How manly is Shank, the eponymous hero of the new downloadable game that’s out this week? He swings a chainsaw with no problem, beats up Mexican luchadores and regains health by drinking a 40 oz. bottle of malt liquor. The side-scrolling stab-em-up features an inviting cartooniness that somehow meshes with extremely hyper-violent gameplay. It’s a tricky mix to get right but it looks like developer Klei Entertainment’s done exactly that. Just as the game’s going out into the world, I asked Jeff Agala–Klei’s creative director and co-creator of Shank–to answer a few questions about the genesis of the bandana-wearing bad-ass.
Where’d the inspiration for Shank come from?
Shank was inspired by classic arcade beat-em-ups like Double Dragon and Final Fight mixed in with some Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez influences.
Which came first, the gameplay or the aesthetics?
I would say they came at the same time. From the very first day we came up with Shank we knew what kind of game it would be overall. It only took a few more days to nail down the essence of the gameplay and the final look of the game.
The art looks like a cross between Bruce Timm, Mike Manley and a little bit of Darwyn Cooke. Who are your favorite comics artists and animation studios?
I love Jack Kirby’s work; it’s the perfect balance between realistic and dynamic. Growing up I read a lot of comics including X-Men, Spider-Man and The Punisher so Art Adams, Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee were very influential in my development as an artist. Joe Mad, J. Scott Campbell, Frank Miller and Mike Mignola are also at the top of my list for comic artists. As you can tell; I love comics and I think it’s one of those things I can never grow out of. As for animation Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack) and Bruce Timm (Batman) do great work. As an animator, I can’t help but love anything that comes out of Disney/Pixar as well.
Is there a secret behind Shank’s incredibly smooth and layered look? What’s the process for the art style and the animation?
The environments were key to the art style. I wanted Shank’s world to look like an old graphic novel, not the new shiny digital airbrushed look but the old flat-colored books of the past. We set up all the environments with offset 2D layers, like the backgrounds in the old Disney films. This gives our world the illusion of depth while retaining the 2D look. Our entire art team has 2D animation roots so, for our characters, we start with hand-drawn animated key poses. We then take it into Flash to color and set up the timing. This allows us to have 2D animation running at 30+ frames per second.
Your game’s coming out about a week after the Expendables cleaned up at the box office do you think that there might be a rising trend for over-the-top violence in pop culture entertainment again?
I hope so! I love crazy action films and I wish more people made them. I think there’s always room for over-the-top entertainment. From The Matrix to Kill Bill and Kick Ass, over-the-top action always seem to do well at the box office. We would be happy to be a part of this.
What kind of freedom does digital distribution afford you, when compared to traditional disc releases?
As developers, digital distribution allows us to control the scope of the game. Being a small company, we wanted to make a game we could do well, creating a game with no filler. A traditional disc release would force us to make a bigger game with a bunch of extra features that don’t make the game any better. Plus that would have taken way more money than we had in the bank.
A lot of the digital download games that have been recent hits–Bionic Commando Rearmed, Shadow Complex, Limbo–have been fairly evocative of gaming’s past, either in terms of style of play or by subject. Why do you think that might be?
I think the recent downloadable hits struck a chord in the gaming market, saying 2D games are still a vibrant and relevant style. 2D games are just easier to navigate; this allows the developers to experiment and expand gameplay rather than focusing on the basic controls. Most gamers started with 2D games, be it on Atari, NES or DS so playing games in 2D seems to bring back a sense of nostalgia.
You know, Shank‘s over-the-top and morbidly funny at parts, but the main catalyst of the game is getting revenge. How’d you guys balance the serious stuff with the dark humor?
I think the 2D style puts it at a level where the player separates it from reality enough to find even the most gruesome actions quite amusing. As a director, I always play Shank off as a serious character but, sometimes, he’s so serious he can get a laugh. If Shank was a live action show, it would be very disturbing but by being animated it almost makes everything ok.
Were there any design rules, in terms of looks or levels, that you tried to keep sacred? Like, “no hints…EVER!”
We wanted to include design ideas from the classic arcade games, simple things that gave Shank a retro feel. In our game, everyone has a name and lifebar, including every miscellaneous thug and dog. At one point, the crates had names but we removed that. As a call-out to retro games, we added a Hard mode. This is a classic arcade hard mode where we removed all the checkpoints in the level. If you die, you start from the beginning of the level.
If you had to compare one old-school game hero to Shank, in terms of sheer violence, who would measure up?
That’s a good question. If any old-school game hero can roll with Shank, it would be Marco (or Tarma) from METAL SLUG. Those guys were hardcore: good with knives, guns, grenades and even tanks. Shank would work well with them.
Shank‘s out today on Playstation Network and will release tomorrow for Xbox Live.