When Squanch Games announced yesterday Very satisfied with Life’s first DLCrevealed a challenge to one of comedy’s most popular subgenres, the classic horror-comedy. New Paid DLCdue to be available sometime this October, “High on Knife” highlights the eerie atmosphere of the game, with just 40 seconds of darkness and terror in the teaser.
But perhaps unsurprisingly, that turn in macabre began as, well, kind of a joke.
“While working on ‘High on Life,’ we used to joke about it, like, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to turn this into a horror game?'” “Chief Creative Officer, Squanch Writer Mikey Spano told IGN, “And we were all like, ‘We really should. is a great opportunity to try something completely different.” “
Just an hour after High on Knife was announced at this week’s Xbox Games Showcase Extended, Spano and Squanch design director Erich Meyr interviewed IGN. We don’t have much of a chance to see fan reactions at this point, but of course the question arises as to how we’re going to measure fan reactions. actual A game about smart talk weapons can be terrifying, even if there are tense moments in the base high on life.
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“Well, the tension is real,” Meyer says. “This is not the entire DLC. There are intentionally scary chunks and very funny chunks. What people expect from us.”
Spano added that the film is “50/50 fun and 50/50”, even though much of it is a parody of the horror genre as a whole. And I’m kidding that this is also a pretty massive DLC, lasting about 2-3 hours. Spano jokes that he “definitely shot himself in the leg” in High on Knife, even though the range was just as good as Kenny the gun voiced by Justin Roiland. Even if there is, it has spread to many new characters (The person who broke up with the studio later has since been dropped allegations of domestic violence public opposition to him) – no.
Aside from Roiland no longer with Squanch, Spano and Mery said they “always” want to explore new characters, and DLC is the “perfect opportunity” to do so.
Extended range
In fact, Spano and Meyer say High on Knives is “mostly” focused on new characters, aside from Knife and Jean and the three guns in the base game. To be exact, Meyer revealed that he will appear in 52 of them. Some of them were already shown in the first announcement. A gun named Harper, voiced by SNL’s Sarah Sherman, and another named Ball, a “weird little pinball gun” voiced by Alec Robbins, the narrative director of “High on Life.” It’s one gun. . (Yes, BALL is an acronym. No, it doesn’t explain what it stands for yet).
The teaser also features one more character, a funny new boss named Max, voiced by Oscar-nominated actress Gaborie Sidibe. If that surprised you, Squench was a little surprised too.
“Gabourey was one of those guys that we thought was a very long chance,” Spano said. “The way the three of us (Spano, Meyer, and Robbins) work technically has their own role in the studio, but in a way, the three of us function as one creative director for everything. So a lot of the time one of us would be like, “What about this person for this role?” Gabourey was everyone’s first choice as a result of measuring each other’s interests. We thought, ‘That will never happen. “
But as it turns out, Sidibe was certainly interested. I don’t think Spano even acted in High on Life, but he was more interested in comedy. And while Sidibe broke out with a dramatic role in the Oscar-nominated Precious, she has gone from Brad Neely’s Hague Narin Scropio Pipio to the recent series The Plank Panel. It is true that he has also done a lot of comedy works in recent years.
Still, Spano and Meyer insist she brings Oscar-winning talent to the role.
“She was really good at improvising. There were some dramatic scenes that she just nailed,” says Spano. “We’ve lost her words at least once or twice, ‘Oh my God.’
They keep surprising what kind of comedians they can get, from JB Smoove to Betsy Sodaro to Tim Robinson. When asked if they had any dreams of acquiring their voice acting cast, Spano struggled to come up with one — didn’t they already get one?
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But then Meyer reminds me of their white whale, Danny DeVito. They are the people I originally wanted to voice for Jean.
“I don’t know if it was a no, but I don’t think they really understood what we were even asking,” says Spano.
He admits that now he can’t think of anyone other than David Herrmann to voice Jean. But her dream lives on. “Maybe I’ll hit Danny DeVito on something else,” he swears.
That aside, there are a ton of new features we’re excited to show off in the DLC, even if we can’t go into details just yet (although they teased that they’ll be attending San Diego Comic-Con in 2016 in July). New traverse abilities and new bounty suits are added.
Spano also said they were keen to board the first non-Gatrian gun at the ball, saying, “So technically this isn’t a live gun, just a creature piloting it.” .
“It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while,” he says. “And in the DLC, that was the first thing I drew. So that was the first new gun introduced. “
They also emphasize that: TRUE Watch that short teaser carefully. When asked about the “extremely violent knife upgrades” alluded to in the announcement, Spano said: listen If you watch the trailer, you’ll be able to connect a few dots and get an idea of what it’s all about. “
They have a lot of new ideas they want to pack into High on Life. Squanch will continue to focus on that for the time being.
The future of high on life
Spano and Meyr agree that as far as interest is concerned (and they certainly were interested in the base game). Xbox Game Pass’s Biggest Third-Party Launch of 2022), they want to “continue this world and tell its story.”
“In the first project, there were so many things that had to be pulled back and so many great ideas that I feel like I have this much backlog,” Meyer says. . “Even this DLC was an idea we had already envisioned.”
They also say their future won’t change much with Royland gone. According to Spano, Royland was “just a little side piece” for Squench, so his absence internally “would make no difference” — and in any case they would work with him again. “I have no plans and no desires,” he said.
And when it comes to content, it’s supposed to build a world that can fit all sorts of narratives, including horror stories, even subtly bringing out medieval fantasy. But, of course, it’s business. They have to deal with how it goes.
“We’re a small studio, so we have to pay bills and things like that,” Spano says. “And if this DLC justifies its existence, there may be more. There probably won’t be more DLC, it just depends on how things go.”
Alex Steadman is IGN’s senior news editor and oversees entertainment coverage. When she’s not writing or editing, she can be found reading fantasy novels and playing Dungeons & Dragons.
