YOU HAVE TO READ THIS YOU HAVE TO BURN THE ROPE INTERVIEW
For the latest in its series talking to all of the 2009 IGF finalists, Gamasutra caught up with Mazapan’s Kian Bashiri, the man behind 2008’s most widely recognized game-meme, You Have To Burn The Rope.
Up, somewhat controversially, for this year’s Innovation award, what’s interesting is Bashiri admits to a certain amount of second guessing on whether they went too far with the joke and should have played it even more straight:
Both me and Henrik think the best kind of humor is the kind where you’re not really sure if it is supposed to be funny at all. I mean, a joke is often funnier if the one who tells it stays in character and says it with a completely serious tone of voice. That’s what we tried to do with the game and everything that surrounds it.
I think that kind of backfired, though; as a result, it is vague and unfocused, and we went way to deep with the silly joke, with the game manual, walkthrough, etc. We never meant for it to be some kind of in-joke or a meme.
So, yeah, there are numerous ways I think I could have made it more focused without ruining it. For one, I should have added a way to die. If there was a variable outcome, it would be more of a game, and the more interesting theme of interactivity and false choices would have been more obvious.
The full interview’s got more smart talk of interest on storytelling and interaction, and on the ‘Still Alive’ inspiration for Burn The Rope‘s end-credits song.
Road To The IGF: Mazapan’s You Have To Burn The Rope [Gamasutra]
Previously:
The Offworld Guide to the 2009 Independent Games Festival – Offworld
Pixeljunk Eden, Osmos top 2009 IGF nominations – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
