I have been running into absurd renditions of songs like "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" by Trombone Champ. In a conversation with Dan Vecchitto, the founder of Holy Wow Studios, he mentioned that we don't see a lot of comedy in games right now.
The Last of Us is one of the games that has pushed the boundaries of capital-S Serious Storytelling. Others are popular because of their competitive nature. We don't see a lot of games that embrace their own comedy like Trombone Champ does.
There are a lot of games that are designed with lower stakes, but Trombone Champ celebrates failure. The game's appeal is due to missed notes in other rhythm titles. According to Vecchitto, there is a market for games that are all about comedy. Return to Monkey Island came out this week and is hilarious.
The game was supposed to be an arcade game.
The initial idea was for Trombone Champ to be an arcade game. Vecchitto thought about other types of games that would be fun to play as an arcade cabinet after making a game called Typing Party. I would travel a long way to play an arcade game that let me jam to tunes with a physical trombone controller, which is one of the reasons I love the trombone.
There are some things that are impractical with that idea. I don't think a trombone controller would survive a lot of drunk people. He tried a trombone game that used a mouse. The prototype from four years ago shows the promise of what the game would become.
After four years, Vecchitto built Trombone Champ. He mostly worked on the game on nights and weekends because he has a full time job. Most of the artwork was done by his wife.
He thought they could relax now that the game was done. Localizing the game into other languages and adding accessibility options are some of the things they will be working on. He wants to bring the game to consoles, including the Nintendo Switch, and he says a few developers have reached out about possibly helping bring the game to virtual reality. He shared a roadmap last week that gives you an idea of some of the changes he is thinking about.
Currently, most of the tracks are public domain, and he wants to add more tracks from other musicians, like the one from Max Tundra. Vecchitto is a musician, but he doesn't play trombone, so he contributed a few songs to the skateboard game. There is a song called "SkaBIRD" that can be played in Trombone Champ.
I have to practice the national anthem in Trombone Champ. I think I can never play it as funny as this one.
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