As half of our ongoing month-long unique protection of High on Life 2, the upcoming first-person shooter, I sat down with Squanch Video games Chief Artistic Officer Mikey Spano and Chief Design Officer Erich Meyr to debate the artwork of making a comedy sport sequel. Is it any simpler to drag off than the comedy film sequel, which does not have a nice general observe report. All that and extra are lined in the interview you possibly can watch in the video above or learn in the transcript under.
High on Life 2 shall be launched on February 13, 2026 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Collection X|S – together with launching on day one into Xbox Game Go.
IGN: I’ve bought a hundred questions right here, not actually 100, however there’s a lot I need to ask you guys. And I assumed I might sort of begin right here. And that’s, I do not know in case you’d agree, however for my part, comedy sequels, at the least in the film facet of leisure, do not have an superior observe report, so how do you method doing a comedy sport sequel to keep away from some of the identical pitfalls that comedy film sequels appear to fall into?
Eric Meyer: I really feel like a lot of film sequels generally aren’t higher than the first, proper? However sport sequels are often like a refined model of the first sport. And yeah, we positively took a lot of nice concepts that we could not do in the first sport and put them on this one, so hopefully we’ll overcome that.
Mikey Spano: Yeah, with the first one, I do not suppose we actually knew what it was till it was in the arms of reviewers and we had been like, “Oh, this truly turned out fairly cool.” We had been simply so heads down on it, it was a new IP for us. So I believe for this one, we had a good place to start out, so we’re actually hoping that it is a plus up of the unique. I imply, there’s positively extra jank in the unique than this one, which is a lot of enjoyable and retains issues humorous, however I believe we’ll nonetheless have loads of simply enjoyable, bizarre, sudden stuff, so I am hoping individuals prefer it simply as a lot as the first, if no more.
IGN: Mikey, are you able to converse a little extra to that? As a result of I’ve by no means made a sport, I haven’t got the expertise or expertise for that, however I’ve talked to a million builders, reviewed, lined a million video games. And I’ve heard that a lot the place video games are such a distinctive artwork type the place usually, they do not actually come collectively till the very finish after which all of the sudden you have bought a sport. So are you able to sort of discuss me by not the growth of the first sport, however extra sort of the very finish that you just’re referencing there when it does come collectively, after which when it comes out and also you begin getting suggestions from gamers and from reviewers? Did something hit otherwise with gamers in the public than you thought it could, or did issues shock you versus what you’d meant or deliberate?
Mikey Spano: Yeah, positively. I imply, there’s a lot of angles we are able to have a look at for High On Life specifically. We’re fairly open with our group about letting them put in stuff that they are excited by. After which often they’re going to simply attain out and say, “Hey, is that this cool or does this work?” However in direction of the finish, we’ve individuals we belief a lot that simply can go in and do stuff if they need. So from a perspective of even simply the dev that was working on directing the sport, we noticed stuff, or at the least I can say I noticed stuff that I did not even know was in the sport, and I’m in there.
I noticed issues in some streams the place I am like, “The place did that even come from? Oh my God, that is superior.” That sort of stuff was actually shocking and enjoyable and that was intentional on our half. After which there’s simply a bunch of stuff that sort of breaks in humorous methods or issues that anyone approaches it a completely different manner than I might’ve approached it or somebody right here would’ve approached it. And so that you get this type of emergent comedy that is primarily based on the gamers’ actions and never essentially what we meant the gamers’ actions to be.
Eric Meyer: Yeah, in the first sport, there was a bug the place individuals had been getting caught in Applebee’s and that grew to become an web joke for a whereas. And we’re like, “Positive, we’ll personal it. Yeah, you get caught in Applebee’s without end.”
Mikey Spano: Yeah, the different factor we wrestle with is, we name it dev eyes, the place it is such as you’ve simply been taking a look at the sport for therefore lengthy. All the jokes you have heard a thousand instances, they could’ve been humorous the first time. And so that you by no means actually know at the finish, what is going on to land with individuals as a result of for you, you are so numb to these items. So that you kind of give it to a buddy to play or we’ll get some individuals in and we’ll watch them play and consider, “Oh, that is shocking, this was their favourite half.” And it is one thing we have seen a lot, we weren’t even fascinated by it.
Eric Meyer: Yeah. That occurred with us with our demo, the place we put in so many good jokes all through it. After which the factor that resonated the most was taking Sheath and turning him into a gun and that complete bit, the complete joke of that bit. And I do not suppose any of us anticipated that to be the largest hit. We had been like, “Oh no, it will be this half or this half.” However I imply, the web does not lie, proper? That was the half individuals watched the most.
IGN: What in the end then, had been the classes that you just took out of the first sport if you’re speaking about sort of extra hitting the floor working right here with High On Life 2? What are these classes that you just took from the first one which can be serving to this one?
Eric Meyer: I imply, we positively knew the components we wished to do. We knew how a lot of jokes labored. We knew how we did an interactive gameplay with them, and we may take that and be like, “Let’s do that sort of factor right here, that sort of factor right here,” or, “Let’s one up that one.” So it gave us a actually good platform to face on so far as determining what all of our completely different moments could be, what our jokes could be, in order that was actually nice. That helped us tremendously at the starting.
After which additionally simply, there was a complete can of worms round how do you deal with having all these completely different weapons and each may be out and each can have its personal little comedy layer to a mission? And so we realized a lot of classes from that and we’re in a position to similar to each mission now, we’re like, “Yeah, we are able to focus on this gun right here and we are able to do that right here.” It actually helped us perceive how one can simply construct our sport.
Mikey Spano: Yeah, for positive. We had the basis. I imply, in the first sport, we sort of take without any consideration that we had been determining the gameplay, too. It is a first individual shooter, however outdoors of realizing that it was a first individual shooter, we had to determine every thing from the floor up, which is a lot more durable than you’d suppose. Beginning with that basis helped us sport play-wise to essentially focus on the issues that had been working, attempt to not change these an excessive amount of. After which the issues that weren’t working, constructing on them, after which additionally simply bringing in some new stuff that we would not have been in a position to convey into the first sport as a result of we had been simply determining the fundamentals.
And that goes throughout comedy, too. I imply, we’re at all times making an attempt jokes that do not land. We’re making an attempt methods to inform the jokes that do not at all times work. And we find yourself with the finest, however a lot of that stuff did not work for one purpose or one other. And so we’ve that stuff left over for the subsequent sport that we are able to attempt once more. And we’re by no means actually ranging from zero per se, with this sequel. I imply, conceptually, there’s a lot of stuff that is from zero, however in phrases of our methods and every thing, we had a good start line.
IGN: Lots of builders I do know nowadays simply pull a ton of telemetry from gamers after they’re enjoying. So when it is on the market in the wild, sort of constructing on what you guys are saying, did any specific telemetry bounce out at you guys, like individuals watching a surprisingly excessive quantity of the in-game TV or barely taking a look at it in any respect, then possibly you’re taking that and also you both double down on one thing or reduce on one thing for the sequel?
Eric Meyer: Yeah. I imply, that is a little bit anecdotal from simply listening to it in all places, not essentially a extra qualitative factor, however simply the many individuals who love Tammy and the T-Rex from that. You particularly undergo Steam opinions or no matter and yeah, there’s sure issues like that, that we didn’t count on to hit so strongly. After which yeah, I imply, similar to another sport too, you sort of see the place individuals fell off, like how many individuals performed at the starting. And for us, we had been on Game Go, so a lot of individuals tried the sport, which was nice. And we may see how far… Like several sport, you have got the curve of a lot of individuals get by the starting after which you do not have as many individuals who truly end it, however even individuals who did not end it nonetheless actually loved it. So it is cool to see that.
Mikey Spano: Yeah, we sort of had a distinctive scenario the place we had so many gamers. We weren’t anticipating that, however I believe we’re over 20 million gamers at this level on the sport, which is insane. So just about each little space of the sport was poked at in a manner we did not count on and it was actually enjoyable to look at that occur. I imply, you are pressured about, “Oh man, anyone discovered this bug,” or, “Someone exploited this factor,” and also you get pressured about it. However then you definitely notice most individuals are on the market simply sort of having enjoyable and laughing at it. And with 20 million individuals, there was fairly a few variations of issues individuals had been hyper targeted on or laughing about. I imply, some of my favourite stuff that got here out of it’s simply the bizarre Hentai fan artwork of the weapons, there’s simply a lot. We hit each aspect of bizarre web tradition and I adore it, I could not be happier about it.
IGN: That is superior. I imply, on that notice, I wished to ask you guys about Game Go as a result of I believe Game Go has been in the information these days for at the least possibly not gamers’ favourite causes lately, however I believe extra broadly than that, and I even would say this from the place I sit as anyone that covers Xbox and talks about Xbox on an Xbox podcast all the time, there’s a lot of confusion, I believe, from gamers about the enterprise facet of how Game Go works. Now, I am not asking you guys to share the phrases of your take care of Microsoft or something like that.
However clearly the first sport, as you are speaking about, Mikey, that was a big success for you guys on the again of launching straight into Game Go. So are you able to speak about what labored for you with that deal, what you bought out of it, principally? Clearly, you talked about 20 million gamers, however do you see Steam gross sales spike when it hits Game Go or stuff like that? I do not know if, once more, with out possibly opening up the firm’s books or something, which, I do know you are not going to try this, however are you able to sort of converse to the fallout, if you’ll, of being on Game Go?
Mikey Spano: Yeah. I imply, I have a look at Game Go as a technique to get people who find themselves inquisitive about your sport. It is nearly like a technique to simply demo video games which can be on Game Go, the place it jogs my memory of these previous PlayStation Underground CDs you used to get in the mail. Game Go to me is kind of that feeling. There’s so many video games that I am excited by, nevertheless it’s unlikely I will purchase each single one for a selection of causes. So with Game Go, it is like I will verify this sport out. And sometimes I fall off. I’ve actually unhealthy ADD, so I will fall off after an hour or one thing. And I believe with High On Life, we had a lot of people who love Rick and Morty or hated Rick and Morty, however both manner they knew about the sport for that purpose and possibly they wished to hate play it. After which they ended up truly liking it. And then you definitely sort of construct this buzz round, “Have you ever guys heard of this loopy sport,” the place anyone won’t have taken the plunge and purchased the full value sport, so the on-line sentiment would not have been as huge. It would not have been such a huge dialog round the sport.
I believe that basically helped us with advertising and marketing the sport, particularly as a new studio with a new IP and every thing. With out Game Go, we’d’ve had little or no visibility, so it was helpful in that manner. And I believe there’s some methods now that Game Go has advanced a little the place they’re permitting individuals to come back out concurrently day one on PlayStation or come out on Steam. And that sort of stuff, we don’t know how that is going to work out, however primarily based on what occurred with the first sport, I am considering it will be actually huge for us as a result of we nonetheless get that dialog round the sport from individuals enjoying Game Go. However then individuals on PlayStation, they do not have to attend a 12 months after which sort of neglect about it after which restart the dialog. I believe Game Go goes to be even higher for us this time than it was for the first sport.
Eric Meyer: Yeah, it is onerous. I imply, nowadays, there’s a lot of good video games popping out all the time. I am continuously shocked once I’m like, “Wait, what is that this sport that appears like every thing I need from the sport, nevertheless it got here out two years in the past?” And I observe information and every thing, so getting a good quantity of consideration to your sport is important.
IGN: A giant new characteristic of High On Life 2 is skateboarding. I am a huge first individual shooter fan and I’ve performed a million of them over the years, and I am making an attempt to suppose if I’ve ever performed a first individual shooter that has skateboarding in it. The place does the thought come from for that? How does that sort of come up after which hone in as a key new characteristic of the sequel?
Mikey Spano: Yeah, that is a actually fascinating one as a result of that is one thing each Eric and I actually wished on the first sport. We had a idea artist, Sean McNally, who, superb idea artist. You should utilize his title in right here in order for you. He is nice, love the man, very proficient. We had been sort of arising, “What are another issues you are able to do with aliens and alien life types?” And he had drawn this type of capsule bug that unfolded into a skateboard and we had been like, “Ah, God, we bought to get this-“
Eric Meyer: Yeah, it was so cool. We had been like, “We may simply throw this in as a factor you may quickly have for a second in a stage or one thing.”
Mikey Spano: Yeah. After which in my head, it was like the boot in Mario 3 or one thing, the place an enemy and you employ it quickly. And so after we began High On Life 2, we began kicking the dialog round once more, “What if we had a energy up that allow you to sort of skateboard?” And so it was meant to only be a little factor. And we began enjoying with it and the enjoyable was there, however there was a lot complexity that I bought to the level as like… I grew up skateboarding, I really like skateboarding, however I bought to the level the place I used to be like, “It is simply too dangerous, we won’t do it.” After which Eric was like, “I am not letting go of this.”
Eric Meyer: In the first sport after we had been determining a traversal package, at one level we had this type of omnidirectional enhance factor and it was sort of cool. It helped the momentum of the sport, nevertheless it simply did not have something grounding it. We transformed it into kind of a energy slide, which was actually enjoyable the first sport. It is my favourite factor to do in that sport. After which actually, we talked about the skateboard in our artistic conferences and we’re like, “Yeah, let’s do it. Let’s determine some cool factor with a skateboard.” And at first I used to be like, “Effectively, it will simply be energy slide plus. You’ll be able to slide now, however you possibly can go for longer since you’re on a skateboard.” After which we did a complete bunch of refactoring our traversal package.
We sort of actually improved all of our motion and a lot of issues, me and Carl Glave, who’s our programmer for all the traversal stuff. After which we had been tagging the skateboard and as we stored going with it, we’re like, “Effectively, yeah, it’s best to have the ability to go up a vert ramp. Yeah, of course. You must have the ability to do that, all the skateboarding issues.” And we had been taking a look at Tony Hawk and a bunch of completely different video games like Session and Skate and stuff which can be actually technical skating video games. And we had been like, “Effectively, we won’t do all that technical stuff.” There’s not sufficient buttons. You bought to shoot as nicely, you possibly can’t simply not do all that. However we began simply refining and refining and decreasing issues, but additionally making it simply a actually clean expertise.
I actually simply wished you to really feel such as you’re on a skateboard, it is doing what you need to do when you’re capturing at guys, when you’re doing all these different issues which can be taking over most of your psychological house, however you continue to get that feeling such as you’re on a board and you’ll bounce off ramps and go and wall experience and do all types of cool stuff with it. So we simply stored sort of refining it and making it smoother and simply extra intuitive, and never tremendous technical as a result of that competed an excessive amount of with the shooter side.
I believe the hardest factor for a new mechanic like that’s it is dangerous, it is unknown. We checked out a lot of completely different comps and a lot of different video games had been doing sort of related stuff to attempt to get some concepts and it actually was simply an accumulation of simply hammering on it and iterating on it constantly and making some actually good calls at completely different factors to make it. There was a complete group effort deciding precisely what this must do and what it shouldn’t do. And that bought us to a actually great place.
IGN: And a sequel’s boring if it is not taking any artistic dangers.
Eric Meyer: Precisely.
Mikey Spano: Yeah. And I hold considering, “Did we take sufficient artistic dangers on this sport?” And I am like, “Oh wait, we utterly changed-“
Eric Meyer: Yeah, yeah. I imply, to me it is like the Terminator 2, proper? Everybody can agree Terminator 2 is a nice sequel. Terminator one is nice too, however 2, they’re like, “Effectively, we’ll make a quicksilver Terminator,” which may have completely failed. May have been like, “No, I need Arnold Schwarzenegger.” However they put one thing new in with what you already had and made an superior new expertise.
Mikey Spano: Yeah, for positive. The humorous little anecdote, Eric talked about Carl, Carl’s a tremendous programmer that we’ve and he’s very movement sick delicate. I do not know precisely the proper phrasing for it, however he will get movement sick very simply. And so placing him on the skateboard is so cool, however he did such a good job with it. And I believe a lot of the smoothness that you just get from it comes from him simply being like, “Oh, these numbers make me need to puke. Let me tweak that.”
Eric Meyer: Yeah, yeah. No, he made positive it is movement sick pleasant, which, in first individual is insane.
Mikey Spano: Yeah, it is loopy. I actually thought it would be a enjoyable little energy up. There is no manner I might need to play a complete sport the place I am using a skateboard and capturing. And I used to be so unsuitable, it is so cool. It is my favourite half of the sport for positive.
IGN: Mikey, you mentioned you grew up skating and there is such… I imply, the paintings for each video games, simply High On Life generally has such nice paintings.
Mikey Spano: Thanks.
IGN: A customized skate deck for High On Life 2 – possibly like a collector’s version factor, restricted. Are we going to try this?
Mikey Spano: I’ll say that we’ve our biz dev man, Benny Moore, he comes from Restricted Run, so he is aware of that house rather well. After which we simply employed anyone, I consider it is merchandising director. I do not know his title, nevertheless it’s one other one which we all know from Restricted Run, Shaddy, and he is superb, too. And so he is taking on a lot of actually cool merchandising stuff for us. I can say I really like skateboards, I really like bodily stuff. As you possibly can see, my workplace is full of collectible stuff, so it is a fairly secure wager that there will be some of my very own life decks on the market.
Eric Meyer: The toughest factor goes to be selecting which of them to make use of, as a result of we’ve a bunch of decks in the sport with superior artwork on them and there is a lot of ones that, I am unable to choose a favourite. There’s a lot of actually, actually cool decks.
Mikey Spano: Yeah. For this sport, I’ve a huge group of bizarre, low forehead artwork pals and I wished to convey them on to do graffiti and indicators and stuff like that for us. And it labored out rather well that they had been in a position to all do deck designs for us, too. So we’ve so many cool, bizarre, sudden decks in the sport that I need to see all of them flip into a bodily deck in some unspecified time in the future. And I really like the thought of a voting system of, “All proper, for this subsequent run, this is three. Which one do you guys need to see subsequent?” And hold pitting them in opposition to one another. That may very well be actually enjoyable.
IGN: Pivoting again to the online game itself, the weapons, clearly the stars of High On Life and justifiably so. While you’re taking a look at including new ones for the sequel, I am curious, the place do you begin? Do you begin with weapon perform like, “Effectively, do we would like a rocket launcher sort? Do we would like this chain gun, this type of that?” Or do you begin with a persona sort after which determine what gun perform it ought to be? Or do you begin with an actor in thoughts after which sort of construct a gun round that? I am actually curious to the course of as a result of the weapons are such a distinctive side of High On Life.
Mikey Spano: Yeah. Usually, I discussed earlier, I am tremendous ADD, so I am at all times doodling. Even in conferences and stuff, I will be doodling. So Eric and I shall be speaking about, “What’s a gun archetype we would like that we do not have but?” And so whereas we’re speaking, I will begin often simply doodling a few issues and I will present it to Eric and say, “What do you concentrate on this performance? Does this performance appear cool?” After which he’ll give me some notes and possibly he’ll do a sketch and we simply sort of commute, honing in on a shotgun archetype. Gus is our shotgun archetype and=
Eric Meyer: Yeah, that is how we discovered a lot of the first sport’s weapons.
Mikey Spano: Yeah, we’re a very visible primarily based studio, we let the vibes lead our design. After which Eric and Nick, who’s our technical director, but additionally our fight director for this sport, he will get actually into the weeds about how the performance works and, “Let’s tune this quantity and let’s do that.” And all of that sort of goes backwards and forwards and informs the normal look of the gun. And often once I’m sketching these weapons up, I am fascinated by an actor like Sheath from the very starting, I wished to be Ralph Ineson. He is been my white whale for years and we lastly bought him. And in order that complete time, I knew that is what I wished him to appear to be. And for the caps from the first sport, a lot of that look got here from simply Jim Henson.
And in case you have a look at the actually previous, fats, bizarre Kermit the Frog, that is Creature. There’s simply a bunch. I’ve all this reference from the sport the place, consider it or not, Knifey is principally Elmo with out a nostril or hair. And that is sort of the place I began as a result of I assumed it could be a enjoyable nod. I really like leaning on cultural stuff that exists already, so I am at all times placing little nods to every thing. And looking for extra Muppets for this sport did not actually work out straight away, so I simply sort of went with what felt proper. And by chance, Eric and Nick and I had been in a position to provide you with some archetypes that felt actually good.
Eric Meyer: Yeah. After we kicked this sport off, we locked ourselves on this rental workplace for a week. Me and Mikey and Alec Robbins, our native director, Nick, and Maddie, our producer, our EP, to only oversee every thing. And we simply broke down a bunch of stuff from the sport. I simply keep in mind one of the issues we did was we had a huge whiteboard of simply each gun archetype conceivable after which being like, “Okay, what would match? What is going on to be the subsequent issues that might match into our combine?” After which began enjoying with these and kind of integrating some of them into the story as we had been speaking about story as nicely. I do not keep in mind all the particulars.
Yeah. And on the first sport, like I used to be saying earlier, we did not actually know what it was, so I drew a million weapons. So this sport, earlier than I even did something, I used to be like, “What about this sheet that we had? Is there something on right here that is a good start line?” However I do not suppose we ended up bringing any of that on. The bow and arrow was a new idea, I do not suppose something existed for that and Sheath was all new. Travis and Jan had been just about all new. So though we began with some of the older sketches, they modified sufficient that it was simply just about from scratch.
IGN: Effectively, talking of the voice actors for the weapons in High On Life, if you’re writing now the sequel, clearly, do you actually even write strains for JB Smoove, or do you simply give him some concepts and descriptions after which simply hit report in the VO sales space?
Mikey Spano: I want the latter was doable, nevertheless it’s simply wrangling anyone who’s actually good at ad-libbing when we’ve such a tight story. Particularly on this sport, we targeted a lot extra on a tight narrative. Alec and his group, Alec Robbins, our Narrative Director and successfully our head author, him and his group simply wrote a lot superb stuff that getting the actor into the sales space and getting all of it learn out, you have performed the sport so that you work together with somebody, they are not simply saying one factor, they’re saying a bunch of issues. And every of these issues has a number of permutations. And so there’s simply actually no technique to get an actor in and say, “Go loopy.”
On the first sport, it occurred simply out of necessity, given the construction of the sport, however for this one, we wished to do a higher job and tighten issues up. And so we do begin just about every thing written after which we’ll have them learn the line the manner it is written after which, “All proper, nicely, how would you say this line?” After which some of these are the ones which can be the funniest and generally simply studying it as is works higher. However it’s very taxing on the voice actors to ask for advert lib, particularly in that setting, so it may be actually difficult. Generally it simply occurs on its personal.
Eric Meyer: Yeah, we prefer to encourage it. And this time, I imply, this sport has a lot extra dialogue than the first sport that some of these report periods had been like, “We bought to maneuver. We won’t advert lib for an hour on this man.” So yeah, it was a lot to get, particularly with the weapons. And Gus and Sweezy specifically, they’re round for the complete sport, so that they’re a lot of dialogue.
IGN: JB is such a grasp improviser, I simply was curious. It is fascinating to listen to that you just nearly needed to simply hold him on script.
Eric Meyer: Yeah, a lot of individuals go loopy in moments for positive, however you are getting by so many strains, yeah, we sort of needed to simply let it go off the script in the beginning after which fiddle.
IGN: You talked about the whiteboard of weapon archetypes, that you just lock your self in a WeWork house for a week at the starting of the challenge to begin to hash out. Did you have got any weapons or weapon concepts that had hit the chopping room ground? You are speaking about stuff that bought minimize from the first sport. Was something from the first sport that made its manner into this one in phrases of the weapons?
Eric Meyer: I am making an attempt to recollect. The primary sport, nicely, one factor we had in the first sport, Sweezy, there was going to be two Sweezys at one level, proper, Mikey? One of them died and have become a ghost?
Mikey Spano: You had this ghost gun that you may summon, nevertheless it by no means actually bought traction. We have been desirous to do the twin pistols. I actually wished initially, Eric Andre and Hannibal Burris, only one gun that was overly assured and sort of humorous, after which one which simply talked to the different gun the complete time. And that was kind of the archetype we had been speaking about. After which as we bought nearer, I do not keep in mind who pitched it, however we had been like, “It could simply be humorous if it was simply a couple in a relationship and that you just had-“
Eric Meyer: I believe we had been all watching Righteous Gem stones at the time.
Mikey Spano: I believe that is in all probability what it was.
Eric Meyer: And we had been like, “Oh yeah, that relationship is like the…” I neglect the character’s names, nevertheless it’s so humorous. And so we’re like, “We must always hone in on that.”
Mikey Spano: Yeah. And so then we sort of began with that as kind of the archetype. After which we had completely different actors in thoughts for the weapons initially, after which we sort of simply stored swapping actors round primarily based on availability and what the sport wanted. And we ended up with Ken Marino, who’s superb, so-
Eric Meyer: So good, such a good efficiency.
Mikey Spano: Yeah, he is simply so professional. He will get it, he simply nails it. And Gabourey Sidibe, who, she performed Mucks in our DLC, however now she performs Jan. And people two collectively are so humorous, it is incredible. These two weapons, at first, I assumed could be a enjoyable little joke for a mission or one thing, however they’re in all probability the most memorable narrative-wise from the sport.
Eric Meyer: I believe so too, yeah. As a result of it is two weapons they usually span over a couple missions, you get a lot of… Their story turns into truly a fairly distinguished story in the complete sport.
IGN: Was changing Kenny in the sport from the DLC and now in the sequel, simpler than recasting Kenny? As a result of I imply, you have bought the two new voice actors for Rick and Morty now who’re simply useless on good.
Mikey Spano: Yeah, we truly did not need to convey Kenny over for this sport. We’re not performed with Kenny in the universe, however he is simply not half of the story of this sport. We shall be recasting Kenny, of course, however assuming we proceed to make High On Life, which I’ll struggle tooth and nail to maintain doing, we nonetheless need Kenny to be a half of this universe and he is bought a lot extra to his story than what we noticed in the first sport and in DLC. I believe our narrative wrapper was that Kenny simply bought dropped or one thing in the DLC, however I believe that there is extra to that story than we let gamers know, and so we’ll be hopefully speaking a little bit extra about that in future sport.
Eric Meyer: Yeah, this sport takes place 5 years after the unique, so we sort of alluded some of the issues that occurred in that point span, however that is positively an space that we’ll discover extra on this sport and in the future.
IGN: The final query I’ve for you guys is, you touched on it already with speaking about how far more dialogue there may be on this one, however scope-wise, for me, I actually thought the first sport was simply the good… It did not overstay its welcome, nevertheless it wasn’t like a four-hour sport by any stretch both. I simply thought it actually hit its mark tremendous nicely. So are you aiming for a related scope to the first sport with this one or we go and… What’s the thought course of there?
Eric Meyer: We’re a little bit bigger for positive. We wished to offer a little extra. This sport particularly has a far more sort of, I’d simply say mature narrative. There’s extra going on with it. We truly hit our themes a lot stronger at the finish and every thing, so we wished to offer it extra time to really feel like a good sequel. After which we even have fairly a bit extra kind of facet content material you are able to do on this one.
In the first sport we kind of have, you may return to areas, you may usher in some extra bases for a little enjoyable vignettes. On this one, you sort of have these areas in the hub you could truly go round and discover cool stuff in and sort of dig into extra and simply skate, you possibly can simply skate over the complete place. So we positively have a little extra further time for people who need to fiddle as nicely. We’re positively capturing for a bit of a longer sport than the first one, however not at all, this is not an RPG size sport. We’re making an attempt to maintain it a good narrative you possibly can play.
Mikey Spano: For the first sport, we did not actually know the way lengthy it was going to be. After which it got here out and we had been like, “Okay, good. It was sufficient.” For me, as an older gamer, 10 hours is my favourite quantity of time to place into a sport. Previous that, I get pressured. And so we did not need to get too removed from 10 hours, however then at the identical time, we had a lot we wished to try this issues simply stored rising. And actually, I do not know the way lengthy the sport is. It may very well be 1,000 hours, it may very well be 11 hours. I actually do not know at this level.
We’ll know the day earlier than it comes out, how lengthy it truly is. However I believe it is secure to say it is a respectable bit longer than the first sport. Our preliminary need was 25% extra, however I truly suppose we have in all probability exceeded that by a bit. After which that is not even fascinated by all the new facet content material and simply skating round, doing challenges and stuff like that, so there’s a lot there. And it is not all narrative comedy. There’s a lot of the facet stuff that is simply pure gameplay.
Eric Meyer: Yeah, simply enjoyable gameplay.
Mikey Spano: It hopefully does not overstay its welcome.
Eric Meyer: On this one specifically, we attempt to make each stage very distinctive. And you are still utilizing all of your core mechanics, however there’s a lot of ranges we’re not going to speak about till they launch as a result of they’re superior surprises. And so hopefully that retains. Particularly, I do know some video games halfway by, you are sort of like, “All proper,” I get it. So hopefully we are able to hold that pacing going for everybody.
Mikey Spano: Every act, if not every mission, may very well be its personal sport. All the weapons, every time you get a new gun, every thing adjustments. Every time you get to a new location, it is a shock. And we did not do a ton of retread this time aside from sidetracking or facet missions, I assume. It is a lot, and I believe individuals will not get too exhausted with it simply because the selection is so broad.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s government editor of previews and host of each IGN’s weekly Xbox present, Podcast Unlocked, in addition to our month-to-month(-ish) interview present, IGN Unfiltered. He is a North Jersey man, so it is “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.