

Alec The hookers helped too.

Chris Yeah, we all love video games so when a guy like Jack Thompson is making the sort of claims he is, we wanted to show that games could have a message and just shove a little of his, for lack of a better term, “crap” back into his face. And making games is always fun so it was easy to just start since he layed it all out for us.

So how did you all come together and decide you wanted to pursue making a game? Have you worked with each other on previous projects?

Derek Chris, Phil (Phil Jones did the background art for I’m O.K.), and I had dabbled in game-making together. (I think Phil might have been the first person to bring up the idea of making the game.) Alec came on board after he heard of the game from… a comment on Slashdot, I think?

Alec Some people believe that no good comes out of comments on Slashdot - and so did I… until I read some comments about a Jack Thompson story that led me to the PixFu forums. (An art related forum of Derek’s)

On the forums I offered any services that could be of assistance to the game… code, music, sounds… even sexual services. So that’s how I became the sound designer and the guy who did the motion capture for the “secret scene”

Derek The sexual services is what got us through the development, really.

Chris Yeah, Phil and I have been making games for a while and we’ve been wanting to make and finish a game with Derek for a while, after a few failed projects. This seemed like a great vehicle for us to just kind of go wild.

“Secret scene”?

Alec Well as we all know the game doesn’t have any secrets… according to Derek and the Readme file.

Derek Well, there’s a secret in the Eastmost Peninsula.

Did anyone get that joke?
*(now’s a good time to note that one of DY’s most cherished memories is making maps of Zelda levels with his dad)

I totally did

Chris No

Alec The whole prequel part where you play as the kid that kills OK’s son billy was cut, there may still be a way to unlock it.

Derek hahaha

Are you guys pulling my leg or are you serious?

Chris (They’re not serious)

Err, next question…

What was the planning process like? You said that you seemed pretty set on making a game set in the oldschool style from the start, but were there other aspects of the game that you had to think about and debate over and ultimately remove?

Derek My friend Zack told me that the game really felt like a jam session, and that’s kind of what it was. Someone would say “oh, let’s do this!” And we’d all think it was really funny and we’d just do it.

I don’t think we really had to cut anything big.

Chris Yeah, definitely had that sort of dynamic to it. There really was little planning because Jack did most of it for us. I think from the start we had the idea that a sort of Metal Slug-inspired romp of violence was what his “Modest Proposal” called for.

Alec I came up with a number of ideas that weren’t used. I thought it would be funny if we could hear O.K.(Osaki Kim) crying and whimpering throughout the entire game. I think that wasn’t used because it would have got annoying and it would have taken too long to make it sound right.

In terms of the music there was an evolution to it that mirrored the development process of the game. It started out like over-dramatic movie music, but as more video game references were added to the game their influence seeped into the music. A few of the tracks jumped around a bit in terms of where they were used in the game as well.

Yeah, I noticed throwbacks to games like Metal Slug and Megaman in there. What other games do you reference and/or where inspired by in the making of this game?

Derek People seemed to really like the DDR reference… um, I definitely tried to get a Phoenix Wright vibe across in the intro. Phil hid a lot of stuff in the backgrounds, too.

Chris Derek was responsible for most of the little references, I think. I was mostly just trying to make the game feel somewhat arcade-like. I don’t know that there were too many specific games (other than Metal Slug or Gunstar Heroes) that influenced my programming of it. Also, I think people are inferring a lot of influences that aren’t really there but make us look cooler and more hip.

Alec There’s a long winded and over-indulged explanation of the musical references (there are many, and some are very subtle) made in the soundtrack on my blog at zaphire.ca - overall I think Jesus was my main inspiration.

Haha, nice. How long would you guys guess the game took to develop from start to finish?

Derek Probably like 4-5 months? A lot longer than we had planned, in any case.

Alec Yeah a few months sounds about right. But I can’t begin to guess at how many years its shaved off my life span.

Chris Yeah, I think it was about 4 months. And yes, much longer than we originally thought, and with a little more downtime than we would have liked but oh well.

Where there any bumps in the road along the way?

Chris No real big bumps. Phil got busy around the middle of development and couldn’t finish all the backgrounds so Derek did them for the E3 level.

Derek There were some bumps… but they cleared up after a few days. LOL!

Are you surprised at the overwhelming response that I’m O.K. received after its release? I mean, to list a few of the big name sites, you were mentioned on Joystiq, Kotaku, Digg, EuroGamer, Wikipedia, and don’t forget 4CR. Plus, you were mentioned on G4’s daily feed.

Derek Yeah, we were pretty overwhelmed. It was incredible how fast news travelled. Gamers own the internets.

Alec I’m pretty happy with the response. I was afraid people would confuse this game with the other games that were based on the “modest proposal” and think, by association, that we sucked as much as they did.

Chris I think we were all extremely surprised because by the middle of development, after some other people had released games based on the Proposal, we didn’t think people would still care if we released ours. We just wanted to create a half decent arcade shooter, since we figured everyone had forgotten about Jack Thompson.

There’s been a few complaints about compatibility. Do you guys have any plans for making this game available to all users or are you done with it?

Derek I’ll let Chris answer that question!

Chris Haha, alright. Well, I think at this point we’re basically done with the game. We tried to make it as entertaining as possible but it inevitably has a fairly short shelf-life because of it’s basis. I figure there wouldn’t be a whole lot of interest in it if we released new versions of it later, because hopefully Jack Thompson will have fled the country by then.

Haha, right, that’s good logic. So have you heard any response from Jack Thompson yet? Any threats or name calling?

Chris He called us idiots!

Derek I don’t know… is that really him on GamePolitics?

Alec I think GamePolitics just does that to get attention.

Derek Oh snap.

Alec It’s like their mascott.

So aside from that one thread, you’re not sure if there’s been any real response?

Alec “JT” made a post.. and it was the first post.

Derek He’s kind of our mascot, too, though. He’s too busy getting flowers and crap sent to him by gamers. They should pool their money and buy him a Ferrari.

Alec Somehow I doubt he even knows this game exists. Sometimes I wonder if Jack Thompson is even alive anymore.

Derek Ha ha… he’s probably just a hologram.

Alec He could have faded into myth by now.

Hmm…interesting….

Alec Maybe its like the Phantom. He like passes the responsibility onto a successor. A lineage of Thomspons…

Derek You’re scaring me, man.

Chris Stop scaring people Alec.

Alec Now it’s time to reveal my true form! You’re all sued!

Alright, so as we wind this down, are there shameless plug you guys would like to make while you have the opportunity? I mean, after a hit like I’m O.K., I think many people would like to know where they can find more work by the twisted minds who made it.

Derek I just want to say that right now I’m listening to AC/DC and Bon Scott is screaming “She’s got the Jack” into my ears.

Chris Well, Phil and I have Leaky Pig Productions. We only have two other games but they’re half decent. And anyone who’s ever played an SNES game should download Eternal Daughter by Derek and his friend Jon, because that game is a amazing (although I kind of suck at it).

Alec Derek and I are working on a “little” something, but that won’t be released for some time.

Alright then, last but not least; righties or lefties?

Derek I don’t discriminate against women who want to love me.

Alec A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.

Chris Well, I have since started using my left hand more because programming O.K. gave me a nasty case of carpal tunnel.

Alec Yes… programming O.K… of course.

Haha, oh snap.

Alec snapple

Chris Shhhhh, don’t tell Alec.

Alec I won’t.

Well there we have it. Thanks for the interview guys and I can’t wait to see what Mr. T has you make next.

Chris Haha thank you. We’re afraid of what he might come up with.