Nearly four years in the making, Legendary Gary launched today on Steam. It’s Evan’s first solo project after working on notable titles like Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us and Giant Sparrow’s What Remains of Edith Finch. Evan took the time to speak with us about development, inspiration, and lessons learned along the way.
GameSkinny: You’ve been working on Legendary Gary for four years. What was the seed that started it all?
It all started right after I left Naughty Dog. I was there for two years working on The Last of Us (TLoU) as an AI programmer and some multiplayer stuff. My dad got brain cancer six months before we shipped, and he was rushed to surgery and came out with half his body paralyzed. My mom was taking care of him, and was using up all of her vacation time in the process. I was flying home once or twice a month from LA to NY to spend time with him because every time he went into surgery, we thought maybe he was going to die or be in a coma.
My parents’ options were to put him in a skilled nursing facility where they would take care of him or hire a full-time nurse that was just too expensive for them. My dad was terrified of going to a skilled nursing facility because one of the requirements for that was going into hospice. He wouldn’t get chemo, so there wouldn’t be any chance of survival. When TLoU was finished, I quit and moved back to NY to be my dad’s nurse for awhile so my mom could go back to work. Before that, I had this plan – I knew my plan was to leave Naughty Dog and set out on my own to make a game. I was planning on sticking around longer than I did – but my dad’s illness became my impetus to leave.
So then, as I’m home, I was part-time playing with a bunch of different ideas, and I prototyped a lot of ideas before I came to LG. I knew whatever I chose would take me a long time because there’s a tremendous amount of effort that goes into making a game. I knew this had to be an idea that I wouldn’t be sick of three years later. If this was going to be the only game I ever made, I wanted it to be one I’d be most proud of.
That being said, there were a lot of requirements. I wanted it to be a story that’s very personal to me and says what I want it to say. Also, something that had all of the aspects that I really enjoy in games. That’s why LG is a tactical strategy game, because I play chess and I really like strategy games. It also has a bizarre fantasy world that evokes the themes that I really liked from my childhood. Most of all, I like stories that try to create a whole world and invent ideas as opposed to working with the ideas that other genres have created.
The one piece of feedback I get from everyone’s who’s seen the trailer is, “That’s really weird.”
I’ve been making it so long it doesn’t seem that weird to me anymore, but I suppose it is pretty weird.
GS: So, when people describe the game as being weird, does that put you off, or is that the intention you were going for?
GS: Not quite a one-man band, but close, as the music for the game was created by xXsickXx. How did you juggle everything?
Some aspects are inspired by The NeverEnding Story – a weird, mystical 80s fantasy – others by Myst and Riven; they do a fantastic job of inventing a world out of whole cloth. They borrow things you recognize but combine them in an interesting way.
GS: What’s been your favorite part of making Legendary Gary?
As far as juggling everything, I did it slowly. I’d work on one thing for a while and then switch to another in big chunks. One of the things that’s different about developing a game by yourself versus on a team is how things move. On a team, everything’s moving at once. The art, the code, the design are all being made concurrently. With me, I had to do them one at a time. I had to prioritize what I think is most important, make a plan for myself, and guess where the dependencies will be. I went round robin between design, code and art.
GS: What influenced Legendary Gary’s storyline and art direction?
Legendary Gary is a game about a guy playing a game, and the fantasy world is a mirror of his real life. The game kind of plays with the juxtaposition of fantasy. The things that matter to a hero in a fantasy world are ridiculous, but the things that matter to Gary in his real life are very mundane and not the stuff of fiction. The things that actually matter to us day-to-day are mundane, but they still matter. The story is about a guy who’s trying to be a better person. More responsible and more present for the people who care about him. More attentive to what they need from him. The things you’re choosing for him to do are small gestures, but to him in his life, they matter a lot.
GS: Do you think you working on The Last of Us and What Remains of Edith Finch impacted Legendary Gary in some ways?
GS: So, what’s next? Solo game dev for the foreseeable future, or will you join an existing team again? Perhaps both?
They were both informative to me about how to make a video game, and I learned a lot from the people I worked with. Uncharted is one of my favorite game series, which is why I was so excited to work for Naughty Dog. But, Uncharted is another great example of a video game character whose reality is so over the top it’s hard to imagine yourself in any of the situations Nathan Drake finds himself in. What’s interesting about TLoU is that they grounded their fiction in a really powerful way, and a lot of it is about small gestures, showing humanity to the people around you, and dealing with feelings of being futile and powerless. Which I think are also themes in LG for sure.
WRoEF is also a great game that deals with subject matter you wouldn’t typically find in games or fiction. It’s about coming to terms with death and remembering the dead in your family. It explores the nature of storytelling about the dead and how we dramatize how our family members lived versus the reality of who they really were. I wrote a lot of LG’s story before WRoEF, but it operates in the same space of what we accept as true versus what is actually true – it’s often very different.
When I was working on WRoEF, I thought it was wonderful that there was a game about these concepts. I didn’t expect anyone outside the team would get it or appreciate it, though. I was blown away with how well it did critically, and how many people did get it and how big the reception was. That gave me a lot of enthusiasm going forward in LG – knowing that people can get games with that level of nuance.
Legendary Gary is available on Steam for $14.99. You can keep up with Evan Rogers on Twitter at @evanmakesgames. Stay tuned to GameSkinny for more Legendary Gary news and our official review.
You don’t have to convey to other people exactly what you want – especially if you’re not even sure what you want. I think that’s why some games today are kind of derivative. The easiest way to explain what you want is to refer to something else that we all know. I wanted to make unique choices.
The novelty of a game is really important when you’re making a small game. If you’re making a game that’s like another game, you have to outdo them, which is hard to do as a small team. Making something original – there’s value in that.
I wanted to try to do it all myself, however it’s an insane amount of work – it’s a huge financial risk. So I’m probably not going to do it again on my next thing. Not sure what I’ll do after LG, but probably not another solo project.
