Esophaguys is exactly what it sounds like: a game where you play people who have esophaguses. Well, actually, just typing that out, maybe the title needs a little explanation.
Let's try that again. Esophaguys is a very silly indie co-op game in which you and your friends cause all sorts of fun, physics-driven mayhem while attempting to accomplish ridiculously simple goals. In this very silly game, you play old men with long necks that they can stretch to their will.
A Fast and Frantic Opening That Grabs Attention
The team behind it is aptly called the Esophaguys Team, and this debut title offers an interesting twist on multiplayer mayhem. While giving the game a demo at Double Fine and iam8bit's Day of the Devs in San Francisco last month, I tried out two different game modes - the co-op campaign and multiplayer free-for-all - but the final game will come with four, all of which four players will be able to play.
Co-op made it feel like I was working together with two other Mr. Fantastics, creating stretchy chains to reach new areas. Except that, unlike Mr. Fantastic, we had to cut each other down to create that chain, and craning our necks to allow the other players to walk over us as a bridge. Competitive multiplayer was fast, frantic and silly as I faced off against two devs in a deathmatch that involved swinging at each other and throwing environmental objects. A single hit will kill you, and having a long neck means you can be a huge target if you get too crazy. It also means you can win in a matter of seconds if you play your cards right.
Peyton Blake - head of audio and jack of all trades who serves as Esophaguys producer and game designer - describes the game’s beginnings as similarly frantic. This game actually started as a pitch. I was the game design students at a Sheridan College in Toronto and or we had the pitch class. It is a just like Pitch us whatever game you wanted pretty much freeballing. And I just drew up this mechanic on my sketch pad very quickly: long necks, old people, Jew’s harp. I was like ‘Boom, there it is.
Those basic aspects of the game came together quickly, but Blake has spent years researching the game’s central device, which plays a key role in the story.
What is In A Name
When I started developing this game, I was looking for a unique sound to match the unique mechanics and I thought, 'What could be better than an instrument that uses your neck and your mouth?' So I went down the rabbit hole for three years and I traveled to Norway to learn how to blacksmith this instrument and learn about their traditional music [which] has a really strong tradition and all different styles. Norway isn't the only country whose music appears, though: Austria, India, Kyrgyzstan the British Isles, and the US are also represented.
Talking in the noisy hallway that serves as the main thoroughfare of Day of the Daves, Blake plays me a note on his Jew's harp, and I can only describe its auditory quality as sound effect-laden. Its boi-yoi-yoi-yoing sound sounds like it's coming from a talk radio soundboard. Despite all the noise in the hallway, it sounds as clear as a bell on my audio recorder when I re-listen to the interview a week later.
It's just the basic sound, he explains. But if you practice really hard you can get all kinds of cool, unique melodies out of it. You might have assumed Jew's harp was the old term for the instrument. I know I did. But Blake – a member of the International Jew's Harp Society - explains that it's still the best name available.
Jew's harp is a oldest recorded English Names or nobody knows why it is a called that. There are theories like maybe some Jewish people were selling [the instrument] in England at the time. The thing is, nobody knows, he says. If you look online, there are many different names for it. In English a most internationals name is a still Jew's harp. It is a weird name and there are problems with all the options. For example, one option, mouth harp is also an old name for the harmonica, so Blake says this can complicate academic research. And so the best term for it, the most accurate, is Jew's harp, even though it is weird and does not make any sense.
In that way, the instrument's name is a bit like Esophaguys' own name. Without an explanation you won't understand what it is, but talk about it and you can see how they arrived at it.
Esophaguys is launching later this year on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store.
0 Comments