When the time comes to look back at the events of 2020, the games media may need to scrape for high points.
They exist, of course – every year contains brilliant people who achieve brilliant things – but by 2020 it was difficult to stand out from the very real problems affecting not only this sector but the whole world. Good things can come out of this period of stress and self-doubt, but this year will likely be remembered as one defined by crisis.
But I have one to offer, to roll the ball on that slip of “Best of 2020” articles: Animal Talking, a pure-hearted innovation that offers comfort and relief to many people, and one that is deeply rooted in the root caused by COVID-19.
For those who do not know, Animal Talking is a virtual talk show started by Gary Whitta, the one-time game journalist who is now a successful Hollywood writer, and based entirely on Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It has a set entirely composed of in-game items from the Switch exclusively, with both host and guests represented by the game’s ever-fun character models.
“Animal Crossing was the tonic we needed when everyone at home was locked up and feeling miserable”
“I did not begin to take any note,” Whitta told our very own Rebekah Valentine, in an interview during GamesIndustry.biz’s Changing Channels event last week. “It was really just a hobby … When Animal Crossing came in, I played it anyway. It came at the right time, and it was the tonic we needed when everyone was locked up at home. and felt misery. “
Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched on March 21, with the global COVID-19 lockdown fast approaching its peak. It sold 12 million units within two weeks, and competed with the full life sales of the previous entry in the series, New Leaf. The game was clearly a phenomenon, Whitta acknowledged, but the idea of making a virtual TV show was little more than a happy accident.
“And that’s really all it was,” he added. “It was not like ‘Let’s make a talk show.’ It was ‘Can I just redo the set?’ Just like a model, to see if we could get close with the provision of Animal Crossing. “
With an enthusiastic Twitch audience that lures him, Whitta collects a facsimile of a classic American television talk show set from American television – the office, the couch, the band, some artificial tempo television, the skyline of a city at night across the back emblazoned. The first ‘episode’ of Animal Talking was just Whitta talking to a friend, actress Naomi Kyle, with all the conversations used by Letterman, Fallon, Kimmel and Conan.
“It was really fun, and the audience really enjoyed it, and I really enjoyed doing it,” he continued. “I think we’re all sick of seeing each other over Zoom screens. We’re trying to find different ways to connect, and bring people together in the virtual space of Animal Crossing … something about that combination imagined people. “
“Especially now, during the pandemic, we’re the only talk show in the world that actually looks like one.”
According to Whitta, what started as a joke between friends evolved into a full-fledged hobby project around the fourth episode, when coverage of Animal Talking began to appear in some of the biggest names in entertainment media: Variety, Newsweek, the Hollywood Reporter, every time but again. From there, requests from interested celebrities began to roll, and the show took a life of its own.
Animal Talking now has more than 20 episodes over two ‘seasons’, with a guest list that would be the envy of many of the established TV talk shows: from games industry luminaries like Tim Schafer, Cory Barlog and Phil Spencer, to legitimate eglobal superstars like Brie Larson, Selena Gomez, Elijah Wood and Sting.
“I would say that more than half of the guests we have on season two are people who approach us,” Whitta said. “They want to do the show. Any talk show will have a hard time booking celebrities like Brie Larson and Selena Gomez, but they really wanted to do it.”
Whitta added: “Especially now, during the pandemic, we’re the only talk show in the world that actually looks like one. All the big boys – Kimmel and Colbert, Fallon and Conan – are all doing their shows of theirs. basement because they can not go to their sets.
“The metaverse lets us do this magic where we can place a guest on a real set, with a desk and a bench and a band, and all the stairs, fixtures and fixtures that feel like a real talk show … This metaphorical thing – I’m really beginning to understand why it could be so wonderful. “
“This metaverse thing – I’m really starting to understand why it could be so weird”
The fact that Animal Talking can now attract top-tier celebrities underscores the fact that it remains an impromptu endeavor – as Whitta put it, “a hobby that is wildly out of control.” Everything from reserving guests to removing licensed music to making avatars for celebrities who do not have Animal Crossing is handled by Whitta and a team of three volunteers. Revenue from the monetization of Twitch and YouTube is “literally a few hundred dollars” and far short of anything that could be considered a profit. That has been good with the world in lockdown, but it may not be sustainable in the long run.
There is also the game itself. Whitta is unrestricted in his admiration for both Nintendo and Animal Crossing, but while it was fairly simple to make a compelling set from the myriad items of the game, simulating an actual talk show was of course never part of their design document.
“We are constantly pushing against the limitations and limitations of the game. Sure, it has allowed us to do wonderful things … but we have long since passed the point where my ambition for what I would want the show to be be is overwritten what is possible Animal Crossing.We live with the world Animal Crossing gives us.I can not adapt it in any way.
“Every now and then Nintendo does something that happens to us a big help … ‘Please let me keep characters objects, because I would allow my musical guests to keep the instrument. You can hear them play.'”
Whitta admitted that he had a wish list of changes that Animal Talking could evolve and get better at, but that is not evidence of any relationship with Nintendo. Indeed, he could only guess that the Japanese publisher is okay with the existing show anyway, because the profile is now too large to ignore and no cease-and-desist letter has arrived on his doorstep. However.
“Nintendo has been a bit stingy in the past about people doing things with their platform – even simple things like streaming their games,” he said. “One of the reasons we do not have corporate sponsorship for the show – and believe me, I have many people approach me – is first that I do not want to do it … As soon as it becomes’ This is Animal Talking to you brought by Doritos, ‘it’s over. Then the fun goes away.
“Once it becomes ‘This is Animal Talking Brought to You by Doritos,’ it’s over”
“But it’s also when Nintendo would come down on us like a ton of bricks. Once we actively monetize the show, hit brands across their platform, I think they have a problem with that. We’ll never go in that direction.”
The fact that Whitta was so open about his ambitions for Animal Talking proves that he is not ready with the idea yet. However, he also admitted that the amount of work in the show’s early days – when as many as three episodes a week would go out, with multiple guests on each – was more than he could handle.
“That almost killed me,” Whitta said of the first season of the 15th episode.
The second season has a fairer cadence, with only one episode a week, but Whitta acknowledged that even a single broadcast might be too much now that the film industry is starting to wake up. There will be a Halloween Special, he said, and American politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a much-praised future guest who will guarantee a new episode, but otherwise he has one eye on an extended break.
“I think I’m at a point where I’ll take a little hiatus from that – in terms of weekly shows for the rest of the year, I might be ready.
“The two or three hours I actually do the show, I like it. When we’re actually on air, and I talk to our guests and have fun, I like it. But the 15 to 20 hours I have to put in for it. , with sound controls and examples and animation and technical issues and guests reserving and removing music, which is not fun for me.
“I always said that if we got to the point where the show was more stressful than it was fun to do, I would stop doing it. We’re at that point right now – 50/50 stress and fun, and i do not want that equation to fall out of balance.
“Animal Talking will continue through the end of the year, but probably on a less regular basis, and we’ll see where we’re headed. I do not know it can last forever. Animal Crossing will not be in the spirit of the times for always; it’s just super popular at the moment … My appetite for the show has not gone away, and I still enjoy doing it. I just need to find a way to do it that does not excite me and kills me. every week.”
You can watch the full interview with Gary Whitta in the video below, and you can watch the rest of sessions of changing channels on our YouTube channel.
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