We make Extra Credits and Extra History. Ask Us Anything!

You may have answered this question before, but why is there a voice changer for Daniel Floyd's narration?

The first episode was a student project for Dan. He was working on it at 3AM and decided he could either cut down the whole thing to make it exactly 10 minutes or just speed it up 10%. Since then we’ve just felt it fits the cartoon style (it feels super weird with Dan’s normal voice ; ).

I have tested episodes with the normal voice. It definitely IS super weird.

Any chance we can hear a sample of your actual voice?

We have some panels on Youtube you can watch. I have also been a guest on a handful of podcasts with my regular voice.

I remember it had something to do with wanting to keep it informal, so they pitch-bended Daniel's voice up and played it a little faster to make it seem more cartoonish.

There's that too. By having the narration come from a character rather than a person, I've found people are much more likely to focus on WHAT is being said rather than WHO is saying it. That tiny shred of abstraction goes a long way, I think.

When Dan says stuff like "I think" or "I believe" or "I propose" or stuff like that does he mean as himself or those are the opinions of James as the writer, so my question is when is Dan refering to himself and when is he reading what James wrote?

Haha yeah, that gets complex.

Since James writes the first draft of all of these scripts, they all tend to start out as just him referring to himself, things he thinks or his own experiences that inform the discussion. But, since I’m the one narrating the thing, it doesn’t always convert cleanly. It would be really clunky for me to be saying stuff like “James thinks...” or “James proposes...” for the entire episode.

The general formula I try to follow is:

-If it’s a statement of MY personal opinion, I attribute it to myself.

-If it’s a statement that’s more James’s personal opinion than mine, I’ll attribute it to him.

-If it’s a statement of belief or an opinion that we BOTH agree on, I’ll probably just attribute it to myself or BOTH of us to keep things flowing. So I’ll say something like “I think...” or “We think...".

-If it’s describing something James has done or an experience he’s had (something that would be really weird for me to take credit for), I’ll specifically attribute it to James.

That’s actually part of the reason we opted to do the second Game Addiction episode as a live action video with James being the speaker. Doing a whole episode in the traditional format with ME describing all of these personal experiences would have been really weird.

(edited for unexpected formatting)

Why is Daniel the only one who has arms, and at that, only when he's at the podium?

The power of the podium confers upon me certain special privileges.

Follow-up question; where can I get an arm-inducing podium?

There is only the one. It was a gift granted by the Helium Lords. I forget what they wanted me to do with it, but it probably wasn’t this.

How long did the two of you know each other before your work on Extra Credits?

We actually started making those early episodes together LONG before we’d met. I got into contact with James via email early on after quoting him in one of the class assignments that would later be turned into the Extra Credits series that exists today. We coordinated via email for the longest time, finally met in person over lunch at GDC one year and mostly only hang out with each other at events like PAX or MAGFest. I recently moved to Seattle, so we actually live in the same city now and can meet to coordinate much more easily, but I’d still wager we have yet to spend more than a total of 48 hours in the same room.

Wow, that's so weird... I always just kind of assumed you guys had been friends for a long time, and all lived and worked in the same place. I've been following you guys since your first video went up on The Escapist, so it's strange to have my entire image of how the show formed flipped on its head!

I'm amazed we work together as well as we do. It really seems like this system shouldn't work, but hey. :)

we work together as well as we do

You never had a falling out on some topic? Not like a fewd but enough to get your jimmies rustled.

We tend to feel similarly about a lot of things. On the rare occasion that we do have a disagreement about something, we're pretty good at finding a middle ground.

I'm reading everything in your animated voice. It's wonderful!

I have the Dan character as my avatar in Skype and I have been told that it is very disorienting.

What would you like visual artists/musicians to know about working with game designers that might make working together easier?

Also, know that designers will often throw a new idea at you way later in production than you'd like, and it will probably be a GOOD idea that you wish you could have started implementing way sooner. Frustrating though it may be, it's just an unavoidable part of the iterative game design process.

HI!

Thanks for doing this AMA! Hopefully, I can see you at this coming PAX Prime. I loved your panel for Prime 2013.

I would like to ask: is there a topic regarding video games that you feel would be too controversial to make a video about? Is there something out there that you feel would just be too bogged down in flame wars and genuine hatred that you're not willing to make any sort of commentary on it?

No, but there are topics that it takes us a long time to address because we want to think them through and find a way to help create a constructive conversation instead of getting mired in the flame wars.

Gonna piggyback off of Format's comment just because I have a similar question.

Has there ever been any topics that you've felt are too complex to fully cover on the show, or would just take up too much time in research?

Generally, if we ever feel like a topic is too big to cover in a single episode, we’ll go ahead and make a multi-part series instead to give it all the time it needs. And certain scripts definitely take a much longer time to write than others. James usually has a dozen half-finished episodes in progress at any given time.

Does James have any non-black shirts?

I am told he owns one. I have never seen it.

What's your biggest goal for your careers?

To leave this world a little better than I entered it...

I was going to say high-fiving Tim Schafer, but James's answer is probably better.

Dan, do you think that traditional animation could come back to mainstream feature films?

What do you think about Disney's Paperman, and do you think it's possible to see a whole feature film using that kind of software?

I would LOVE for traditional animation to make a comeback. Most every 3D animator I know feels the same.

Paperman looked incredible and the tech they developed for it is extraordinary, but I don't expect we'll see a feature in that style for some time. The process essentially involves animating the film TWICE. It would be one VERY expensive, risky feature film. But who knows, they may refine the process enough over time that they're willing to give it a try. I'd love to see it.

Dan, how hard was it to become an animator at Pixar?

Awesome work, by the way!

VERY HARD. I was extremely fortunate that the Creative Director at Pixar Canada decided to take a chance on me. It was an incredible working experience.

Hey EC. So awhile back you guys used content in an episode of Extra Credits created by my friend for her own gaming website, without her permission, and without crediting her. She contacted you about it, but her request to have her content credited was ignored. What's the deal with that?

Shoot an email to our extracreditz at gmail account! Or PM me if that doesn't work. Before we had Soraya helping us out with social media and stuff, James and I couldn't keep up with the flood of emails the show gets, so a lot more of them tended to slip through the cracks. Very sorry she didn't get a response before!

James, has anyone ever told you that you look a lot like Keanu Reeves?

EVERYONE! I totally don't see it, but seriously when I wear a long coat people ask me to say "I know Kung Fu".

Someone makes the Keanu Reeves comparison in the comments of every single James Recommends episode and it amuses me to no end.

Hey Dan, any chance of an animation in games topic?

I've thought about it! I kind of want to spend some more time getting firsthand game animation experience before I attempt to write an episode on it. When I do, I'll probably be consulting some veterans as well.

Hey, my name is Daniel and I met Dan at DBFH5 a few years back. You guys have inspired me more than anyone else to work towards becoming a game desginer even though my health continues to have issues.

My question: has the stress required to make the show every week ever almost eclipsed the joy you get in making it?

Some days are definitely more exhausting than others. I’m working more hours in a week than I dare to add up, but it’s been super rewarding. It’s a pretty special thing to have a project like this that so many people enjoy. This kind of cool opportunity doesn’t come up every day. And, to repurpose a Brad Bird quote: Pain is temporary.

What's the most difficult or time-consuming part of making an episode of EC?

Definitely the art. Even with the super-simple art style we use, creating the art for a full length episode takes many hours. These days, we give Scott and LeeLee two weeks per episode. Allison, art machine that she is, somehow managed to maintain a rate of one episode per week for a YEAR before we realized that this was insane and brought in a second artist to alternate weeks with her.

Yo Dan, I want to learn how to animate. What are some helpful resources, and what are some animation tips of your own?

The first thing I’d recommend doing is picking up a copy of Richard Williams’ The Animator’s Survival Kit. If there’s one book you use to learn the fundamentals of animation, it should be that one. Almost every animator I know has owned a copy at one point or another. It’ teaches everything in terms of traditional 2D animation, but all the principles apply to whatever kind of animation you plan to do. http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Animator_s_Survival_Kit.html?id=gZ02LRKOg_YC

If you want to go to school to study 3D animation, there’s a lot of good programs you can look into, but I highly recommend the Animation Mentor online school. It’s exceptional. http://animationmentor.com

Lastly, study other animation, study movement in real life and learn some acting fundamentals. Practicing life drawing doesn’t hurt either.

Back in 2013 there was a Emerald City Comic Con panel that had you guys listed as showing up. We all waited but no one came, nor was any announcement made that you weren't coming. What happened?

We actually had NO idea we were invited to the con. Nobody on the EC team was there. We got a lot of emails that day asking why we hadn't shown up for our panel and everyone on the team was asking each other "We had a panel? Where?"

I have no idea how that miscommunication occurred, but we're very sorry to anybody who went expecting us to be there!

Would you rather fight 100 Duck-Sized Horses, or 1 Horse Sized Duck?

I can't think of a horse-sized ANYTHING I'd want to fight...

I hope this isn't buried in comments, but I've been watching your videos for years now. I love Extra Credits, and Extra History was one of my favorite side-series you guys have done. I'm glad to see you're looking to do more of it!

My question is: has being on the development and design side of gaming made it difficult to approach new titles with a "clean slate?" In the same way I wonder if football refs can watch games without staring at the stripes, I'd like to know if you have difficulty turning off the designer mindset.

EDIT: Also, please do the Three Kingdoms or Han Dynasty era of Chinese history. Actually any era of Chinese history would be pretty cool.

It certainly does affect our perspective, but I think it's for the better. Being able to speak from a place of firsthand experience about industry issues, game design practices and such adds a lot of value to the show, I think.

Hi, big fan here. Is the Extra history show going to be like the Rome episodes you guys did?

Yep! A lot like those.

How do you have time to do anything between full time jobs and a YouTube channel that releases well-thought out videos so frequently?

A lot of the time we don't. Between the day job and EC work, I'm usually working on SOMETHING between 8am and 1am (and then sleeping). I don't get nearly the time to play games, watch movies and keep up with TV shows that I'd like, but getting to make something like this is a special opportunity and I don't want to waste it. I'll have plenty of time for that other stuff later.

Probably.

There are a bunch of references to your musical interests (You meaning the narrator), is there anywhere we can hear your work?

I actually released a bunch of remixes on OverClocked ReMix under the handle "sephfire". They aren't great.

as far as the production of the show goes how much say do Dan and James have over the visuals? do you help with story boarding, layout or color choices? Have there ever been any shots you've out-right rejected and why?

I've played a big part in helping to establish the look of the show and designing a lot of the art assets we use. Allison, LeeLee and Scott have contributed a lot of their own personal touches to our style as well.

We've occasionally given specific art notes on certain episodes if the art wasn't communicating something we needed it to, but we rarely have time to do a full "storyboard, layout, color pass" process. We have to work pretty efficiently to get an episode done every week.

I love your show. My friend got me into it when you first started it years ago on youtube.

My question: What inspired you to keep doing it and are you ever worried you will run out of ideas?

Part of why I started making these videos is because they're the kind of thing that I would have loved to watch (and there weren't nearly as many shows like this back then).

As for running out of ideas, we've certainly touched on a lot of the major topics over the years, but I don't see us ever running out of stuff to discuss, especially given how rapidly the game industry shifts and changes. Games are in a completely different place than they were five years ago. I bet they will be in a different place five years from now as well.