Designing The Great Cow Race, Part 4: Post Partum

TelltaleGames

It is a tradition in the gaming industry to look back on a game once it's complete and discuss what went right and what went wrong in the creation of the game. This process is usually called "postmortem," a term that means "after death" for those of you not familiar with dead languages. Why this term is used continues to baffle me, as the game does not die when production ends. If anything, it's now finally alive. I therefore move that we abandon this dark and morbid term in favor of the more sunny and joyful "postpartum" (meaning of course, after birth). Here then is my postpartum of Bone: The Great Cow Race.



You may be familiar with postmortems from such industry sites as Gamasutra and respected journals as the Game Developer Magazine, where the focus is on the production process. While this is very valuable for others who are actually responsible for making games, I imagine that you, dear readers, are likely more interested in the game itself. Therefore, this postpartum will peel back the gauzy veil of the game design process for Bone: The Great Cow Race and illuminate unto you all my personal favorite features that made it into the game (but almost didn't) and those features less fortunate that were left crushed and broken by the wayside.[readmore]



Those That Were Saved

1. Possums
   
   The loveable possum children weren't originally intended to appear in The Great Cow Race. If you've read the book, you'll note that their role is extremely small. And yet as we wrote out the initial outline we realized they'd work out perfectly for one of the tasks we wanted to set before Smiley. We were also tickled with the idea that the player would get to see Smiley interact with the little marsupials. In Boneville, interacting with the possums was a terrific way to show the difference between the characters of Fone and Phoney. Now that Smiley's been added to the mix, it seemed only right to show his own unique personality through the lens of possum playfulness.
   
   
2. Mad Cow in the Barn
   
   From the very beginning of the design, Dave Grossman and I fully expected that the old barn and Smiley's penchant for making a great deal of noise would never actually make it into the final game. We designed the puzzle, wrote all the necessary lines, but we absolutely knew that the whole thing was just going to be cut. Which would have been a shame, as Smiley would have had less to do and there would be quite a deal less of banging on things. (And who doesn't love to bang on things?) Well, the rest of the team apparently thought it would be a shame too, because before we could say, "No wait, you really don't have to do that..." the interior of the barn was built, the elements were in place, and the puzzle was all programmed in. Just goes to show what the promise of making a cacophonous racket will do for a crew of exhausted game developers who hadn't seen the sun in three days.
   
   
3. Chickens
   
   Another thing I fully expected to never make it into the game were chickens, even though I doggedly insisted they be added to the character model and animation lists. Many were the production meeting where I risked the woodgey voodoo eye by offering a well-placed, "Don't forget, we still have to make the chickens!" I insisted they were vital to my overarching artistic vision. The reality is I just thought it would be neat to have chickens. Imagine my surprise when I started up the game one day and there they were! At the moment I'm contemplating whether to insist on piglets or sheep for our next chapter.
   
   
4. Fiddly Bits
   
   Even during Out from Boneville, Dan had a deep desire for making Fone Bone smell flowers. Perhaps originating from Dan's own longing for the simpler, flower filled days of his youth, clicking a flower to make Fone Bone walk up and take a deep pollenified sniff seemed to be Dan's own gaming nirvana. Sadly, due to the time pressures of creating Out from Boneville, Dan's flower smelling dreams didn't quite make it to fruition. For a while, it didn't seem they would blossom in the Great Cow Race either. But just as Dan was despairing of ever smelling a digital flower again, our man Marco came in and saved the day. In fact, not only can Fone Bone smell flowers, he can tip up bottles, throw rocks in wells, and poke under strewn debris. The genius of Dan's floral imaginings is now laid bare. These simple touches are extremely satisfying, and you can be sure that we will try to include more fiddly bits in the games to come.
   
   
5. Secret Stuff
   
   In Out From Boneville, I very much wanted to incorporate some secret that a dedicated player would have to discover. In common gaming parlance, an easter egg or two. Due to a painfully tight schedule, some were dubious about spending the time to create something that only a handful of players would see instead of spending the same time to create something that everyone would get to see. I admit there is sound logic there, but even so I feel that anything one can do to a game to make the experience special to each individual player is part of the beauty of the medium. In any event, I am extremely pleased that we did get to work a little special bit into The Great Cow Race. Finding the secret doesn't require any deep skullduggery - anyone with a bit of patience and dedication will find it. I've said too much already.
   

Those That Were Lost

1. Smiley's Musical Stylings
   
   Phoney has his last remaining wad of cash and Fone Bone has his copy of Moby Dick. So what space-hogging character reflective inventory item should we bestow upon Smiley Bone? Our first thought was to include Smiley's one stringed banjo. Wouldn't it have been fantastic if Smiley could pull it out and play a tune of the player's choice anytime they desired? Of course it would have. But as soon as we started seriously mulling over the concept, a whole Pandora's Box of technical issues flew, biting and stinging, in our faces. Our second thought was to include Smiley's cigar instead. This brought up a different set of issues. Did we really want the player to be able to light up Smiley's cigar at any point in the game? Smoking brings up very strong feelings in many, many people. We certainly didn't want to layer in some intellect-insulting anti-smoking message by allowing him to smoke only to cough and sputter or else make inane comments like "I should really give these up" or "Smoking by pregnant women may result in fetal injury, premature birth, and low birth weight". At the same time, we didn't want to insinuate to the younger players of our game that since Smiley is a fun guy who smokes, they should get in on the action. We deliberated on this issue for quite some time, and then asked Jeff Smith what he thought. "Smiley has an inexhaustible supply of cheese sandwiches," sayeth the Smith. So cheese sandwiches it is.
   
   
2. Smiley's Encyclopedic Knowledge of Cheese
   
   Like all true geniuses, myself included, Dave Grossman is occasionally overcome by fits of giggling madness. I was reading through some of the dialogue he had written when I encountered evidence of one such fit, in the form of at least twenty lines by Smiley used to describe his cheese sandwich. It may have been closer to thirty, it was hard to count in my state of shocked disbelief. Each time Smiley used the cheese sandwich from his inventory, he would describe the properties or make some pun about a different type of cheese. I challenge anyone who isn't French to list thirty different types of cheese from memory. And yet this is exactly what Dave had done. Sadly, we were required to cut a fair amount of dialogue and Smiley's vast knowledge of cheese had to go, trimming back to a meager three cheese varieties. It was a dark, dark day, but at least the experience left me with a new-found appreciation for cheese enthusiasts everywhere as well as Dave's twisted mind.
   
   
3. Character shadows
   
   As some in our forums have already been commenting on, we do not yet have cast shadows for characters. It's something we're working on and if you are all very, very good, perhaps we will have them next game. (Heh....that's an easy out if ever I've heard one...)
   
   
4. Saving Everywhere!
   
   I consider it the height of serving the common public good to allow players to be able to save everywhere in a game. Some of us have to be able to drop anything we are doing at a moment's notice in order to answer the door, feed the baby, or meet mysterious contacts on the lawn. This was attempted in The Great Cow Race but unfortunately the dreaded TI (technical issues) issue ["technical issues issue?" -ed] once again reared its repulsive mug and forced us to restrict saving in certain areas. You'll still be able to save a whole lot -- just not as much as I would have liked. Oh, but I feel I should add that one thing that we DID accomplish was unlimited saves. So you can relive the old days of Sierra-induced paranoia and save as many individual games as you feel you need.
   
   
5. Unlockable Mini-Games
   
   Someday....SOMEDAY we will have unlockable mini-games. You will be able to replay your favorite mini-puzzle/games from the main menu after you complete your adventure. AND they'll include new content not found in the main game. AND you'll be able to add your high score to a leader board on our web-site. Really. Some day. For reals.
   
   

This continuing developer diary has been brought to you by Telltale designer and writer Heather Logas.





Learn more about Bone: The Great Cow Race - click here.