Bwana and Kito get a letter of warning from the power co.

Me and Henrik have spent the last couple of weeks getting real close and personal with the main cast of characters in The Journey Down. We’re using zoomed in close-ups of the main cast early in the narrative as a key element in helping the player understand what he/she is looking at during the remainder of the game. We don’t want one of those nasty Guybrush reveals where it turns out – after 10 hours of gameplay – that the awesome pile of pixels you’ve been playing with was actually a representation of some douche with a dopey haircut. This is less of a problem now that the game is in HD, but still the predicament haunts us and we’d like to do everything in our power to avoid it.

The inspiration for these ballsy zooms comes from none other than Tim Schafer’s 1995 classic “Full Throttle” which heavily featured shots of the lead character “Ben” spreading his badass face across the entire screen. We’re using a couple of these kinds of closeups during the game and I gotta say they look amazing as well as add a cinematic feel to the atmosphere. They have proven to amount to tons of work though, especially since we insist on having the actual characters do the acting instead of using lame-ass talking portraits.

The end result, however, is ballbustingly sweet and I’m proud we’re taking it all the way.