The Hollywood Byte #38: Family Guy

Oct 20, 2006

Steve Callahan got his first experience with game development as he wrote the script for the new Family Guy video game with Patrick Meeghan and Kurt Butler. The Hollywood writer didn't have much of a gaming background outside of playing Pong a few times when he was younger. But his co-writers are big gamers, and 2K Games knows a thing or two about video games, as well.

"We did it in collaboration with the game company," said Callahan. "They pitched us what would be cool elements of gameplay and then we brought to them what we thought could be a fun way to take elements of the show and even reference past episodes and mix that with some new content and come up with a way to play a story line with three of the main characters."

The main characters gamers will control in the game are Peter, Brian and Stewie, but every character is also represented. Mayor West, Cleveland and Quagmire are all in the game. Players will actually be able to take control of these other characters in Stewie's story, because he has mind control.

"The game exists in an alternate universe," said Callahan. "It definitely feels like the show. Everything you see feels like it could be an episode. In many respects, we draw from past episodes. Peter's story line draw heavily from an episode called "PTV," where he creates his own television station in the garage. Stewie's story line focuses on his nemesis Bertram from the TV show. Brian's story line refers to an episode in season three called "Screw the Pooch," where the family goes to visit Peter's parents and he ends up impregnating their greyhound."

The ability to control three different characters opened up the gameplay. Peter's story provides a lot of combat. After getting hit on the head by the PTV satellite, he thinks that Mr. Belvedere is out to get him and that innocent citizens are underlings of Mr. Belvedere. A lot of Brian's gameplay is evading Carter Peterscmidht and people he has put on his trail. Stewie's gameplay revolves around lots of weapons and gadgets as he battles Bertrum.

"One other way we tried to make the game like the show is that we use the flashbacks and cutaways to reference and parody other video games," said Callahan. "Taking things a step further from the TV show, we allow players to play short mini-games with these references. It's just another way to make it feel like another episode as much as we could."

Callahan said that some of the video game parodies are playable as mini-games, while others can be seen within the storyline of the central gameplay.

"There's a sequence with Stewie in the hospital and the nurses are coming after him and the way in which they're converging on him is like Asteroids," said Callahan. "There are also references to more current games. It doesn't beat you over the head, but there are subtle things that I think fans of video games will enjoy."

With all of the voice actors on board for the game-even Charles Durning, who plays Peter's father, gamers will get an authentic experience that allows them to interact with their favorite characters.

"We watched some of these mock-ups with people from the game company using scratch tracks and then when you watch it with the actors from the show it makes such a difference," said Callahan. "It brings the whole experience to life. Their involvement was great."

Callahan and his co-writers received versions of the game throughout the development process. He thinks fans of the show will feel the comedy of the video game is true to the comedy of the show.

"We're not looking to become the next Halo, but for what it is, fans will like it," said Callahan. "The gameplay's fun. The comedy is satisfying. I think it will be a good time. We went into it knowing the type of game it would be."

Judging from early reaction to the game, which has been positive, it looks like "Family Guy" fans will have the chance to play additional games down the line. After all, it's the fans that bought millions of copies of the "Family Guy" DVDs and convinced Fox to bring the TV show back to prime time.

"I think Fox hopes to continue 'Family Guy' games," said Callahan. "A lot of that has to do with how the game sells, but also what the fans express an interest in. If there's ever been an example of a show where the fans have been heard, it's this one. The video game community is one that's able to make its desires known. If fans show an interest in this game and in other types of 'Family Guy' games, I think we'll see that. I think Fox would like to turn this into maybe a once-a-year event with a new 'Family Guy' video game."

The Hollywood Byte makes a weekly visit to the converging world of video games and traditional media.