Ahoy-hoy

Longtime fan, first time poster. I actually got a job at Vivendi back in 2004 as a tester, hoping I'd get to work on the sequel to SHAR. When it turned out that Vivendi passed on the license and EA scooped it up, I moved to the bay area to work at EA Redwood Shores on The Simpsons Game. I literally told them, "I'm here to work on The Simpsons Game." Somehow that worked and I did! We all know it was no SHAR (and I'm still bummed they didn't release a PC version), but I still have fond memories of my time on TSG.

Anyway, I just wanted to say how gotdang cool your work has been on all these mods. I've barely dipped a centimeter of a toe into the vast world of modding SHAR. I plan to spend a lot of time checking it out as part of my ongoing Simpsons game research. I'll make sure to check out any starter guides and such.

In conclusion,

Good to hear! Nice to see you here, man! I've visited your website quite a lot and you're collection of information regarding video games in the Simpsons franchise is amazing.

Hey noiseland, quick question since i've visited your site and channel various times, where did you obtain the gameplay footage for Simpsons Skateboarding from? It appears to be from a pre-release copy of some sorts, there's a lot of key differences.

Hey DeepFriedBurger! Glad to see you here as well. I was actually just looking through TCRF's pages again, in awe of the amount of great info on there. So when I checked the history I wasn't surprised to see your name in there. :)

And I just checked the videos, Will. Those Marge and Otto gameplay videos for Skateboarding were in my archives from back when I was looking forward to the release of the game in 2002. The video files are dated August 19, 2002, so I'm guessing they were pre-release promotional videos.

Hey! Do you have any promotional stuff for SHAR and RR from back then or Any Cut content you would like to share while working on The Simpsons Game?

Heya! Nice to see another face pop up, and from a former developer for a commercial game, no less! Glad to have a new face around here!

Unfortunately, I never really had any time with The Simpsons Game even though it seemed extremely tempting to pick up. The promotional material for the game was wild and it seemed like a pretty solid platformer with the animation from the show to back it up. I also really enjoyed the TV show and saw the film that was released around the same time in theaters, yet my most exposure to the game was through some playthroughs I've seen. I just never grabbed it for some reason. Would've been ace if a PC version somehow got in the pipeworks for sure.

The early/mid-life six gen console Simpsons games I all owned though. That includes Skateboarding. SHAR I definitely had the most fond memories with though and remembered pretty fondly back in my high school years, which is how I discovered a PC version of the game actually materialized. I owe the game's soundtrack being stuck in my head for years huge props for that one.

Figured I'd also stop by to say hi...though you may want to consider researching something else. Like the wise Jeff Albertson taught me, video games are a waste of money. Now, to go online, and bid one thousand dollars for Itchy & Scratchy Corncob Holders! Terrific, terrific expense!

In all seriousness, great to meet a passionate fan of the series and the works that it produced!

GG hojala saquen un nuevo juego de simpsons

Appreciate the response, did you find them in a magazine on a disc or on the internet? 2002 was a long time ago though, so I'd be surprised if you remember. I'm very interested in that game in particular.

Morgan Kuno
"Hey! Do you have any promotional stuff for SHAR and RR from back then or Any Cut content you would like to share while working on The Simpsons Game?"

Oh boy, well, yes for SHAR... but nothing I can share at the moment. It's nothing too exciting, just some assets from the web marketing. I should figure out what to do with those files someday.

As for TSG, I surprisingly don't recall much that was cut. I joined as a tester in June when they planned to ship in October, so there wasn't time to make big changes. I can tell you about the time I worked a 23-hour shift to test all the cutscenes on Nintendo Wii because someone at Fox didn't like the 3D-animated cutscenes and wanted to replace them with 2D-animated cutscenes. The new cutscenes look great and it was absolutely the right creative choice, but I just about lost my mind when I couldn't complete the final boss battle after playing it hundreds of times. I had to take a walk at 3 in the morning around the dark test floor to calm down. It's a funny memory now but oof, a brain can't run for that long. And you know, those 3D-animated cutscenes still ended up in the NDS version because they needed to get that game through Nintendo submission first.

Oh! And if you go to the downstairs closet in the Simpson house on Xbox 360 and PS3, you'll notice that it's a menu for the DLC. Well, that DLC never happened. It never even made it to the test department, so they must've dropped it early on.

Kenny Giles
"Figured I'd also stop by to say hi...though you may want to consider researching something else. Like the wise Jeff Albertson taught me, video games are a waste of money. Now, to go online, and bid one thousand dollars for Itchy & Scratchy Corncob Holders! Terrific, terrific expense!"

I live in sarcasm! After all, I grew up on The Simpsons and spent a lot of time on Simpsons forums. I'd say the show formed the backbone of my sense of humor. So no worries about that. But it really can get expensive. I own a physical copy of every port of every Simpsons game ever made, and some of them were far more expensive than they should have been. Inflation in the video game collector sector is wild.

vxionut
"GG hojala saquen un nuevo juego de simpsons"

Un nuevo juego? Pero no les cuesta nada a simplemente mantener TSTO. Bueno, solamente el interes del publico, de los fans, de jugadores... Pero en serio, estoy esperando que alguien que trabaja con Disney tenga una nueva idea.

Will
"Appreciate the response, did you find them in a magazine on a disc or on the internet? 2002 was a long time ago though, so I'd be surprised if you remember. I'm very interested in that game in particular."

Those Skateboarding videos probably came from some online outlet, like Gamespot or IGN. But yeah, I can't recall for sure.

And you know, those 3D-animated cutscenes still ended up in the NDS version because they needed to get that game through Nintendo submission first.

I've always wondered why the DS cutscenes were different, that makes so much more sense now! I find it interesting though, because the DS cutscenes always felt more 'cheap' to me, as there were a bunch of visual effects and stuff missing.



Were the original cutscenes rendered in-engine or something? That would explain a lot about it.
I also noticed quite a drastic change in music from that scene (and likely others). The music from the 2D cutscenes is a lot more unique, where as the 3D cutscene music sounds almost like a low quality midi file in comparison? It's really weird.

Anyway, I definitely think moving to 2D was the right move, although it's a shame that we only have such crappy quality versions of the 3D cutscenes now, as well as missing a bunch of scenes since they were cut down to save space.