00:00All right, I'm over here at Bad Robot in Santa Monica with J.J. Abrams and Donald Mustard from Chair.
00:07Spy Jinx is the name of an exciting new project you guys are working on together.
00:11J.J., we're so excited about Star Wars, but now gamers can get even more excited
00:16because you guys are getting your hands dirty with a brand new project with Chair.
00:21We know that you've been a fan of games. In the past, you play games.
00:26Why did you want to get involved with Chair and build your own game?
00:29I'm such a fan of what Chair has made and the games that they've allowed me and my kids to
00:35play,
00:36but I remember the first time I played Infinity Blade, and it was just,
00:38it blew my mind what you guys had done with the epic Unreal Engine on that device,
00:45but I feel like it's a natural progression from what we've been doing as a gamer,
00:50and Dave Baranoff, who runs the interactive division at Bad Robot as a gamer,
00:53we really wanted to expand into this area of entertainment,
00:57and typically Hollywood and games have not gone together well.
01:02There are some notable exceptions, but not too many.
01:05And so we met these amazing people at Chair, and not just as fans, but potential collaborators.
01:12And what was so cool was that this didn't begin in a kind of like,
01:15we have an IP we want to force into a game,
01:18or they didn't come to us saying we have a game we want to make into a TV show.
01:21So this was like, what would be really cool to work on together that would take the strengths from both
01:25what Bad Robot's done,
01:26what Chair's done, and make something even better.
01:29But we're learning so much from you guys.
01:31And the other way around, I mean, at Chair, we've just been huge fans of Bad Robot and JJ for
01:37years.
01:37I mean, they're uniquely talented in making you deeply care about people,
01:42and the things and the trials that they're going through.
01:45And we thought if there was any way to kind of take that knowledge out of their heads
01:50and bring that into game systems and kind of figure out ways,
01:54how can we make people truly care about a world that we can build for them
01:59and then give them tools to exercise agency in that world?
02:03It would be something very unique and that I haven't at least seen before in a game.
02:09Well, so you've teased us sort of with a name.
02:12I know we can't share a lot about the game, but what can you, I mean, what is Spy Jinx?
02:16What is the genre? What kind of game are we going to get?
02:18So Spy Jinx is a unique blend between kind of like an action strategy game
02:23mixed with really dynamic world building with a healthy dose of RPG character development.
02:30It really will need to be experienced, and then I think it will become,
02:34it will be defined by what it is as opposed to necessarily saying it's just like that one
02:38and it's exactly like that.
02:39It's not quite like anything.
02:41So Donald, how does this actually work with you guys code developing with Bad Robot?
02:45One of the first things we said was, well, we need to be able to do lots of video conferencing.
02:50Then we were sharing code back and forth across the networks,
02:53and now it's to the point where, you know, if I check in a file into the game,
02:58people here that are working on the music or the sound or something else
03:00are instantly getting that check in and working on the stuff they're doing
03:03and putting it back in the game, and we've just got this super integrated flow.
03:07It's been incredible fun to get to, whether in person or video conferencing,
03:11of course, tons of email, like being able to work with these people
03:14who are teaching us so much about how games work.
03:16And I know players are going to sort of be a part of this development process.
03:20There's going to be a beta, so part of what's exciting is that players will help
03:23sort of shape it as well in real time.
03:25The beauty of doing a beta is being able to see, you know, hands-on what the experience is.
03:31How are people relating to, you know, the interface?
03:34What are people doing with their characters?
03:37It's like every player is in the brainstorming session with us as they're experiencing it.
03:41And which is such an exciting thing because one of our primary goals in developing Spy Jinx
03:45is to make really complicated systems seem very simple
03:50so that players have rule sets and tools that we can then give to them
03:54and let them shape and play in their own dynamic world.
03:58And the beta is a huge part of that, is seeing what they do with all these fun kind of
04:03tools
04:04we've given them, and then we can, in turn, kind of shape the world
04:08and the future story around how people are actually playing the game.
04:12Well, we know 2016, we're going to get to hear more about this, Donald.
04:16Tell us, it's coming out for phones and also for computers as well, right?
04:19Yeah, I mean, that's one of the great things about Unreal Engine technology
04:23is that it's very, very versatile.
04:25And we wanted this game to be able to be played by as many people as possible
04:30wherever they are and on whatever device they happen to like to play games on in the world.
04:34And so it will be available for PCs, for tablets, for mobile,
04:37and eventually, hopefully everywhere that you enjoy games.
04:41The early discussions of this thing were very ambitious.
04:44And to see what it's actually becoming and knowing the trajectory that it's on
04:49and with the help of the beta community, what it will be is really thrilling.
04:54And if it ends up being what I think, what we think it is,
04:58I'm definitely going to be playing this game far too much.
05:00All right, well, it's great to hear about it.
05:02And we look forward to hearing more about Spy Jinx.
05:04Thanks, guys.
05:04Thank you.
05:16Thank you.
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