The Creative Shepard.

A little while ago I read this Penny Arcade and it got me to thinking. Who do I support; because, they truely deserve it.  Tim Schafer, creator of Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, and the upcoming Brutal Legend. A brillant game designer with the heart of a writer. Which makes sense as he majored in computer science from UC Berkeley and focused on Creative Writing. It really shows throughout all of his games which are not only innovative in design but also on story, which has, sadly, been lacking in todays gaming market.

I like entomology, so I looked up what his name means. Perhaps names have some bearing on who or what were are. It's crazy, it's easy to take a name like "Schafer", which means Shepard and apply it as I did in the title of this article. Perhaps he will shepard in a new era of games ala Jesus. It's beautiful imagery, but I highly doubt the bloated industry that we have now will ever allow for such a thing. It interesting but really doesn't how how he thinks, so I looked up interviews and came across this highly original interview. Take a look at it if you want a look into his creative process.

But I became troubled after talking to several of my gaming friends...they had never heard/played of Psychonauts.  One of the most original games of all time, with writing equal to that of Portal. Darkly humorous and witty, containing the a sort of charm that is missing in so many games. I wonder what would have happened if Psychonauts had been published in the same style as The Orange Box. It deserved more than it got, and to Schafer's credit and to the credit of his fan,  he managed to get Psychonauts on the X-box 360 backwards compatible list, after his dedicated fan had, after his urging, e-mailed Microsoft to get it included on their list. Truely a triumph for the little man.

But enough about the past! Let us now talk about the future: Brutal Legend. Heavy metal, Nordic fantasy world where human kind is enslaved to demons, forced to mine car parts out of the still living rock of the land! Half flesh half machine monstrosities roam the album cover world, flaming motorcycles, men with neckmuscles the size of the Hulk headbanging for their masters. If that isn't hardcore, I dunno what is.  People, what we have here is a game that takes the fad of music based games and transforms it from a party game, or a game where 14 year old asian kids leave school to practice it...no a hardcore gaming experience feature music from artists that we know and love. This will be amazing.

But sadly it will be underrepresented. It'll have almost no advertising put behind it, because it is a unknown game. It was shoved into limbo when Activision dropped these original titles when they acquired from a number of different devolpers. (They opted to keep Spyro instead of Brutal Legend or Ghost Busters) Obviously the industry is going through that stage of rampant horomones that teenager catch like a a virus. They are too busy cutting off their nose to spite their face instead of think toward the future of gaming. Where games and story collide to make a true art.

Brutal Legend isn't Grand Theft Auto, or Halo. It's a new game with an unfamilar concept, which distributors hate. They can't grasp the unknown, so they will shell it short, making it a self fulfilling prophecy. Unless we, the internet RISE UP, and make it into something more. So please, put something in your blog/facebook/twitter (but not myspace, it's for the worst kind of people). Let people know that Jack Black will be killing Demons and emo kids with a fuckin' AXE.

Anyway, please people. Find someone you support because they can change the way an industry thinks about itself and it's consumers. And now, another awesome trailer from Brutal Legend