Denver, September 28: Amid the din of all the other music-based games being released this fall comes a unique twist on the convergence between music and videogames: “Brutal Legend.”
Unlike the play-along focus of the “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” franchises, “Brutal Legend” offers a comedic fantasy homage to the world of heavy metal. It stars Jack Black as roadie Eddie Riggs and features appearances by Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford, Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister and Ozzy Osbourne. The game draws heavily on the imagery and lyrics of heavy metal albums at all levels — from plot to art direction to dialogue — and features a soundtrack of more than 100 songs.
The much-anticipated title is the brainchild of veteran game developer Tim Schafer, a heavy metal fanatic. The founder/president of Double Fine Productions has built a cult following in the videogame industry with such hits as “The Secret of Monkey Island” and “Psychonauts,” leading to a great deal of hype and anticipation for the upcoming “Brutal Legend.”
In an interview with Billboard, Schafer talks about how the title stands apart from the broader music-game genre, how music can rise above the level of a mere soundtrack and what he believes “Brutal Legend” has in common with Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” movies.
DID YOU SET OUT TO MAKE AN ACTION/ADVENTURE GAME FIRST OR WAS IT A MUSIC-LED THING FROM THE START?
It was a fantasy game inspired by the world of heavy metal album covers. When you look at those great illustrations on Iron Maiden or Diamond Head albums, there’s an unbridled creativity there. They’re not worried about something being too much, there’s no worry about going over the top. They just threw everything on there that they thought looked awesome.
We wanted to create a world where you could go around every corner and see another heavy metal album cover. So then we wondered who we could drop into that world, and I always thought roadies were great characters that can do anything. At a moment’s notice they can deal with unexpected situations and fix anything with duct tape.
Then the gameplay came out of what would satisfy that fantasy. You’ve got to have a broadax. Then give a guy a guitar for a ranged weapon and the combat just came out of that.
AT WHAT POINT DID YOU START APPROACHING ARTISTS AND LABELS?
First we got Jack (Black) involved in the project. Early on when we were doing character design, we were inspired by Jack Black and the characters he plays where he just loves the music … just unironically loved rock for both its awesome side and its ridiculous side at the same time. He’s just so sincere about it and we wanted Eddie Riggs to be like him.
We showed him our concept for the game and he agreed to do it on the spot. Once we had him, everyone could tell it was a legitimate thing. There have been a couple of heavy metal games but nothing that big. People could tell we were going to be the one to give a heavy metal game its rightful treatment. Then we got Lemmy and Rob Halford. We dealt with their management mostly for their name and likeness. Once you get the artist on board, they can make things happen very quickly in terms of song approvals and stuff like that, because it was about them.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY “RIGHTFUL TREATMENT?”
I feel like heavy metal games are like “Lord of the Rings” in a certain way, where for years people had done various versions of “Lord of the Rings” and it wasn’t until Peter Jackson’s version that someone decided to do it completely and do it right. I don’t think anyone now wants to do their version of “Lord of the Rings.” We wanted to be that ambitious with this.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING WITH ICONS LIKE OZZY OSBOURNE, ROB HALFORD AND LEMMY?
Lemmy was pretty quiet at first and we were really intimidated because he was the first of the metal gods to come into the studio. It turns out he’s really into ancient warfare and collecting swords and knives from old armies, and he’s really into science fiction about alternative futures where modern warfare is fought with medieval weapons. He even invited me to his house to check out his knife collection. And it was awesome. He’s just a really authentic guy. He’s exactly what he appears to be like
—Agencies