Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Troy Baker's Starting a Game Studio?! - Kinda Funny Gamescast
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What's up everybody? Welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Monday, April 20th. Smoke it if you got it.
2026. I'm one of your host Greg Miller alongside Forbes 30 under 30, aka New York Game Awards nominated,
A. K.A. Bicep Poppy. Blessing at a yo-ye, Jr.
Good day, Greg. Good day. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you doing?
I'm excellent. I'm happy to be here with you. This, what do you call it? The morning? The breakfast beers. The breakfast beer. It's doing something to me.
I'm telling you what these Kirkland signature cold brew coffees in a can. That's what it's all about.
I feel the energy surging through my veins. I'm glad you do. I'm chasing a bunch of bourbon from a kind of funny podcast with this.
Oh, I'm feeling really good. Oh, wow. And speaking of feeling really good. Let's talk about somebody who's looking
really good. The voice of Jack Pepper in Mouse, P.I. for hire. It's Troy Baker. Oh, sorry. He's
got to finish his passage. He's got to finish his passage. I'll quiet it down. Wow.
What you're reading, Troy?
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. Did you ever read it? I have. Yes. It's a great, great book.
I'm about that far through it. Sure, sure. Hard cover. I like that. I like the hard cover.
I like the hardcover better. Yeah? Because afterwards, and I take the dust jacket off. I don't like,
I don't like that. I'm a reader. Yeah.
But it's one of those things where if I fall out of practice, I'll, like, go a while without reading.
Sure.
And then I picked up another book, and I just kept reading, kept reading, kept reading, because I want
to travel to read.
And I was like, I can't go, hey, you should read as I scroll on my phone.
Exactly.
So I started reading.
And now I'm like, yeah, I'm powering through books.
I like that.
I like that a lot.
See, yeah, I'm with you on the dust jackets.
I've been cooking up a BS.
That's a blue sky, Tim, about how children's book books should not have dust jackets at all.
because I'm in bed with Ben reading and the dust jackets falling on me
I'm just throw them away now I just throw them away
I also like this because you know if it
if it hits traveler in face then you know
that's a are you reading tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
no but there were I was reading nuclear war by Annie Jacobson
and he was like light reading it what you're reading dad I'm like
end of the world yeah he was like oh tell me more I'm like no
and if you would like look over and you're like
I'm like, you shouldn't, I can't stop.
Stop reading so well.
I do a lot of audiobooks on the drive to and from work.
And so when I drop Ben off at school, he'll climb in and it'll start up and I'll go to turn off and he always wants to listen.
So he, we're done with it now, but he heard a lot of Project Hail Mary.
Oh.
So I was stoked about that.
Traveler very much was with me as I, that's the book that I was reading before this.
And he was very much.
So what's going on with Grace now?
Yeah.
I won't get into
that's not this podcast.
Spoilers.
But can you, you know,
Invictus?
Oh my God.
100%.
That book is insane.
Oh my God.
I can't wait to go see the movie.
You haven't seen the movie?
No, we don't have any local family
and we don't have a reliable babysitter.
So movies are rare for us outside of work.
I'm not going to say anything.
Okay.
I know what happens.
But I also read The Martian,
and that movie was not accurate.
to the, it wasn't, I know what you're saying.
Drew Godd did a great job on the screenplay.
Won an Oscar.
Sure did.
Or nominated for an Oscar at least.
I,
I just,
it's really hard for me when I read a book.
Because when I read the book,
I was like,
how are you going to make this a movie?
I don't see how you're going to make this movie.
A lot of just sitting and talking.
You know what I got to me?
Burrito.
A burrito.
Yeah.
God, I'm ice.
I love you and I trust you so much.
I'm so weird with food.
I know.
I'm just,
I'm counting down.
I'm going to see if like that burrito's,
you are going to be fine.
Fine. Blessing, tell him the...
It's a great burrito.
You're gonna be fine.
It's not a gross burrito truck.
It's a very nice...
I don't doubt that.
One block up.
I don't doubt that.
I've only had an upset stomach
from that burrito, maybe like...
That's not gonna help them.
Out of how many times I've eaten there, though, you know?
Seven.
If I get diarrhea on this...
Like that.
Like that?
It's gonna happen like that.
You have a great outfit.
We haven't talked about this yet.
Yeah, what is this?
Who are you wearing?
You're gonna give me so much shit.
No.
There is a store in Rome.
Okay, yep.
I'm gonna give a shit.
I take it back, actually, no.
Well, I mean, you look great, because this is like, if you're an audio listener,
it looks like he's in the blazers, well, a suit hoodie,
but it's the suit, it is the hoodie.
These are the most, these are like stretchy.
I can fly in this and come straight and look presentable.
I literally came right off the plane off of here.
No.
And there's a store in Rome.
I walked past the store window thing, and I was like,
I want all of that.
And so the guy goes,
okay,
I was like,
do you have a store in L.A.?
He goes,
we don't have a store
in the United States.
It goes,
but if you're on WhatsApp,
give me your number,
I will give you 20%
off free shipping on anything.
I'm not plugging it.
No,
I know.
I love,
I just love,
that's a great one.
Yeah.
How much should you set you back?
Tell me.
Is that bad?
Yeah,
because I'd like to wear this kind of outfit.
I will hook you.
I will give you a number.
I'm not saying I'm not saying I can buy it off of place.
Don't give you a sideout.
I know, it's hard for me to imagine.
Troy can pull it off.
You don't think I can pull that off?
The sweatshirt blazer?
Yeah.
Oh, no.
I'm gonna take off this sweatshirt.
So for you audio listers,
that guy is in a little code.
I will.
Go ahead.
Spiritless Spider-Man.
Oh.
This photographer.
No, no, no, no, no.
Oh, I take it back.
If I ask you.
Again, it's hanging weird
because I'm a much bigger man.
To look.
Oh, come on.
I can rock that.
I mean, I wouldn't wear my t-shirt
with my face on it with it.
Yeah, I think you could do it actually.
If I wore just a plain black shirt.
I look like a professor.
How comfy is that, though?
The real comfy.
See?
Also, what is your, what's your scent?
My scent?
Yeah, yeah.
What are you wearing?
Because you always smell like this.
Mystery.
Yeah, I feel like that's one thing.
That's one thing that you got to gatekeep.
You can let us know where you have the sweatshirt blazer, but...
The scent is for you.
This is like what I wanted to wear Megarans's a sweatsuit.
He's like, no.
I literally...
I don't know if I'm going to give you or Jen this guy's number and be like, this is my buddy.
Call him and like he'll hook you up and you'll look amazing.
Okay.
Remember, Jen, my birthday's two weeks away?
Oh, fuck, that's right.
I can't believe 61.
Crazy, right?
I'm so much old.
Everybody, welcome to the kind of funny games cast where we talk about the biggest topics in video games each and every weekday.
Of course, if you want to be part of the show, we usually tell you to super chat.
but heads up, this is on a delay, as you might have guessed, because of course, Troy Crash.
Nice to be here.
Podcast on Tuesday. Thank you so much for that.
That's the delay.
What?
I'm answering the first question.
You said, hello to me.
I'm on, I'm on a delay.
I fucking dislike you.
I just like you.
Thank you for coming up and doing this and making time to be part of this.
Of course, thank you to our producers on patreon.com slash kind of funny.
Carl Jacob.
So make a buster and Delaney the song twining for letting us live this little dream that is kind of funny.
Of course, you can contribute with a membership, but I'll tell you about that later.
For now, let's begin the show with,
with what is and forever will be.
Topic of the show.
Tats, tats, tuts, tuts, tuts.
You missed your cue baker.
Damn it.
I was, I always, I've seen you do it countless times,
but every time I still am,
stand in amazement and marveled by the fact that you,
there's no teleprompter.
You do that off the dome.
Yeah, yeah.
Not off the dome.
Like you've said it so many times.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But I mean, yeah.
There's a little audio cues, you know what I mean?
But that's how it is when we watch you.
What?
That kind of funny podcast,
just did. Again, as the chat was saying, dropping bars, dropping bars, you were all about it.
I was dropping bars? Yeah, you were. Good stuff on fatherhood. We're not here to talk about
fatherhood anymore. We're here to talk about mouse PI for hire. This close to learning a new phrase.
Of course, Steam description, join private investigator Jack Pepper. That's you. On a gun,
guns blazing jazz fueled adventure in Mouse PI for hire, mouse combines the charm and hand-drawn
rubber hose animation inspired by the classic cartoons of the 1930s with the adrenaline and action
of an explosive first-person shooter.
Developer Fumey Games, publisher-playside.
Of course, it released last week on Thursday.
It's out for $30.
Me and Andy recommend it.
You caught our games cast review of it,
each of us giving it a 7 out of 10
and saying it's good
and being incredibly excited for the future.
Mr. Baker.
Yos.
As I said, on the kind of funny podcast,
just a second ago, for much bourbon,
I love you, and I love you as a friend.
We've known each other a long time.
This is a real friendship outside of the normal,
you know, just somebody I hang out with or whatever.
A Rob Paulson.
My question for you is your career is so diverse.
And what I love so much about you
is that while you are Troy Baker,
Joel Miller, the last of us,
the highest of heights,
you're on the HBO show on top of that.
I mean, like,
you've ascended to such heights.
You still come and do cool little projects
like Mouse P.I. for hire.
And even to the point where I've approached you privately
and been like, hey, there's some kids in dreams
who would love you to record a couple lives.
You're like, yeah, no problem.
I got it.
I'll be an octopus.
What do I got to do?
I love this industry.
Yeah.
And I think that I've, you know, 2013, especially,
God damn, that was a long time ago.
Yeah.
I made a name for myself,
not because of my own necessarily decisions,
my strategy.
It was just that's,
those are the people that cast me in these huge titles.
So I got the branded as like the AAA guy.
and that's not necessarily who I wanted to be
or thought that I was
but the fact is, I like good stories,
like good, I want to be in a game
that I want to play, period.
That's it. And so, when I saw this pop up
four years ago, three years ago, whatever it was,
I was like, damn, that it looks really, really cool.
I was still reeling from Cuphead because that game,
fucking, geez, just.
And then they happened to reach out.
this almost never happens
where a game that I was like,
oh, that'd be awesome to be in,
calls me as like,
hey, we think you could do this.
And I was like, all right, I'll listen to you.
And we talked and I was like,
I think I could give this some fun.
If this is what you're wanting to do,
are you wanting, what's the tone of the game?
And they were like, 100%,
it's a homage to Maltese Falcon in the film noir,
but it's viewed through the lens of like naked gun.
And I went,
I'm in 100%.
If we're going to have fun with this and have a humor about it.
And I was, I think it was actually traveling with my family.
And they're like, we really need to kind of get something done for this trailer.
I was like, well, I'm in London.
And they're like, can you record now?
I was like, yeah.
So I walked into my first session was done in London.
And we just jumped on, you know, part, God, cracking the safe is so much fun.
I agree.
With the whole team
And some of them are in Europe
Some of them are in L.A., some of them are in Australia.
And so we kind of all gathered around
And some had bourbon and some had coffee.
And we just dove into what the game wanted to be,
what the tone of it was going to be,
and who the character was going to be.
We had a blast.
What does it look like for a game to come through
and have you like, oh, I got to be a part of that?
Because when I look at you post Indiana Jones
in The Great Circle, which is a game that I really enjoyed.
You know, not everybody at this table,
but I really
that game.
That is a role
that you're coming into
of a
seven.
Crazy.
Six five.
Fucking off.
Crazy.
Get it right.
Insane.
Shit.
But you're getting to
jump into this legendary role
that was played by a legendary
actor and I imagine
there is a glow
coming out of that
and being like,
wow, I'm Troy Baker out
on top of the world kind of
thing.
For you talking about
mouse PI for hire
and then being able
to present that to you
and being like,
oh damn, that's really cool.
Let me jump into that.
Like, does that happen as often?
Like, what does that look
like for a game?
No.
I will never forget
I was on this movie once
nobody saw it
but we made a great movie
it's called Comanche Moon
and I made some great friends
on that and one of them was Steve Zon
no way
you know Steve Zon? Yeah
I love him dude he's one of the greatest
humans walking the planet and he's an incredibly
fiscously talented actor
he just wrote co-wrote a movie that's out right now
I cannot be I wish I could remember the name sorry Steve
like New Yorker
or the New Yorker did an
article with him. He's incredible. And he was so surprised to learn that I learned so much from him
just by the very nature of him being who he is. She dances. She dances? Yeah, it's about his daughter.
Thank you very much for a letter. She does. I think it's out now. We're coming out soon because
they're pounding the pavement on it right now. We rap and he goes, well, back to the audition
circuit. And I went, what? He goes, you think I got a script tree in my backyard? He goes, I work
for a living. And I was like, wow, it was a big perspective shift for me because I thought I was like,
well, okay, I've done a movie. I guess I just make money now. And like, it was like this,
tuition that I needed to pay or something and or initiation fee. And what I realized is like, I can
come off of, I always say this, Coupa Gooding Jr., his movie after he did,
Jerry McGuire was the dog sled movie.
He won the Oscar for Jerry McGuire
and the dog sled movie after that.
So you're never done.
You can never rest on your laurels.
So yeah, I'm coming off the glow.
This is what I love.
I texted you about this too.
We're living in the Schrodinger's box right now
because I'm nominated for two BAFTA.
And there's people that are watching this
that are either going, hooray, or, I don't know.
And I don't know.
That could be either way that I win.
or lose, but it's just funny because I don't know.
But I'm nominated for both Indiana Jones
and for Higgs and Death Stranding.
Ah, Higgs.
And we can talk about that too.
It doesn't, it's a wonderful accomplishment
and I'm honored to be recognized and all of that.
But that doesn't convert into anything.
In some ways, I actually learned this in 2013.
It was a big, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
from the industry.
Because to come out and do
Bioshock Infinite and then do The Last of Us and then do Arkham Origins.
People are like, that's enough of that Baker guy.
We learned our lesson with Nolan North.
We let him in.
We cracked the door.
He was in everything.
We couldn't get him out.
He's in the walls.
There was a real problem.
He got to talk about Ben Star soon.
Oh, man.
You'll have a conversation about Ben Star.
Look.
He'll work for a cookie.
That's the problem.
I love Ben.
And if he wasn't as talented and charming and nice and handsome,
fuck him.
but he is all of those things.
Yeah, that's a problem.
And I don't think he's,
I think he's going to be just fine.
The problem that Nolan North had
is that it wasn't they cast Nolan North
in so many games.
They cast Nate Drake in every game.
So I had to quickly go,
well, I bet you didn't see this coming,
or I bet you didn't see this coming,
and then still be able to deliver
when someone gave me an opportunity.
So when we stepped up to do this,
whenever I go,
I don't know if I can do that.
I'm like, because of Travis Willing,
him honestly. I was like, well, shit, now I got to try.
And 100%,
I don't even know if the deal was done when I did my
first session with this.
But I know that I walked in, and they could have been like,
thank you so much for coming in.
Guys, I think we're, I think we're good. Yeah.
Yeah. We're going to go different direction. We're going to go in a different
direction. And fortunately, they didn't.
Because we had, I did the majority of this from
from my home studio,
I should have brought this picture.
Traveler,
I'm going to tie that into the other podcast.
Traveler created this whole character.
He's like, are you doing mouse?
And I'm like, yeah, he was like,
tell him I got a character for him.
And he drew a character.
No way.
And like, here's the name,
had a full backstory for it.
And I'm like, fingers crossed,
if we do any DLC,
you're going to put that character in there.
That's awesome.
But it's like, to me,
it was the art style.
It was the story.
and more than anything, it's the team that I love
more than anything.
Is that rare?
Yes, I was going to say common.
I was going to go the other way of like,
I think, you know, you get to work on so many different projects,
which is great, but I was wondering how many are the,
not for you, but the rinse and repeat,
here are the lines, here are the thing, we got it down.
Thank you so much, Mr. Baker.
We'll see you later, versus your son's invested.
This team's awesome.
You get to see them in person.
I mean, that, that,
Last part is definitely rare.
But I will say this, if,
I don't have a problem saying no to things.
And much to the frustration of my agent
and even sometimes my wife,
she's like, take the job.
I refuse to work out of a place to fear.
And because the second that I do,
I feel like I'm, I don't know,
it's a slippery slope.
I just have to always trust,
I'm just swinging through the jungle
and I'm going from one bind to the next,
And I just have to, I let go of this one and just trust that there's going to be one there.
And it's a really weird time in the industry right now.
And I understand it.
I don't blame, but we could have that whole conversation we want to, but I don't blame the industry.
Because if we really want to come down to it, I was just talking to Tim Gettys about this.
Like, if you read Matthew Ball's Gaming Report, which a lot of people in the industry did,
you'll find out that the number one thing, the number one thing that is contributing to the decline of not only player engagement,
but people watching shows and their retention of character and story are notifications.
Sure.
So we're all guilty of doing this.
So I can sit here and blame, you know, C-sweets and everything.
But the reality is, is like, I'm guilty of it too.
I'll pull up my phone, but excuse me.
And I will disengage from conversation or from watching or from playing just as much as anybody.
And until we course correct that, we're not going to see any industry, entertainment or otherwise, rebound from that.
But I understand that it's not always going to be trending up.
I'm not always going to be like the headliner and everything.
I'm going to find this dynamism.
And it's my responsibility for me to ride that wave as responsibly as I can.
But when somebody comes to me and they go,
we think that you can do this,
I've learned at this point to not be arrogant and maybe listen to their opinion.
And if they think that I can do something,
then I'm going to trust their opinion more than my,
because they know more about their game than I do.
Sure.
So I go, okay, let's give it a shot.
And if they ever go, you know what?
And that's happened before.
I got fired off of the Max, Mad Max game.
Oh, okay.
I shot for three days on it, four days, whatever, and they were like, he's not right.
And they got Brian Bloom.
He did a great job.
So, I mean, I'm not always, I don't always say yes or say no when I should, but I always say yes when I should.
And it's, it's taken me a long time to finally just learn how,
to use discernment and say
say yes
less than I'm saying
no what does the yes look like
for you and what does a no look like for you
one of the I watched a movie last night
called the drama which I know it's very popular
right now it stars Zendaya
okay um and
there was a quote that was going around from Zendaya
where she was talking about how after this year
she has to disappear yeah because this year
she's in five movies or whatever
she's in Spider-Man she's an Odyssey
Dune she's in Dune 3
and she's like, people are, euphoria,
and she's afraid that people are going to get sick of her, right?
So she's like, I got to go away for some time
and have people miss me a little bit.
I think there's, first of all,
I applaud her for being aware.
I think that also Tom Holland may have a little bit of a,
maybe informing that opinion a little bit
because he certainly experienced that,
where it's, you know, Tom, Tim Salome is the new Tom Holland.
Oh, sure.
Whereas he was in everything.
Everybody wants Timothy Shalami.
Everyone's pitching something is like,
well, he's got Timothy Shalamey and Sidney Swain.
need it. And I think that
you have to have that awareness, but I
would really want to drill down into what she said
if there's a difference between I think I need to
disappear versus I fear that I have to disappear.
Like, you know what I mean? Like, if she's like,
maybe people won't like me, it's like, well, why are you doing this?
Because if you're doing this, I'm not doing this
because I'm afraid people, I'm trying to please people.
I did Silent Hill too. There's people that
fucking hate me. You know what I mean?
there's people that
you could find just as many posts
saying that Troy Baker is the worst thing in video games
to people that think that Troy Baker is the best thing in video games
I hate to speak about myself in the third person
so I can't be the reason why I do this
there's jobs that I do that are like
you're gonna pay me that many dollars for this
okay and there's ones that's like
you know what I understand
whatever you got will work because I really want to do this project
or somebody calls me up as I'll
I'll do it for free
It's like, well, that's against a setup.
I get to choose what I do with my voice or my talents that I've been given.
So I try to make the best decision that I can, but I can't do this because I'm either trying to please people
or avoid what I think they want because there is no telling.
I'll never forget.
I love this team, but we did, Roger Clark and I did a game, and we had an amazing time working on this game.
And he and I put in the work.
and Roger specifically did an incredible job.
I think I did a very good job.
I'm proud of both of our work.
But I walked out onto the stage with Jeff Keely to promote a game,
and by the time I walked back off that stage,
the review embargo had lifted,
and we were like in the high 60s, low 70s.
I'm still proud of my work.
It didn't sell well.
I didn't get a lot of awards for it,
but I'm proud of what the team did.
I'm proud of what we did.
I'm good.
And so it's not always about,
are people going to like this?
Are people not going to like this?
Should I go away?
Should I not?
I get this long, man.
And if someone thinks that I'm good at something,
again, it's not saying yes to everything.
It's saying yes for the right reasons.
I'm folding more hands that I'm in,
to use a poker analogy.
But she's so talented.
Oh, she's incredible.
Right?
So I look at that and go,
I'm fine with,
because her character in Odyssey is nowhere near the character that she's playing in Euphoria.
So to me, I look at that and go, wow, she's really, really diverse.
But again, it's not my career.
It's hers.
She gets to do whatever she wants.
How many, you talked about, we joked about Nolan and people casting.
We were joking?
Certain parts of it.
But definitely the reality, what you're talking about, of when it was, people burned out on Nolan because it was,
oh, be Nathan Drake, and it was
the
Assassin's
the Void game I make fun of all the time.
Dark Void, sure.
Yeah, whatever it was.
But it was just go be Nate Drake,
go be Nate Drake.
It wasn't until like, for a lot of people,
it was Batman games when he showed.
It was penguin.
You're like, oh my God, that's Nolan North.
And it was like, oh, right.
For you, do you find that
when people are approaching you,
are they asking you to experiment?
Or are they asking you to be Detroit Baker?
Like, can we get Joel?
There's a lot of,
there have been a, there was one game.
pretty soon after Last of Us came out,
they're like, okay, so what we're really looking for
is a grizzle survivor
and a zombie apocalypse,
maybe as a Southern accent,
I'm like, hey, you know what?
I've done that, man.
I think you could find somebody else
that could do their take on it.
There's an amazing game coming out right now.
Oh my God, Hilford Games.
Long gone.
Oh, my gosh.
Sorry, buddy.
Oh, yeah, long gone.
And everybody was like, oh, you know, Troy should do this.
It's another zombie game.
I'm like, no.
And even the, I've been talking to Hilford games just to support him
because I love supporting indie devs.
And he was like, I want to find somebody that nobody expects.
And I'm like, dude, let me help you.
Whatever I can do.
And I started signal boosting.
He was like, he did an open casting call to be able to find the person that's
going to be there next lead.
There is, exactly.
I'm super excited to play this game.
I cannot wait.
And especially with the understanding who he's going
for in his casting, it's going to be incredible
and something completely different than anything else that we've ever
seen. So,
I,
again, the Nolan North
thing is
that was such a, Nate Drake is such a great character.
He's such a Swiss Army knife solution
to no matter what kind of game
that it is.
I don't blame him. And I think that I, just like Nolan
did with Penguin and so many, he was Blaze.
Did you guys ever get into Blaze?
Yes, of course we have. To which I
of T.
Blazing the monster machines.
It's a...
Let's Blaze!
Yeah, yeah, right.
Gotcha.
I'm...
One of my...
One of my many gifts
is a good ear
for all y'all.
Where when you pop up,
I'm like,
that's Troy.
Okay, whatever.
And so like,
when Ben put on,
we put on Blaze for the first time
and I was like doing...
And I was like,
wait a second.
I was like,
play it again.
I'm like,
that's Nolan.
And then even like,
the Disney storybooks on Spotify
where Nolan's like
narrating Frozen.
I'll text him all time.
Like,
I cannot get away from you.
Dude.
Right, it's hilarious because Traveler,
we do the call map,
and so a lot of times when we're going to sleep,
we'll listen to like whatever story or whatever.
Traveler for a while has been stuck on one story
that is Robin versus the Restless Night,
K-N-I-G-H-T,
narrated by Matt Mercer.
I'm like, I text him and just like,
I fall asleep listening to you every night.
But a funny story,
it's not a, it's not a,
It's not a secret.
There was a brief period of time where Nolan and I were on the outs, right?
As all friends are wanted to do.
But right around that time is when Traveler discovered Blaze,
and so that's all that was playing in the living room.
I'm just like, yes, Daddy will let you watch Blaze.
It was great.
I love him being able to tell him that.
But most people don't know what Nolan is truly capable of.
Oh, yeah.
They know him for his voice because it's such a good,
believable voice.
But that is,
there was a quote,
Jimmy Vaughn,
who was the brother,
Stevie Ray Vaughn,
said, I play 90%
of what I know.
He's a great guitarist.
He goes,
Stevie played about 10.
And Stevie Ray Vaughan
is known as the greatest car.
He's like,
if you knew what he was
capable of playing,
he only,
he, what made him so good
as he had the taste
to only play was appropriate.
And that's Nolan.
Nolan, if people knew
what he was capable of,
the range that he has,
not only as from a vocal ability,
but also just from an acting ability,
you lose your mind.
And he only lets you see about 10 to 20%.
And that has won accolades and awards
and established franchises.
Don't even think that no one
and I don't like each other.
I love that man.
Same thing with Jennifer Hale.
When I bump into Jennifer Hale a lot nowadays
on the storybooks or whatever.
And I'm like, damn, like, I won't even catch it
for the longest time and then she says something.
She's so good.
Commander Shepard, wait, there it is.
Okay, I know what we're talking about.
I can always tell people by their efforts,
like their screams, their yells, their falls.
I was like, son of a bitch, that's Fred Tatashore.
I forget what it was.
I think it was Barrett who caught you in something.
And he's like, that's the persona for effort Troy does.
And I'm, damn it, you're right.
And I didn't get to that.
I'm very limited.
I'm very, very limited.
Speaking of Fred Tatasurer, Fred Tatasurer is in our game.
He plays John Brown.
And I didn't know that until I heard it was like, is that Fred?
And they're like, yeah, we've got Fred Tattoo.
And they're like, whoa.
I'm so opposite from Barrett and Greg, where I can never.
catch a voice actor and anything that I consume.
And so I was telling you outside there that like I'm,
I was playing screamer and I get to the credits and I see your name pop up in the credits.
And I was like,
you were the villain?
Like you were this guy the entire time, right?
And like,
I find that so impressive when I'm able to like see that,
but then also see Higgs and death straining too and go,
damn, like, Troy's killing it in here.
Or then see Indiana Jones.
And like, for me,
if people aren't telling me that that's you,
I cannot tell that that's you.
And for me,
that is such a talent to have,
right?
that is like the being able to morph into these different characters.
You didn't should stay on me for that.
Damn,
you bear it on the outside of it.
Is that,
is that your superpower?
Like,
what do you look at as the thing that makes Troy Baker,
Troy Baker?
What was the podcast about before?
Dad,
Dadcast.
Yeah.
That,
that's my superpower.
That's,
that's when I feel like I'm,
I'm capable of anything is when,
when Traveler tells me that I,
that, uh,
I do a good job.
Um,
I don't know,
man.
you only see what I can do.
You don't what I mean?
You don't see the roles that I've gone out for
and not gotten them.
You don't see the takes that I blew it
and they fortunately trashed that.
You don't see my bad.
You only see my good.
And that is more to the credit of the team
and their ability to cobble together
something that works for their game
based upon whatever I did,
the input that I gave.
So it's one of the reason
is why I love games so much is that
something puts a camera on me.
Theater, first of all,
holy crap.
Theater is, man, you are out there, it is you.
I have watched people bomb.
Comedy is the same way.
It is you for seven minutes.
Scarpino is like, dude, one of the bravest forms
of entertainment, because it is just
you, and it is fresh every night.
And I did comedy twice.
One time, I killed,
and the second time I bombed. And I was like,
nope, it's not me.
a comic can get up and be that, do that.
Pete Holmes is a buddy of mine.
I'm like, I don't know how you do it.
And I remember one time after one of his sets,
he goes, man, you guys were weird tonight.
I was like, you killed.
He was like, no, man, I kept trying to go,
show me your 10.
I need to know where your 10 is,
so I don't hit it too early
because I know where I need to go.
And if I hit your 10,
I'll never get you after that.
And I was like, he was like,
I was moving stuff around.
I saw the same set that he did
out close to my house and then
in Vancouver.
And the difference between where things
say was like different crowd, man.
I had a difference between 500 people
and like 2,500 people, whatever it was.
You play it differently.
And making a game
is such a collaborative thing
to where I'm in my little booth
specifically with this kind of setup
to where it's me, a mic,
a script, and a Zoom call.
And it's up to us to kind of
go, okay, I'm trusting them because they know how this is going to sit in engine. I don't yet.
To me, I'm in a story beat, right? But they're going, okay, we just came out of this.
Oh, so how is, I know that you want to give this specific kind of performance, but we also know
there's nothing worse than coming out of a big boss battle and hearing somebody go, so I knew that I
had to fight. You're like, that's not what just happened, man. You should be like,
that was close.
Like, it's the understanding
of what's the moment before
and the moment after,
which is something
that an actor typically
concerns themselves with
but never really understands in a game
because more often than not,
when you're making a game,
you're going to hear these words.
We don't know yet.
And it's the actor's responsibility
to trust.
That's all you can just go,
got it.
And I know there's so many devs
that are sitting there going,
why didn't you just trust us?
Baker, but, you know, it's my job to push against and then find out what my, what my barriers are
and how much, that's collaboration to me. I think as someone who knows your work so well and
knows you so well, right, if blessing would have been kind enough to ask me, what's Troy Baker
superpower? I would have honestly said, I think it's what makes so many of the great voice
actors special. And the superpower, I think is empathy as an actor, where I think, I think,
think when I think about you and Laura and Travis and Dave,
andinole and Melissa, like the list goes on of people who have come in.
I'm like, holy crap, you're like you're on another level.
Rob Pulsome.
It really is this idea that y'all experience the emotions in a way where I feel like
I see five colors and you see 30.
Like it's that I'll never forget, Troy, I don't even know if it was a moment
that would ever stand out for you.
But you put on an album and it was pretty dang good.
And everyone should go listen to it.
And when you came up and played in San Francisco,
you played a very small club.
It was the milk bar maybe.
Was that what else?
Yeah, milk bar.
Went and saw it and I was like row two and it was great.
And in the middle of a song, you stopped.
You got choked up.
And then you went back into it.
And I was like, that was an interesting thing.
And again, I don't know music the way I know other forms of live entertainment.
And I know comedy, especially from seeing Nick so much and, you know, his experience with it.
And I was like, oh, this must be something he does in the song that he, you know what I mean, whatever.
And afterwards, we went out for drinks and dinner, and Pam turned to you.
It was like, so what happened in that song?
And I was like, oh, that was genuine.
And it was, I'm going to get it all wrong.
But it was, I want to say, something had happened in Paris.
There had been some kind of terrorist attack or something or a knife attack.
Yeah.
And your song was tied to that or in your memory was.
And it hit you in that moment.
And you live that moment on stage.
And it was like, damn, that's, you're seeing five.
D, you know what I mean, when I'm just reading a page.
And I think that carries over to your work so well, where it, obviously, you want to jump
to The Last of Us and Joel.
You want to jump to the big, big, bombastic roles where there are this meaty store.
But I've seen you do that with so many roles to your point of talking to a developer,
talking to whoever is in the VO room with you or the Zoom call with you about what is the
motivation here.
And this is what I'm feeling.
And not in a aristocratic, I'm smelling my own farts actor way, but in a way of I'm
I'm living this moment right now,
and I think that's why you're so special.
Thank you, dude.
I take that compliment.
And I do remember that moment.
And I think that every actor works differently,
and there's not a bad way to do it.
I think that any time your process encroaches upon others,
whether it be cast or crew,
that behavior should be checked privately.
but my job is
you know I
there is I look at this as
this is a real person having a real moment
in a real world with other real people
that's what's happening
and Tom Keegan one of my favorite moments with him
as a director is he was like
this is all bullshit
it's all bullshit
stop trying to pretend
that it's real it's not
but this is real
So we can play this moment and then let them put the character model over you and the backdrop and the set upon you and the context of everything.
Let them worry about that.
Right now just have a real moment.
So whatever you're feeling in this moment is right.
I feel lost and confused.
Great.
Play that.
No, no, no, no.
I need to understand.
I need to feel confident.
Why?
Why do you need to feel confident?
No, you don't.
It's amazing to find a hero that's caught in a moment of vulnerability.
Play that.
That's all you have to do.
Play this moment.
because you know what?
If it doesn't work, fuck it.
We'll do it again.
We'll do another one.
But for this take, play whatever you're feeling in this moment.
Perfect example is you look at Raiders.
The scene where there was a whole choreographed scene
where Indiana Jones, with his whip,
was going to go against the guy with the scimitar.
And what happens?
Pulls out the gun and he shoots him.
Why?
Because Harrison Ford had dysentery.
And he was shitting his pants
and all he wanted to do was get through that one setup
so he can go back to his trailer
and continuing to shit himself.
That's the whole reason why that happens.
Harrison Ford is responsible for some of the greatest moments
of cinematic history,
but by the very nature of being who he was.
I know, completely improvised line.
It's those moments where you go,
hey, worst case scenario is they don't use this,
but this is what I'm feeling in this moment.
Sometimes it works to my benefit.
Other times, it works to my detriment.
And I have to rely on the team going,
that's incredible.
That's amazing.
It won't work.
And let me tell you why.
And those are the kind of relationships
that I try to build.
Those are the teams
that I want to work with
because I feel comfortable
and brave enough to fail
and they're open enough
to maybe have their minds changed.
And it's like, huh,
maybe this is a quiet moment.
We thought,
any team that deals in terms of adjectives
I'm instantly allergic to,
you're angry.
Okay?
What does angry mean?
Well, you know, you're yelling.
Yelling.
Got it.
I get really, really quiet when I get angry.
You'll know when I'm angry, so I'm not talking.
When you say angry, I'm going to get really quiet.
You want me to be loud, so you want me to impose myself upon you.
That's playable.
Angry is not playable.
Tragic is not playable.
So you want verbs.
Give me.
I think it was Ethan Hawk that said this.
Adjectives are for critics, verbs are for actors.
It was a video I saw in the last week.
I was talking about the same exact thing,
and I think it was the idea of the direction shouldn't be,
and he loves her.
It is, she walks in, and his heart melts when he sees her.
Like, that is something that you can,
you can do something with it.
Can I play that?
What can I play?
Some of the best direction, actually, believe it or not,
was Fortnite.
J.B. Blanc, I'm going to give him credit for this.
So you're not going to think that,
probably surprised you that was like,
so the best direction I've ever gotten was from Fortnite.
I knew Neil Druckman sucked.
but he had hack
Jabby looked at me
and he was like
don't mourn it yet
right now be awed by it
I was like
the grief of what that means
the gravity
if it could happen first
is like oh no
that's the moment
you're in right now
don't mourn it yet
it's gonna be gone soon
but right now
you're recognizing
the fact that it's gone
and I didn't give anything away
from 4-9
don't worry
but to me
that is exactly
what I'm supposed to do
as an actor's play this moment
play it moment to moment.
Where's my character?
I want to know where I'm going.
He's like, don't just play.
This is the moment that you're in right now.
And whenever I do that,
whenever I extend my hand for it to be held
as opposed to impose,
that's what I do my best work.
Hell yeah.
We're going to have more with Troy Baker
after a word from our sponsors.
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So Mr. Baker,
we did all this highfalutin acting.
How's that translate to you playing a mouse?
Right?
Yeah, right.
Like,
I mean,
it's like you're,
I think it's easy when we're talking about
you're holding your daughter,
she's been wounded this,
but then you're like,
I'm Jack Pepper and I'm going to drink fondue
because I'm down on my luck
and yet da da da da.
Barry Sonafeld,
if you,
uh,
his two books out,
uh,
call your mother and absolute,
best possible place.
worst possible time.
I fully recommend the audiobooks.
Barry Sondonfeld is like,
I mean, he directed men in black.
He was the cinematographer on Raising Arizona.
I mean, the guy's got an incredible,
incredible filmagery.
He talks about how you never want to play the comedy.
Don't play the comedy.
It's like, yeah, I'm trying to be funny.
It's like, nope, don't try to.
be funny, just come in and just, you play it straight. Jack Pepper has no idea he's in a comedy.
Jack Pepper, to him, this is his real life. He has a real mystery that he has to solve. Everything
else around it is what makes it funny. Everything else around, the timing of it, all the other
characters, but he has to be the one thing that's kind of like anchored in this. So, like, to me,
I'm like, I'm not, I'm not going as like, how do you do this? And he's not, to him being a mouse is
not, isn't that hilarious? Of course. Right? Just, just play a real person.
And especially, I've experienced this before with stuff like Bioshock,
where you're like, how do I sell this with this?
All I've got is this.
Which, by the way, I play more with Mitz than I do anything else.
It is, like, the boomstick is great and everything.
But I love just going in just like Captain and Lieutenant, I don't have a cute
words.
You haven't named your fist yet.
Okay.
Lightning and thunder, that'd be good.
Lighting and thunder, thunder, thunder, and lightning.
There you go.
This always happens first, and then this is second.
No, to me it was understanding,
really using Leslie Nielsen as kind of a...
Sure.
You know, Humphrey Bogart meets Leslie Nielsen
and having that thing where it's that...
It's that...
The lighting is doing a lot of the work,
the animation is doing a lot of the work,
but the music is doing so much of it.
But just don't try to sell
the joke. Just don't
sell the joke. Let the joke sell itself.
Was this the first voice
that you did for Jack Pepper when you
stepped into the role? Or like, when they gave
you the pitch and you were like, all right, here, I got it?
Yeah, we were sitting there in that booth in London and I
was like, okay,
you know, everyone's waiting, right?
Because we've all signed on.
There was no audition.
It wasn't like... This is the great Troy Baker.
They don't need to worry. I don't audition.
If they make me audition,
I quit.
Under no circumstance.
You must audition.
I'm not going to do it.
But yeah, we're all pot committed, and they're like,
they can always, you know, worst case scenario costs them, you know, sets it back a little
bit and they move on, they find somebody else.
But what do they think costs them time.
Yeah.
But a lot of ways, I've seen this before with like, glad we spent that money to find out
what we don't want.
I've had that word, unnecessarily with me.
Of course.
Where other people we've castes like, who's like, that's not the right person for this.
I shot something one time.
in my, as a director,
first shot,
first scene,
first setup,
two actors,
both great actors,
two actors,
28 takes later.
I'm like,
yeah, we gotta recast this guy.
It's not gonna work.
And he would have worked great in another role.
This one wasn't for him.
Buddy, that's on us.
And the executive producer comes over to me
and he was like,
you're absolutely sure you can't salvage this.
I was like, cannot salvage it.
He goes,
it's about a $250,000 mistake.
And I was like, heard.
He's like, can't happen again.
I was like, hurt.
And I had to take it on the chin.
But we found out what the character couldn't be
and what it needed to be.
So there's nothing wrong with that.
But when I walked in and they were like,
just let's, you know, that's, uh,
Josh Dean was our performance director.
And he was like, let's hear what you got.
Cook it up there, Baker, what you got?
Here are just butt holes,
tightening as and you know
I was like I
so it's
we've got like a city vibe for this
so it kind of needs to feel like it's
not New York but leaning
east coasts are like sure
and so I kind of like teed myself
up to where it's it's gonna be
kind of natural as like we probably want
this to feel like it belongs
and it's like yeah so it seems
to me that maybe something down here
would be right and they were like
silent I'll go oh no
this is you know maybe
I hear Josh kind of like
lean a speggle, well it's just, and we export
all the ways like, just what do you sound like?
I was like, you know, this is Jack
and I was like, my fear is that
it's going to be me and people
are like to like, yeah, so and we
kind of went all the way around after the first
you know 30 minutes or so and then we landed
on that guy. That's fascinating.
Is it? Yeah, for sure.
It's very bored you. What does it look
like when you have that creative
collaboration with
in that scenario where it sounds like it is,
is okay we can have this back and forth.
We can be able to work together
versus something that's not as smooth.
Defined smooth.
Is it not smooth because, okay.
Like maybe they're not as open to the collaboration.
Yeah, so there's two reasons why.
Either A, they're not open,
which is just as much my fault as it is theirs.
Because I should have had more conversant.
Whenever someone expressed interest
or I express interest in a game,
first thing that I want to do, before we talk money,
before we talk anything else,
let me get on the phone with the creative.
Let's jump on it.
It's so easy now.
Let me jump on a Zoom.
I've flown up to studios before.
It's like, I'm on my dime.
I'll go to Seattle or New York or London sometimes.
Let me sit and meet with the team.
No, London twist my arm.
Oh, no.
Oh, are you in here?
I had no problem sitting down with the creative and going,
I don't know if I'm the right solution for this,
but I'm willing to explore if you are.
If we find out by the end of the conversation that I'm not,
no harm, no foul, know that you've got a day one player.
Cool, because I'm interested in your game.
But if I haven't identified the fact that, ooh, we've got a,
maybe it's a writer, maybe there's an animation director
that really has their own kind of feel of how this should be.
If I haven't identified where those problems are and gone,
let's make sure that we are all synced up,
that we're all making the same game.
a lot of times I find out
once we've all gotten in the car
and on our way to Disneyland
that we're not all driving in the same direction
I was giving my question is how far have you gotten to that process
before you realize oh no this is not a good fit here
typically I find out pretty damn quick
when I hear a lot of times a writer go
don't worry I'm not precious about my riding
I mean
be it
like yes you are
because you wouldn't tell me that
and this is not to knock any
writers because I've heard
writers say that and have sincerely
meant it but for the most part
it's more about hey
can I try this first of all I really
have changed the way that I
work whereas before we're like we need to change this
line now I come and this is
thanks to Neil Druckman I'll be like
hey is there something about
this line or this scene
or this story or this character
that I don't understand
and they may go oh you know what
we completely forgot to tell you.
It's a famous story that Al Pacino
when he was doing heat.
You know,
that's where we get a lot of those
she's got a great ass, those big
performances, right? Well,
a lot of people know this, but
his character
was a cocaine addict.
And so here's a cop
that's doing blow throughout the entire
movie and is gacked out of his mind
so that when you get that scene,
between he and Robert De Niro and the diner.
De Niro's looking at him like,
dude,
I,
you're like,
you just did a rail before you sat down?
Did you do a bump in the car?
I can tell that you're high,
and you're going to judge me?
You have the moral high ground over me?
It makes that whole thing so interesting.
Michael Mann cut it out of the movie.
And so Pacino found out,
he was like,
I base my entire character.
Oh, but a cocaine.
And now that it's out, it's like, it changes things.
So I always want to make sure,
is like, hey, is there anything about this character,
anything about this story, anything you haven't told me yet?
Because maybe there is something like, oh, God is like, yeah,
Ken Levine kept the fact that, you know,
you can't have any romantic relationship with each other.
It's like, you go, stop flirting.
It's like, that's not where this story is going.
So to me, it's always important to identify that as quickly as possible.
So if I start sniffing around,
and feeling that kind of obstruction or that obstacle
or the roads aren't as smooth,
I'm going to stop and I'm going to ask some questions.
But typically what happens,
the reason why that happens is because
that's not happening back at the studio.
And there's some animation director
wants to take it in this direction,
but the narrative director wants to take it in this direction,
the creative director is trying to wrangle those two.
But all of that comes,
makes itself very well known
when we're all either on the stage
or in the booth together.
this is kind of I guess
funny
asking the horse
about why the rider wants to do something
but in your instance
why would a Ken Levine
or anybody want to hold that back
why would they want to or not have told
you something like that that's key to your character
because it doesn't matter
it doesn't matter and even
Tom Keegan and I had this fight
you know why do you need to know
this because I need to know
to understand. He's like, no, you're afraid. You're afraid that
you're saving your big moment for that big scene and you want to make sure that
you want to find your 10. It's like, this isn't comedy. You're not a comic. You're not
up here by yourself. Just trust me. And some of the best advice that Tom gave me
were on set for Indiana Jones is I had, I've told this story several times, but I
had this moment where on Friday, I was holding on so tight to the character that
I hadn't allowed anything else to really come in.
I was like, I just, I was trying to do an impression and really wow people with, whoa.
He sounds like Harrison Ford.
Exactly.
And there was one line, Tony Todd got me really drunk Friday night, because he knew that I needed to blow off some steam.
And I, over the weekend, nursed one hell of a hangover.
And watched Raiders, and there was this one line that stood out to me where it was like, just trust it'll be there.
or sorry, that's what Tom Keegan told me.
Take two.
There's one line when Indiana Jones goes,
I don't know, I'm making this up as I go.
And so I show up on Monday morning
and Tom Keegan looks at me and he goes,
just trust it'll be there.
I'm like, fuck, I haven't just let this happen
without it being so calculated and controlled.
And I didn't even plan that.
You'll be surprised how often it lines up
where you're talking about something
and then it pops in the screen,
you're pretty stoked about it.
A snake,
no.
I was about a metal,
gear,
and solid.
It's like walking through peace.
So I,
I try to,
I have no idea.
Just like,
snake just blew me off.
Hold on.
I love you.
I made a peace walker reference.
I did have a peace walker.
Man after my own heart on that one.
Thank you so much.
Something,
something piffy.
Trust that it'll be there.
Yeah,
we'll be there.
Thank you, Jesus.
You're welcome.
And the second that I did that is when I
realized that I don't necessarily need to know where this is going.
I don't need to know every moment.
And a lot of times I'm in that situation
because they're like, we don't know yet.
Now, as far as the story,
you should have the overall story be written
before you go to a stage or a booth.
But there's sometimes like, we don't necessarily know that yet.
But Ken Levine was,
wanting to have that moment of, you know, everyone's doing the scene in Star Wars and they go,
or Empire and go, she's my sister.
And he definitely, he definitely got that moment.
I know, I mentioned earlier, right?
Like, you've done so much.
Well, you've been Indiana Jones.
You've been a mouse.
You know what I mean?
You've been Joel Miller.
You've been in an anime racing game.
Is there a challenge left for Troy Baker that it is?
I need to do this or I want to do this.
Yeah.
I mean, every day.
There's, I'm not done.
I think that my best work is ahead of me, not behind me.
Yeah.
I think that I, whenever we wrap on a job and it's the last thing, I'm like, okay, now I'm ready
to start.
Now I know how to do this.
I get the character now.
Yeah, I get the character.
I get the story.
Oh my gosh.
There's something that I've just discovered about this.
even like with Death Stranding
like I found out at the game awards
after party
that the reason why Higgs plays guitar
is because Hideo watched me on Instagram live
playing guitar and singing like bro
but I realize
Higgs didn't need to know that
there was nothing as like oh hey
the creator of this game that I'm in
watch somebody
no that makes sense
right so i didn't need to know that what i needed to do is trust and nothing that net never changes
but as far as challenges man absolutely i you're right i've had an incredible opportunity to work with
literally the best in the world and have continued to work off their good graces and them giving me a
chance um i never say i've been lucky because that discounts the hard decision
that these creators made to cast me.
It's not luck.
They made a choice.
They were brave.
They trusted.
And together we delivered.
That's why it's a success story.
Otherwise,
again,
I've shipped 70s.
I've shipped 60s.
They're not all bangers,
but I'm always proud of the work that we did
and the teams that I worked with.
But the challenges that lie ahead for me,
I think,
are to be able to take
those tenants and principles,
lessons,
and losses and be able to form something new out of that.
I want to tell my own stories.
I want to proliferate the wisdom
and the experience of those other great studios
and bad that have given me
and be able to fold that into new experiences
and try my hand at it and build it.
I want to build a team.
I've always been a guy that...
I love that you talk about that time
where I played solo.
I've done it a lot.
I played a lot of solo shows.
Man, there's nothing like being in a band.
There's nothing like laying back and realizing that it's not just this guitar and vocal that's
carrying this, but man, just take a second and let John Titterington on keys just go to work.
And so I'm excited about building a studio with people that I've worked with that I trust
and going, here's my idea, how can you make it better?
So you want to make games?
Yeah.
That's awesome.
Yeah, dude.
How far out from that are what you think?
I don't know, man.
We're talking.
You know, there's people that are, most of the, you know, most of the, you know, I'm not.
most people in this industry
go, dude, I thought you were just an actor.
I'm like, no, if you ever work with me,
you'll find out very quickly that I'm like,
Jesus, God, you're like, huge dork.
Massive dork.
And also, like, I want to know,
what does this do? What does this do? What does this button do?
And I've never been the guy that just says
my lines, hit my mark, goes back to my trailer,
goes home. I've always
wanted to be like, tell me
how this works.
And so fortunately, some of the conversations that I'm having
now are, well, what would it look like if you did
that with us.
And I just, somebody asked me in a conversation,
goes, what's your timeline? And I said, not rushed.
Ah, what a name?
Because I've seen a lot of people that have rushed into
opportunities. And even if they made a hell
of a game, it's still like, whoof, to do that again and
deliver is really, really hard. So I
want to do it right. And especially if I'm going to
create a studio where other people are going to be responsible
for my choices, I have to make the right ones.
Does the state of the industry scare you at all when it comes to that?
You know, I've seen Abu with his studio.
I think he said that he's finishing up like what will be, I think, his last game or second
to last.
I forget which one he said.
But he put out three games or he, yeah, three games in the last however many years,
four years, four years, super quick.
And I can tell and he's talked about like, man, it's rough out here, right?
Like, how does that hit you when you think about these goals and aspirations that you have?
So I, I've learned this from not.
people like Abu who I love
and admire
but I also have talked to other people
who do this
you have to make
hard calls
there's a game that I're a movie
that I reference all the time that
most people wouldn't think that I do but the core
with Hillary Swank
and there's a moment between
her and
Bruce
I can't think of his name
you look it up
Willis?
Not Bruce Willis.
Bruce Greenwood.
And thank you, Brain.
Got there.
And Bruce Greenwood is the captain.
Hillary Swank is, sits right seat to her, is the co-captain essentially.
And he can tell that she really wants to be in that commander chair.
And he goes, you're not ready yet.
Not because you can't make the right moves, but you're not ready to make the wrong ones.
You can't live with the consequences of making the wrong ones.
You have to make the tough calls.
And that's what's keeping you from being here.
And the people.
that I respect the most are not necessarily the ones that are Vince Ampella.
That's the one that, that, uh, I look to, no, and this is not a discount to Ken or Neil,
um, Mike Bithel, who I think is an incredible game maker and, and studio head,
but nobody has done or did what Vince Ampella did. Nobody. Nobody had that many hits with that
mini studios over that
a long of time. Nobody
and I don't think anybody will ever touch
that his record.
So anytime you talk
to Vince, I talked to
him a few days before he died
and we were having
breakfast and he was like
I got to get back to the studio and I was like
it's Sunday, what are you doing?
He's like we just shipped
man, it's hard out there. We got to make sure that this game is
patched up and ready to go.
and he was always with his team.
He was always with his studio.
He was always playing the game.
He was always thinking about
what the player experience was.
And for me, the thing that I will not do
is put other people who've trusted me in a position.
This is what my dad did.
When people go, I believe in you and I trust you.
And I don't provide enough runway for us to fail.
So if that means that I don't get to have my dream
of being a studio whatever head,
And so be it.
But I won't put other people,
I won't make them the casualties of my mistakes.
So it may never happen.
I don't know.
Or I could,
I'm not good enough to be Lucas Pope.
I can't do, you know, at all myself.
Or Mike Bithel.
Mike Bithel made a game by himself, essentially.
So I say all this to say,
when the time is right,
it will be right.
And I do believe that whatever we as a team together,
not me,
will be something that is truly great,
but I'm not scared of what's happening
because I can't work out of fear.
I have to work out of faith.
I have to believe that it's going to get better.
And I, if I want to, I can look to the left and the right
and get really, really overwhelmed.
And I can get filled with anxiety over this and that,
of the industry and everything else.
But that's not what I'm here to do.
What I'm here to do is focus on the task that's in front of me.
and right now everything's okay.
Like I'm living and breathing, my family is fine.
It's all I got to do.
I'm living, I'm breathing, my family is fine.
And if that is my mantra,
and I continue to pull people in with me
that are truly talented,
that are single-minded and focused on making something
that's truly great,
they can somehow speak to the human condition,
that can somehow make someone's day,
much less their life even better.
That's all I can focus on.
If I do that, that'll be enough
an accomplishment for me.
Hell yeah.
I'm looking forward to playing the Troy Baker video.
Oh, man.
Me too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I can't wait to see it.
You'll give it a 6.5.
Fuck you, Troy, beg.
Ladies and gentlemen, this has been a fantastic games cast.
I could go on for hours and hours and hours.
Troy, thank you so much for making the time to come up here.
Anytime, baby.
Of course, everybody, mouse, P.I. for hire is available right now.
Just 30 bones.
No big deal.
Go pick it up.
Enjoy it.
Listen to Troy as Jack Pepper.
That's right.
Everybody.
Go do what I got a case to crack.
Oh, my goodness.
Of course, your day here is far from over because,
It is Monday, right?
April 20th, right?
Sure.
Sometimes things move around.
Maybe it isn't, but it was supposed to be.
If that is the case, you're about to get an episode of Kind of Feudy,
which will be a lot of fun and talk about the cameo that has to happen in Wolverine PlayStation 5.
Of course, after that, Mike and Roger are doing drugs.
I don't know.
Even though they did take a dare pledge.
Of course, if you like this, like, subscribe, share, ring the bell, do all that.
But most importantly, pick up a kind of funny membership.
Patreon.com slash kind of funny.
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We give you everything we do, ad free, a daily dose of me, Greg Miller for 15 to 20 minutes.
And of course, good karma for supporting 11 person, 11 year old small business.
Until next time, oh, did you find a good passage?
What is, what is that word?
Solution?
Oh, God, until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you.
You learn something new every day.
