Hollow Knight: Silksong Expansion Coming Next Year - Kinda Funny Games Daily 12.16.25

Summary

Kinda Funny Games Daily — December 16, 2025

Episode Overview

Theme:
Today’s show is game-dev centric, focused on industry legend Bruce Straley (formerly of Naughty Dog, now heading Wildflower Interactive) discussing his new studio’s debut game, "Coven of the Chicken Foot." The hosts—Greg Miller—dive into the realities of transitioning from AAA to indie, studio survival in today’s industry, and respond to the news of a big Hollow Knight: Silksong expansion coming next year. The episode blends developer wisdom, candid industry commentary, and lively news breakdowns.

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Special Guest: Bruce Straley

• Former Naughty Dog creative director (Uncharted 2, The Last of Us).
• Currently founder of Wildflower Interactive (12 on dev team, 16 total).
• Debuting "Coven of the Chicken Foot" — a singleplayer adventure about an elderly witch and a mysterious creature companion.

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Episode Highlights and Key Discussion Points

Wildflower Interactive & Coven of the Chicken Foot

[02:00–14:00]

• Straley’s Journey:

  • After leaving Naughty Dog in 2017 intending to spend time surfing and “doodling,” he was pulled back into game dev by an old lingering idea from his Jak & Daxter days.
  • Set out to build a small, nimble team with a new approach to interactive, character-driven storytelling.

• About the Game:

  • You play as Gertie, an elderly witch, forging a bond with a creature (called "the buddy" internally).
  • Themes: post-adventure world, relationships, trust, commitment, fallout from heroism.
  • "We wanted to make sure we set a world that had all the clues in there for you to reveal, both in environmental storytelling as well as your interactions with the creature character." — Bruce ([04:00])
  • Game premise is inspired by "what comes after the heroes", similar to games like Moonlighter.

• Studio Building Realities:

  • Creative and logistical struggles: team assembly, learning remote workflows, funding, and self-publishing.
  • “Running a small team is hard work. We had to compromise and focus on the game, the creature… everything about the adventure world we're setting up.” — Bruce ([06:07])
  • Had to renegotiate contracts, learned about the importance of ‘kill clauses.’ Praised his “bad cop” biz dev partner for essential legal foresight.

• Philosophy:

  • Pushing what’s possible with AI companions (non-generative AI, just smart “buddy”/NPC design).
  • Focus on dynamic, in-game storytelling rather than cutscenes/exposition.

Notable Quote:

“Could I create those kinds of moments dynamically, letting the player drive the story and the relationship with the character?” — Bruce ([08:07])

• Next Steps & Wishlisting:
  • Game is self-published, available to wishlist on Steam.
  • "It's all about leverage... those wishlists mean something to the people, it's all about risk." — Bruce ([12:04])
  • Console versions possible, depending on publisher interest ([14:23]).

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Book Recommendations Influencing Coven of the Chicken Foot

[14:29–15:35]

• Circe by Madeline Miller — “Amazing. It’s building up what makes that kind of person make a decision.” ([14:48])
• The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro — “Post-Arthurian world... a couple trekking across Britain as fantasy fades—a journey with many similarities [to our story].” ([15:15])

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Hollow Knight: Silksong Expansion & Indie Studio Insight

[17:57–24:00]

• Silksong Expansion Announced:

  • Nautically themed DLC “Sea of Sorrow” arrives free for all players in 2026.
  • Hollow Knight being updated for Nintendo Switch 2, free for Switch 1 owners.
  • Celebrated Team Cherry’s transparency and success: over 7 million copies sold!
  • “Who knew a game about bugs?” — Bruce ([19:56])

• The Harsh Indie Landscape:

  • Greg and Bruce discuss how Team Cherry, Supergiant (Hades), and Larian Studios are industry outliers; most indie dreams don’t play out that way.
  • "How do you make an indie studio and keep the faith?... Every day, a layoff, a closure, a game delisted." — Greg ([20:46])
  • "It’s a bloodbath out there... For us, funding got removed for various bloodbath reasons in the industry. But we survived because we had the right contract clauses." — Bruce ([21:08–26:12])

• Advice from Evan Wells (Naughty Dog):

  • "You never know...building a team is impossible, building a new game is mythological." — Bruce ([27:17])

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Baldur’s Gate 3 & Divinity News

[36:07–44:27]

• Divinity (Larian’s next game) is confirmed as turn-based, bigger than BG3, and in full production.

• Discussion about player preferences:

  • Both hosts find turn-based CRPGs hard to get into. Greg wants to break through with Baldur’s Gate 3 but struggles with the “language” and scale.
  • “It takes a special turn-based RPG for me to be into it.” — Greg ([40:42])

• Trailer Commentary:

  • They reflect on modern trailers as misleading (cinematic focus), lacking gameplay footage, especially at big announcements ([42:52–44:09]).

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Generative AI in Game Development

[44:27–54:04]

• Larian’s Position:

  • Embracing gen-AI for prototyping/internal use but promising “no slop” in final content — “Everything is human actors. We are writing everything ourselves.” (Swen Vincke)

• Bruce’s Take:

  • “There’s no AI in our game. I can’t even use ‘AI’ to define the creature companion anymore… Now you have to call it a companion.” ([45:37])
  • Cautions against creative industry’s shift to relying on AI.
  • “We need a frontal lobe… we have hundreds of thousands of years of this supercomputer [the brain]… They’re making football fields, draining water supplies… to replicate something a human can already do.” ([48:17])
  • AI’s impact: already costing work for small creative studios.
  • “AI doesn’t inspire me.” ([49:48])

• Industry Fears:

  • Discuss the possibility of “AI slop” becoming the market standard and how human-crafted works will be more valued by contrast.

• Advice for Aspiring Game Devs:

  • “Use free software, just make games. The more you know about all aspects, the better…” ([36:32])
  • School not required; self-teaching viable.

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Industry News Roundup

Dead Island 3, Terminator: Survivors, Indie Sales

[54:08–62:33]

• Dead Island 3

  • Confirmed development for 2028 with total studio commitment.
  • Unusually transparent reporting on studio resource allocation.

• Terminator: Survivors

  • No longer aiming for 2025, co-op dropped, focusing on solo experience.
  • Hosts excited; game’s direction likened to Arc Raiders, emphasis on narrative and survival.

• Indie News Bites (Wii News):

  • Mega Man Star Force Legacy due March 27.
  • Wins Meet: 15 million players.
  • Escape from Tarkov: 1 million copies sold since 1.0.

---

Designing Coven of the Chicken Foot: Character & Theme

[65:02–68:03]

• Design Philosophy:
  • “How do you create an asymmetrical relationship between two characters who need each other?”
  • Gertie is an elderly witch—"not your typical hero"—contrasting with most game protagonists.
  • “It started off with a boy, then a girl, then an old lady… testing against the world of adventure… what if she wasn’t built for double jump and a sword?” ([65:02])
  • The “buddy/creature” is intentionally not the brute/protector — it’s scared, loves muffins, is naive, “more adorable.” ([67:29])
  • The relationship dynamic (player is persistence, companion is apprehension) subverts genre tropes.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “The only way I can develop is to make a game that excites me, that I would play if it came out. I can’t do the same thing over and over again.” — Bruce ([13:08])
• “You never know… The fact that somebody shipped a game means they built a team. That’s what matters.” — Bruce ([27:17])
• “AI doesn’t inspire me. I don’t want to watch a movie that’s been prompted… there’s no struggle, no human experience.” — Bruce ([49:48])
• “We wanted nothing more than to go right after that [Divinity] trailer. Just guy burning alive and then our little chicken-foot witch.” — Bruce ([43:54])
• “If you wish list on Steam, maybe something will happen (re: console release).” — Bruce ([14:23])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Wildflower/Coven of the Chicken Foot origin: [02:00–14:00]
• Book inspirations: [14:29–15:35]
• Hollow Knight/Silksong and indie struggles: [17:57–26:00]
• Advice for game dev newcomers: [36:32–38:03]
• Larian/AI/Industry future: [44:27–54:04]
• Dead Island 3/Terminator Survivors: [54:08–62:33]
• Coven of the Chicken Foot character design deep dive: [65:02–68:03]

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Final Thoughts & Community Engagement

• “The response we’ve had to [Coven of the Chicken Foot]… it’s unheard of. The amount of positive feedback really impacts development… what you put out there comes back.” — Bruce ([69:39])
• Steam wishlisting is key for indie success. Community support is vital.
• Strong encouragement to follow Wildflower Interactive and support smaller dev teams.

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This episode masterfully blends game news, honest indie dev realities, and front-line reflections on industry change. It’s a must-listen for aspiring developers, indie supporters, and anyone interested in the real work behind your favorite games.

Transcript

[Tito's Vodka Announcer]

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[Once Upon a Galaxy Sponsor]

This episode is sponsored by Once Upon a Galaxy. It's a new card game that I'm having a delightful time with. You can download it right now for free on Steam or [e-mail] Galaxy this.

[Greg Miller]

Episode is sponsored by Arc Raiders where you and your squad can explore future earth and brave killer robots to secure the best loot on the planet. Arc Raiders is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X Square and PC. Today in the nerdy news you need to know about Team Cherry announces a Silk Song expansion. We got more info on divinity and coven of the chicken foots. Bruce Straley is here to co host with me. We'll have all this and more because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily. What's up everybody? Welcome to Kind of Funny Games daily for Tuesday, December 16, 2025. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller, alongside industry legend legend Bruce Straley. Hello, Bruce.

[Bruce Straley]

What's up, Greg? Good to see you, man.

[Greg Miller]

How are you?

[Bruce Straley]

It's good to see you again in a long time.

[Greg Miller]

It's been a very, very, very, very.

[Bruce Straley]

We look very different.

[Greg Miller]

No, no needs to go look it up and do the side by side. No one needs to go see where I was. I Last of a spoiler cast. I'm trying to think last time we.

[Bruce Straley]

Were on camera together we might have been at a PSX or something. I think I had a controller problem during Uncharted 4, something like that. And then I told stories.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah, that's a good one.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah. Good to see you.

[Greg Miller]

It's good to see you.

[Bruce Straley]

Thanks for having us.

[Greg Miller]

Thank you for coming up. Of course. You flew in from LA this morning. That must have been an early flight.

[Bruce Straley]

Really early. Yeah. If I fall asleep halfway through the show, somebody prod me.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, the adrenaline will hear. The adrenaline's here. Of course. In the chat. Lakers head says who? Who's the co host? Where have you been living? This is industry legend Bruce Straley. Of course. What? How far back do we want to go? Gex.

[Bruce Straley]

Gex.

[Greg Miller]

You know what I mean? Was working on Gex.

[Bruce Straley]

Enter the Gecko.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah. Last of us. Of course. Uncharted. And now Coven of the Chicken Foot.

[Bruce Straley]

Coven of the Chicken Foot, best name in video games.

[Greg Miller]

I don't know what happened to me. We're watching the trailer right now. If you haven't seen this, this is from Game Awards, of course, where you made your big debut. Of course. Wildflower. Being in the studio, you guys announced that, what was it, a year ago? More than that. I remember.

[Bruce Straley]

Four years, 22.

[Greg Miller]

Geez Louise. When you announced it, I remember it. Now we have our first trail course.

[Bruce Straley]

We thought the game was going to be a little bit faster than what it turned out to be. It turns out building a team from scratch is kind of hard.

[Greg Miller]

I can imagine. I want to get into it while the trailer runs, though. Keep it up, Kev. I'll read you the synopsis I have from the press release. The dungeons have been plundered and the monsters long slain. As the heroes move on, an elderly witch quietly gets to work. Coven of the Chicken Foot is a single player adventure about the building of a bond between an elderly witch named Gertie and a peculiar creature must learn to work together to fulfill an oath. As their trust deepens, a dark revelation of what they're up against will make them question their commitment to Oath and to each other. That's a Greg game right there. Dark Re. That's a Greg ass game, right?

[Bruce Straley]

Dark revelation.

[Greg Miller]

This is what I was talking about when we watched it, I think during game awards, I was immediately like, oh, this is Bruce's game, obviously. I mean, I can't wait. And then when we got to the end, people like, I didn't really get it reading the thing about it, like such a great premise, like such. I. I'm always such a sucker for. This is the aftermath. The game already happened, like Moonlighter, right, Where it's like you're running a shot, but you go fight stuff. But it's like, this is like what's going on.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah, yeah. It's kind of the post apocalyptics of an adventure world. So she's coming in, the dungeons are all been plundered, the adventurers came in, the monsters have been slain, and she took an oath and she's coming in basically like to do her job to fulfill that oath. We don't know what that is, but. But through exploring the world, we wanted to make sure that we set a world that had all the clues in there for you to reveal, both in environmental storytelling as well as your interactions with the creature character. We call him the buddy internally. So if I say buddy, that's just a slip up.

[Greg Miller]

That's not a real name.

[Bruce Straley]

We just call it Creature for now. And. Yeah. And then you. You get to reveal by playing with that creature in the world, like, what its purpose is. And, you know, we're. I think we're doing, like, something new with characters in games. I think that it's the only way I can make a game is like, trying to push to do something new. So coming to the Chicken Foot? Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

I think more than anything, I'm so stoked you are making a game. That was my concern. You know what I mean, when you announced sabbatical from Naughty Dog.

[Bruce Straley]

I don't know if I feel the same. By the way.

[Greg Miller]

Every day you sit.

[Bruce Straley]

On the computer, what have I done? Come back, what have I done? What?

[Greg Miller]

It was 2017. Is that right when you left Naughty Dog? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was very much like, oh, I don't know if we're gonna see you again. I felt like you fade off into the, you know, the west sunset.

[Bruce Straley]

I wanted to just go surfing and hang out and read books and, you know, doodle, you know, that was what I wanted to do.

[Greg Miller]

Did you do that for a while?

[Bruce Straley]

For a while. It was cool. I also worked on some sort of weird, like, VR actor, like in, like, theater experience. I needed to do something different just to go like, okay, like, cleanse the palette, get out of here, but still be creative. Yeah, it was awesome also to be in a different role than like the director role and come in and support another director. It turns out that I have a lot of experience I can help other people with, which was really cool. And that. That kind of. That little spark, I was like, oh, maybe I could do something with a company that helps other people and give opportunities and turns out you can't do everything like make a new team, build a team from scratch, new ip, biz, dev, everything, you know, like, running a small team is hard work. So some of the things we had to compromise on, and we focus on the game and the creature and everything that we're doing about this adventure world that we're setting up.

[Greg Miller]

How big is Wildflower now?

[Bruce Straley]

We have 12 people in development on the development team and 16 people in the company.

[Greg Miller]

Dang, that's awesome. Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

So we're close, you and I. You're 11, I think.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, we're 11. Yeah. Yeah. Contractors around the world.

[Bruce Straley]

I say we do some contracting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it just has to happen these days. You can't do it all. Yeah. So in the game, you know, we've. We've scoped. We had to learn a lot about what the team's kind of what the rhythm was for the team. You know, I've never worked with these people before. There's a lot of people. There's some people that came from Naughty Dog, and then they had other opportunities, they moved on, which, God bless them. Thank you for your help.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

And, you know, now it's about, like, how do I get the rhythm of these new people? Never worked with them before. How do we build a cadence? And how the hell do we, like, direct people remotely? That's also been a crazy thing. So, yeah, the fact that we're here is kind of a miracle. I'll be honest. It's like, we did it. And we also have a build that's internally. We have a build that we're really proud of. So over the break, we're all going to be able to go home and be like, okay, we did it. Coming in the new year and just.

[Greg Miller]

Ready to rock for you to dialing back. At what point did you know, I gotta go. I still have the itch. I gotta go back to make a game. I can't just surf all the time.

[Bruce Straley]

It was funny. There was a guy. There was one guy who wanted to. He was a friend of mine from Naughty Dog. He left and he was working in some sort of, like, tech, whatever, tech bro, Silicon beach kind of vibe. And. And he hated it. He's like, I want to do games, but I don't know, like, how to do it. And I wanted to learn, like, unreal and design. And I was like, cool. I don't want to do any of that. But I have an idea that's been lingering for many years. It's actually an idea from, like, way back when we started Jak and Daxter.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Bruce Straley]

And. And it's just kind of been lingering, and it's even in the Naughty Dog art book, like a Drew pictures. And so, yeah, there's like, copyright, you know? No, no, it's so. So modified, like, where there's no lawsuits here. But the idea was there, and it was just like, okay, there's some things I still want to prove out. Like, is there a way to tell stories that are more interactive with characters in a world rather than a story being told to me? More about cutscenes, more about exposition. Nothing wrong with that.

[Greg Miller]

Of course.

[Bruce Straley]

I did a lot of that. Yeah. For me, I wanted to go like, okay, could I. Like, it's like a spiritual successor of Ellie. Everything we learned about Ellie and, like, making this character feel dynamic and responsive in combat wasn't the same Ellie that you saw inside of when she got pouty or when she got excited, et cetera. Those are scripted moments. And I wanted to know, could I create those kinds of moments dynamically, like, in game, letting the player drive, like, kind of the story and the relationship with the character. I was like, okay, what if. And this one guy was like, just started prototyping. He was amazing. Like, he stood something up pretty quickly. And by the end of a year, we had three or four people on board, soul propping it, you know, and. And then we had some demos that we were like, okay, let's go pitch. Like, the game said to me, like, okay, I want to get made. And I was like, okay, this is a game I would play. This is a game that I would be proud to make. And I think that I could, like, dig into. So, I mean, that was it. That was the cliff that I dropped off.

[Greg Miller]

I love that inspiration. That's awesome.

[Bruce Straley]

It's exciting. And at the same time, it's like, I didn't know what I was getting into. Of course, I really didn't know what it was going to take.

[Greg Miller]

Talk to me a little bit about that because, again, to go from Naughty dog, part of PlayStation, making the biggest games, and then you start your own thing. How quickly did you realize, oh, this is a completely different ball of.

[Bruce Straley]

I mean, big daddy Sony, you have those big, deep pockets. And also, at the time that we were making games there, that I was there first of all, stellar teams, amazing people, great track record, an engine that got built and iterated on over years and years and years. So, like, the expertise there was like. Like in the deep, in the roots. And. And then to come out of that and go like, you know, like, here's a new team. I don't even know what your love language is. I don't know, like, what kind of program, like, and finding the different dynamics between. Between, like, me and how I direct. Like, I don't have that shorthand anymore with the old team. I have to, like, it's almost like you're writing a language from scratch and everybody's like, okay, how do you read this?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

And I didn't know that everything, everything was going to be a huge decision in a small team. Compliance, State compliance for remote work. Biz Devi, how To negotiate a contract. Like, what are the clauses? How to even read a contract, how to pitch a. Never had to pitch a game. We pitched the last of us sitting in the theater with, like, Shue Yoshida, Scott, Rody, name drops Neil Druckmann and myself. And we just went through a PowerPoint. We just talked through what we thought would be a cool game and they were just like, great. You know, that was kind of it. We're excited and, you know, good luck. Three and a half years later, we made a game. And so, like, going out and actually trying to figure out, like, okay, what are the publishers, what are the funding? Different ways to get funding. What does it mean as far as, like, who's got, you know, by the. If. If, you know, depending on the contract. Like, so it's just been a wild ride trying to figure out, like, how to build something from scratch and then on top of it, build a new IP that's also trying to build on something I did at another company.

[Greg Miller]

Sure, sure, sure, sure.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah, it's wild. I'm pretty stupid. Like, I'm pretty dumb.

[Greg Miller]

Are you guys self publishing right now? I know on Steam it's listed. You both are publisher and developer right now.

[Bruce Straley]

We're self publishing.

[Greg Miller]

Okay. Okay. Open offers.

[Bruce Straley]

We're open because, like, actually we wanted to get this trailer out there to kind of, like, feel out. We love this game and we're very proud of it.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

And. And we think we're onto something. But we've been silent for so long, we had no clue, like, like, was this going to resonate or not? Were people gonna. And we knew, I'm not gonna compete with Naughty Dog. I'm not gonna compete in the AAA market. I mean, we're a different thing now and intentionally so.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

But it was. The reception that we've got is like, thank you, everybody who, like, has, like, cared at all about what we're doing.

[Greg Miller]

Because this is what we talk about all the time. It's on Steam right now. Go Wish list. Help find an audience. It helps them if they want to get publishers.

[Bruce Straley]

Exactly. It's all about leverage. I mean, those wish lists mean something to the people. It's risk. It's all about risk. So the more we can prove that people are interested in it, and that's from YouTube, likes to Steam, Wishlist, etc, the more leverage that the developer has. So, yeah, it's really important.

[Greg Miller]

Lewis says, what game is this? Of course we're talking about Coven of the Chicken.

[Bruce Straley]

Coven of the Chicken.

[Greg Miller]

You can go get it right now. This is Bruce Straley, formerly of Naughty Dog, now of Wildflower Interactive.

[Bruce Straley]

You can wish list it now you can't get it.

[Greg Miller]

No, that's what I meant. Sorry I screwed it up.

[Bruce Straley]

I still love you.

[Greg Miller]

I appreciate that. My one question before we get into today's news, because there is so much to talk about. How are you then dealing, coming back, but now you come back as industry legend Bruce Straley. Last of us is Bruce Straley.

[Bruce Straley]

Can I roll my eyes any longer? Like, harder. Like, it's. Yeah, that's ridiculous. I'm not that dude. You know, I'm not that.

[Greg Miller]

I know you're not that dude.

[Bruce Straley]

I know that.

[Greg Miller]

I know that. But I mean, like, I kind of feel like, you know, you hung it up and you left and the last of us was already such a thing. Now it's such a. You know what I mean? Now it's even further gone into the world of pop culture, mainstream, yada, yada, yada. Yeah, but you're just trying to make your little game.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah, yeah. I'm. I'm stoked by everything that they've done, and I'm stoked by the work that we. I mean, everything that we did from Uncharted 2. Like, I really felt like we were pushing the bounds of, like, could we put more action set pieces in game and out of cut scenes? And then with the last of us is like, could we make it more intimate with these characters? And so for me, this is just a natural evolution of what I was already doing there, just with a smaller team. So it doesn't. And I've always been driven by, like, just make a game that you're excited to make, that you want to. You would play if it came out. That's the only way I can develop. And I can't do the same thing over and over again. I just. My brain won't let me. Yeah. So the fact that, you know, I have an opportunity to jumped ship and my buddy, you know, serendipity or whatever it was, was willing to prototype with me, if he wasn't willing to do that, I wouldn't be here. You know, Like, I would have been, like, still surfing.

[Greg Miller]

Keep surfing and doodling.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah. Yeah.

[HelloFresh Sponsor]

All right.

[Greg Miller]

Well, I like that, Bruce. I like you coming up here to hang out with us. Thank you so much. Before we get out of here, Brancakes 94 and I'm out of this into the news. We're still going to keep going. You can super chat to be part of the show. YouTube.com kind of funny games, of course. Brand cakes 94 says, huge fan of Bruce. Any chance of a console release or is it only planned for PC? Right now the game looks amazing.

[Bruce Straley]

If you wish list on Steam, maybe something will happen.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, that's, that's, that's part of the publisher.

[Bruce Straley]

Part of the.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, exactly, exactly. So again, help them out. And then Zeke speaks in and says, bruce, any good book recommendations? What you're reading now?

[Bruce Straley]

Oh, yes, actually, if you're interested in Coven of the Chicken Foot, two books that I reference a lot. There's one called Circe by Madeline Miller.

[Greg Miller]

Great book.

[Bruce Straley]

Really amazing about. Basically it's the story of Odysseus, the Odyssey. And there's this one section where he goes to this island and there's a witch and she turns all of the crew mates into pigs. And you know, and Madeline Miller as the writer was just like, why would she do that? So the whole book is like building up to like what makes that kind of person to make that decision.

[Greg Miller]

Amazing.

[Bruce Straley]

And the other one is. What's his name? Kazuo Ishiguro.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Bruce Straley]

A buried giant. The buried giant. A buried giant. I think it's the buried giant. And some people say buried. I don't know which way. Are you a buried or a berry? Are you an aunt or an ant? Type of.

[Greg Miller]

I'm an ant and I'm a bear and a buried. And I'm a.

[Bruce Straley]

So it's the buried giant.

[Greg Miller]

It's.

[Bruce Straley]

But a berry is like a thing on a plant that you eat, right?

[Greg Miller]

There's like a buried Chicago.

[Bruce Straley]

Say Chicago roof.

[Greg Miller]

So people are always like, what are you, dog? You're like, no, it's on the roof. You know, like, no, no. The berry giant. Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

And so, so that's a story about this elder. It's post Arthur Arthurian world. And there's a couple that have this idea that they're going to go across Britain and. And there's still troll. It's kind of like the. The fantasy is kind of like fading away and they've got a trek over land and so. Really interesting. Yeah, you. You'll find some similarities in there.

[Greg Miller]

Okay. Yeah. And that's. That's required reading there for required reading of the ch. Okay, great wish list. Now Covenant of the chicken foot donation 9,000 other times because Bruce was nice enough to come over here and hang out with us and I appreciate that. But for now, remember that this is kinda funny. Games Daily, each and every weekday on a variety of platforms, we run you through the nerdy video game news. You need to know about live on Twitch TV kinda funnygames YouTube.com kindafunnygames podcast services around the globe. If you love that, we'd love you to pick up a kinda funny membership. Patreon.com kinda funny YouTube.com kindafunnygames Apple or Spotify. You toss us $10. We give you 80 episodes of ad free content a month. Your daily dose of me, Greg Miller in a one man show called Greg Way. And of course, good karma for Supporting a small 11 person independent business in a tumultuous media landscape. Housekeeping for you Remember the end of my hero academia with Mike and Barrett as they watch the entire final season live for the first time is this Saturday at 5pm Pacific. It's live only on Twitch TV. Kind of funny Games after Kind of Funny Games daily Today you're getting our monthly show of Gamescast. Every game launching in January 2026. It's a doozy. I had to put it together yesterday. And then after gamescast it's to be a sponsored Once Upon a Galaxy Stream. However, if you're a Kind of Funny member, the day doesn't end there. We are doing December Happy hour. It's happening 3:15pm Pacific today, so the stream will end. Somebody can eat lunch and then we'll be out here hanging out for the last time this year. Today's Greg Way is coming. It's going to be great. I was late because of a plumber so I had to focus on driving so I didn't record in the car as usual. Thank you to our Patreon producers Carl Jacobs and Omega Buster alongside Delaney. The som twining for now. So let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. Time for some new five items on the Roper Report.

[Bruce Straley]

The Baker's Dozen.

[Greg Miller]

Number one Team Cherry announces a Silksong expansion. Hollow Knight Refreshed and more we go to Team Cherry's blog. Hey everyone. With Hollow Knight Silksong's launch the year coming to a close, we wanted to take a moment and share a sneak peek of what we've been working on, what's available now, and what's coming in 2026. But firstly, and most importantly, we wanted to say a huge thank you to all the players who have braved Silksong's distant and dangerous lands. That's over 7 million of you who have purchased the game alongside millions more playing on Xbox. Game Pass. You're shaking your head.

[Bruce Straley]

That's a lot of numbers. That's a, you know, people actually started moving like their, their. Their ship dates because of Silksong. Like, that's wild. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

But Covenant, the chicken foot, you're going to put these numbers to shame. Your continued enthusia remains a massive motivator as we work towards expanding the game even further. The first big expansion is already well underway. New areas, bosses, tools and more Hornets adventures continue in a nautically themed expansion coming free for all players next year. We'll keep further details a secret for now, but expect additional info shortly before Hollow Knight Silksong Sea of Sorrow releases. Alongside Silksong's continued development, we haven't forgotten about its sibling, and today we're excited to announce that we're hard at work on an updated version of Hollow Knight for The Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo Switch 2 Edition incorporates all of the updates and enhancements that Silksong received on the platform. High frame rate modes, higher resolutions, and many additional graphical effects. As with Silksong, players who own a copy of Hollow Knight on Nintendo Switch will be able to download the new Nintendo Switch 2 Edition for free when it comes out in 2026. In preparation for that release, we'll be updating all versions of the original game for current platforms, adding features and fixing bugs. And for a final surprise to celebrate Silksong's release, our talented mate Alex and our friends at Fan Gamer have prepared an all new series of minifigurines depicting Hornet, her friends and her rivals. Can't wait to see all that plastic on Andy's desk. Yeah, God knows he'll get it all. Bruce.

[Bruce Straley]

Who knew a game about bugs? Who knew? Who knew?

[Greg Miller]

Who would have thought about it?

[Bruce Straley]

You know, who would have thought, like, I got an idea. So bugs, she fights with a needle.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah, we're gonna fight some needle. We're using some silk. We're doing a bunch of stuff. Wild.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah, yeah. Good for them, man. I'm really. I mean, they're the outlier, right? It's funny, like in the dev community, there's like, you know, every indie team dreams, you know, of this kind of, and it's stoked when it happens, but like, that ain't reality. Yeah, yeah, that. It's not normal, but good for them.

[Greg Miller]

Good.

[Bruce Straley]

That happens. It's nice. You know, I go to Vegas for a reason, you know, it's nice. Yeah, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Well, yeah, so talk to me about that. As you look now from your indie tower, you're out there in the landscape with everybody else, right? And you look at something like this and you say, of course, they really are the exception. To the rule.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

How do you make an indie studio and then keep the faith that this is all going to work out in some way?

[Bruce Straley]

Jesus, that's a question.

[Greg Miller]

I mean, like, you know, they have an engaged audience and that's why you're here, because people want to talk to you and hear from you and all this stuff. And they love games and they love the news, but every day, a layoff, a closure, a game being delisted.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah, no, it's a bloodbath out there.

[Greg Miller]

And then I go to dice and you talk to the people who are. The kids who bring out the awards are part of that mentorship program and they all want to come work here. And it's this whole conversation of, like, yeah, what do we do when they're on jobs? Or how do you motivate them in the light of how dark it can be?

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah. We had an intern at one point because we wanted to, you know, put somebody in a position where they could, like, be around us and maybe just shadow us and, like, learn. And. Yeah, at some point we're like, we can't even afford. It's. It's crazy. Yeah, no, it's a. It's a wild, wild ride out there. But I don't know, like, for me, it's interesting to look at that game and it's kind of like Hades as well. There's something about the fan base. Yeah. The people gravitated to. I mean, the game's great. Let's just say, like, it feels good, the controls are good, everything about the world building, the way the stories unfolds, etc. But specifically I. What I saw, and this is just observational, and I can't make a game based on any of these facts, but it's just interesting to think about the. It. It's like the. The story is so buried and this. The game is so hard that you. It takes like a bloodborne style, like hardcore gamer to dig in. And then that rabid fan base of just like, I have the secret.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

Kind of drives this, like, weird FOMO or something in the industry of just like. And I. And I think it's great that, like, people are so into it and they become the advocates. And then with Hades, I felt like they. Greg and Amir and that whole crew over there did such a brilliant thing and they didn't even know they stumbled onto it, which is like, early access and including people's comments into the process of development. There's something about the connection between the fans and feeling like they're A part of it.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

You know, and that's the revealing of the story. The hardcore like players that can actually accomplish. And then suddenly you have a fan base that's. You couldn't have. You couldn't plan what happened with Silksong. You can't plan that market. They were just making the game that they wanted to make and it took the time it took. If it was six years, it's six years. It wasn't like they're just like hanging a carrot. Go like I got a way to manipulate. No, they just like it took that long to make that great game. But it was a genius marketing.

[Greg Miller]

Sure. And I mean to double down on their success. Right. When you have a game as successful as Hollow Knight, you can take that much longer to do that.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah, 100%.

[Greg Miller]

And I think, you know, it's something you talked about when you're talking about Wildflower. Right.

[Bruce Straley]

Your voice just got suddenly like much more.

[HelloFresh Sponsor]

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[Greg Miller]

Now you're never doing serious. I'm not doing okay. So actually this is where people are, man. Greg can do both things. Get to be the funniest guy in the world or the smartest guy in the world. And I know it's crazy. You're talking about Wildflower there. You're talking about bringing this team together, learning the love language. And I think that's something that I bring up every so often about how sad it is to see these studios close.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

We see all these people leave the triple A starting a studio and then they'll do that. We're going to make 20 people, but we're still going to make a AAA game that never works out. That studio closes because you don't get to come out and do those small games that build up. We talk about Supergiant, you talk about Hades. Like I've been in love with them since Bastion. And that's the kind of thing you find those smaller games from those small studios that people flock to that build a fan of the brand. It's almost, I would think to a degree of how Naughty Dog was with Jack where it was like you'd find these games that would bring you to it and then suddenly that brand starts to mean more and more.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah. And it's interesting. First of all, I gotta tell a little anecdote about. So when I was thinking about making what became Wildflower and I was going around talking to different devs, I've never been run a studio myself. I didn't know what it was.

[Greg Miller]

Are you Serial Head? Is that the title yeah, yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

Founder, whatever. CEO, whatever that word is. And, and, and so I went out and kind of poked around and said, like, how do you do this? You know, if you had any red flags, tell me some red flag, whatever. And I, and I ran the pitch by Amir and Greg over at Supergiant and they were gracious and very. They look. And the first words out of their mouth are just like, that looks awesome, man. That's really cool. We want to do it. Like. And the reality that they knew what the capacity of their team was. They knew what they were capable of doing and the, the pragmatism and the ability to design within that constraint and know how to be creative and know what. How your team thrives. You only get that by doing a bastion and a pyre and moving through it. And we've had our own rollers. Like, I had to go through a lot of learning lessons. There's a roller coaster of. I thought it was going to go one way and it went another. I thought finding a partnership, like the type of partnership I was going to have with. With funding was going to go different than it did because I know Sony and they've given us like carte blanche to make anything we want. Like that's not the case out there.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

And so you, I mean you.

[Greg Miller]

To pull back the curtain. And I've talked about it shows where you jumped in. Like one of the worst times to jump in. Try forget funding. Right. Because it was all of a sudden where it was like, yo, I remember the dice conversations. You know, survive till 25.

[Bruce Straley]

Till 25.

[Greg Miller]

People are like, nobody's giving out money.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

This PlayStation program is going away. Xbox Game Pass is not going. Giving the deals they were giving two years ago.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah. And. And you make mistakes and the question is whether or not you weather those mistakes. And I think that. And it really depends on your partners. It depends on. For us, we had funding and the funding got removed for various bloodbath reasons in the industry, etc. I was lucky enough to. To know that I'm not smart enough to negotiate a contract properly.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

That I had. I was like the good creative cop. You know, I was just like, yeah, we're going to do some really cool stuff and make you a lot of money.

[Greg Miller]

And we don't wear our shoes in the office.

[Bruce Straley]

And I had. And I had a bad cop with me who was more the biz dev guy who knew to write in a kill clause into the contract, which anybody. I don't know if that's because I have A name and a reputation behind me that I had that leverage. But nonetheless, if anybody could, like, say, like, hey, we need some sort of commitment to this game. And if you're not committed to this game, it means, like, we want to get paid out. And I didn't even know that beforehand. So the fact that we had our funding removed, but we're able to still float the company and get a trailer out and get wish lists on Steam right now. Everybody coming to the Chicken Foot wish that, like, I didn't know that that was a thing. So the fact that we're actually still alive is only because of somebody else that helped me negotiate, like, in that way. So it's hard. And like, things like the Concord team is wild also, like, that was a really good. Like, they've proven themselves. Evan Wells. I learned something from Evan Wells really early on. We were doing interviews and I, you know, we were like this.

[Greg Miller]

We.

[Bruce Straley]

We were hot. We were drinking our own Kool Aid. We thought, you know, we're Naughty Dog. And we were interviewing somebody and this guy worked on some horrible game. It didn't sell anything. The code was bad. It ran at like 10 frames a second. And I'm like, why are you interviewing that guy? And he says, you never know. You never know. It's not about the person. It's about the company, is the ones who came up with the game. This guy might be quality. So that feeling of like, you never know was something that I really carry with me, of just like, you never know. You give everybody a chance. Give partners a chance. You give. So I don't know where I was going with that point.

[Greg Miller]

You're killing it. No, I think this is why you're here again. We come out with a talk. We're chucking Concord. Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

Because that team had already proven themselves and shipped a game. Doesn't matter about the game. It really doesn't matter if the game succeeded or not. The fact that building a team is impossible, building a new game is literally. It's mythological and the things that you have to do to actually get a game out. So the fact that they proved it and that some. And I'm not blaming anybody, it's just the nature of, like, you know, dollars and cents on an Excel sheet or something. And somebody just says, like, we can't afford that anymore. But that team was capable of doing something. Shipped a game that looked really good. So I'm sure that they had the talent to do something else. Yeah, that's wild to me. And I don't run those Big companies. I'm not in charge of that. The world would be a lot better if I were in charge, though.

[Greg Miller]

I would have to. I mean, I think it would be.

[Bruce Straley]

For all of us.

[Greg Miller]

You know, it's. But it is. This is what I always talk about is that. That mind share, right? That brain power that's lost when you let a studio make a game and get it out and then kill the studio, where it's like, okay, well, they learned a lot.

[Bruce Straley]

It's about the people, right? That's all it is. It's about the people. And to try to get people to even work together is. Is a magical feat. And so the fact that like those. So if anything, I could plead to any publisher is just like if you have a studio that's made a thing, like, try to figure out how to keep them. Like that's the thing.

[Greg Miller]

Yes, yes, yes. But yeah, obviously. Cool. More Hollow Knight's coming. Did you play Silksong at all?

[Bruce Straley]

I didn't play Silksong, but Hollow Knight a lot.

[Greg Miller]

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Will you be back for the Nintendo Switch 2 version then?

[Bruce Straley]

Yes, I will, actually. Yeah. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

I was stoked for them, of course, and the success they found this year.

[Bruce Straley]

No kidding.

[Greg Miller]

You know, crazy to actually have it. I will be shocked if it comes out next year. This dlc. We've all been burned by Hollow Knight and release dates before and I refuse to believe. Over on the Super Chat, Gadnuk writes in and says, greg, I just wanted to throw it out there that you said there was no way we'd get Silksong DLC Update news during the game awards show. Given how long the development took, I should have bet a slice on it. We do pizza bets here. I don't know why you would have bet because you would have lost this. I would have won there. I would have. I said, they want to be a Game wards. It wasn't a game wars at post Game Wards doesn't count. And if you're playing this. And here's. You know what, Genuk B O W with your Canada money, I'll bet a pizza right now that this DLC does not come out next year. Kevin, hit the pizza bet thing.

[Bruce Straley]

Oh, I'll. I'll take the pizza bet. Because I don't think that they would come out with this if they didn't feel like they were. They had something like. Because they don't have to. They don't have to come up with something.

[Greg Miller]

These Team Cherry people and their Ivory tower, they know it doesn't matter. Playing this in 2030 you'll play the Casey Hudson Star Wars RPG before you play this. Not true. I'm not taking that bet. But that's where I'm going. Thank you. Thank you. Kevin. We got a rock block of divinity headlines I want to jump into before then. Let me give you a super chat then. Let's do some ads. Ty Wilkinsvo says so great to see Bruce. Fun fact. The last of us is why I discovered my want to voice act and now I'm living that dream. Can't wait to play the new game.

[Bruce Straley]

Nice. Thanks.

[Greg Miller]

How's that feel? Because you're at that point too in your career where everybody's coming up to you, I'm sure and be like your game. I was in middle school and your game inspired me and now I'm putting out my game.

[Bruce Straley]

Middle school is about right.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah, that's. Yeah, it's. You know, I'll be on my walker just like I know you. I mean I. Nobody knows who I am. It's cool.

[Greg Miller]

What are you talking about? Everybody were freaking out in the chat that you were here. They're excited about the new game.

[Bruce Straley]

Let's move on. Greg, this is.

[Greg Miller]

Well, I'll move on then to my favorite place. Patreon.com kindafunny YouTube.com kindafunnygames Apple and Spotify. That's where you can pick up a kinda funny membership. Of course that keeps the lights and mics on for this independent media company in a tumultuous media landscape. What do you get in return? You get every one of our shows ad free. That's more than 80amonth. Not this month because there's, you know, we're taking two weeks off work. Life balance, calm down. And then of course you get Greg Ways each and every day. And you get good karma for supporting an 11 person business. And did you know that I'm sure on some of these platforms you can gift the membership? I'm assuming that'd be good. The holidays are up. It's a great stocking stuffer. There's nothing Nana would like more than a membership to kind of funny, am I right? Put it in the stocking. You're not using your benefits right now though. So here's a word from our sponsors, guys.

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[Greg Miller]

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[Greg Miller]

And we're back with of course founder of Wildflower Interactive. Of course, the people behind the upcoming game Coven of the Chicken Foot Covenant of the Chicken Foot Bruce Traley, Wishlist Now Bruce, of course people can talk to you by writing into YouTube.com kindafunnungames to be a super chatter brand. Cakes94 says question for Bruce Been wanting to start my game dev journey but I don't know where to begin. Any tips for someone who wants to start making games?

[Bruce Straley]

There's a lot of free software that just may handle just make games. That's it. Make games. Get your friends. Somebody does voice acting. Just go through all the different disciplines. The more you know about what it takes to make a game the and the more you can just speak to experience of like yeah I did that. Oh this is how I did my voice recording. Oh this is how I I scripted that character. Oh this is what like the more you can speak to what you've done and have that experience, the more you know that somebody's going to listen to you like on, on from my perspective for sure. You know, a lot of people come out of school and they come, there's like a theory of like the philosophy of games and they have these heady ideas and that doesn't help me make a game. I'm not looking to create some sort of like you know, dialectic, sort of interpretations of white paper theory. But like I don't. We just are you know, trying to figure out how.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

To get this up and running and that's how we make a game. And so getting people that have that mindset of just like no, no, I've been in there, I know what it's like. I know what it's like. Those people are the ones that you want to, you want to get in the, in the studio.

[Greg Miller]

I found that so fascinating. Do you in your estimation would you tell people they have to is the right word. But would you encourage school or can you be self taught on what you need to get to?

[Bruce Straley]

I think you can be self taught. I really do. I think that there's, there's, there's so much software out there, there's so many communities out there of people, builders, like minded people. You could read all. You can watch a thousand YouTube videos on, on the theory of game development or the design theory, et cetera. So it's just like you don't need schooling for that, you don't need to pay, you don't need to go into debt for that.

[Greg Miller]

Okay, fair enough. Thank you. Good advice. We move on to story number two. A couple of Divinity headlines. Of course, another game awards announcement. Still making news. We'll start with two. A divinity like Baldur's Gate 3 is a turn based RPG. Larian confirms this is the one, the only. Wypgn.com Larian has confirmed that its upcoming role playing game Divinity is indeed turn based following speculation from the developers fans following the announcement of Divinity at the game awards fans had wondered if it would follow 2023's Baldur Gate 3 and prior games in the Divinity series by offering turn based combat. Or mark a significant shift for Larian and move to a more action game oriented combat. Confirmation that it is sticking with turn based comes from a Bloomberg interview with Larian boss Svenicki Winkey. Once I hear you just start calling him Sven. So that's it. But you know him, he chain mail from the Game Awards. Very nice man. Next time I meet him I'm going to Say yell your name.

[Bruce Straley]

Say it.

[Greg Miller]

Quote, this is going to be us unleashed, I think he said. It's a turn based RPG featuring everything you've seen from us in the past, but it's brought to the next level, end quote. He took part in a round of interviews with the media following the announcement and spoke to IGN in an interview of our own on what to expect from Divinity. The key points he made during the IGN interview include Divinity is a single player game with cooperative multiplayer. As with Baldur's Gate 3, Larian has been working on Divinity for two years already and it is now in full production. Larian owns Divinity, so it is free from the Dungeons and Dragons shackles it built Baldur's Gate 3 with. Divinity is bigger than Baldur's Gate 3. I think that's a weird bullet point, but okay, fine. Divinity will most likely use early access prior to full launch as Baldur's Gate 3 did. But Larian is undecided. We're going to take a turn here into a bigger topic in video games. So right now, while we're just talking about Larian, Baldur's Gate, divinity and all that jazz, did you play Baldur's Gate 3?

[Bruce Straley]

I did not.

[Greg Miller]

That's fine. I'm fine with that. No, no, they're fine with it too. Don't worry. Don't worry about it.

[Bruce Straley]

I wanted to.

[Greg Miller]

What turns you off? Time.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah, just time.

[Greg Miller]

Too big of a game.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah, it's a lot. And I would never, I've never. I'm just an action platformy, kind of old school, snazzy, whatever you want to call like that. That's the type of game that I grew up with. That's the type of game I play and the type of game I make.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

And so it's not to say I wouldn't I want to, but I. It was. It's always this barrier, like I don't have the language, you know.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, that's. That's a big thing for me and Baldur's Gate 3 on paper should be so my shit. I love games and I love choice and I love mutations.

[Bruce Straley]

Right.

[Greg Miller]

But every time I've started it's just so crpg and I'm just like, oh, this isn't how. Like it takes a special turn based RPG for me to be into it. Like I'm thinking like a JRPG turn based rather than a CRPG turn based. Whereas like, I'm going to give it another shot. If you've been listening on Greg Way, I've had a Smoldering of, like, I think I might. I might be able to have. I want. I want. I want to do Boulders Gate 3. So I'm hoping after I finish the next few game of the year contestants, I have to get through to kick it on again and maybe have some time over Christmas break with it. But it's. I. It is the most. You know. Did you play Expedition 33 this year?

[Bruce Straley]

I. I did not.

[Greg Miller]

You're fine. Don't worry. This isn't about you. It's about me. I take the arrows. I'm turning my. I'm doing the thing. I'm the.

[Bruce Straley]

I have a lot of my play.

[Greg Miller]

Guys, I know you're busy. Expedition 33 is a game that I also just didn't connect with. Like, I. I love. We.

[Bruce Straley]

Everybody loved it.

[Greg Miller]

We did the review, and I'm not at all saying it's not that. Yeah, we did the review yesterday, and watching those cut scenes from where I played 11 hours of it. So I got through some of the big things, but we watched more and talked more. Like, I want to experience that. So I'm pressed up against the glass, being like, I wish I could enjoy that. Baldur's Gate is the one where I'm, like, pressed up the glass crying, where I'm like, I got to get over this. Everything. I keep sitting. I'm like, do I? You know? Fallouts here, everybody. Season two of Fallouts here. We're reviewing episode one tomorrow, but we watched episode one last, but the embargo is weird, so we're not reviewing it today. But it doesn't matter. But, like, I was like, I finished that. I'm like, man, I could really go for a fallout. So you turn on 76. And I'm like, this ain't it. And it's like, do I want to go back to New Vegas again? I'm like. I'm like, I know. Baldur's Gate is what I want. Baldur's Gate is what I want. To make crazy decisions and see and roll the dice and do the thing. I gotta get over the gameplay.

[Bruce Straley]

Gotta schedule it. You gotta make it happen.

[Greg Miller]

It's not even the time. What is the time? But it's the gameplay. I just gotta get over it.

[Bruce Straley]

Is it wild to you, or is it normal to you? Like that trailer that was shown at the game Awards.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

And then I read this. Yeah. And it's like, oh, does it. In your brain, you're just like, is that okay with you? Does it match?

[Greg Miller]

Like, is the violence of it or.

[Bruce Straley]

The no, no, I don't mind the. I'm all about violence. I don't care. It's. It's. It's a. It's more about. It's so CG and so. It's so not the game. It's so.

[Greg Miller]

The train is so far out of.

[Bruce Straley]

The station, it doesn't matter anymore.

[Greg Miller]

I mean, look at. Look at. I mean, remember Blur and Diablo?

[Bruce Straley]

We thought it was important. Like, there's gameplay in our trailer. We specifically said, like, we need to show what you're doing.

[Greg Miller]

Well, I mean, again though, that's like the. The double standard.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

That if you came out as a brand new studio in a brand new game, no gameplay. I don't even know what this is.

[Bruce Straley]

We thought it was really important that you, like, you saw the game running.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

You know, especially, like, we've been like, in shadows for so long. Like, it was important. Like. So ours is like a book in, like the go. Like, you know, secret spoilers, whatever. But the. The beginning and the end are kind of the bookends about the Golden Path. What you're doing on the Golden Path. Secrets. But the middle is like, how you're doing it. That's kind of the vibe that we had on each other. So at least you get to see, like, okay, I don't know what I'm. He threw me something. But is that. Do I have a control for that? But that'll all get revealed.

[Greg Miller]

But when this game comes out.

[Bruce Straley]

It was wild to watch a CG thing that long and we don't have.

[Greg Miller]

It when this game's coming.

[Bruce Straley]

Wish list on Steve Team. No, it was wild to watch. And by the way, we wanted nothing more than to go right after that. We thought that would be the greatest thing ever. Just like Guy burning alive and said.

[Greg Miller]

They do the Muppets. The Muppets were before.

[Bruce Straley]

After his drip. His drippings are turning into like demon. Like, everything about it was just like, yeah, we need to go right after the bit. The best location.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

Very different, though. It is very different the game from the cg. I don't know.

[Greg Miller]

I'm looking forward to see what Divinity is. Obviously based on the pedigree and what Larian's working with. And again, them being another one of these Larian and Baldur's Gate 3 was so the Witcher 3 and CD Projekt where it was like, oh, this is the coming out party. They've been doing stuff and people have loved it, but now suddenly they're the biggest thing.

[Bruce Straley]

They're Huge.

[Greg Miller]

And everybody pays attention to what they say. And sometimes they might not say the right thing to be. Divinity Maker is using Gen AI but promises no slop in the final game. This is Ethan Gotcha over Kotaku. Larian Studios is apparently bullish on generative AI, despite backlash against the technology from fans and even some of its own developers. Developers, the Studio HUD Sven says the Baldur's Gate 3 maker has embraced it for exploring ideas and for the early prototyping of new content. Bloomberg reports that Larian has been, quote, pushing hard on generative AI, end quote, using it for things like PowerPoint presentations, placeholder text, and even concept art. The RPG powerhouse has reportedly moved ahead with the tools, even against the wishes of some staff at the company, though Sven believes most of the team is on board with how it's currently being implemented. I think at this point everyone in the company is more or less okay with the way we're using it, he said. The Larian director also promised that no generative AI would make it into any finished games, like the studio's upcoming turn based RPG Divinity Quote. Everything is human actors. We are writing everything ourselves, he told Bloomberg. Okay, all right, Mr. Doodling on the sands while you surf, I'm sure you're using AI left and right in your game, right?

[Bruce Straley]

There's no AI. It's weird. I can't use the term AI to define the creature companion anymore. Like it used to be like you had at Naughty Dog. We had like five or six AI programmers. Yeah, but now you can't say AI with everybody. Like, how dare you. You're going to hell. Like that's the end of the world. And. And so now we have to come up with like, oh, companion character. Like a novel npc. Like something you haven't seen before in like the way the computer. An ally. Companion. Yeah, computer thinking.

[Greg Miller]

You can go back as Timer, you know, complaining about the AI and Madden, you know, on Genesis or something like that. Yeah, it's been around forever and we've used it in a specific way. Yeah. But now mainstream and these generative AI tools have come in and twisted that into.

[Bruce Straley]

Well now it's so much larger than like when, when you have like Xbox Studios having to downsize because of. It's the mothership, you know, Microsoft saying, no, no, we're investing in AI and then that affects our, our industry, that affects us. And so you can't help but to go like, like AI, you know, on some level. Excuse me, but it's like, it's like.

[Greg Miller]

You gotta Be like, AI. We're all there, you know, and.

[Bruce Straley]

But it could be useful. It could be a tool. My buddy has a concept studio and he hasn't had a. And they do amazing stuff. They've been working on AAA games and smaller games, and they do stuff for DreamWorks and they haven't had a gig in like, seven weeks because of, you know, everybody can just go, sora. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Make this thing look like that thing.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah. And so it's wild just to know, like, it is affecting people in this industry. And it does affect, like, and. And, you know, is it. Is it compelling? And it's that Jurassic park thing is like, you are so interested in could. You didn't think you should.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

And I think we're there.

[Greg Miller]

That's where 100% agree with you. And I think I forget who it was. I apologize. But over on bs, that's a blue sky Bruce. They were talking and having. This was going around and somebody, quote, tweeted, was like, this is going to be a great fallback plan. When inevitably something they did use for Generative AI makes it to the final game and they're all a mistake. We didn't mean to do it. And maybe it is an actual mistake. Yeah. But again, this, like, anytime you insert something in the code or whatever or an inside joke that then makes it or, you know, we do something stupid in the dock and then that somehow get like, this is how you. This is. This is a. You can see the rake. Yeah. We're. We're inside the house, but I can see the rake in the front yard. And I know you're gonna step on it. Like, don't do it. Like, don't bother doing it. And like, power points. Let's stop making power points.

[Bruce Straley]

Nobody needs PowerPoint. Nobody needs a deck.

[Greg Miller]

Only Snowbike Mike.

[Bruce Straley]

Stop making decks.

[Greg Miller]

All right? He makes fun decks. That's other than other. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know.

[Bruce Straley]

No, we don't need A.I. i. I think. I think, like, it really. I. I mean, I don't want to be on my high horse and the soapbox and the whole thing, but I really do think it's the demise of the human species.

[Greg Miller]

Our brain.

[Bruce Straley]

We need a frontal lobe. We need something that can actually, like, go through the. I'm learning piano right now, and I can feel like when I go to. I'm just like. And I don't know what I'm doing. And the. The next morning, I wake up after a good night's sleep, and I Come up and I get back to the piano. I'm just like, oh, I kind of.

[Greg Miller]

Of.

[Bruce Straley]

And I can feel my brain, and it's just like, that's what we're. We have hundreds of thousands of years of, like, this supercomputer that's built and they're making, you know, football fields and draining water supplies, etc. To try to replicate something that a human can already do. It doesn't make sense to me. It just doesn't make sense to me. Okay, I'm getting off my soapbox.

[Greg Miller]

No, no. This is a great conversation to have you again. We have the chuckleheads who don't make the games. We have this conversation on kind of funny all the time. So it's great to have someone here who's. Who's in the same vein of just.

[Bruce Straley]

I love that somebody doesn't know what. It was the greatest pleasure at Naughty Dog, honestly, to see somebody who was challenged at something, they weren't great at something, and they persevered and persevered. That ability to stick to something and go, like, okay, can I do it? Despite what my head says, like, I'm a failure. I'm not good at it. Whatever. The thing is that we all tell ourselves, like, I don't know how that evolved into humans. I don't know how we got through that, but somehow we say that to ourselves. And then you see them accomplish something or make something, and they feel proud of themselves. And I can go like, dude, you did that. Or, you know, you. Whoever do. You did that? And that's such. To me, that was the greatest pride that I had with the team is like, seeing people get challenged and overcome those challenges. That's, to me, what it is to be on a team and be in a community and do stuff is we get to be inspired by each other. And AI doesn't inspire me.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

I don't want to watch a movie that I know somebody prompted. Like, there's nothing that says, like, a human is behind that, trying to struggle with it. How do they. How do they find a voice? How do they actually, like, try to communicate, like, what their. I don't know, their fantasies are. Their childhood trauma is like, whatever the things they're sorting on their art, you know, And. And I don't think that, you know, prompting an AI gets to the heart of what a human experience is.

[Greg Miller]

That's. That's a lot.

[Bruce Straley]

I'm. No, it's great. Stay away from the mic.

[Greg Miller]

No, no, no, no. I'll put you right back on it because it's like the question I would have for you then of like, so here you are, are out there. Wildflower Interactive, Covenant, the Chicken Foot. You're doing your own thing, you're independent. The industry at large dealing with many problems as always or whatever. But it really is this AI business, what you see over at Xbox, right? And you see PlayStation occasionally trying to tackle it in some other way, but everywhere it's happening to some degree or whatever. And so then do you go, thank God I got out of having a giant corporate overlord, or do you go, they're burning down the entire house and it's going to get everybody, no matter what.

[Bruce Straley]

It's kind of the whole house. But I think that there's always going to be room for creators. I think there's always room for somebody to say something. I think that, you know, I think we as humans, I always had this thing at Naughty Dog. People might not understand the details or sort of the subtext of everything. We put the decisions and the choices that we as developers have put into every single pixel and every single line or dial, everything. But they feel it. And that's the difference between, like, you don't have to know, you know. You know, I work in the sausage factory. It's my job to know how the sausage is made. Everybody else just needs to, like, enjoy the sausage. I don't want to use the sausage metaphor anymore. But yeah, and so I think that's the thing for me is just like sticking to my guns. What I. Maybe I'm an older generation. You know what, I don't know what's going to happen with the next generation. I don't know if maybe it's more accessible, maybe it's more available for people and it's just like what they do. But I also feel like there's going to be a bar that's set, that there's going to be like, you're going to define slop, and then you're going to have something that feels like it's created by a human. That's my guess.

[Greg Miller]

That's the hope, right, that if people continue to lean into all this AI bullshit and get fed just the lowest common denominator, this thing that the things that aren't using that stand out even more, where you do look at something like Claire Obscure. You do look at something like, like Wildflower Entertain Interactive, Sorry, Wildflower.

[Bruce Straley]

We're putting our hearts in it. I mean, that's the reality is like every single thing, every choice in that game is, is driven by somebody on the team who's putting all their all in it. We don't have any AI anywhere, even in the docs that we have to write. And I've had to write many a doc and many things to try to figure out like how to even like all the press release stuff, like could have just spit that out, you know, in some AI, but I felt like it doesn't then sound like me. And I know that some people are even saying like, oh, this is the first time that they're starting to prompt in a way that like they, it's replicating my V voice, et cetera. I don't know. I just. Okay, here's maybe an argument that I don't hear said a lot when we first had computers and they said everybody's gonna have a computer, a laptop or a computer on their desktop and it's gonna free up so much time. It didn't free up any time. I think we always fill the time with whatever, like whatever work has to get done. So whatever this tool is, if people keep calling it a tool, I really need to get off this soapbox. I hear myself and like. But the point is, I think we're just going to fill more and more time using AI. It's not going to somehow be this spiritual revolution where we're like, I can now meditate. Oh man, it's so great AI's here. I can have like a spiritual experience. Like I'm going to go off and you know, have a trip around the world. Because AI is doing it for me.

[Greg Miller]

I mean, the economy, that's not what's going to happen. When it takes away, when AI takes away the work you're doing at your job, what are you doing? You're not working a job anymore. Like, that's. Let's cut to the, you know, the Microsoft example. Example. The reason we're, they're shoving AI into everything is to try to streamline and pay fewer people to do the jobs they're already doing.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

So it's like we, we don't see the end of this is even worse.

[Bruce Straley]

Because then it's this, it's, it's, it's the thievery of it too that it's just like it has to, it devours the work of another human being. That put their energy, love, passion into something and it was like, you know, back out. Like, oh man, you know, snake eating its own tail. Yeah, the vibe I get. But I don't know. Good luck.

[Greg Miller]

But I'm sure Larry is going to.

[Bruce Straley]

Give you some good luck larian.

[Greg Miller]

Story number three on the Rope Road Dead Island 3 is aiming for a 2028 release, with the sequel now the primary focus of the studio. This is Connor Makar over at Eurogamer. Financial documents have revealed that not only is Dead Island 3 in development at Dambuster Studios, but it's aiming for a 2028 release. This was spotted by the user I love it when the news is spotted by some user on this is an X user was spotted by x user bogorad222 who posted the Dam Buster annual financial report online, including a brief overview of the company and what's currently working on. The overview reveals the primary focus of the studio is Now Dead Island 3. After the release of Dead Island 2 Ultimate Edition in October 2024, the primary focus for Dambuster Studio is now Dead Island 3, the report states. All developers are assigned to the project and once the Luna and Mac versions of Dead Island 2 are complete, all of Dambuster's QA team will be assigned a Dead island, the report continues. Parts of the game are now in early production, with feature character world and story designs moving at pace. The current predicted release window for the project is Q1 or 2 of 2028. As for Dambuster's main risks, the report states that these stem from quote having the right version and mission to know which games are trending in three to five years, staying on top of engineering standards of AAA games as well as having the right talented team available for working on projects. End quote. Awesome news. Everybody knows. Probably don't actually because we never talk about it, but we when I like Dead Island 2, I didn't think. I forget what I gave it on whatever scale we were even using at the time. I'm kind of funny to review it, but it was an enjoyable open world zombie romp. Yeah. So it's like this is what we're talking about from before. Yes. Take all the lessons and all the reviews and all the criticisms from that game and make a Dead Island 3. Keep that team together. Don't lay everybody off. Go ahead and iterate on that and make something hopefully better and even more fun.

[Bruce Straley]

Can I just say this is wild that there's the news that specifically they're saying all the developers are assigned to the project. Then we're going to move on to the like that. That's a level of detail I've never seen in a report before. That's cool somebody's being that transparent.

[Greg Miller]

Well damn Busters put out like nobody's going to Catch this. But they weren't ready for BOGO Rad2 to Twitter to be digging through the financials.

[Bruce Straley]

That's wild. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Good for them.

[Bruce Straley]

Good for them.

[Greg Miller]

Number four on the Roper report. With 15 days left, Nacon confirms its Terminator game is releasing in 2025. This is Andy Robinson at VGC. Thank God we got confirmation. With 15 days of the year left, NACON has confirmed that its open world Terminator game, Terminator Survivors, won't be released in 2025 as planned. It. I'm sorry. In its first update since the game's last delay to 2025, the publisher confirms that Survivors is no longer. Will no longer release in early access and that the plans for cooperative multiplayer in the game are also axed. In a letter to fans, creative director Marco Point claimed that the decisions came after months of internal testing and with the players. I'm having trouble reading it because I've never. I did not know about this game and I like Terminator a lot. And so I'm seeing a trailer over here for Terminators and I. That gets my attention because I like Terminator. It kind of looks like our graders. It wouldn't. This is what I would expect from, you know, Terminator. Oh, there it is. Shit. That's Terminator, right? This guy's dead. Oh, damn. There it is. T800 stomping in. Damn. How did I miss this? Well, I guess because it got. It got announced in 2024. Oh, that's all it was. That's how I missed it. Okay. Quote. Though we' been quiet, we haven't been idle, this year has been productive, and we've made important progress across all fronts, from world design and combat to narrative depth and atmosphere. After months of internal testing discussions with players and fans of the license, we came to the conclusion that to give you an authentic Terminator experience with the best possible shooting and exploration gameplay, we would have to put aside cooperative multiplayer. We know this may come as a disappointment, but we believe it is the right creative direction for the uncompromised division of the world after Judgment Day. He continued, we've also had to overhaul the release our release plans. Instead of launching an early access, we want your first steps in the wasteland to be a complete and polished experience. You might have guessed already, but that means Terminator Survivors won't be launching in 2025. We don't have a new date locked in, but we'll let you know when we're ready to share a new release date.

[Bruce Straley]

Well, it's still going still alive.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. I was going to say again for something. I don't know. They're saying the right things like yeah, don't rush it out. I don't want to. I don't want to. Don't need a crappy early access version of what's going on here. It's more interesting. Judgment Day. This is the Terminator Survivor Steam page. Judgment Day has come as the rare survivor of this catastrophic catastrophic event fight and help the resistance rise from the ashes of civilization. But beware. Skynet's machines patrol relentlessly the surface and the legendary T800 is on your tail. Fascinating to me a single player game. Because I mean like the. Even the gameplay. Why the trailer is outdated since it's not co op anymore. But it looks so much like arc raiders.

[Bruce Straley]

It's arc raiders.

[Greg Miller]

Totally. Yeah. Yeah. It also. What? There was that zombie game. It had a multiplayer mode. Oh, they weren't zombie. They were infected. It's not Timothy. Last of us. Yeah. And then they made a big deal. They're gonna do a multiplayer.

[Bruce Straley]

Good multiplayer original. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

It's almost like a pillar of the company left. They couldn't do the multiplayer version.

[Bruce Straley]

That's not.

[Greg Miller]

That's not. That's not accurate.

[Bruce Straley]

That's not true.

[Greg Miller]

I'm just joking. Everybody calm down. Over the show joke. We're joking around with Bruce. Everybody calm down. Bruce. When Terminator Survivors comes out and has release date. Oh shit. We didn't prep you. Wait, wait, wait.

[Bruce Straley]

Terminators. Do you think that you have a. A Terminator companion? Do you think that you can have a robot friend that. That has intel? Do you think you need to like hack one so that you can get the. The information about.

[Greg Miller]

Look at this game design.

[Bruce Straley]

Let's figure out they're going to delay.

[Greg Miller]

Another year when they hear all the ideas we come up with. Yeah, yeah, that sounds cool. Cool.

[Bruce Straley]

I.

[Greg Miller]

Who is making. Oh, I had it open. Let me Control Shift T. Nope. Control Shifty. There it is. This is. Oh, it's. It's so. It's Nacon Studio Milan. So I don't know anything. What do they make? What. What did they may tt aisle of man? A bunch of racing games. I think that sounds too cool for what I expect out of this game. I have been wrong about Nacon games before. I think they've turned a corner. Right? Because of course they had the ro Robocop Rogue City game we all like. That was like what a Robo Cop rpg. Wait, this is rad. And then they also did Hell is Us right they published it, so it's like they're doing good stuff. But I, I, I think of them as that double a space and so.

[Bruce Straley]

Like a bit bigger.

[Greg Miller]

I think this. No, I think, I think, I think it's gonna be scary. I think this will be focused on purely surviving. There's a story or what? We're trying to get the McGuffin to do the thing to whatever, but it's like we're running from the Terminators. I don't think we'll get to hack them and take their information and flip them to our team and stuff. That cool.

[Bruce Straley]

Like cut close to the bone, here it is. This is the core experience. You're the rebel rebel group against the.

[Greg Miller]

Shirt part of the resistance. Fair, Fair. I'll keep my eyes peeled. I mean, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna add this to my wish list.

[Bruce Straley]

Motorcycle scene though.

[Greg Miller]

You gotta have one foot's already. Oh, you gotta have the motorcycle on there or whatever. All right, now, we didn't brief you for this. Okay, I'm gonna do a bad transition then. You got to read that highlighted part. Okay?

[Bruce Straley]

Okay, I'm reading.

[Greg Miller]

No, not yet. I'll move.

[Bruce Straley]

Okay, here we go. You ready now?

[Greg Miller]

No, no, no. Bruce. Terminator survivors coming out any year would be big news. But if I wanted the tiniest news, say the tiniest news in the world about video games, where would I go?

[Bruce Straley]

You'd go to our last story, the wee News channel where we cover all the small news items you need to know about.

[Greg Miller]

Are you Gertie's voice in the game?

[Bruce Straley]

I don't know.

[Greg Miller]

She is Scottish, number five on the Wien or number five Wii News. Mega Man Star Force Legacy collection is gonna launch on March 26th seventh, if you can believe that. Another game awards announcement where wins meet has surpassed 15 million players. Escape from Tarkov has sold 1 million copies since its 1.0 launch on November 15. No rest for the Wicked Showcase Wicked Inside set for December. Oh wait, hold on. I'm thinking the right game here. No Rest for the Wicked. Oh yeah. Hell yeah. Okay everybody, now we got some. Now we're cooking. No Rest for the Wicked has a show called Showcase the Wicked Inside set for December 18th at 9am oh, doctor, that's a great one. I'm excited for that one. If you aren't playing, it's in early access right now. We're big fans of no Rest for the Wicked from Moon Studios, the award winning developers of Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori Will of the Wisps Comes no Rest for the Wicked. A visceral precision action RPG set set to reinvent the genre.

[Bruce Straley]

Huh? Big words.

[Greg Miller]

Big words.

[Bruce Straley]

Big words.

[Greg Miller]

We'll see what they got up their sleeve on December 18th. I'm excited for that two days from now. Me too. Maybe Games Daily, if it's worth it. And that's it for WE News. We News. Thank you, Bruce. Now we jump back to your super chats before we get into any of your wrongs here. Okay? Carl Moore says I do PhD part time in machine learning. AI is overused and sold. There are applications that are great, I. E. Catching medical conditions, but we are being sold what we already do. F Capital is capitalism indeed. That's my thing is like there's got it. I know there are good use. There's good uses for AI and generative AI for sure. Just not doing the fun stuff. Do the boring. I don't want to do.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I agree with that.

[Greg Miller]

Samson XP says we need a different word for using gen AI to write an email versus gen AI for concept and creativity. Now, as a writer by trade, that's nails on a chalkboard to me. No. Write your own fucking email. Don't worry about like where you put in your commas. Just let it be in your voice. Let it be a personal experience.

[Bruce Straley]

I like, I like typos in my emails. I intentionally, like, I text as well. Like whatever, that's me. That's fine. They'll get it.

[Greg Miller]

I start every email. Hey. And that's just how it is. Gary the Third says author Brandon Sanderson recently did a speech on AI art. His thesis is the end product isn't the art, the artist is the human in AI rips that away. I would agree with that.

[Bruce Straley]

Okay. Yeah, sure.

[Greg Miller]

When we play something we or enjoy anything, you want to know what inspired that?

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Are you watching Plurbus?

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

My favorite thing with pluris is then going on to Tik Tok and seeing all the creators who are tearing it apart and looking at this reference and I'm like, man, what is Vince Gilligan trying to say here? I like that. I love it.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah. I also am wondering what he's trying to say. So that's good.

[Greg Miller]

Are you enjoying it?

[Bruce Straley]

I'm in it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

What I. The way I describe it when Jen and I talk about it with other people is like, like, I'm interested.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

But I'm not enthralled.

[Bruce Straley]

It could use some editing.

[Greg Miller]

I want it to be severance where it's like, oh, Man, a new episode. Shop everything. Let's go. Watch most. I'm like, oh, it's Saturday. Oh, there was a new Pluribus last night. Do you want to watch it tonight? And then we get into it.

[Bruce Straley]

It's like, same vibe. Same vibe in our household.

[Greg Miller]

Watch the latest window Spoilers.

[Bruce Straley]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

I think where we're coming. That might be the part where I'm like, all right, let's go. This would be fun.

[Bruce Straley]

It's like, I don't like it when people have to tell me when they're playing a game. It's just like, well, about 40 hours in, it really takes off.

[Greg Miller]

You can't do that. Got time for that anymore? Here we got Krabby Patty. Who says, Bruce, what inspired the design of the main characters in Coven of the Chicken Foot? Oh, can we get the trailer back up while we talk about it, Kevy? Thank you.

[Bruce Straley]

Well, it started off with just simply saying, like, how. How do you create an asymmetrical relationship that these two characters are going to need to rely on each other? And so if I'm creating a world of adventure based on, like, the hero's journey and saying, like, okay, well, what if it's not your typical hero, like, you know, Jack to the gills and, you know, you know, with a sword and a shield and, you know, what if it's a little old lady? What if it's somebody on the sidelines of adventure, usually, and then cast out into a world not meant for her? And so it started off with a boy, and then it went to a girl, and then it went to, like, an old lady. So it was this evolution of just, like, it's testing against the world of adventure. And, like, how can I say something about heroes, about heroism? What heroism really is isn't about, like, fighting your way through the problems, but instead about, like, you know, loyalty, commitment, sacrifice, that kind of stuff. And really, it's not about, like, one person has an. It kind of did the AI thing a little bit. It's not about the individual. It's not the capitalistic, like, the gains, you know, which is. Usually game games is like, xping up your sword. But I thought it was more interesting to go, like, what if. What if she wasn't, like, built for. With a double jump and a sword? What if you find a sword in the world and she picks it up and drags it because it's too heavy for her?

[Greg Miller]

Like, that was just in all the right things. I can't wait.

[Bruce Straley]

That suddenly got really exciting for me. And, like, if you're going to have a world that has, like, threats in it. Then how is she going to get over the threats? And that became the relationship. So you need to figure out how to build a bond with this character, this creature, in order to actually overcome the obstacles in the. In the adventure. How much money?

[Greg Miller]

How much money you need for publishing? Kevin, get out the checkbook. We'll put on the Patreon thermometer. We'll come through. Wow, it's approving. We got it, everybody. Also, just for your heads up when you get off of here, I need a text from you later today to let me know how fast Herman has reached out for a meeting with you from PlayStation, because Game Informer is already apportioning Bruce Straley on Coven of the Chicken Foot. Quote. It's actually not idea from way back when we started Jak and Daxter, end quote. So that headline's out there. So you're in for a world of pain right now. So I'm sorry for that.

[Bruce Straley]

The creature was actually started. I did some watercolors. I thought it was going to be a lot muckier and darker. And then our art director, Valter Gort. Valter, he's amazing. And he works with Ola Silly Oaks to do everything you see on the screen. This hand, this is like, out of his sketchbook. This is like him saying, like, we want to do something that lasts the test of time. And so his renderings of the creature were a lot more light hearted. And I thought that was interesting that then it started inspiring the idea of, like, everybody wants it to be about, like, the, the helpless and the brute. Like, the brute's going to protect the helpless.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

And we thought, well, the player's the one on the stick. The player is the one that's going to be pushing forward. So. So Gertie is the one who, like, shows persistence. Because you, the player, are just going to push forward. It's just your nature as a player. You can't. You can't design apprehension in a protagonist. Yeah, but you can in a. In your. Your companion character. And so we thought it was fun to play with the tropes of, like, okay, what if it's not a brute? What if it's actually scared of the dark and completely naive to things and, like, loves muffins and, like, what if that's. What if that's the take on it? So. So Valtter helped find this, like, more adorable. Can't wait for the plushies.

[Greg Miller]

You know they're coming. Jay Oversion says Bruce, thanks for all your work on so many games that I grew up with Jak and Daxter and beyond. Greg, as always, thanks for you and your team for bringing such interesting people in each and every year. Thanks, Greg. You're welcome, Bruce. Thanks for coming through Similar vein Mute that guy says thank you for your incredible content. The love you get from the industry and us best friends is proo. You are needed. Well, thank you and with your support on all of our platforms, we'll continue to be around. Zeke speaks super chats and says Cersei is one of the most beautiful, quietly devastating books I've ever read. And Ishiguro is a legend. Barry Giant, especially amazing Rex. Everyone check these out. Here's my thing with Cersei. How much do I need to know about the Odyssey?

[Bruce Straley]

You don't.

[Greg Miller]

Okay. She does a high school.

[Bruce Straley]

She does an amazing job of building that character to, to, to get her to the point that she's willing to make that type of decision. But you don't have to know that what I, I just set you up. You're good.

[Greg Miller]

Perfect. Great job.

[Bruce Straley]

Great, great read.

[Greg Miller]

Okay. And then final one goes to Rabbit of Canterba. Nog13 Team Cherry is the goat selling 7 million copies within a few months. Lots of praise by critics and fans. And the cherry on top is the announcing the DLC for next year only a few days after the game awards next year. Which of course isn't wrong for what I had said already about a not wait for pizza and I'm not going to end up buying Bruce of pizza next year guaranteed. In one year you can come back.

[Bruce Straley]

And give me the jokes every put.

[Greg Miller]

In your calendars so I know about that. And of course put on your steam wish list. Coven of the chicken foot.

[Bruce Straley]

Coven of the chicken foot.

[Greg Miller]

I'm very excited for this game, Bruce.

[Bruce Straley]

I'm very excited to continue making it.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bruce Straley]

The team's great.

[Greg Miller]

They're.

[Bruce Straley]

They're, they're like hitting a stride right now. We've got some really. We're ending the year on a high know with this build that we've got and now the trailer. And then I just want to say thank you to everybody out there has giving us like it's unheard of the. The amount of positive response that we've got from this thing. We know that we're not like, you know, aaa. We know that we're a very specific audience now. It's a different type of game that we're making but the fact that other people it's resonating with this other audience and, and that they're excited by these two and learning more about their adventure is. It's it. The team is jazz. We're super excited to come back into the new year and just hit the ground running. I mean, I can't say enough about how your guys's response really has an effect on development. It really does. What you guys put out there comes back. It really, it's. It's amazing.

[Greg Miller]

I love that. Well, thanks again for coming up and doing this. Everybody go Steam wish list. Coven of the chicken foot right now.

[Bruce Straley]

Thanks, Greg.

[Greg Miller]

Follow Bruce on all his social medias.

[Bruce Straley]

Thanks, everybody. No problem.

[Greg Miller]

Thank you. Thank you. And thank you everybody. Ladies, gentlemen and bees for watching, remember that this has been Kinda Funny Games daily. Each and every weekday, we run you through the nerdy video game news. You need to know about live Twitch, YouTube, podcast services around the globe. If you like that, pick up a membership. Patreon, YouTube, Apple or Spotify. And of course, remember, we're a business all about live talk shows and that means the content doesn't stop. We're going to roll from this into the Kinda Funny Games cast and run through every game coming out in January. Then it's going to be a stream. Already forgotten what it was though. No, I almost have it. It's sponsored. What was the other sponsor? Kevin Flip. The thing wasn't make the thing Flipper is it? Is that on timer? There it is. Once Upon a Galaxy. Yeah, that's a stream. Then after that, of course, if you're a Patreon member professional. That's how it is around here. They knew what they were sponsoring. If you knew that. We're doing the happy hour over on Patreon. But for now we will bid you ado and say until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you.

[Bruce Straley]

Thanks, buddy.

[Greg Miller]

Thank you, buddy.