Friday 21 April 2017

Rick & Morty: Back To Rickality (Game Trailer/Making Of)

As you're probably aware, I'm a pretty big fan of Rick & Morty (as everyone should be!), and after watching the live stream of the first episode of season three a few weeks ago, I decided my next project would be a Rick & Morty based one.

I hadn't got anything in mind, but figured that after a few random ideas that one would stick.


I ended up doing a game cover for something that I thought would make a great video game, so, the Xbox One cover art for Rick & Morty: Back To Reality was born.


I then decided that video game based on Rick & Morty would translate much better with video, so I sat down and planned the start of the project, starting with the new name: Rick and Morty: Back To Rickality.

As I'm not a game designer, programmer or anything of the sort, it was always going to be a challenge, but, if I could do it with Archer: Protocol, I could do it with Rick & Morty!


So, with the planning over, I decided that the only way I could even slightly do this, would be to use Garry's Mod.

For those of you who don't know, Garry's Mod is a sandbox game made in Valves Source engine, and it allows for a pretty great deal of freedom.

Essentially, the entire project was filmed as if it was a real video game, so I had preset locations, enemies (Meeseeks, Cromulons, the Council of Ricks and the Government) in mind, along with a basic idea of what each part would play like. One of the first "in-game" shots in the video, see's Rick flying around in space.

I couldn't get a working model of Rick's Space Cruiser, so this oddly brilliant Jet/Water/Land Rainbow vehicle worked pretty well, so I went with that instead.

These parts of the video are meant to show that the game is open world, and, FUN FACT, you can actually go to any of the planets you see on this map!


This almost paradise-like world, is where the majority of the co-op parts were filmed, as it has a great Rick and Morty vibe to it. I added a bunch of Cromulons floating around the world, and you get to see a bunch of Meeseeks and Government baddies too.

My biggest gripe with using Garry's Mod, is that the game isn't the best looking thing around, but you can get some great looking stuff if you try hard enough, and I really like this shot of Rick running into action!


The player model for Morty (played by Podcast vs Player's Dan!) was a bit too tall, but other than shrinking him down to miniature levels (which was tried, but waaaaaay too small), I couldn't change that.


This is the menu that pretty much made any of this possible, using it to spawn in everything I needed.




Once the footage was filmed, I made some HUD Displays on Photoshop, and put them as an overlay on the video. The entire video was made and edited in Sony Vegas Pro 13.

As well as the HUD overlay, there are prompts throughout the video of objectives. In the below example, Rick has completed the current objective: Insult Jerry.


The two switches on the bottom right were meant to indicate when Rick had his Rocket Boots powered on/off, but I forgot to animate them, so they're constantly on. The only reason he has rocket boots, is the run animation was incredibly fast, but I wanted Rick (and Morty) to have an ability to maneuver quickly outside of vehicle movement, so I opted for rocket boots.


Even though they were intended to be one of the main antagonists of the game (both for show reference and convenience) this is the only time the Council of Ricks show up in the video. Depending on what happens after this, I may do another focusing on the Council.


And of course, no game would be complete without an obligatory boss battle, and this one shows up right at the end of the video, so watch the whole thing!


For the games cutscenes, I sought out the help of the super talented David Armsby, who created the incredible CGI portions of the game, which feature throughout the video.



Then, before the video was set live to the public, there was a sort of seminal build up to the event.

SO, check out the completed video below, and if you enjoyed it, feel free to spread it around the interwebs!


After discovering a new dimension, Rick and Morty find themselves saving the world from infinite MeeSeeks, The Council of Ricks,  Cromulons that have bridged the Signus-5 expanse with Earth, and possibly even God himself....and Dinosaurs!

Fan project (not real!)

Animation by the super talented David Armsby:

All game footage filmed in Garrys Mod, sequences and static art by Podcast vs Player and Broken Pony Art
Voices by Justin Roiland and Chris Parnell
Music courtesy of Freeplay Music

Author, Artist, Presenter/Host for Podcast vs Player, Video Editor, Graphic Designer.

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Callum Povey
@PODCASTvPLAYER
United Kingdom