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Interface
Columnespite literally having a piece
in my recent stand-up show*
called ‘The top five jokes that got
cut by Dara and/or BAFTA!’, I’ve
somehow been asked back to
write Mr Ó Briain’s script again for this year’s
Games Awards. Writing jokes for someone else
is a strange thing at the best of times, but this
year’s going to be particularly tricky as it’s been
such an odd year for gaming.
As is tradition, with the latest consoles from
Microsoft and Sony due to land at the end
of the year, many big developers have been
delaying and deferring their releases. What this
means is that the light this year is being shone
more brightly on games that, in a ‘vintage’
year, may have fallen by the wayside to more
traditionally expected nominees.
Knights and Bikes, a Kickstarter-funded indie
title from a team of developers behind titles
like Tearaway and LittleBigPlanet (and WireframeAwards Script
Jokebot 3000
D
“It’s been such
an odd year
for gaming”
#15 cover star), has managed four nominations,
the same as the return-to-form behemoth,
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The latest title
from Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi,
Wattam, is a slight piece of kiddy-friendly fluff
that, in this unusual line-up, sits comfortably
alongside Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Apex
Legends (in fact, Wattam has grabbed one more
nomination than either of those two).
Several other unusual indie games have
also managed a couple of nods, titles like Ape
Out, Baba Is You, and Concrete Genie. This is all
wonderful news, but also hugely problematic. In
years when there are just one or two curveball
indie games, hacks like me can just write
“Hahaha, look at this stupid game with a silly
central conceit LOLZ”, and take that money
to the bank without having to do any proper
research. This year, because all the generic
identikit triple-A open-world titles have fallen
by the wayside, I’m having to read about and,
heaven forbid, play, loads of cool games. Woe is
me. (I love my job, and I am very lucky.)
The one saving grace is that Google Stadia
is in no way attached to the awards, so that
should give us all plenty to laugh about, and
if that won’t quite do it, we can all have fun
remembering that Nintendo have now hired
a guy whose surname is Bowser. That’s not
laugh-out-loud-funny per se, but people love
to show other people they understand jokes
by making loud noises with their mouth, so it’ll
appear that people found it funny to anyone
watching the ceremony live online and, in the
end, isn’t that the same?
Of course, I’m being a bit naive. All of this
effort is for nothing. Dara’ll turn up on the day,
get paid far more than me, and then riff his
way as quickly as possible away from what I’ve
written for him, onto reliable material from his
most recent tour instead. But that’s only right
and proper. It wasn’t ‘Steve McNeil’s Go 8 Bit’,
after all.* Available now from wfmag.cc/ListenSTEVE MCNEIL
Steve might not get to
work on telly with Dara
anymore, but he can
still write his jokes for
him. That’s showbiz.
Steve, seen here performing
jokes about jokes he wrote
for someone else.