The third of a five-part video series. This time I harass Ed Key. Yes, Ed Key, developer of Proteus.

Warning, this video contains colours&music. And:

  • How Proteus is as much Kanaga as it is Key
  • Wait, how much detail is coded into this thing?
  • Proteus reference points
  • I say awesomestupidthing “games which aren’t games” when the correct phrasing eludes and deludes me
  • Schafer vs Hofmeier deathmatch

Much thanks to Ed and Tamsin putting me up for the night and letting me see the great Proteus planning whiteboard. I should have taken a picture of that.

Relevant Links

Previous Episodes

The fourth episode was posted on 10 July.

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17 thoughts on “Cat’s Away Chronicles III

  1. This is wonderful. It seems to me that collaborative design between sound and exploration is an area that still has a lot of untapped potential. We’re running out of things to do with “meaningful” platformers and sandbox games, but the standard approach to sound design still has a lot of room for growth. Maybe that’s part of the reason Proteus has resonated with so many people.

  2. Thanks again for all the work that went into this, Joel! I think the editing and the montage really makes it 🙂
    Also, I’m glad you believed me that multiplayerpiano.com is a real thing, you seemed so dubious! Maybe it was because of all the flippant answers I’d given up to that point…

  3. @Alex: And that’s probably why I need to get round to chatting to David Kanaga in the not-too-distant future. We were actually going to have a Skype chat while I was with Ed but we were pretty beat once the evening came around. I want to do that conversation some justice.

    @Ed: Asking you that question about guns with a straight face is, I think, my personal high point of the entire thing =) I am still sceptical that multiplayerpiano.com was actually David’s fave game of the previous two weeks…

  4. Your poker face is the stuff of legend, Joel. Not seeing Ed’s face for most of it was kind of odd, but I got used to it. Did you get an autographed… something for Little HM?

  5. @BeamSplashX: I’m afraid an autographed something wouldn’t have had any impact on the Little Harbour Master. Proteus hasn’t made an permanent impression on him as we only allow him to play games infrequently at this point.

    But, yeah, Ed being out of shot wasn’t intentional. The camera was sitting a couple of metres away against a bright sunny background – it was difficult to see on the tiny screen whether he was in the frame. He was definitely in shot at the start because I bombarded his face with torchlight to locate his position on the screen. This is what you do with an indie developer, you shine a light into their face and then ask them questions.

  6. Fantastic work as usual. This series is really a testament to how much people who aren’t lazy and who have a lot of skills and energy can do when the cat’s, you know, away. Not that the cat seems to interfere when she’s around. You amaze me, HM. Hell, I’m too lazy to sleep most of the time.

    Keep it up!

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  8. Thanks Steerpike. On the final video, I am… starting to feel a little tired. Videos #2 to #5 were all filmed within a week of each other. Expect questions like, “So… how did you get into games?”

  9. It’s only REALLY time to worry when you say, “Sorry, the answer is ‘no one knows what the fuck Cart Life: Torment was about’.”

  10. Hurrah! Wonderful.

    Can I just say that Proteus looks and sounds more and more beautiful every time I see and hear it. It reminds me of Minecraft only for people who don’t want to craft or, uh, mine(?). I’m glad Ed mentioned Noctis as well because that’s the other game that Proteus reminds me of, despite me never being able to get Noctis working on my current Windows 7 system and failing miserably at grasping the controls on my old XP rig.

    I’m also particularly chuffed you managed to get one of my favourite Fast Show sketches in there as well. I used to quip ‘WITH AN OWL!’ quite often but most people didn’t get it so I stopped. I wish I’d said it to you now Joel, just to justify my years of wasting it on the unwashed masses.

  11. Thanks Beam, Gregg. The small segments of Proteus had the sound stripped from them so I’m hoping it’s not that spoilery in the end.

    That would have been awesome, Gregg, if I’d got you saying the owl thing during Cats #2. Like Chekhov said, if you put an owl reference in video #2, you’ll have to fire it in video #3. It was owls he was talking about, right?

  12. I never knew a thing like the Fast Show existed: British actors, without overly British humour. Even an American like me can absolutely adore it. I now feel compelled to end my stories with “I think I was very, very drunk.”

    How much did you drive HM? I have a feeling these other videos will take place in increasingly wacky places…

    Also; very good.

  13. Actually, Maurice, I didn’t travel anywhere by car. I was tempted but it was train all the way. The small segment of driving in the video is in Ed’s car; he drove me to an “unknown countryside location” for the interview.

    Cat’s #4 goes, er, farther afield. I’ll leave it at that.

  14. Lest I forget: all those train journeys were fruitful because that is where I fleshed out most of A Theoretical War.

  15. HM you’re unbelievably industrious. When I added Joel’s number to my phone I was asked if I wanted to have an icon next to his name. I could have had a smiley face or a pen or something like that but no, I put a factory next to him.

  16. Oh yes, I remember you telling me that Gregg. I’m only industrious because I have no choice. I’m not sure if that makes sense unless you’re in my head, but it certainly doesn’t feel like a choice.

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