To tease the game, the agency released a music track, "World Gone Sour," performed by
hip- hop artist Method Man. The track will also appear in the game.
Mother creatives agree that he was a bit of an "unexpected choice,"
but was picked because he had a lot of credibility. Method Man's
own voice is very much present in the work. Creatives wrote a song
for him, which he used as a guide, but was also able to run with on
his own. "We wanted something that felt authentic to him and the
kind of music he makes," says Jordan Chouteau, creative at Mother.
The game also features voice overs from Creed Bratton from
The Office for quips and tidbits that will appear
throughout gameplay.
For Mother, working on a video game versus a traditional film or
commercial meant a lot of blind faith. "It's much harder to see it
come together throughout the process," says David Hohusen,
creative. A lot of programming happens before anything even starts
to look like anything, he says. Mother also had to swap around some
hats internally. The project took two years, from conception to
delivery.
"We never staffed up internally but we did use creatives in a
slightly non-traditional way," Tatarka says. For example, Hohusen
led creative despite not being either a copywriter or art director
-- simply an animator who loves video games. "Having him at the
heart of the project helped us stay focused on breaking out of the
'Advergaming' mode."
Beefy Media, which specializes in video game production, took on
direction and production duties, while Playbrains acted as
developer. Mike Aaron, the producer on the project, said that since
video games are a new realm for Mother, the agency tried to find
people that understood that industry, making Beefy and Playbrains
natural choices for production partners.
Beefy's president, Adam Boyes, also leveraged some past
relationships while picking publisher. "We chose Capcom because
they stand for high quality," says Boyes, who worked as direction
of production at Capcom for three years until last year, according
to his bio. Capcom has been leveraged for marketing and PR as well.
"When it comes to making video games, there are so many moving
parts, and it's difficult for someone new to the space to be able
to envision what will be presented during the various stages of the
project," said Boyes. One big production challenge was that even
when a game is functionally complete, it looks incomplete on a
screen. What Mother brought to the table, said Boyes, was a lesson
to video game developers on how to bring a brand's identity to life
within a video game.
The game is available on multiple platforms, on PC, Xbox Live
Arcade and Playstation. "Each platform has its own inherent
challenge," says Boyes. "But our development partners, [Playbrains]
are really experienced."
Mother declined to comment on whether it will get any ownership
of the intellectual property or share in the profits from the sale
of the game.
The game is special because it makes no bones about morality or
goodness, just plain (or flavored) fun. "Most games reward you for
either being terrible…or being a hero," Hohusen says. "We
reward the player for both."
