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- [00:07]
Wes
A tall, silent figure cloaked in a black robe. The robe itself seems to absorb the surrounding light. The hood is pulled low, hiding most of the face in the shadow. The robes are long. They drape loosely over a thin skeleton frame. In one hand, the figure carries a long handled scythe. The wooden shaft is smooth from age. The curved steel blade catches the light with a cold, silvery gleam. What does that description sound like to you? It's 1559. A group of farmers in Brandenburg, Germany, spot something in their oat fields. Figures dressed in black. Some appear to have small, misshapen heads. Others have the faces the witnesses describe only as fearful. Large black eyes. No nose. A slit for a mouth. Cold. No expression. And they appear to be dressed in a black cloak. Each one carries a long scythe like instrument. The figures move through the oats in a wide sweeping motion. The swish of their tools can be heard from a great distance. But the oats don't fall. Whatever these men are doing, they are not cutting grain. The townspeople rush out to confront them. The figures ignore them. They keep swinging. Then they are simply gone. Almost immediately after, a plague tears through the city. This account comes from a 1682 German text. It was first compiled by German historian Johannes Knoll in his book the Black Death, the Chronicle of the Plague. It's one of several reports from the Black Death era. They all describe the same thing. Dark figures in black, strange instruments, always on the outskirts of town and always right after they leave. Disease arrives. Other earlier accounts describe similar visitors across the Roman Empire. Dark figures carrying long brooms or swords. They're seen sweeping the doors and walls of people's homes. People inside fall sick within days. These reports come from Germany, Hungary, Austria and beyond. The Black Death kills an estimated 30 to 50% of Europe's population. What if these scythes weren't scythes at all? The instruments made a loud sound. They moved through the air in broad arcs, but they didn't cut anything. The movements the eyewitnesses describe look less like mowing and more like spraying some kind of poison or pathogen dispersed over crops, ohms and people. Between 1298 and 1314, several large comets appear over Europe. One is described as being quote of awe inspiring blackness. The Black death arrives in 1347, European culture built its most enduring image of death. A dark figure carrying a scythe, mowing down the living like stalks of grain. It wasn't a symbol invented by artists. It was a description recorded by eyewitnesses. Who were these entities? Where did they come from? And when you read eyewitness testimony from that time, it sounds more like a gray alien dressed in black than a skeleton dressed in black. The image today we call the Grim Reaper,
- [04:38]
CJ
It looked like somebody was bent
- [04:41]
John
over and had their head in the
- [04:43]
CJ
window of the deer blind. And it either heard me or smelt me.
- [04:48]
John
And he pulled his head out of
- [04:49]
CJ
the tent and stood straight up.
- [04:50]
John
And that.
- [04:52]
Wes
That shocked me.
- [04:59]
CJ
They don't make people that.
- [05:01]
John
That big.
- [05:06]
Wes
The way it moved, almost as if it was gliding across the beach. I've never seen anything move like that in my life.
- [05:20]
Adrian
They were screaming at each other in gibberish.
- [05:24]
Wes
It sounded like a language. And they were chuntering away, back and forwards, back and forwards, back and forwards.
- [05:32]
CJ
I know what a bear looks like.
- [05:33]
Wes
And there is no way on this planet that what I saw were bears.
- [05:49]
Sam
911, what are you reporting? Jesus Christ.
- [05:52]
Adrian
You better.
- [05:53]
Sam
Sir? Hello? Get somebody out here. What's going on now? Sir, that son of a is about 6 foot 9. I don't know. You see him now, sir? Yes, I'm looking right at him. Oh,
- [06:07]
Wes
this is Blair coming to you from Dalonga, Georgia, the home of the first gold rush. And you're listening to the best podcast
- [06:15]
John
in the world, Sasquatch Chronicles.
- [06:36]
Sam
Foreign.
- [06:42]
Wes
Lesson for everyone. I'm telling you, if you get a chance, go read some eyewitness testimony during the Black Plague. And I'm sure you'll agree with me. I mean, the way they describe these figures and black cloaks and they were real big figures, it really reminded me of gray aliens dressed in black. And then later we came up with the Grim Reaper. And you know, the Grim Reaper wasn't a made up figure. It came from eyewitness testimony. I find weird stuff like that interesting. I don't know if anyone else does, but I appreciate you being here. Tonight we're gonna chat with John. And John is originally from New Jersey, and he describes this encounter on his property when he was younger, right before he went into the military. Much later in life, John became a truck driver and a group of truckers he was in a lane with. They almost hit one. And then we'll wrap up with CJ and Adrian and both have extensive experience creating video games. And Adrian actually reached out to me a couple months ago and he's a listener of the show. I know he's a member and their company wanted to design a Sasquatch game. I really fell in love with the idea of creating this game. Normally I wouldn't have a show on something like this, but what the guys are looking for is real experiences with Sasquatch. They want to get the movement of Sasquatch down. They want to create a game environment that is true to Sasquatch encounters in real places like in Washington, Texas, around the United States. And they're looking for your help, your feedback. But I don't want the guys go into it. If you've had an encounter and you'd like to be on the show, shoot me an email. My email address is wesasquatchchronicles.com and if you get a chance, check out sasquatch chronicles.com you can become a member and get additional shows. And I want to thank John from last night's show who grew up on this property out there in Sandy, Oregon. And there's a lot of things that happened. But thank you again, John, for coming on. Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome another John to the show. John, thanks for coming on.
- [09:12]
John
Oh, appreciate it. It's been a long time waiting to talk to you.
- [09:16]
Wes
Yeah. And you had this experience, the main one I want to talk about happened out there in New Jersey. If you would. Would you start from the very beginning? What were you doing and what happened?
- [09:29]
John
Yeah, I'm going to have to back up a little bit on that day. I had just gotten back from enlisting into the United States Navy. And I had been dropped off back at the house about 4:30 in the afternoon. June 17, about 3 miles northeast of Chester, New Jersey, which is about 30 minutes northeast of Hagal Barney State Park. We had a house on the west side of the Black River Wildlife Management Area. And the house had been built about three and a half years ago. So I got back to the house. We had two dogs. We had a golden retriever and a little black dog. Let them out there and go do their thing. And the little black dog, oh, three or four times a week would just go running and screaming, yelling off into the woods. And then she would come back 10, 15 minutes later and she'd be having all kinds of stuff on her. So I had to wait for her to give her a bath. So she went off in the woods and I let the big dog back inside. And then it's like, okay, pretty day outside, about 75 degrees, light wind. I'm just gonna go, go walk in the woods. We were in the woods quite often clearing trees out and, you know, doing stuff. And I'd like to walk in there because it's, you know, nice and quiet. So I headed southeast from the house and got about 700, 800 yards from the house and stopped pointing myself back kind of towards the house. And all of a sudden here comes this God awful noise off my right side, very loud. And my first thought was it was a very large dog because there were some large dogs up the road from us. A couple seconds later there was a shorter vocal and that's when my brain said that wasn't a dog. And then there was a final short vocal after that. It was like 15 sentences in like five seconds. So I went to the right about 15ft and there was three pine trees about 12ft tall. And there was a berry bush about 45, 40, 45 yards away, about 4 foot tall. And he was standing on the other side of me at the time. I thought he was about 6, 8, 6 10, covered in red fur hair, looked like a basketball fit basketball player with shoulder pads on, facing me, head on. And we just stared at each other. Just the overall seeing this thing standing in front of you from that distance. I mean it was wide, you know, four and a half foot wide, shoulders covered with hair, large black or brown eyes. And that's about all I could get out of, was definitely a male because I didn't see any female parts. And its hands were below the berry bush. So I didn't see any of that, which was okay with me. He did not move a muscle. His hair wasn't, you know, matted and have stuff in it, but it wasn't really clean, it was just kind of untidy. And we just stared at each other for a few seconds or longer than that. And then I just couldn't take it anymore after that. So I ran back to the house and I went back over there, climbed up the deck steps and there was the little black dog. She's eight pounds. She was shaking so hard the deck was rattling. She had foam coming out of her mouth. And you've had dogs and you talk to your dogs. I asked her, did you see that? And her nose pointed right in the general direction where that thing had been standing at. So I let her back in the house after a couple minutes. And after a few minutes standing there, I headed back into the woods. I got back to the pine trees just to the north of the pine trees and it wasn't standing there anymore. So I decided I wanted to go all across to the other side of the brain bush to see if I can see tracks or anything. I got about halfway there, I got a very loud branch snap. I don't remember what direction. So I left again, ran back to the house.
- [14:56]
Wes
I Don't know if I would have went back, but I completely understand why you would. I know from your email nothing really like this ever happened on the property. And I would imagine there's a little shock, a little curiosity. I wanted to ask you, the vocals that you heard, can you kind of describe what they sounded like?
- [15:18]
John
Well, you have it in your intro, Claire. The samurai chatter. That was the first one. I left 43 days after that to go to boot camp. But for three and a half years living there, there were no instances. I mean, we had hunters during deer seasoning all the time. You know, come through there, take deer out. We had. We had always had deer in the yard. The next door neighbors up the hill had apple trees. We had a commercial apple orchard south of the river. And nothing, nothing had ever happened prior to this. The other weird thing is you had a guy named Robert on your show. I don't remember what the show number was, but he had an encounter in Huckleberney State park, which is not too far away, 14 years later with a red male.
- [16:21]
Wes
Yeah. And I know from your general location, Whitehall, New York isn't far from you. Makes me think maybe it was just kind of passing through this other incident that you had. It was in Yakima, Washington. How many more years later is this?
- [16:39]
John
That was in around 95 or 96. I had stopped at a truck stop south on 97 somewhere and went in to have a mighty. It was crowded and I sat with this other lady trucker and we were just talking back and forth. And then we decided that we were both going in the same direction. So we headed up, I think it's 97. We weren't going to the same place, but we're going the same general direction and we headed north. And I think about two or three miles south of Yakima, there's four or five of us in a line in the truck. We were just chatting back and forth on the radio and all of a sudden I hear her yell out on the radio, holy crap. I almost ran over it. And I got on the radio, I said, what it? She said, it's on the right side of the road going up a hill. So I looked out the passenger window and I saw the back end of one walking up this hill about 75 yards away.
- [17:50]
Wes
You know, John, when I read your email, and I know there wasn't much of a description beyond kind of this hairy giant walking up this hill, it made me think of. There was a truck driver I interviewed probably four years ago, and he ended up not coming on the show. But I was like, man, you know, where have I heard this before? And he describes this row of truck drivers. And I want to say it was in the mid-90s. They were all in a path and this thing had run across the road. In fact, I think the first truck driver was female. She actually did almost hit it. And by the time he looked at it was kind of your situation. He describes kind of this giant going up the hill. Makes you wonder now if he was part of that group. I know both encounters were pretty brief, but it really is life changing to really see one of these things. Well, what do you think Sasquatch is, John? What's your take?
- [18:53]
John
Well, I think. I think in the beginning, everybody goes from relic hominid to gigantopithecus to this to that, but I don't. I think there's way too much about the things that happen with them when we encounter them, that it's just some human kind of ape going around the woods. They have language, they have groups, they have nice ones, they have mean ones. They have all variances just like we do. And most likely somebody knows what it is. I'm sure the government knows about it because all the stuff that happens on all the military bases, they probably know not, but not that they're going to tell us. It's definitely a very big mystery.
- [19:45]
Wes
Yeah, it really is a mystery. And it's hard to disagree with anything you just said. You know, going back to that very first encounter, the reason why I think it was just passing through, you had made the comment you would let your dogs out and the little black one would go run off in the woods. You had to stand there kind of wait for it, and you had to give it a bath when it came back because it had junk all over it. You know, from running in the woods and the bushes and seeing how terrified your dog was. You know, dogs will tell you when these things are around. And I know you left for boot camp, but it makes me wonder if it left after that or if it kind of hung around for a while.
- [20:28]
John
In the three and a half years that I lived there before boot camp, when that dog had gone off into the woods, I had never walked out there at all because I knew I had to come back and she would need a bath. So I would just wait for her. That is the only day I went out there. And I found out about six months later in a letter from my parents after that rough time frame, that dog didn't go out in the woods either. She Stayed by the house.
- [21:05]
Wes
Yeah. So it's possible it did kind of hang around for a little bit or that poor little dog had ptsd. I know there were brief encounters, John, but I can't thank you enough for taking the time to come on.
- [21:18]
John
Oh, no problem. It's been. I think I emailed you first like about 10 years ago, but we never, we never got together.
- [21:27]
Wes
Well, I'm glad we were able to make it happen. Thank you again, John. Next up, I want to welcome cj. Cj, thanks for being here.
- [21:42]
John
Yeah, good to be here.
- [21:43]
CJ
Thanks for having us, Wes.
- [21:45]
Wes
Yeah, man. And I know that we have Adrian. Adrian, thank you for being here.
- [21:50]
Adrian
It's an honor, Wes. Thanks for having us, brother.
- [21:53]
Wes
And it was a couple months ago that Adrian reached out to me, kind of shared this idea of this game that you guys are creating and he sent me screenshots of the gameplay and just the overall idea of the game. I loved it. You know, I would consider myself a gamer. I know the 12 year olds I play online against on Steam, they would consider me prey. But you know, this was like unlike any other Sasquatch game I'd ever played or even heard of. And then you throw the graphics and the artwork and, and the audience can go check it out. If they go tosasquatch hyphen nations.com they can see the gameplay, they get an idea of what the game is going to be. Definitely go check it out. Sasquatch-nations.com to kind of see what we're talking about, but for the audience, would you kind of describe the idea behind making this game and kind of what they can expect?
- [22:56]
Adrian
Absolutely. So we're looking to build an open world supernatural survival RPG game. And for those who don't know, RPG stands for role playing game. And we want to go all out with it and create essentially the definitive Bigfoot IP and gaming. It's all rooted in authentic Cryptid lore and first hand testimonials that I've listened to from your podcast, Sasquatch Chronicles over the years. I've been a paid subscriber for as long as I can remember and I am obsessed with the subject. I go to sleep with it listening to these stories every single night. And it's, it's profoundly impacted me in all kinds of ways. And, and one of them is, is got me thinking about what this world would be like the, the world of the Sasquatch. And once I was sort of collecting my understanding of that over the years based on all these stories and all these accounts and the Documentaries, I've seen the research, I've studied it, it all started to come into, to focus for me that this is the perfect formula for, for a role playing game that would be rooted in basically how I think things actually are and in real world locations as well. So you get to play a Sasquatch, you get to live day to day and hunt and you know, participate in group hunting and you encounter humans. And in the game there is a sort of tentative treaty, tentative relationship with the US Government. In the game, you, you are allowed to live and do your own thing as long as you don't kill any humans. And if you do, you have to deal with the swift military response. So that's one of the main sort of systems and dynamics in the game is that you're, you're walking the line between your primal instincts and a desire to I guess, do the right thing
- [25:08]
John
or you know, live.
- [25:09]
Adrian
Live a peaceful life. For the most part. You know, the life of a Sasquatch isn't necessarily a peaceful one. You have other Sasquatch that you're contending with as a male. You know, there's like power struggles, social dynamics that you have to navigate. You know, you have a love interest as well that in, in the Sasquatch world, basically you pair up with the mate and that's your mate for life. And you, you build your family, but you also have elders in the tribe, you have family. The way this world works is, is probably, you know, a sort of tribal structure. Depending on your area. You know, you could have upwards of thousands of sasquatching in 100 mile radius. I think they're able to live in the outskirts of society or the outskirts of the human society in their, their national parks and, and highly forested areas without having to deal with humans pretty well. You know, they can steer clear of us, so they can build a life for themselves. And the game is basically what that looks like.
- [26:27]
CJ
I would just say kind of along those same lines. I've been a gamer my whole life, back in the, the DOS days, Atari first generation, Nintendo, and have continued on. In fact, we were inspiring Adrian's game collection here. And he's just got some incredible RPGs that he's playing on right now. And for me it really comes down to a few things. When I think about my experience in playing games that really live within this Cryptid space, first and foremost, I don't see a lot of quality there. Personally speaking, a lot of it is more hack and slash. You know, it's not really that higher end Visual dynamic, interesting gameplay. And what we're really after here is, is first and foremost something that's beautiful. And I can tell you that what Adrien has, has done so far as an artist is outrageously gorgeous. I mean, we're talking about plopping you straight down into places that really exist here in the United States and abroad. And it's hyper realistic. Additionally is the inclusion of a story. And to me, that's the thing I'm always looking for with a video game. And it's this capacity to really explore the, the background. What is Sasquatch? You know, what is the history, what is the lore? How do these things interact? What do they do? Some of the, the paranormal aspects that Adrian was talking about earlier that really, really dress it up, really make it fun, really make it exciting, that you make it interesting. Oh yeah, for sure. Absolutely. You know, and, and that's what, again, that's what I look for, is something that's going to be beautiful, something that's going to be engaging, something you're going to ultimate. And I'll tell you what I've seen so far. What we've been building is exactly that. It's a game that like the Witcher or like, you know, any one of the other AAA RPG titles that are out there. Ghost of Tsushima. Right. Like that's the type of game we're looking to bring forward, but with a Sasquatch bend on it.
- [28:36]
Wes
You know, one of the things that really impressed me about this game, Sasquatch nations and for the audience, I'm not being paid for this, I just love the idea. But you know, I feel like I was telling you guys, I've been a gamer, not a great one, but I'm a gamer and I was playing my son turn me on to Red Dead Redemption, the second one. And the graphics are just amazing. And it's a little things in the game like when it's snowing and then the weather clears up, you can see like the snow melt off the guy's jackets. It's all the little things that they do. And when Adrian had sent me screenshots of gameplay, it was right up there. You know, when you think of like high quality games, you think of like Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption. And when I was looking at these screenshots of gameplay Adrian sent me, you know, even the water looks real. I would love for the audience to check it out. Go to sasquatch nations.com on that website can actually watch gameplay. I know you guys are kind of in the beginning stages?
- [29:52]
Adrian
Not yet. We're still in the development phases of that, fairly early development phases of that. But one of the reasons that we want to direct people to the website is so that they can check out the concept and check out the, the important elements of the gameplay and you know, get their eyes on what it looks like, what the characters look like. We have a concept trailer that's there as well and we would just encourage people to participate in the survey that's at the end. Let us know your level of interest in it because ideally, if people are interested, we would, we would love to launch a Kickstarter, a community and, and build this up and really make it a communal effort and tie as much of people's real life stories as into it as possible. To me, I want people who have seen these creatures in full disclosure. I have not had a Sasquatch encounter myself, but I don't need to have a Sasquatch encounter to believe in them 100%. At point, this, this point, I'm thoroughly convinced. In fact, I, I have speaking. I've spoken to people. A few weekends ago I had an opportunity to speak to a, a retired lieutenant general, former Air Force and Space Force. And he's someone who I have the privilege of having an ongoing relationship with. I see every few months. And I was telling him about the game.
- [31:28]
John
Game.
- [31:28]
Adrian
A highly decorated guy, you know, has, has a degree in aeronautical engineering. And it's just he's, he's been everywhere,
- [31:37]
John
all over the world.
- [31:38]
Adrian
He has companies that build satellites in space. And when I told him about the game, he was like blown away by it. And he, he confirmed to me that, that these things are real and that he knows people who have dealt with them on a military level. And one of the things he said to me was that he was like, will they be able to travel in portals? He's like, because it's like that's one of the things that they can do. That's what he said. You know, I'm not going to divulge his name. Hearing all these accounts, like has convinced me 100 that these things are real. And I'm, you know, I've had some paranormal experiences in my life that have really, at an early age, opened me up to the fact that reality is stranger than fiction. And you don't have to dream up some alternate world on another planet to explore that strange nature of reality. We have it right here all around us. And the Sasquatch is the perfect encapsulation of what that means. And you know, we really want to capture all the aspects of these things, the way they behave, how they interact, you know, and also they're not the only Cryptid in the game. You know, there's a Dogman character and one storyline and the one Pacific Northwest location that is your sort of the apex threat that is as powerful as you, if not a little bit more so, because there's some dark magic tied in with them that I believe is. Is tied to them actually in real life. I think they're. They're rooted in some kind of dark magic that's. That's part of the game. So there's this metaphysical component as well. And, you know, we want to capture that as authentically as possible as well.
- [33:38]
John
With.
- [33:38]
Adrian
Obviously, we don't have all the answers and there's some gaps that we have to fill in with our imagination as far as, like, making sure everything connects. But I think anyone who understands the phenomenon that plays it or that has had an encounter and, and plays it will for sure recognize important key things in this game from their own experience.
- [34:01]
CJ
Doubling back to your original question there, what is on the website today, inclusive of the trailer, the screenshots, etc. Something that I find immensely frustrating in the modern era that we live, is that you'll go to a website, you'll get an ad, whether it be through Facebook or your phone or whatever, and you'll see a video or a picture of a game, and then you actually get that game, and they're night and day different. What I can tell you is that the imagery that we've put on the site, while there is some concept art, is almost wholly representative of in game play. And while we're not into our completed alpha yet or our vertical slice, we do have a playable demo, and both Adrian and I have poked around at that. And those pictures you're seeing, that's actual gameplay and it is incredible, gorgeous what we're able to actually produce. And so I just want folks to know that are listening to this. It's not a smoke and mirrors thing. When you go to that site and you check it out, what you're seeing is what we're building.
- [35:07]
Wes
And I think it's so cool too, that you guys are actually including the lights that people see. Now, whether that's related to Sasquatch or not, no one really knows, but they show up a lot. And I love it that you're including that. But I think what makes games like this so cool? And if you've ever played like GTA or Red Dead Redemption, you'll understand what I'm saying. You can do what you want, but there's consequences for your actions or the storyline changes depending on what you do. Kind of like, you know, with Sasquatch, if you decide to attack humans, if you decide to. You know, that whole aspect of changing the narrative of what the game could be and what it is now based on what you do, and I think it just makes games fun. I just think it makes them cool when you include that. And I would love to be a part of it. I'd love to do like a voiceover, you know, where some guy is listening to a podcast or, you know, something like that. I definitely would love to be a part of it.
- [36:15]
Adrian
Well, I mean, it. This game wouldn't be possible if it weren't for you and your show, man, it really inspired the whole thing. And that's why I reached out to you in the first place with this, because to me, there's no better person to connect with about this than. Than the main responsible for what inspired it so.
- [36:34]
CJ
Well, I want to double down on, on what you're saying there too, Wes. This is. You're really, really poking at something that I think is incredibly important to convey, which is that this isn't a game that includes Sasquatch as a replacement character for something else, just another person or what have you. It's. It's this whole world. It's this whole. It's our world, right? But it's taking a different lens on it, including, like you're saying the orbs or the lights, the. The Native American people, the dog men, all of these different aspects about the paranormal. We were bringing all of that together, and it's all grounded in stuff that you talk about on your show. So we're not. While there are some pieces we're filling in, like Adrian shared, fundamentally and foundationally, it's all being built around the body of information that we have as a society that you've been bringing to light for all these years. That's our goal. You know, again, not just a Sasquatch character thrown into a world that you get to play with, but one that really jives with that whole environment, that whole sphere, the whole paranormal, all of it. Right. In as much as we can reach and. And obtain that. And we' trying to do the best we can. And this is really where we welcome the feedback. We really do sincerely. Like Adrian said before, we really sincerely welcome any and everyone to go onto our website, throw us your thoughts, give us ideas, you know, talk to us about the Things that are non negotiables. You have to have this. Right, like we would love to hear all that.
- [38:06]
Adrian
Yeah. And if you're a developer yourself, if you have any experience in the gaming industry, if you know how to use Unreal Engine, if you're an artist and you want to join the team, if this sounds like a project that you'd be interested in, that you could contribute your passion to, we would love to have you where we're absolutely in the market and your audience is full of the kind of free thinking, independent minded people that we are looking to work with most, you know, people who share the same kind of mission and perhaps might even be kind of tired of the establishment kind of corporate mainstream way of doing things which in my opinion has just grown completely stale and it's, it's in bad shape. You know, gaming these days is just full of just depravity, violence, this like kind of parasitic woke ideology propaganda. You know, like everything is post apocalyptic. Everything is like the end of the world has already happened here. Humans or zombies, it's like anti human.
- [39:14]
John
Right.
- [39:16]
Adrian
This will be the opposite of that. I mean granted we're, we're working with Sasquatch, so it's, I wouldn't necessarily call it human, but there's a very human component to it. You know, I think there is some human in Sasquatch. If you look at the Sasquatch Genome project, they seem to have some human DNA in them. So there is, there is humanity to it. And like you were saying there, there is a consequence, you know, risk and reward sort of karmic system that rewards you doing the right thing by allowing you to sort of gain access to more paranormal abilities. You know, that's sort of rooted in your, your spirituality, your karmic sort of rating I would, I would call it for lack of a better term. But the decisions you make, how much, how much violence you bring into the world will get you ostracized from your troop. You know, you'll have to deal with the military. I mean you can do it but just like in the real world you have to deal with consequences. And I think the best stories are rooted in truth. And this is to me a no brainer. And you don't have to believe in Bigfoot to appreciate it. That's the beauty of it. And I think for those who are open to the subject but don't necessarily believe or maybe are agnostic on, on the subject, I think there's still so much fun to be had there and they're gonna Find that the pieces fit, and they might even walk away from it with a newfound appreciation for it. In fact, one of my goals with the game is to really destigmatize the subject. You know, I. I think it's. It's a sin that people cannot talk about their experiences openly without feeling silen, stigmatized and ostracized for. For their experience and claiming that they've seen one of these things, you know, we need to get over that. You know, we need to evolve and be able to talk about the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it might be, you know, for people. And I think this game will help serve that purpose and, and bring it into the mainstream consciousness more the zeitgeist, so to speak. Allow people to feel more comfortable talking about this and, and open people up who weren't open to it before. You know, get people thinking, get people's minds open. It's time.
- [41:44]
Wes
Yeah, I love that, Adrian. And again, go to Sasquatch nations to check it out. And under the context section you can kind of give the guys your feedback. Whether you're a listener and you want to share some ideas or if you're a developer, it kind of looks like you can contact everyone on the site. Is this going to be like an Xbox game? Is it going to be a PlayStation game? Is it going to be like a PC game?
- [42:13]
CJ
That's a great question. What we're definitely going to have it on is PC for sure. And we're exploring opportunities right now whether it makes more sense to go for an exclusivity play with one of the major console platforms or ultimately offer it across all platforms. One of the big things that's differentiated PlayStation, I think, in the last, call it, five or so years, is that they did a really phenomenal job of locking up a lot of exclusive content. And at the time, Xbox opted not to do that. And we're starting to see what we've been seeing, actually the impacts of that, which have not netted out as positively for Xbox. That said, I love all of the consoles, so I don't have a predilection one way or another. I do PC gaming. Gaming. I do Xbox gaming. PlayStation gaming. I got a switch, right. And they all have great titles that underpin them. But right now we're still in the exploration phase, again, definitively on PC. And then depending on where the best opportunity comes through, likely it'll be exclusive on one of the consoles. But it's TBD on that. And folks, I mean, again, we welcome that feedback. Do you have a preference towards PlayStation versus Xbox versus, you know.
- [43:33]
Adrian
Yeah, that's one of the questions on the survey for sure.
- [43:37]
Wes
You know, one of the things that you guys brought up, and I honestly didn't even think about is it might be a cool tool to kind of bring people into the subject. And video games today are amazing. You know, I bought one of those. Adrian, you're probably too young for this, but cj, I think you're closer to my age. In fact, I think you've actually created a lot of games I've played in the past. But I bought one of those tabletop arcade machines, you know, where you sit across from each other. I used to play them at the pizza places all the time. And I was telling my son, I was like, do you realize how many quarters I put into this machine? And he wasn't impressed. It was like showing someone DOS or showing someone like Windows 3.1. I mean, he was not impressed. Video games today are impressive. And I wanted to ask you with Sasquatch nations, is this a game you can play online with other players?
- [44:35]
Adrian
Ideally, yes. One of the main three game modes that we envision that we're going to be working towards is a competitive mode where you can play as Sasquatch, as Dogman, as a skinwalker, or as a special forces soldier. And you know, you could have a team of special forces, a troop of Sasquatch, a pack of dog men, and you can go up against people and basically use the kinds of systems and, and powers and the, the various like, strengths and weaknesses that each kind of character has. That's you get to experience in the story mode or in the, the free roam mode and put that to use in a competitive online platform.
- [45:30]
CJ
I would say absolutely agree with everything Adrian just shared. One of the areas that I've personally found frustrating with modern online gaming is that it becomes a mechanism for microtransactions. You, you read the stories online about the, the kid who gets his dad's credit card and next thing you know, a thousand dollars has been dumped into Fortnite or Roblox or what have you. I, I want to be clear with our audience. You know, as a gamer, I'm a gamer for those that gaming. The importance of us developing a really strong single player story mode with all the dynamic aspects that Adrian was talking about, it's going to have real replayability because you can approach the game like kind of on the, the opposite ends of the spectrum as this rough, gruff, bad, if you will, character and how that unlocks certain abilities and capabilities and Storylines and dialogue and then you can double back later and play it as, as, as the good character. Right. I mean, I, I think back the first game I ever saw this in was Fable on the Xbox, the original Fable. And I just fell in love with that game. I mean, you, you either go down one path where you grow horns, you go down the other path where you get a halo. Obviously we won't have horns or halos in this game, but you get the basic concept on that. But yes, absolutely. An online aspect. You really can't create a game these days without having having that in it. But I just want to be clear with our audience that we're really doubling down to make sure that the story, the single player mode is going to be absolutely incredible and that there's a dynamic and interesting aspect to the online. And one thing we've also discussed exploring, it's still kind of on. It's on the side we're talking about. It is, is there a way for us to fully integrate a mobile part of this game as well? Something that whether you're playing PC or console, as you're on the go and you're out there in the world, could you have something that you're actually playing on your mobile phone that keeps you in the game, as it were? Right. Something where you can unlock abilities, unlock gear or otherwise that then transfers over when you get back to your console or your PC. So that's something we're actively exploring as well. And again, we welcome ideas and thoughts from folks out there. If you know something about that space and you want to share some something with us, we would absolutely love to hear about it.
- [47:56]
Wes
Yeah. Go to sasquatch nations.com and give me your feedback. You guys need to hurry up and make this game. I'm ready to play it. But on the website you really see Adrian's artwork, you really see the quality of the game that's going to be created. And this isn't like your guys's first time making video games. I kind of said it earlier, but cj, you've been around this for a long time and haven't you?
- [48:24]
CJ
Yeah, yeah, I. So I've been in technology for my whole career, starting in the US Air Force. Well, actually before the US Air Force, I worked for Electronic Arts as a game tester working on Command and Conquer. I actually, it's funny, I just found my poster in my garage the other day and framed it and put it up on my wall, signed by the whole development team, my signatures on there. But yes, I, I'VE been a gamer forever and I've worked tangential to the gaming industry for a very long time in technology, specifically for a lot of different Fortune 500s and otherwise. But yes, I have a long background there and it's something I'm incredibly passionate about. My family were all gamers, gamers of every color. So whether it's the board games, the console games, the PC games, we, we have it all and we really enjoy plumbing the depths of, you know, everything from Control to, to Hades to Ghost of Tsushima to Witcher. We're big RPG fanatics. My wife in particular loves the, the Dragon Age series. And if that really resonates for me, that game in particular, because there's so much infinite replayability to get all the achievements, which is something I really enjoy, is getting to 100 achievement. You got to play through that game three, four, five different times. And it's not a drag because you can take different approaches, you can build your team a different way. And while we're not creating Dragon Age, we're approaching it with that kind of a mindset where there's going to be enough variability and replayability in it that you'll want to re approach it and you'll want to hit it again and you'll want to play it on the higher difficulty and you'll want to try it with a slightly different approach. And some of the things that we're also looking to include in here is more of a. A dynamic type of dialogue as well. I mean, following along with the stories like we've alluded to throughout this conversation, is we want you to be able to really go down different rabbit holes conversationally. You can end the conversation early if you want. But if you want to just sit there and have a conversation with the, the chief elder of the local Native American tribe to really understand the history and the background and otherwise you can do that. And again, this is all based on information that we've obtained both through this show, outside of this show, through books, through personal experience, friends, you know, and yet again, I'll just say, like, this is where we really want your audience's feedback. Things that are going to work in a gaming type of an environment that would resonate and be interesting. We want folks to walk away from this game feeling like they've come away with something new, some new piece of information, some new tidbit.
- [51:11]
Wes
Yeah.
- [51:11]
CJ
And I'll just say this is just the last piece. One of my favorite games growing up was Age of Empires. And what I loved about that game was the historical reality that was in that game. And it stuck with me for my entire life because of that reason. I think there's something that we've lost over time. And it's not unintentional. It's very intentional. I've. I've read the articles, I've listened to the interviews. The industry at large is out to make profit. And if you can cut out all of the work and the time and the energy to go through the process of developing something that's more historically or real world accurate, you do that. And I want to just double down on everything that Adrian and I have been sharing here. We're an independent studio doing our own thing, not looking to give up control. And so let's leverage the power that technology has afforded us, you know, through the Internet, in particular, through crowdsourcing, through connections. We're people people first and foremost. And so we want to meet your folks. We want to meet anyone out there that's interested in getting involved.
- [52:21]
Wes
Yeah, I miss Age of Empires, man. I've blown so many hours of my life playing, playing that game. Cj, what do you think Sasquatch is?
- [52:32]
CJ
That's a great question. You know, my wife and I, we've traveled up to. To Mount Rainier and you know, we've gone on different tours and read different books over the years. My wife actually just read a book not that long ago on Sasquatch. For me, anyways, what I think about what is Sasquatch is, I really put it more into the intellectual. I would say the Sasquatch is a mystery. And one of the things that holds true for me in life is every time I turn around, it seems like the things we're told aren't entirely accurate. And so this notion that Sasquatch is just some myth, is just some non reality just leads me to be more interested in researching and exploring it. How that manifests physically and in reality. I think we've all got a general sense. You know, your Sasquatch nations logo has kind of the outline of Sasquatch. You go to our website, I think the physical manifestation, we've all got a somewhat similar view of what he or she Sasquatch looks like, but I think it's ultimately a mystery. And that to me, is what makes this whole project so exciting.
- [53:41]
Wes
What about yourself, Adrian? What do you think it is?
- [53:45]
John
Wow.
- [53:46]
Adrian
That question is, is what the inspiration from for the game really is? Downstream of. I've thought a lot about it and I've often, you know, dreamt about how I would answer this question, if. If you asked it to me. So it's. It's amazing how things come full circle. But what I would say is when you look at the Sasquatch genome project, which I mentioned earlier, I think it's an important data point for how I understand them to be. At least I think there's, you know, a part of them that has human DNA, and then the other part seems to be a question mark. And that's where the mystery that CJ is talking about for me, lies. And I think they're. They're a physical creature. I think that they're very flesh and blood, but I think they have a metaphysical aspect to them that I think comes from their primal kind of nature. I think the. The more in touch with nature you are, the. The more disconnected from the kind of trappings of human society that we. We have to deal with as humans, the more, I think, in touch with the sort of metaphysical aspects of reality you can become, you know, and the. The walls sort of begin to crumble that are built up through the human experience. And. And a lot of these things that we would see as fantastical or. Or paranormal might just come naturally to them. You know, an ability to cloak, you know, or phase out into some. Into the sort of etheric realm or the astral plane or wherever they go, which is definitely part of the game. But, you know, I think they're. They're a people in the. In the definitional kind of sense of the word. I think they've probably been on Earth for about as long as we have, just living in the sort of outskirts of, you know, in the periphery of human society. And I think we have a long history of interacting with them.
- [56:10]
Wes
Yeah, I do think that they've been around as long as we've been around, and they do seem to live on the outskirts. And I know, Adrian, I know you love this subject. I mean, I know just from talking to you off the air, we could probably talk for. For like two hours on what Sasquatch is. And that's why I really think this game will be successful, because you do love the subject and you got mad skills, man, when it comes to art and visual effects and that sort of thing. And I really hope that the game comes to fruition. I really want to play it, but for the audience. Go give the guys your feedback. Go to sasquatch nations.com. check out the trailer, Check out the screenshots. Give the guys your feedback. And I really appreciate you guys coming on the show and sharing this project with the Audience.
- [57:05]
John
Yeah.
- [57:05]
CJ
Thank you. Thank you. Really, really appreciate the time, Wes. And you know, just to say this one last time, we are still building our team independent studio. The feedback is welcome, but also it's. If you or someone you know might be interested in joining our team, let us know. Reach out through that same feedback form because we are looking for folks to. To join this endeavor, join this venture, get involved, like in a real material way. Join our team directly. And so thank you for this platform. Thank you for this opportunity. It's really been a pleasure chatting with you today, Wes, and thank you for
- [57:40]
Adrian
everything you do, man. You give people a forum to. To vent and to talk about their experiences that have. Have impacted them in profound ways. And. And there's no other forum like it. And you do it in such a brilliant way. You know always what to say and what. You know, when to just fall back and let people get it off their chest. And. And it's a pleasure listening to your show. I've learned so much and it's been an honor to come on here and talk about this idea and look forward to building it with you, man.
- [58:13]
Wes
The honor was mine, guys. Thank you again. And that's it for tonight, everyone. Remember, if you've had an encounter, shoot me an email. My email address is wesasquatchchronicles.com and if you get a chance, check out sasquatch chronicles.com you can become a member and get additional shows. Does anyone know if they have any more of those world sporting events we could. We could host? That last one seemed like it went by too quick.
- [59:10]
Sam
Flew in from across the ocean didn't know what to expect Saw the skyline out the window and I nearly broke my neck Landed in Atlanta where the Georgia pines run green and I said this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen Pulled up to Waffle House at 1am Real late hash brown scattered, smothered cover 10 out of 10 it's great discovered free refills and I almost lost my mind Found the kind of welcome that I never thought I'd find Welcome to the land where the whole world comes to play Flags from every nation waving proud and on display From Boston to LA From Dallas to the sea 80,000 voices this is what it means to be free welcome to the land yeah, we're rolling out the door Every street a stage Every stranger want more the ball is in the air and the whole wide world can see welcome, welcome welcome to the land of the free. The Scouts marched into Boston with their bagpipes ringing Clear kilts And tartan everywhere the whole city stopped to hear they sang Flower of Scotland at the Red Sox Fenway park lit the whole of New England up and glowing in the dark the Germans hit the highway Chased the road from south to north Freddie said it's the Holy Land he meant Taco Bell, of course Bucky's left him speechless Bass pro shops left him amazing Even got invited to the White House yeah, the whole world's going crazy Norwegian fans in New York Doing yoga in Times Square Then they turn the escalator into a Vikings lair Rowing up together like a long ship headed home Little boy in and out now he won't leave alone welcome to the land where the whole world comes to play Flags from every nation Waving proud and on display From Boston to LA From Dallas to the sea 80,000 voices this is what it means to be free welcome to the land yeah, we're rolling out the door Every street a stage Every stranger wanting more the ball is in the air and the whole wide world can see welcome, welcome, welcome to the land of the free Japan fans cleaning stadiums the same way that they do an NFL star grabbed a trash bag Join the whole crew Mexico and South Korea Best friends on the street Dancing to Gangnam Style with their arms around each beat Kansas learned Algeria and the marching band playing their song 500 Lawrence Locals show the world where you belong Swedish fans went searching for the recipe to ranch French man says the air conditioning deserves its own whole stanza English fans took jaw dropped at the first side of Buc EE's Scottish fans at Fenway Boston said please don't leave Baki and the ranch Dressed in brisket by the pound Best tournament the world has ever seen and we're just getting wild A bag popper and a bucket drummer Outside Faneuil Hall Plaid chill, wicker hat Playing music for us all different worlds, different words different flags different names but when the whistle blows we all come alive the same from the Rockies to Rockefeller From Seattle to the shore America is telling the world Come on in, there's room for more hello welcome to the land where the whole world comes to play Flags from every nation waving crowning on display From Boston to LA From Dallas to the sea 80,000 voices this is what it means to be free welcome to the land yeah, we're rolling out the door Every street a stage Every stranger wanting more the ball is in the air and the whole wide world can see welcome, welcome welcome to the land of the free. The land of the free. From the people who came here and fell in love, love with the land to the people who live here and reached out ahead. One beautiful game, One beautiful truth. The whole world is welcome and the whole world came through Sam.