I’ve gotten back into the Homestar Runner site lately. It’s pretty cool; y’all should check it out. Especially the new toon they put up today. No, seriously, check it out. That’s about as cool as videogame promos get.
This one is good too:
As is the teaser, which was released on April Fool’s Day:
In case I’m being too subtle, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People is coming out pretty soon, and I’ve been working on one of the episodes. It’s pretty cool to get to work on it, if only because it continues my career trajectory so far. Which has been like:
ME: I’m a really big fan of some thing.
A COMPANY: Would you let us pay you to work on a game based on some thing?
ME: Sure!
Exeunt omnes.
The only downside, and I hope I can say this on my blog without getting in trouble, is that the licensors are kind of jerks. Not the Chapman brothers; they’re pretty cool — it’s those Videlectrix guys. They’re all “Hey look at us we made all these games that were kind of popular over a decade ago!” and expect to just coast on everybody’s nostalgia. Wake up, fellas — those games stopped being popular for a reason. (Plus, they’re totally mishandling the Trogdor license).
But yeah, the guys who make Homestar Runner are pretty cool, even though they seem like the kind of people I hated in high school, because they’re good at everything they try to do, and don’t make a big deal about it. Plus, it’s nice to see somebody prove that you really can make a living doing what you love doing; the only caveat is that you’ve got be really good at it.
They’ve been very closely involved in the making of the games, which is great for two reasons: first, they just get videogames; and second, I doubt anybody other than them could come up with the stuff on their site. The Homestar cartoons are one of the only things I can watch and think, “how did anybody even think of that?”
But the site can be kind of intimidating when you first see it. There are millions of in-jokes and running gags — you don’t need to recognize everything to think they’re funny, but you still get the vaguely uneasy sense that there’s more going on than you’re aware of. To get everybody started, here’s my five favorite Strong Bad e-mails:
dangeresque (dangeresque, too?)
flag day (Strongbadian national anthem)
lady fan (Tweesercize!)
comic (the first Teen Girl Squad)
crying (the one with Li’l Brudder)
And okay, groan, even though it’s been totally played out, there’s dragon for all you lame internet fanboys.
EDIT’D: No wait, I forgot. My favorite of all the Strong Bad e-mails is kids’ book.