How South Park: The Fractured But Whole is Fusing Gags and Gaming

The official PlayStation Blog published a developer diary of sorts with Ubisoft San Francisco producer Jason Schoeder, who explained the nature of collaboration between the studio and South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker and the approach to comedy of the game. If you’ve followed the pre-release marketing campaign to the game’s predecessor, The Stick of Truth, you should already know that the creators of the show are very involved, which makes much of the dev diary a little redundant.

Still, here’s a short sampling:

“They’re really, really involved.” Jason says of Stone and Parker’s involvement. “We have daily calls and I’m down there a few times a month just constantly trying to make sure that they’re getting the comedy they want into the game and making sure that it all makes sense moment to moment.

“They’re both gamers, so there’s a really easy common language,” he continues.

“However, deadlines and pressure are actually some of the best ways they get their comedy. Separate from the game, they truly make each episode of South Park in just six days. It’s from that pressure that they get their really relevant, really timely jokes. The video game cycle, by comparison, is brutally long for them.”