AARON SIMPSON: The question always seemed to be “why not turn Homestar into a TV series?” Is a platform game a more natural evolution for you guys?

CHAPMAN BROTHERS: I think so. Video games have always been a big part of homestarrunner.com – from visuals, to music, to the actual games on our site. And the WiiWare download service also seems to fit with the way we do things.

AARON: Was SBCG4AP in motion before you created the Viidelectrix Wii game page (which features games designed for the Internet Channel of the Nintendo Wii)?

CHAPMANS: No. We had made the Viidelectrix page several months before we heard from Telltale.

AARON: It seems like every Nintendo platform has appeared in some form or another in the Homestar universe, so this game only makes sense. But had you two discussed a Homestar Runner platform game in years past?

The very first Homestar Runner episode,
Super NES, produced in Mario Paint

CHAPMANS: Not really. But it’s true that a game on a Nintendo console “makes sense.” After all, the first time these characters were animated, it was in Mario Paint.

AARON: For those not up to speed, what is a “point and click graphic adventure?”

CHAPMANS: The player uses the Wiimote (the Wii remote control) to point at and click on objects or characters in the game to make Strong Bad interact with them. He’ll talk to it, walk to it, pick it up, use it, make fun of it…whatever the appropriate reaction would be. You basically explore the world and use the objects to make Strong Bad do the kind of stuff Strong Bad likes to do.

AARON: Do you think gamers unfamiliar with Homestar Runner will “get it?”

CHAPMANS: I think so. As with any game based on a preexisting property, being familiar with the characters and the world beforehand might enhance gameplay in some ways, but I don’t think it will make playing the game or solving the puzzles any easier. The first episode is a pretty good intro to the characters, so I think newcomers will be able to figure out what’s going on pretty easily.

AARON: Was Strong Bad the obvious choice for the game lead?

CHAPMANS: Yeah, Homestar would’ve been fun too, but Strong Bad made the most sense.

AARON: You’ve experimented with 3D animated versions of your characters in the past, but this is by far the biggest undertaking with the extra “D.” Was there a particular character that proved most difficult for the team to design?

CHAPMANS: Homestar and The Cheat always present problems when the extra D is added. They usually only get seen from a side view, but you see both eyes so it’s not a true side view. Anyway, the 3D modelers at Telltale did a great job of solving those issues.

AARON: You’ve said in a previous interview that the project required “millions of emails.” Did you ever find your way to the Telltale headquarters in California?

SBCG4AP was produced by Telltale Games
the team behind Sam and Max

CHAPMANS: We’ve been there a couple times. It’s right next to the San Quentin prison, so that’s pretty cool. They have the exact same oval posterboard portrait of Abraham Lincoln in their office as we have in ours.

AARON: What type of animation guidance did you give the team?

CHAPMANS: We sent them a bunch of .swfs to show them all the ways the characters tend to move in different situations.

AARON: Rob Schrab (Scud: The Disposable Assasin, Twigger’s Holiday, co-writer of the Oscar-nominated film Monster House) appears to be a big Homestar Runner fan. Have you guys ever collaborated?

Download Rob Schrab’s Trogdor wallpaper
1024×768 – 1600×1200

CHAPMANS: We met Rob via email in 2001 and have met him several times when we go out to Los Angeles. Matt was a huge Scud fan back in the day and even dressed up as Scud for Halloween in college, so when we heard from him we were psyched. Matt did animated sequences for a couple of Twigger’s Holiday episodes and for a Channel 101 awards show and even has a pinup in the latest issue of Scud (#23).

For Trogdor’s 5th birthday, Rob did a desktop wallpaper (1024×768, 1600×1200) for our site. We’re always trying to figure out ways to do something cool together but busy schedules and opposite coasts keep delaying the inevitable coolness that will go down when we can finally collaborate full-on.

Let’s get a little more info on that topic. We turn to Rob Schrab, an amazing independent creator in his own right.

AARON: Rob, do you remember how and when you first discovered Homestar Runner?

ROB SCHRAB: I remember hearing about this internet cartoon Homestar Runner over and over again. One time my writing partner, Dan Harmon, told me “You gotta see this. These guys made their own little world!”

I checked it out one rainy, depressed afternoon and it turned my day completely around. I ate up everything the Chap bros. had to offer. I had to write them just a quick note, “Hey guys, love your site!” They wrote back right away, saying they knew Scud and Robot Bastard. I was totally flattered.

AARON: Which Twigger’s Holiday sequences did Matt contribute to?

ROB: Episode 2 and 5. Ep. Two is great, it’s during the I Hate Reading! song. Matt did all of this crayon animation (based off a Batman cartoon he did for a film fest Harmon and I did). Really made the show pop. Super fun. Then he threw together this beautiful opening for the beginning of the final episode. Actually, I have to say Homestar Runner is a big inspiration for Channel101.com. I loved the fact that there was an episodic story being told on the internet, like mini TV show. So I glommed that off the Chaps.

AARON: What kind of direction, if any, did you offer to Matt for his Scud pin-up?

ROB: I gave Matt no direction on the pin-up. I wanted to see what he came up with. Those guys are amazing designers. I love what they do.

AARON: Congrats on the incredibly successful conclusion to Scud: The Disposable Assassin. What should Flash animators know about the Scud Fan Film Contest?

ROB: Put Scud in the short! You’ll have a chance to win then.

I keep hearing people say “I’m doing a fan film about a guy reading Scud.” or “It’s about two guys fighting over issue 24!”

Really, put Scud in it. This contest is about how you see the comic book as a moving image. Flash is perfect for this!

AARON: Alright, back to the Chapman brothers. Are there any other noteworthy Homestar Runner fans you’ve come across in recent years?

CHAPMANS: Um, someone emailed us that Geddy Lee was wearing a Trogdor shirt at a concert a couple weeks ago. I don’t know if it’s true or not.

The 1989 NES game Baseball Stars

AARON: Do either of you have a favorite NES game?

CHAPMANS: My friends and I played Baseball Stars well past regular NES’s heyday. I always liked Golgo-13 a lot too. It had side-scrolling stuff, sniper gun-sight stuff, and driving stuff too, I think. It had a decent story too. At least as a ninth-grader I thought so.

AARON: A least favorite?

The 1988 NES game Seicross

CHAPMANS: Magmax? Seicross?

AARON: What game platforms do you guys currently use at home?

CHAPMANS: Most of our game playing is on the DS, but we both have and Xbox 360s and Wiis.

AARON: What’s a favorite Wii game at the moment?

CHAPMANS: We have been playing Mario Galaxy during lunch for the last however many months and just got to Bowser last week. We’ll generally play until we get 1 star and thats it, so it’s taken awhile. We just got to Bowser, so we’ll be done soon.

AARON: Thaks, guys. For more answers, check on the 2-part Cold Hard Flash interview with the Chapmans from 2005.

Watch gameplay footage and other videos at gametrailers.com.

In other Happy Tree Friends news, it is being reported that the Russian government has put pressure on 2X2, an adult animation network to pull the Flash-animated series off the air for being too violent. And I thought the US media was up tight.

The DVD is shipping with a handful of featurettes and a bonus short titled A Really, Really Brief History of Donkey Kong, which you can see below. It was written by I Am 8-bit’s Jon Gibson and directed by Flash-pioneer Gabe Swarr, a Spumco vet with heaps of TV animation experience at Warner Bros. Animation, Disney and Nickelodeon.

The VO was provided by El Tigre voice actor Eric Bauza and the character design was led by Swarr and Steve Lambe. Tony Mora (another Spumco vet) provided the animation and the After Effects artistry was handled by Matt Gadbois.

[link] (get it?)