It's often said the Internet age has led to a culture of quick-burning trends and short attention spans. This can certainly be seen in the video game industry, where improvements in tech have led to the development of massive live-service titles that tend to shut down as soon as they spring up. Thus, it's all the more impressive to see a web-based property like Cyanide and Happiness approach its 20th anniversary while still branching out new projects such as Cyanide and Happiness: Freakpocalypse.
Cyanide and Happiness is a comedic webcomic founded by Rob DenBleyker, Kris Wilson, Dave McElfatrick, and Matt Melvin in 2005. It's one of many panel-based comics reminiscent of classic "funny pages" strips that sprung up at the time, joining the likes of Penny Arcade or XKCD as series that are still publishing today. Cyanide and Happiness' brand of irreverent, dark humor has translated well into a number of mediums, including animation, tabletop card games, and video games like Freakpocalypse. Game Rant spoke to Wilson and lead game designer Roger Barr about working with an online institution.
Cyanide and Happiness' Dark Humor Still Appeals to Its Creators After Two Decades
As one of the webcomic's founding members, Wilson said watching Cyanide and Happiness succeed has been a "surreal" feeling almost every day for 20 years.
"I feel like it was luck that got us noticed, but talent that keeps people around. I just have to stop myself from thinking about the 'industry' of the Internet when we’re focusing on making dumb and silly stick figure jokes. Keep us to our roots."
Barr got involved later, joking that "Explosm kidnapped me." Yet it's clear he has an appreciation for Cyanide and Happiness going way back. He points to one of his favorite jokes penned by Wilson himself, a four-panel comic published December 20, 2015, that depicts a terrified gingerbread man pondering whether the house is made of flesh - or if he is made of house. "It's exactly the kind of dark, absurdist humor I live for," Barr said.
Wilson said he's also a sucker for macabre, depressing jokes as seen in Cyanide and Happiness' animated shorts Sad Ending and La Comedie. Translating their style into a video game has been a "fresh approach" to deconstruct the original comic, but Freakpocalypse also has plenty of individual jokes that stand out, like a USB drive puzzle that Wilson really enjoys. "It’s hard to pick, but I see that as a good thing."
Bringing Cyanide and Happiness Into a Point-and-Click Framework
Barr said the developers behind Freakpocalypse grew up on point-and-click adventure games by studios like Sierra Entertainment and LucasArts, and it made sense to take Cyanide and Happiness' brand of humor into that genre to stand out while expanding upon the "crazy narratives" established in comics and animated shorts. They also wanted to avoid aspects of classic titles that "bothered us," including limited interactions within scenes and menu buttons being stuck at the bottom.
The point-and-click style also fit Cyanide and Happiness' current 2D animation wheelhouse and visual style, according to Wilson. Explosm wanted to "take an actual full swing" on an old genre rather than slapping its name on a trendy licensing opportunity. "I don’t think the world needs a C&H roguelike, walking sim, or WW2 shooter." Beyond classic inspirations, Wilson points to Disco Elysium, whereas Barr said Noio Games' Kingdom is his favorite modern indie series to play when he isn't reading, watching TV shows, or binging Dwarf Fortress playthroughs after work.
"We have some incredibly talented people working on the game, including our wonderful cast of voice actors, so that goes a long way."
Freakpocalypse is 60-percent off through March 23 to celebrate Episode 1's second anniversary, and a full trilogy is in development based on its original Kickstarter. While Explosm had no news to share on when fans can expect Episode 2, Barr hopes the payoff of seeing Netherton completely transformed will be worthwhile. Wilson didn't want to spoil any details, but said he's looking forward to more "outside-the-box" moments that capture the Cyanide and Happiness brand in this "wittle" series.
Cyanide and Happiness: Freakpocalypse Episode 1 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Episode 2 is in development.