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How South Park: The Fractured But Whole is fusing gags and gaming

D

DeathSparks

Member
I’d be fair to say that, as a gaming genre, comedy has always been an under-explored one. While a staple of film and literature, gaming has rarely gone further than wise-cracking characters, pop-culture references and shameless punning in its pursuit of entertainment.

Ubisoft San Francisco‘s forthcoming sequel to the South Park: The Stick of Truth, South Park: The Fractured but Whole, continues creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s natural instinct for going against the grain, aiming to combine classic RPG mechanics with full-blown comedic writing.

I sat down with Senior Producer Jason Schroeder backstage at E3 last to ask him how he and his team are tackling the challenges of working with two such prolific comedy writers.

“They’re really, really involved.” Jason says of Stone and Parker’s involvement. “We have daily calls and I’m down there a few times a month just constantly trying to make sure that they’re getting the comedy they want into the game and making sure that it all makes sense moment to moment.

“They’re both gamers, so there’s a really easy common language,” he continues.

“However, deadlines and pressure are actually some of the best ways they get their comedy. Separate from the game, they truly make each episode of South Park in just six days. It’s from that pressure that they get their really relevant, really timely jokes. The video game cycle, by comparison, is brutally long for them.”

There are clearly hurdles in finding the common ground between gaming and TV comedy writing, but Schroeder is keen to emphasize his dedication to the source material.

“My aspiration is to make sure every South Park fan gets an unedited Matt Stone and Trey Parker experience.

“We always want to try and make sure to get every joke in that we can. Sometimes we have to ask the guys ‘okay, do you want that to be a gag or do you want it to be a whole system? Should we build this in as dynamic part of the game or do want it to just be something that happens?'”

And this seems to be the biggest obstacle for the team – comedy is largely about timing and the difference between a 25-minute TV episode and an eight to 12-hour game can change a lot.

“Sometimes people will have fun with a joke for five minutes but if you try to build a whole level around it they might feel like ‘okay, I got the joke the first time and it was funny but I’ve been doing it for an hour now.”

One thing that stands out as we’re talking is Jason’s enormous passion for the South Park universe and the writers’ quirky sense of humor. I asked him how it felt to be such a big fan of the series he was working on.

“18 months ago, I got my first hand-delivered paper script while I was down at their office and I was thinking to myself ‘I don’t want to read this, it’s going to be full of spoilers’. It was this very genuine fan moment and I had to say to myself ‘well, I guess it’s my job – I’m going to have to read this thing 100 times over.”

It’s always a gamble turning something you love into a living – does Jason worry that spending so much time with the characters might affect his passion for the show?

“When you do an E3 demo you play the game over and over and when we left at the end of the week, the team was still laughing at the jokes – it’s just been a tonne of fun.

“In our theater yesterday we had one of those really just contagious moments of laughter: someone was laughing and then that made the person sitting next to them start laughing, then our demonstrator cracked up. Tears were running down their faces because the jokes just kept coming and coming.”

Looking around the E3 show floor, with its heavy emphasis on action, drama and conflict, it’s clear that the comedy genre is still very much uncharted territory for most game developers.

“Comedy games definitely have room for growth,” agrees Jason. “One of the things that we’ve discovered is that you can really make people think with a comedy game because you’re able to subvert their expectations. Even the typical way they might do things on a PlayStation controller: we say ‘pull the triggers and start rotating the analogue sticks’ and then they see on screen that the kid is moving his butt around.”

South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker are well known for courting controversy with projects, often pushing the boundaries of whatever medium they’re working in. Jason was keen to assure fans they can expect more of the same from South Park: The Fractured But Whole.

“There’s hopefully going to be some stuff in there that people will say ‘how did that make it through classification?'”
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Source: https://blog.eu.playstation.com/201...id=749967746520133633&adbpl=tw&adbpr=36969785
 
P

papertoonz

Member
“There’s hopefully going to be some stuff in there that people will say ‘how did that make it through classification?'”
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hopefully this time around the game doesn't get censored in some regions so that quote will apply to every one
 
A

Admiral Woofington

Member
Amazing. I watch South Park every day as a background show, this show is my life. Having another game from them can only be described as a blessing.

From what we've seen of the game it looks even better than the first in terms of the gameplay and the rpg elements. I can't believe South Park is going to be the first recent game to fully embrace the superhero phenomenon in a "create your superhero type of way"

My only disappointment is that they'll likely just call you like super douchebag instead of letting you come up with a dank name lol.

papertoonz said:
hopefully this time around the game doesn't get censored in some regions so that quote will apply to every one
Click to expand...

It's going to get censored most definitely. You'll have to import the game from non censored countries unfortunately. Or you'll get a crying koala.
 
T

tokkun

Member
I’d be fair to say that, as a gaming genre, comedy has always been an under-explored one. While a staple of film and literature, gaming has rarely gone further than wise-cracking characters, pop-culture references and shameless punning in its pursuit of entertainment.
Click to expand...

Comedy was a pretty popular genre back when adventure games were popular. Space Quest, Monkey Island, Leisure Suit Larry, etc.
 
A

Admiral Woofington

Member
tokkun said:
Comedy was a pretty popular genre back when adventure games were popular. Space Quest, Monkey Island, Leisure Suit Larry, etc.
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Consider that with the relative death of those genres, it hasn't really gone to a mainstream appeal though. There are still small adventure comedy games being brought out occasionally though.
 
O

Oneself

Member
Southpark is a breath of fresh air in gaming. The problem with most "funny" games is mostly the lack of good writers. We mostly see devs laughing at their own jokes type of shitty humour.
 
G

GinoFelino

Member
“18 months ago, I got my first hand-delivered paper script while I was down at their office and I was thinking to myself ‘I don’t want to read this, it’s going to be full of spoilers’.
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The fucking idiocy
 
M

Markitron

Is currently staging a hunger strike outside Gearbox HQ while trying to hate them to death
Can't wait for this, first one is one of my favourite games of the last decade. If I preorder this on PSN will get the PS4 version of Stick of Truth straight away? Also will be money be taken there and then?
 
P

Piers

Member
Oneself said:
Southpark is a breath of fresh air in gaming. The problem with most "funny" games is mostly the lack of good writers. We mostly see devs laughing at their own jokes type of shitty humour.
Click to expand...

I think that was an eye-opener for me, too (next to King's Quest remake), with South Park. Granted, I think Matt & Trey are somewhat of a unique case, because beyond their crass subject matter, they have a history of being able to bust through executive blockades — something I think a lot of talented comedy writers themselves simply can't get through.
 
M

March of the Crabs

Member
Really can't wait for this. "Comedy" in gaming is so fucking bad so the first game was a breath of fresh air and this looks to be even funnier. Gaming is a very light pastime for me, so I'd like to sit down and laugh for a few hours rather than deal with some gritty angry guy all of the time but that is sadly pretty hard.

The only other games that have made me laugh (on purpose) are the Mario and Luigi/Paper Mario games and whatever stuff Rare puts out.
 
F

Fisty

Member
The first one definitely surprised me with its quality and likeness to the show. Havent really watched SP in like 7-8 years but the game definitely hit all the right notes. Will get TFBW at maybe $30-40
 
A

Akai__

Member
The 1st game was pretty hilarious and had so many good references to the TV show. I hope they keep it this way, because the TV show wasn't really funny lately, in my eyes.
 
A

Alexm92

Member
They make it sound as if the jokes will be better if they have less time to write them. I would think since they have a lot more time they can refine the them and think of better ones. I thought The Stick of Truth was funnier than any of the more recent episodes of the show IMO. Cant think of any other reason for that except they had a lot more time to think about it compared to when they're writing the show.

I can't wait for this game though. I was a little dissapointed obsidian didn't get the job but I hope Ubisoft do a good job and don't fuck it up and hurt the franchise.
 
A

Abilidebob

Member
tim_pkmn89 said:
So... what is it?
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A Fenda que Abunda Força.

Which is basically "The fracture that teems with force". But "Abunda" is like "A bunda", which means "the ass", and "força" can also means "to force". Which would translate to "The fracture that is forced by the ass" or something like that. Or maybe they went for the "Força a bunda", which would mean "The fracture that forces the ass".
 
GavinUK86

GavinUK86

Member
Abilidebob said:
A Fenda que Abunda Força.

Which is basically "The fracture that teems with force". But "Abunda" is like "A bunda", which means "the ass", and "força" can also means "to force". Which would translate to "The fracture that is forced by the ass" or something like that. Or maybe they went for the "Força a bunda", which would mean "The fracture that forces the ass".
Click to expand...

That's amazing.

It's the title that keeps on giving.
 
M

MUnited83

For you.
papertoonz said:
hopefully this time around the game doesn't get censored in some regions so that quote will apply to every one
Click to expand...
Well, for that Ubisoft has to not repeat the same bullshittery they did with the first game, which was pre-censoring it without even trying to get the uncensored version to get through first
 
J

J_Viper

Member
That E3 bit was so bad that I forgot how much I enjoyed Stick of Truth.

If this is even half as good, I'm in.
 
K

KHlover

Banned
Will be interesting to see if I'm actually going to start my copy of the game on steam this time. Somehow I doubt it.
 
T

talkingood

Member
Abilidebob said:
A Fenda que Abunda Força.

Which is basically "The fracture that teems with force". But "Abunda" is like "A bunda", which means "the ass", and "força" can also means "to force". Which would translate to "The fracture that is forced by the ass" or something like that. Or maybe they went for the "Força a bunda", which would mean "The fracture that forces the ass".
Click to expand...
It's not bad in French either - « L'Annale du Destin », or "the chronicle of destiny". But of course, « annale » is pronounced just like the French word for "anal".

Tee hee.
 
D

DarkKyo

Member
Interesting read.

What I find funny about the article itself is that years ago in a commentary for an episode(I believe it was the Family Guy episode), Matt and Trey said they can't stand gags(since FG relies heavily on them).
 
W

wanderingprostheyltite

Member
DarkKyo said:
Interesting read.

What I find funny about the article itself is that years ago in a commentary for an episode(I believe it was the Family Guy episode), Matt and Trey said they can't stand gags(since FG relies heavily on them).
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Apples to oranges, that was in relation to the spine of a script of 21 min animated comedy shows, not a several hour long game, obviously you need some sight gags and thematic padding with environments unless you really expect there to be constant dialogue every step of the way, in which case that would just be weird and the writing would get tepid fast.

Their beef was FG relies on gags for the foundation of the show rather than competently telling a single narrative without reliance on the "cut aways", without those Matt and Trey questioned if they could do a straight story well. Imo they have, even if cut aways are still used to some degree, like the Stewie and Brian specials. Ditto for American Dad as a whole, though that's a different writing and showrunner team altogether.
 
R

Rich!

Member
Can't wait.

Stick of Truth was amazing and the newest season of south park was potentially the best so far. Glad that PC principal is in, what a dude.
 
Vigilant Walrus

Vigilant Walrus

Member
DonMigs85 said:
Many of Rare's games had great comedy
Dat dry British wit
Click to expand...

They did. Kazooie is still the most sassy bitchy gaming character ever. She is literally the definition of the queen of nagging. Literally and metaphorically.


And as for Conkers- Still best pop culture spoofs in a game I can think of. Stick of Truth is probably the most funny game ever though. Rare games had a sensible chuckle humor.
South Park just brought their their A game. The references from episodes going back more than 15 years... I couldn't believe it.




It's a shame that the gaming industry doesn't take writers seriously. It is taking after Hollywood in that regard. They have an idea they want to sell, and then the make the writers patch it in later. Why is not writers who write a great script, and then Designers who use their creativity to make compelling gameplay out of that story?
I'm almost through Blood & Wine and I am depressed that I will have nothing else to play with that engagement of characters, voice acting, cinematics, facial animations. Hundreds of hours of interesting characters, compelling sub plots and fun stories. Like watching a 100 hour episode of Game of Thrones or Berserk.
But most games on the way that are highly anticipated will have plots served up as secondary to the game design. Maybe, this is why comedic games have been so far and in between. The require timing, and so I'd imagine that good comedic timing is at odds with the flow of gameplay and pacing. And probably just dramaturagil structure as a whole.
 
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