Hello from 2 Player Productions!
Greetings backers of adventure! This is 2 Player Productions speaking, so if you’re expecting some witty banter from Tim Schafer I suggest reading update #2 again and learning all about love bombs! The only bombs we have here are full of shyness and self doubt, and any war fought with those would just be weird.
For your amusement we have edited this video of Tim acting silly during our shoot for the Kickstarter pitch video. We’re currently working on the first episode of the series and we should have something ready to go before the end of March.
No one here or anywhere was really expecting this Kickstarter to blow up the way it did. I mean, Dave told us it was an awesome idea, but who ever takes that guy seriously? The last few weeks have been kind of crazy for 2pp and Double Fine. This has gone from being a fun project we wanted to work on to being our lives for the next year+, and that’s really awesome. We have all of you guys to thank.
Some people have been asking what our plans are for the documentary series, so we wanted to address those questions.
If you are familiar with our work on the Penny Arcade series (season 1), it’ll be a little like that. Every month we plan to release a fully edited episode that runs between 10-20 minutes (at least) and sums up the progress of development. It’s likely the episodes will have some kind of theme, like “building the engine” or “designing the characters”. You’ll also get to know the team behind the game and some history of adventure games along the way.
We also want to feature more specific videos that focus on the nuts and bolts of the development process. Maybe Tim and the team had a really awesome meeting that lasts for like an hour. Let’s put that online for you guys! Maybe two of the lead developers had a breakthrough with a feature they had been struggling with. Upload it! We want these videos to be accessible and informative. Some people may not be in to all the nuts and bolts of things and just want to get the gist of it. Some people like nuts and bolts! We’ll try to make you both happy.
Spoilers are an issue of course, and yeah, there may be some of those. We’ll give you fair warning though. It’s not our goal to reveal every aspect of the game, so as often as possible we’ll try to avoid ruining key story points and puzzles. We’ll have an episode about designing a good puzzle, but we won’t reveal all of them.
We’re proud to announce that Terence Lee, the
composer behind the awesome indie game “Dust Force”, will be
producing original music for the documentary soundtrack. The second we
heard Terence's compositions we knew he was someone we wanted to work with. We
have deep roots with the chip music community, and Terence’s music merges the
nostalgia of chip with rich natural textures and intelligent, catchy
songwriting. We want this soundtrack to be more then just background
noise; when everything is said and done the music should stand on its own as
something you guys will want to listen to over and over.
We also want to take this opportunity to announce
that Tim will be doing an “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit this Sunday, March 4th,
from 1pm to 3pm PST. If you’re unfamiliar with Reddit, it’s best
described as a social news website that’s driven by user contributions.
“I Am A” is a specific forum on the site where people will host public
chats to talk about who they are and what they do. If there is anything
you would like to pick Tim’s brain about, here’s your chance! Just head over to the IAmA board at the specified
time and keep an eye out for Tim’s thread.
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/
You may even find a bunch of other interesting stuff to check out too. Just looking right now you’ll find the scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson, someone who was struck by lighting, and a chimney sweeper amongst many others. That would probably make for an interesting Venn diagram.
Follow the link below and you’ll find an unnecessarily detailed recollection of our time shooting the Kickstarter pitch video. It’s kind of long, so maybe go to the bathroom and then make yourself a sandwich before digging in. Just make sure you wash your hands first, because health regulations!
http://2playerproductions.com/blog/levering/327-making-the-pitch
Thanks a ton everyone! Tell everyone you know and lets see if this thing can hit 3 million!!!!!
Marc Carter on
For me clicking the HD button on the video then pressing play worked for me.
Keith Tyler on
All I can say is awesome luck on the millions. Now, with 80,000+ backers, all peppering you with their pet ideas, the biggest risk I think is to try and please everyone with everything and result in a kludgy, awkward, inconsistent, and confusing game. So like, try not to do that.
Chris Nunyabeez on
I am aware you guys probably already have in mind what you want to do. but i would love a four player co-op game so i can play with my friends online. Such a thing does not seem to exsist!
Ben M. on
Thanks for answering our questions 2PP!
mykro76 on
Please announce whether you will subtitle the HD videos! If so I will bump up my contrib to the next tier!
Michael Matzat on
Have you thought about having the Show on iTunes (not for bakers though, evil DRM video is evil. and i am not joking here) to maybe generate some more income?
Tom Neudorf on
Just bought a brand new copy of Brutal Legends. Always wanted that one :D
Peter Arentsen on
@Markus The pitch video is on the kickstarter main page it is just abit hidden as the double fine logo click on the double fine adventure logo and it starts playing.
Peter Arentsen on
The 15 dollar pledge you pay for the documentary its combined so you shouldn't have to expect adds while watching any part of the documentary. The 30 dollar is for the extras HD and music scores of game/documentary.
Angela Cheng on
Will the episodes be available to watch streaming with ads like "Penny Arcade: The Series"? Or is being a backer at the $30+ tier with the HD download the only way to watch the series? I know that either way, the $30 tier has video extras. :)
Ben Kim on
Awesome vid! Keep these coming. I agree it would be great to see one regular video a month, but it would also be great to just be surprised with a new random video about the progress (or even an outtakes like this one). So far the project posts/updates have been great!
Markus Brenner on
Is there a way of increase the original pitch video's availability? Actually update #3 was the very first I heard about such a thing as a "pitch video" being in existence at all, and I only found it after searching for it for about five minutes (looking at kickstarter.com - nothing, looking at double fine's home page - nada, looking at 2 Player Productions: Finally, there it was!). I believe it belongs at least on Kickstarter's project page and Double Fine's main page for DFA. The pitch video is brilliant and I believe it deserves to be more visible!
2 Player Productions on
We will try to deliver as much as we can but we don't want to get peoples hopes up this early on. If we can release more content we will, otherwise it's best to stick to a conservative projection.
Michael Matzat on
I´ed also not put myself on a monthly schedule. Just put episodes out when they are don, at least on a month... but if something is ready and feels good after two weeks. BAM!
Michael Matzat on
How do you plan out filming? Will you turn the studio into "Big Brother" and always be there? Or do you just plane out certain segments about "x is going on, we come in and film it for an hour and go home to cut it".
Well, that may sound a little extreme. The question should be, do you consider this sort of a fulltime job for the year to come?
I agree, 45 Minutes per week just cannot be don. If you ever tried to film and cut something you´ll agree with them. But i still hope the Episodes will get a little longer than 10-20 Minutes. I don´t feel the need to have a fast cut promo documentary - i will love to see "full meetings" but i´ed also like these to be represented in "The Show" instead of watering it down to "today we had a meeting in which we agreed on xyz." and be don with it. This can be elaborate, so when watching the full show later on you get a great sense of how they got there instead of only saying "this is what we did, look at some cool art and some funny lines here".
:-D
Floris Klapwijk on
Great! I can't wait for the first episode!
2 Player Productions on
45 minute episodes every week for a year would be 39 hours of content, and it would kill us.
Poul Grym on
I'd go for full episode length ~45min / week. If needed just add a sponsor to the videos.
Grim_Tentacle on
I totally believed he was drumming...I used to be a drummer. Ah lights and mirrors!
2 Player Productions on
Video "extras" in the $30 tier will exist outside the core episodes and extended sequences of the series. HD downloads of the series won't be made available until the end of the production.
Ben M. on
Will the "HD download" that comes with the $30 tier be for each episode as it is released, or only for the whole documentary once it is finished?
Nathan Mills on
I am currently obsessed with Dustforce and it's soundtrack. I'm excited to have Terence Lee working on this on top of the awesomeness of everything else!
Nicholas Hoyte on
Will the videos showing the "nuts and bolts," like the hour long meeting, be for those of us who plaid $15, or is that part of the "extras" for those who paid $30 or more?
Frenchie McClaude on
Reddit admins support sexual exposure of minors
slot9 on
Thank you for the making the pitch article! I love that type of thing. Also excited for you guys to post meetings and 'i had a feature breakthrough' type videos along with the other stuff! Rock on!
ShinKagato on
Tim seems like a fun guy to work with, im sure hes not completely hyper all the time but those moments where he is would make it worth it lol.
Brian Marino on
Also I wish I could work at Double Fine, haha, probably the funniest looking work environment I've ever seen.
Brian Marino on
Very excited to see what you guys do with this project! Sounds fun. And I'll definitely appreciate the spoiler warnings.
Alessander Botti Benevides on
"I love these updates, they are always make my day :D"
+1
Also great news about (i) spoiler warnings (I very much dislike spoilers) and (ii) chip music for the episodes (I love chiptunes and Crystal Castles). However, I hope that the music for the game will sound more like "the elevator classics series" http://www.youtube.com/watch…
Peter Arentsen on
@pizzatheface In the Netherlands I haven't noticed anything getting censored unless its an us show where it was delivered censored think only country that's so insane with censoring.
Peter Arentsen on
@Robert that's focusing on a single point what I read. There will be also posted full conferences on parts they think that will be interesting.
FuriousFure on
Thank you for deciding that swears are NOT going to be censored. honestly, I would think that any kind of censoring is the last thing you would want as a audience member who want to see the true nature of the industry. Censoring something as little as cursing could lead to people thinking what else could be censored in the documentary. Documentaries are suppose to be completely transparent, showing the "real" world, flaws or "objectionable" content included.
Chris Jeffreys on
Have you considered speaking to universities about giving funding to the documentary. I am a University Student in Canada and im in a introductory game design class and it seems that your documentary would work very well as a visual aid for those type of classes. I sent my teacher a link to the kickstarter and i believe he has donated to the cause.
tarasis on
I'm hoping the documentary bits last longer than 10-20 minutes per month, it seems scarily short to try and cram their development process into.
fresh breff on
Yes, please censor the swearing! Not everyone who watches these videos are adults (my kids love Double Fine). And if Arrested Development taught us anything, sometimes a censored swear word is funnier than the real thing. (Come on, do you REALLY need to hear it to get the full experience?)
anarchist on
Imagine your boss being Tim. Who wouldn't want to go to work?
Andy Fluke on
Great to hear you're using Terence Lee. His work is fantastic and the Dust Force soundtrack is especially good.
Matamoncake on
I love the documentary every month. That would keep us from going crazy. As previous stated i also tought: soundtrack of documentary? come on... now I eat my hat. Great music! :). Keep up the good work!.
Aaron Desira on
I'm not obsessed with double fine and everything that comes out of the place, so its an uttertly objective opinion that in the far off future when his time is up; Tim should be cryogenically frozen and stored in a gold pyramid designed by NASA that takes up the west coast of the US. Only until he can be thawed, reanimated so he has enough time to continue raz's physconaughts story. Thats all im sayin. I'll leave the jokes to him in the mean time- Good luck Double fine and 2 player. Aaron D, Melbourne australia
2 Player Productions on
Swears are censored in the outtakes vid because it's funny. Documentary won't be censored.
ET3D on
But yes, don't do that. If you really want to censor swear words, have the people who said them say something else and edit that in, but in a way that will sound completely wrong.
ET3D on
Shame on you. Every time you use a swear word a three headed monkey dies!
Florian Tischner on
Yeah, don't beep it; we're adults that can survive swearwords.
Lorenz on
Please don't beep the documentary, or at least make a version without beeps available. It just spoils everything.
TheChosenOne on
Will the video like above blooper one also be on the DVD/Blu-ray? That would make it a truly unique package to "spend" $100+ on.
Vincent Pelletier on
I bet the "beep"-guy will have a lot of work on the development serie.
(disclosure: software dev here)
Matthew Farmery on
Tim you are one funny dude, I just couldn't stop laughing, not really sure if 3mill is possible, certainly 2.5 mill should be, but heck, I hope you do get 3mill, but I think that is a long shot
nice news on the documentaries, can't wait to see the first one. anyway, congrats on reaching a awesome figure, and hope people will be able to get it higher
congrats again
Travis on
Please make all your episodes longer than just 10-20 minutes!!!!
Jakob Hafstrom on
Go team! Love the update.
Drarok on
"[...]the music should stand on it’s own"
Apostrophe fail! :o