There’s plenty to talk about with regards to Taylor’s history along with his involvement with Armikrog and thankfully GamingBolt had a chance to speak to him, one-on-one. Meanwhile, Armikrog releases on August 18th for PS4, Wii U, PC, Linux and Mac OS X.

"I'm honored to say that I have a small following of pretty devoted fans who reside in various countries around the world, including Russia where I'm told that 'The Neverhood' is the most pirated game in Russian history!"

Rashid K. Sayed: Could you tell us a bit about yourself, for  those who are unaware of your experience and the influence  you’ve had on the music industry?

Terry Scott Taylor: Hmmmm…I’m not at all comfortable with tooting my own horn. This is something best left up to people who write bios. I will say that I’ve been making a living doing music now for close to four decades, and that my musical output in regard to style has been described by some as extremely eclectic. I’ve always been relatively restless, and as a result I’ve recorded and produced everything from rock n’ roll, indie rock, Americana, folk, country, and gospel, to comedy, cartoons, and music for kids, all with varying degrees of success. I’m probably best known for my work with Doug TenNapel in writing and producing music for the interactive games “The Neverhood” and “Skull Monkeys,” among others. I’ve also done work for Nickelodeon, Netflix, and Dreamworks as well as other independent gaming companies.

I’m honored to say that I have a small following of pretty devoted fans who reside in various countries around the world, including Russia where I’m told that “The Neverhood” is the most pirated game in Russian history! There are a number of YouTube sites where you can watch Russian kids performing songs from the Neverhood in various settings; homes, on stages, in parks, etc. and I really get a kick out of hearing from the fans, but especially from Russian fans, usually teenagers, who write me on Facebook to tell me how much they love the Neverhood music.

I just realized that I said at the beginning that I wasn’t going to toot my own horn and here I am trumpet blasting my meager accomplishments! The bottom line is this; while I’ve gone through some tough times and struggles to make a modest living doing what I passionately love to do, I’m still here doing just that. I’m truly a blessed man.

Rashid K. Sayed: For a songwriter who veers more towards  Americana (in recent times at least), what was it like  working on the soundtrack for Armikrog?

Terry Scott Taylor: The qualifier here is an important one because I don’t think it’s accurate to say that my songwriting veers more toward Americana. While my extensive musical output with The Lost Dogs over the past several years represents an exploration of certain genres of music that I’ve always wanted to jump into, namely folk, blues, gospel, country, and Americana, and may overshadow the other stuff I’ve been involved in, I’ve never abandoned my basic primary passion for creating experimental, yet accessible, hook driven melodic rock music married to what I hope is an intelligent thought provoking lyric.

This is the stuff that really floats my boat. Having immersed myself for a number of years in styles outside of rock n’ roll equipped me to stylistically move more easily into “The Neverhood’s” blues/jazz milieu that the game screamed or, while my experimental rock background is invaluable towards creating an entirely different sonic landscape for “Armikrog’s” unique narrative. Before I go any further, I don’t want to fail to mention my musical collaborators on Armikrog; Rob Watson and Greg Flesch. Both are not only dear friends, they are consummate musicians and composers in their own right.

"Since Neverhood and Skullmonkey is what I'm most known for in the gaming world, in the beginning I was somewhat concerned about divorcing myself from that model all altogether."

While Rob has been my primary go to guy, Greg’s contribution is no less brilliant. As well as their “quick on their feet” ability to musically articulate my musical directives, they have also contributed any number of ideas of their own. Thanks for their adeptness at making sense out of some of the more mushy, muddle-headed ideas that occasionally plague me, and then turning them into substantive sonic gems. The Armikrog soundtrack would not be possible without them.

Rashid K. Sayed: How would you describe your experience working with Pencil Test Studios?

Terry Scott Taylor: I couldn’t be working for more sweet spirited and supportive people.

Everyone there is absolutely wonderful. Doug T. is not only a fan, but I consider him one of my dearest friends. He is incredibly enthusiastic and supportive. He’s also very honest and direct, sometimes with a bluntness that is almost breathtaking! If he doesn’t like something you’ve done, he’s not going to soft peddle it. On the other hand, when he says he loves something you’ve done, you can pretty much take it to the bank. I admit I both love and fear his honesty in regard to the former, and I have passionately disagreed with him on a few occasions, but I’m always thankful that he expresses his mind and that the last thing Doug is gonna do is blow smoke up the ol’ keester.

A bit of struggle to please him, born of great respect, has added depth to my work ethic and made me a better, more disciplined artist. This was also a chance for me to break out of the Neverhood mold and do something different but equally compelling. Being thought of as a one trick pony obviously has no appeal to me, and I have Doug to thank for giving me the opportunity to dispel the idea.

Rashid K. Sayed: What did you wish to convey with the soundtrack, especially given the game’s unorthodox nature, and how did you go about composing for the  same?

Terry Scott Taylor: Well, Doug T. had a few ideas about what he wanted to hear and it was clear from the beginning that in spite of this being another Claymation format, we weren’t going to go back down “The Neverhood” road, at least in any broad and obvious way. Since Neverhood and Skullmonkey is what I’m most known for in the gaming world, in the beginning I was somewhat concerned about divorcing myself from that model all altogether. On the other hand I was extremely excited about the challenge of creating something entirely unique to the world of this particular game, but which also felt somehow connected to the other stuff, however loosely.

I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of getting Brian Wilson (of Beachboy fame) into the studio with The Flaming Lips, which I think would be a really great collaborative pairing. Doug mentioned Brian and the Lips early in our talks, along with some old school sci-fi music soundtracks and several other film soundtracks and artists, and the idea of some kind of amalgamation of classic sci-fi music, psychedelia, and 60’s style pop began to germinate into something that for a time I was calling “killer space clown music” for some reason. I know it sounds a bit strange, but for me, having this sort of conceptual directive helps me to keep on track with thematic and sonic continuity.

"It's important for me to have Armikrog in my repertoire because it demonstrates a musical versatility that may surprise some people (especially industry folks) who may be under the false impression that the Neverhood music represents my sole approach in the creation of game soundtracks."

As I said, there are some Neverhood style references, but this stuff is not only much more complex and, in my opinion, intriguing, it is also much more in the heart of my wheelhouse than is the stuff I wrote for the Neverhood. Don’t get me wrong; I love The Neverhood music and it’s a style I may revisit from time to time, but I had a blast creating this new thing. Of the qualities Armikrog and Neverhood share, I would say the humor is the common denominator, that along with a bit of scatting and those high female vocals most of my listeners know I’m rather fond of!

Rashid K. Sayed: Armikrog seems to focus more on a Claymation-style of aesthetic. How did this appeal to you from the outset of the project?

Terry Scott Taylor: I’m a huge Ray Harryhausen fan. I lived in Norwalk California back in the 50’s and I watched first run releases of the Sinbad movies, Mysterious Island, and all of Ray’s stuff up on the big screen. It was one of the greatest thrills of my life. In terms of sharing love and appreciation for Harryhausen, meeting Doug, though he’s a much younger guy, was to meet a kindred spirit. I never thought I’d be creating music for a movie art-form I truly idolized as a kid, but Doug gave me the opportunity, and I’m truly thankful.

Rashid K. Sayed: You have a rather wide range of other projects you’ve worked on, including a soundtrack for the comic book The Return to The Neverhood. What has your experience working in the video game industry thus far been like?

Terry Scott Taylor: I can’t speak for every composer in this particular industry, but I personally have nothing negative to say about any of the people I’ve worked for thus far. Everyone has been consistently kind, gracious, and supportive. I honestly would tell you if it weren’t true. Maybe I’ve just lucked out somehow and there are some real evil dudes out there who are treating their composers like scum of the earth. If they exist, well, I’ve never run into them.

Rashid K. Sayed: Will you be working on any other video game soundtracks in the future?

Terry Scott Taylor: I’m sure I will. It’s important for me to have Armikrog in my repertoire because it demonstrates a musical versatility that may surprise some people (especially industry folks) who may be under the false impression that the Neverhood music represents my sole approach in the creation of game soundtracks. It’s nice being given the opportunity to spread my wings in the gaming world, and even though it’s no surprise to the fan base, most of whom are well aware of the many musical hats I’ve worn over the years, it will be fun surprising those who don’t know.

"Armikrog has freed me up. Now the trick is to sustain that sense of freedom. I would add that while the idea of no holds barred creative freedom may sound ideal and liberating to almost any artist, you've still got to hope and pray that the muse will show up."

Rashid K. Sayed: Are there any particular video game composers you’re fond of?

Terry Scott Taylor: Let’s just say that I’m fond and supportive of all talented, creative people. There are people within this industry who have amazing gifts and have raised the bar in regard to contributions to the quality and uniqueness of the genre. They truly inspire me. I sincerely wish them all much happiness and success.

Rashid K. Sayed: What have you carried with you after working on Armikrog? Do you feel as though the game has influenced your own music or understanding in any way?

Terry Scott Taylor: Well, since me and my team are still working on and fine tuning the Armikrog stuff, my answer may be a bit premature. At the risk of sounding like I’m trying to avoid your question, I would have to say that the extent to which working on Armikrog has impacted my current work is largely an intangible. It’s always difficult to step back and assess the force and sway of past influences and to call them by name, primarily because these influences are often subconscious. What I can say is that Armikrog allowed me and my cohorts Rob Watson and Greg Flesch, within very loose limits, to get as creatively insane as we wanted to be. I was constantly encouraging this in my team, and I think this may be come close to an answer to your question.

Armikrog has freed me up. Now the trick is to sustain that sense of freedom. I would add that while the idea of no holds barred creative freedom may sound ideal and liberating to almost any artist, you’ve still got to hope and pray that the muse will show up. Remember, the first thing you’re looking at is a blank canvas. Do you have the goods to fill it up and make it overflow with great wild stuff? If you do, that blankness will be transformed, and you’ll find yourself looking into a wondrous box full of every imaginable toy…if you don’t, well, here’s to staring straight into the abyss!

Rashid K. Sayed: When can we look forward to being able to purchase the soundtrack for Armikrog?

Terry Scott Taylor: I’m not exactly sure of the logistics of the process, but there definitely will be a soundtrack available with the release of the game. When exactly the game is going to be released is a different question, and I’m afraid I’m not privy to the answer.

Rashid Sayed: Armikrog features one of the weirdest (in a good way) soundtracks I have ever listened. From where exactly did you got the idea from?

Mike Dietz: We made another stop motion game several years ago called The Neverhood, for which we hired musician Terry Taylor to create the soundtrack. Terry crafted a unique musical style for that game that contributed quite a bit to the overall success of the game. So of course once we began work on Armikrog Terry was the natural choice to do the music. And once again, he’s created a fantastic musical style for the game.

The game describes as a claymation video game. How difficult is to achieve animations that depict behavior of clay?
Well, technically it’s not “claymation”, since that’s a term trademarked by the famous Will Vinton. We’re creating Armikrog with stop motion animation techniques using clay and a variety of other materials. Creating performances in stop motion is quite similar to other animation mediums such as hand drawn and CG animation. However with stop motion is you are using real physical objects, so you do have to deal with the laws of physics more than in other mediums.

You are also animating “straight ahead”, which means you animate from the start to the end straight through without the opportunity to go back and rework the animation as you go, so it is a little more challenging in that respect. However, there’s a certain “magic” you can achieve in stop motion that doesn’t happen in other styles of animation, which comes from the fact that these are real, tactile and tangible objects that appear to be coming to life.

"Armikrog is a point and click adventure game and adheres to many of the conventions of that genre. There are third person environmental puzzles that require you to collect items and figure out ways to configure the environment to progress further."

Rashid Sayed: The game is scheduled for a launch this year. Do you guys have an exact release date locked down?

Mike Dietz: Armikrog will be out this Spring, but we haven’t locked down the date yet. We will make an announcement once we do.

Rashid Sayed: The game is being released across a number of platforms. How much of a challenge has it been developing across so many platforms?

Mike Dietz: We’re developing Armikrog using the Unity engine, which is built for cross platform deployment. The PC is our lead development platform, but Unity makes it relatively easy to deploy to other platforms. Certainly easier than when we were writing our own engines.

Rashid Sayed: You have a solid cast of voice actors for Armikrog. How do you plan to tell a solid story? Furthermore, how long will the game last?

Mike Dietz: We’re weaving the storyline into the game in a fairly traditional manner, through cinematics and other materials that you come across throughout the game. Similar to our old game The Neverhood, in Armikrog you are on a voyage of discovery, trying to find out where you are, the history of your surroundings, and what exactly it is that you need to do.

Rashid Sayed: We don’t seem to have much information on the gameplay mechanics. Will you be able to explain in detail the several elements of the gameplay?

Mike Dietz: Armikrog is a point and click adventure game and adheres to many of the conventions of that genre. There are third person environmental puzzles that require you to collect items and figure out ways to configure the environment to progress further. There are also first person puzzles that unlock items, story points and new areas in the game. We also have some more cerebral elements that allow you to make connections between visual and audio clues in order piece together the back-story of the game.

Rashid Sayed: There is a lot that is been made out of the power differences between PS4 and Xbox One. As a developer how much of that difference matters or is something that matters on paper and not in practical scenarios?

Mike Dietz: Every platform has its own advantages and disadvantages. Very often you need to develop for the lowest common denominator for all your target platforms, and then add in platform specific elements that play to the strengths of each platform. In the case of Armikrog, this game is far more about the art experience as opposed to the tech, so we haven’t felt particularly limited by any of our target platforms.

"It's been nice to see the user base and the game library for the Wii U increasing over the past year, and we think Armikrog will be a nice addition."

Rashid Sayed: What are your thoughts on the Wii U? Furthermore, how is the Wii Version of Armikrog shaping up?

Mike Dietz: It’s been nice to see the user base and the game library for the Wii U increasing over the past year, and we think Armikrog will be a nice addition. The Wii U version of Armikrog will be essentially a port of the PC game, with added enhancements taking advantage of the Wii U’s unique abilities and interface.

Rashid Sayed: As a indie developer, what is your take on the 1080p and 60fps? Furthermore, is Armikrog going to run at that standard across all platforms?

Mike Dietz: Armikrog will run in HD, but we’re only supporting 30fps. Stop motion requires you to hand craft every single frame of animation, so moving from 30 to 60 fps literally doubles the amount of animation production! Personally, as an animator, I’m not a big fan of 60fps. It’s definitely smoother, and it’s great for camera moves, but very often character performances can start to feel too soft and “swimmy”. I’ve animated at 24, 30 and 60fps and 60 is my least favorite.

Rashid Sayed: Is there anything else you want to tell us before we let you go?

Mike Dietz: I’d just like to say thank you to you, all our fans and all our Kickstarter supporters. We couldn’t do this without all of you!

The game is currently being developed for Nintendo’s Wii U, OS X, Linux, Microsoft Windows and the PlayStation 4. At the time of writing the game is expected to be published by Pencil Test Studios. There’s no exact release date for Armikrog at this time, but it’s expected that the game will arrive in Q1 of 2015. The game will not see a retail release and will instead be made available through your respective platforms digital stores.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Characters

Development

Armikrog is a modern game with old school sensibilities that is being developed by using classical sculpting of models, building sets for stages of gameplay to take place in as well as the fabrication of Clay characters and puppets.
The game will also make use of the fading art of stop motion animation to help obtain a unique look and feel that hasn’t been seen in games very much recently.

Doug TenNapel, the creator of the popular character Earthworm Jim who has appeared in games and cartoons, teamed up with the founders of Pencil Test Studios Mike Dietz and Ed Schofield, whom he had previously worked with on Earthworm Jim and The Neverhood.

The soundtrack for Armikrog is being composed by Terry Scott Taylor who had composed the music for The Neverhood. The games vocal talent comes from Jon Heder of Napoleon Dynamite, Rob Paulsen of Pinky and the Brain and Michael J. Nelson of Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

Armikrog itself is partly being developed as a spiritual successor to The Neverhood which was released in 1996 by The Neverhood, Inc and published by the now defunct Dreamworks Interactive, more recently known as Danger Close Games whose doors closed in 2013. Like Armikrog, it too was a clay styled game that was a point and click adventure.

The game came to fruition by way of a successful Kickstarter campaign with an asking price of $900,000, there was also a stretch goal put in place at the $950,000 mark that would see a Wii U port of the game be developed. As of June 27th of 2013, the game was successfully funded and the Wii U stretch goal reached.

Story

The game’s story is focused on the space adventurer Tommynaut. Tommynaut experiences difficulties and crash lands on a strange alien world where he ends up being locked in an odd fortress that’s called Armikrog. He’s imprisoned in the fortress with Beak-Beak, his blind talking dog.

Gameplay

In the video above, in the Development portion of this wiki, you can see a work in progress build of the game which shows off the beautifully executed clay based animations and lovely environments, but the video does little to demonstrate gameplay in any meaningful way.

What we do know is that the game is a point and click adventure game so it may be comparable to games like Kings Quest and/or other adventure games such as Abe’s Odyssey.

Characters

Tommynaught is the game’s main protagonist and is a space faring adventurer that has somehow gotten himself imprisoned on an alien world in the fortress of Armikrog.

Beak-Beak is Tommynaught’s loyal companion, he also just so happens to be a blind dog that’s capable of speech.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

The current generation has been subject to much debate and controversy regarding frame rates and resolution. Both current generation consoles although capable enough, have struggled to deliver 1080p and locked 60 frames per second. Some games were close to reach that standard, but it’s something that we haven’t seen consistently happen.

GamingBolt recently got in touch with the founder of Pencil Test Studios, Mike Dietz, and asked him about his take on the 1080p and 60fps dilemma, and whether their upcoming game Armikrog is going to run at that standard across all platforms.

“Armikrog will run in HD, but we’re only supporting 30fps,” he said to GamingBolt. “Stop motion requires you to hand craft every single frame of animation, so moving from 30 to 60 fps literally doubles the amount of animation production! Personally, as an animator, I’m not a big fan of 60fps. It’s definitely smoother, and it’s great for camera moves, but very often character performances can start to feel too soft and “swimmy”. I’ve animated at 24, 30 and 60fps and 60 is my least favorite.”

This is an interesting reply by Mike but one that makes sense. Choosing between 30 or 60 frames per second is a subjective matter but from a developer perspective it depends on how much resource and time they have available on hand. In an age where time is gold and deadlines are to be met with extreme quality analysis, it’s no wonder that developers these days stick to a solid 30 frames per second, and pump up other visual effects such as physics and resolution.

Armikrog, a point and click adventure game is due for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, Wii U and PlayStation 4 platforms. Stay tuned for our full interview with Mike in the coming days.

The voice talents are also extremely amazing, and include Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite), Rob Paulsen (the voice of Pinky from Pinky and the Brain), Scott Kurtz (of webcomic PvP fame) and Michael J. Nelson (Mystery Science Theater 3000).