South Park: The Stick of Truth – working with pre-existing franchises can be rewarding, says Obsidian

By Stephany Nunneley

South Park: The Stick of Truth is in development at Obsidian Entertainment, and according to creative director Chris Avellone, working with pre-existing franchises such as South Park can be a rewarding experience.

Speaking with Joystiq, Avellone said working with set universes can also be rather challenging, but it is something he and the team “enjoy very much.”

“The fact that you’re implementing game system mechanics that cater to the South Park franchise, in the sense of rude and obnoxious different weapon types, we rarely get a chance to flex our design skills in those directions, and it’s a lot of fun to do,” said Avellone.

“We’re actually learning a lot while we’re doing it. That’s another advantage of working on someone else’s franchise. You sort of get inside their head for a sense of how they think, and how that stuff can be converted into game mechanics.

“We didn’t actually know what [the South Park creators] were thinking about in terms of RPGs, so we went up there for one day, they ran us this animatic sequence of how they imagined the opening of the game playing. It was hilarious, and we got it: it’s going to feel like the show, it’s going to look like the show.

“I would never have thought we’d get a chance to do an RPG like that. When we first heard about it, I seriously thought some other game company was punking us.”

South Park: The Stick of Truth is slated for release on March 5 with the first three DLC packs releasing on Xbox 360 first.

Pre-order incentives can be found here.