June 7th, 2007
AVC: What was Sam about?
JH: It was basically Mike's story. A million years ago, Mike would have the basic cores of stories, and I would help him try to flesh them out. These days, obviously, it's more collaborative. Sam at the time was about a teenage boy who… There was an angel that had been exiled from heaven, and actually imprisoned in a mortal, and he, this teenage boy Sam was sort of the vehicle or vessel that held this ancient angel.
It's very manga. We probably could have found great success with it. But we were 18 and 19 at the time, and we had a lot of failed comic projects.
AVC:/b> So Penny Arcade was the one that hit?
JH: Yeah. Well, Penny Arcade just seemed to hit from the very first time we put it up online. I mean, it was really weird. Even thinking back on it now, it's just sort of odd, from the very first time those first comics went up, it seemed like it just took off on its own.
MK: Yeah, it found the right people.
JH: We never shopped it around, we never advertised it or anything. We just put it online at Looney Games, and then the audience just sort of found it.
AVC: The Internet is great for distribution. But does drawing and writing for the Web impose any limits on you?
JH: I don't really feel them, but then, I'm not especially ambitious. I don't feel constrained by it.
MK: I don't either. If there are strips that need animation, I can do that. If there's strips that need to be eight panels long, or 10 panels wide, I mean, I don't really feel like there's any limits to what I can do.
AVC: Would you like to do more things with the Web or the technology it offers?
MK: I think it goes back to what Jerry said. We're not really very ambitious.
JH: Which is true.
MK: We want to enjoy ourselves.
JH: Yeah. We're not trying to revolutionize or change anything. So we never really think about that.
AVC: Do you see yourself ever bringing in more collaborators, or even handing the strip off to someone else?
JH: No, the spotlight can never leave us. Actually, our employees aren't even allowed to look us in the eye.
MK: No, the only thing that they are allowed to do is bring us platters heaped with pork and chicken.
JH: And then back out of the room.
MK: Bowing the entire way.
AVC: You've been working on your first game. You once said that doing a game would hurt your credibility in terms of being able to comment on other games. Do you still feel that's true?
MK: I'm sure that it's true for some people, I just—the opportunity presented itself, and we had to do it. I recognize that it presents a challenge rhetorically…
JH: There's something you said this weekend that I thought was interesting…
MK: A lot of times I say smart things.
JH: Yeah, not that often. That's why I remember it. He said that everyone who comments on games should be required to make a game at some point in their lives. And I think it has definitely given us a new perspective, and I think that's valuable. But yeah, I agree that definitely a lot of people will say that, you know, making a game, we've lost our credibility as far as talking about them. But it really was something that we couldn't pass up doing.
MK: Yeah.
JH: We stumbled into making a game just like we stumbled into commenting on games. There was never really any plan in place. And we're not trying to make a triple-A $60 retail title. This really is an indie game that…
MK: It's a playable comic.
JH: Yeah. [But] just like with the comic, we're not trying to change the Earth. We don't think we have any deep, mysterious vision, and that finally we're going to have a chance to "show those developers." We're entering into this in the spirit of humility and reverence.
AVC: What are your roles on the development team?
MK: Jerry is writing everything, the whole game. I designed all the characters, and the enemies, and the environments—pretty much everything you see, I drew at some point. And we know Penny Arcade better than anybody, so we're involved daily with the developers talking about the game and how it should play, and that sort of thing.
But we really are trying to leave the actual gameplay up to them. They're the experts in that field. We can make it look like Penny Arcade, and we're trusting them to make it fun to play.
AVC: As you work on this, are you finding it's harder than you expected?
MK: The amount of work and planning is really overwhelming. We're used to conceptualizing a project, completing the writing, and then finalizing the comic in the space of four or five hours, total. And we've been writing and drawing for this game for how long?
JH: Months! I mean, from the very first storyboards and stuff, probably a year. [Long sigh.] It's been a learning experience to actually see how a game like that comes together. I mean, it really is sort of like a trip through the sausage factory. We were not prepared, I don't think, for the process.
AVC: So are you more sympathetic to developers now?
MK: Absolutely.
JH: Well, I think… Well…
MK: I am.
AVC: The gaming community doesn't have many spokesmen, and since you're essentially writing an editorial cartoon—and getting into fights with Jack Thompson—you seem to be filling that job. Are you comfortable in that role?
JH: I'm comfortable speaking. The gaming community is too vast to have a spokesperson. I definitely think that the things I say represent a viewpoint that exists in the gaming community. But the gaming community isn't monolithic, in that way. I don't think it can have one spokesperson.
AVC: At the same time, even though the comic is topical…
MK: "Only for topical use."
AVC: …one of the best things about it is just watching Gabe and Tycho beating up on each other.
JH: Yeah. The thing is, we hate each other.
MK: Haaate each other. As long as we can maintain that hatred, and stoke the fires…
JH: Gabe and Tycho are odd, odd friends. There's no reason they should be together. And I think that that will always create tension.
AVC: In real life, guys who are friends often act like that.
JH: Yeah. I think that's why Penny Arcade resonates. We get e-mail like that all the time, they say, "Oh, me and my friend are just like that." It's because it's authentic. It really is. It was one of the first blogs. [Laughs.] We didn't know it at the time, because it was nine years ago. It was our life in comic form, with some exaggerations, and some murder, but it's a blog. I mean, somebody sent me an e-mail last week telling me that no one likes hearing about us talk about our kids, and that I should shut up about our "apeseed." And I said, "If you don't like hearing about our families, then don't read our blog." And it's the truth. This is our diary for the last nine years.
« Previous | 1 | 2
- Comments