Silent Bob wants to be in a video game
by Ross Miller 
{ Dec 14th 2006 at 4:15PM }
Speaking to Yahoo! Games, filmmaker Kevin "Silent Bob" Smith (Clerks, Dogma) talked about his interest in making a game based on his characters Jay and Silent Bob.Admitting that "games is one field that i like to be entertained, rather than try to be entertaining," Smith asserted that he'd be willing to write a back story for a game if someone else could handle everything else: "levels and challenges and bosses and things like that, I'm not so good at coming up with that kind of stuff," he said.
Smith has two things going against him, though: his films center around dialogue and humor. And, as you may know, good humor and dialogue can spell certain disaster for any video game (see: Psychonauts). If Smith wants any hope of success in this industry, he had better base the game off of Jay and Silent Bob's alter-egos, Bluntman and Chronic. Drugs, babes, bad guys, guns, and excessive violence are the only sure-fire way to make a profit in gaming. Or film, for that matter. Snoochie Boochies!
[Via 1UP]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kevin @ Dec 14th 2006 4:28PM
Just make him the merchant in the next Resident Evil game.
Monkeydog @ Dec 14th 2006 4:22PM
He should just have a convenience store worker sim.
More points depending on how well you screw with the customers.
crono141 @ Dec 14th 2006 4:31PM
LOL,
Great Idea Monkeydog
You MOM'S a tracer! @ Dec 14th 2006 5:45PM
Cel-shaded game with the Clerks cartoon characters.
The Psychonauts comparison isn't really valid, though. Tim Schafer didn't have a legion of fans built up for the characters throughout a decade of popular movies. And Mallrats.
Caleb @ Dec 14th 2006 4:36PM
They should make it a GTA like game, where Jay and Silent Bob go around and deal drugs, hassle mall cops, save monkeys from labs, fight shit demons, you know the ussual.
Make all the other charaters in the askewniverse camios, plays by their respective actors, Ben Afleck, Matt Damon, Jason Lee, Joey Lauren Adams... all of them..
oh yeah don't froget Walt Flanagan
cello @ Dec 14th 2006 4:38PM
Sorry Kevin Smith,
I used to like your crap, but Clerks 2 was SO bad - so incredibly fucking bad - that I simply cannot "trust" any future project of yours.
If Kevin Smith made a game, it'd be a crappy, unfunny vanity piece just like Clerks 2 was.
"You don't do ass to mouth!" God, what a lame movie.
TopaZ @ Dec 14th 2006 4:54PM
Cello,
Clerks 2 was hilarious, and the audience I saw it with was laughing almost constantly through the whole thing.
Do you have a list somewhere of your favorite movies so I can make sure never to watch them?
gameclu @ Dec 14th 2006 5:07PM
Looks like cello will be getting a visit from Jay and Silent Bob soon.
Namrepus221 @ Dec 14th 2006 5:04PM
Didn't Kevin spend about $5,000 on a Ben Afflack/Jennifer Lopez video game for the "happy couple" a few years ago called "Jen saves Ben"
http://www.viewaskew.com/gallerynew/album39
Brandon @ Dec 14th 2006 5:25PM
I haven't seen either of the Clerks movies, but Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back suck. Honestly, how can they make Jay any more immature? The cussing isn't even funny, it's just obnoxious. I like Silent Bob, probably because his silence is a trait I wish Jay had.
Dracula Jones @ Dec 14th 2006 5:25PM
Mallrats Graphic Adventure. Come on, that movie screams Lucasarts. The Rt. 1 Flea Market? Straight out of Sam & Max!
Video @ Dec 14th 2006 5:59PM
"I haven't seen either of the Clerks movies, but Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back suck."
Then you've seen the worst of the two movies in that continuity. Watch Clerks, Clerks II, and Chasing Amy.
Colby @ Dec 14th 2006 6:12PM
Tracer has an excellent proposition. In fact, it's already been done. Powerhouse Animation (who, indeed, made the Ben Saves Jen video game as Namrepus221 mentioned and also made a videogame for J&B's secret stash) has footage of the games they've made for Kevin & Co. on their web site: http://www.powerhouseanimation.com/sample%20bob.html
All Kevin would need to do is commission Powerhouse to do something similar for XBLA and he'd have something great to peddle.
jay @ Dec 14th 2006 6:14PM
Oh joy, stoner entertainment on a compuer too. Well whatever keeps queues shorter for the smarter things in life is welcomed by me.
Just unfunny rubbish. Wonder which studio will throw their reputation in the bin and develop this game?
EgoAnt @ Dec 14th 2006 6:17PM
Okay, a Jay and Silent Bob game could be fun, if done by the right developer...
But I wouldn't buy it. I used to be a big Kevin Smith fan, huge, actually. But he really pulled a number on his fans with the Clerks 2 promotion contest. I wrote a rather extended post about it here:
http://www.egoant.com/gamer/2006/09/backhanded-compliment.php
I founds Clerks 2 to be fairly funny, but it certainly wasn't groundbreaking. I actually think he's better off doing the “An Evening with Kevin Smith” tour, I found him to be far more entertaining in person than ANY of his movies have been. Maybe he missed his calling. =)
Robert Jung @ Dec 14th 2006 6:25PM
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the obvious:
"Silent Bob" Mii!
--R.J.
zer06ame @ Dec 14th 2006 6:35PM
I think a game would work if it was a small XBLA type game. A complete game would probably be boring and overkill, but an hour or two cel-shaded (like someone said above) or just SNES style game would probably be pretty fun.
otakucode @ Dec 14th 2006 6:50PM
Please, please don't throw away the comedic goldmine by making it into a GTA clone. There are far too many of them already, and yet another one on the pile would be a terrible fate for a Blunt Man and Chronic game. I just watched An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder the other day, and Kevin Smith has a good head on his shoulders. I think he could do well lending his characters and writing talents to a game, but I think he'd have to approach it the same way he approaches his movies - make them cheap so they'll turn a profit. Don't invest millions of dollars in churning out a Rockstar clone that could easily bomb. Go with an adventure game, something that plays to the heavy dialog and comedy, or maybe a zany RPG with 2D based art. Take the skeleton of an RPG and delight gamers in blowing out the stereotypes by breaking whatever 'rules' are around in current games in order to contribute to the flow of the story.
Make it AO rated and sell it online, forget about ever getting it into stores. If you want to even TALK about raunchy sex stuff (some of the most golden material) in a game, you're best off simply forgetting the MA rating. It's not like an R rating and actually attainable, the puritanical prudes at the ESRB make sure of that.
I'd absolutely love to be able to throw down some cash, download a Kevin Smith game, and then spend hours laughing my ass of and going "I can't believe they had the balls to put that in a game! Genius!"
capnrico @ Dec 14th 2006 7:47PM
They should do it like the old Beavis and Butt-head PC adventure game.
Deekman @ Dec 14th 2006 7:41PM
From what I recall back in the day a Mallrats game was in production for the Mega Drive however it lost it's funding and was cancelled.
http://www.genesiscollective.com/ShowPage.php?GameLink=1275
John H. @ Dec 14th 2006 7:52PM
Smith has two things going against him, though: his films center around dialogue and humor. And, as you may know, good humor and dialogue can spell certain disaster for any video game (see: Psychonauts)
NO, NO, NO!
Let's stamp out this obnoxious little meme right now, shall we? Psychonauts didn't sell because people who didn't know it was awesome and didn't read gaming magazines (which are still most customers and I wonder why that is, snark snark), looked at the cover, saw an evil-looking little dude with a smirk staring back at them, then moved on to something they recognized a bit more.
NO GAME is harmed for having a brain behind it instead of a committee, and no game is ruined for being funny. I think a Jay and Silent Bob game could be awesome, but not if it is Bluntman and Chronic'd. The way to do movie games is to do it like Goldeneye did -- NOT by making it into a FPS, but by immersing the game in the movie's universe, soaking in every part of it, taking everything about it that made it awesome and throwing out the things that didn't work... and making the game worth playing even if it didn't have a license, to attract people who don't care about J&SB.
THESE THINGS SHOULD BE OBVIOUS, WHY AREN'T THEY?!
eggfou @ Dec 14th 2006 8:01PM
Kevin Smith needs to get on the horn with Telltale games and make a proper adventure game. There the dialogue and story could shine. Lets go episodic, too. I mean why not. I think that would be the best route to go.
Browncoat jedi @ Dec 14th 2006 8:45PM
Kevin Smith movies are for 14 year olds and morons. He is incredibly untalented and unfunny.
JoeBlow @ Dec 14th 2006 10:17PM
I think a game based on Jay and Silent Bob will lick balls because they both in fact lick ball....
;)
Thomas @ Dec 14th 2006 10:54PM
OOOh theres an Idea..
PLZZZZZZZZzz write a Bluntman & Cronic Movie, and have someone do a game based off the movie..
Id really like to see a Bluntman & Cronic Movie.. atleast..
Ross Miller @ Dec 15th 2006 2:00AM
John H.
I'm not sure what the other meant, but I'd say that phrase was sarcastic. That's how I read it at least, but who am I to know?
Rosco
Joystiq
hydrogen_wv @ Dec 15th 2006 9:00AM
*Points at #14*
He LOVVEEESSS the cock!
All joking aside, If done properly it could be a blast.. There have been other good games that, on paper, probably sounded lame... Beavis and Butthead... Wayne's World..
I'd have to try it before I buy it, though...
Oh, and Clerks II was awesome! If you enjoy it like you are supposed to, that is... In other words, embrace immaturity for a couple hours, forget about real life, and enjoy the sick and twisted humor and the weed and cock jokes.
Chasing Amy was a little too serious for my tastes. Kevin Smith movies are supposed to keep me laughing from beginning to end and have me quoting them for years. The only one to fail to do that is Chasing Amy. It was a good movie, had I been prepared for a semi-serious 'romance' movie and not something crazy and off-the-wall.
Harbinger @ Dec 18th 2006 2:50AM
One trick pony. He's over-saturated his fans by going to the well one too many times. What, are we to play Sim Clerks (tm) in virtual Red Bank, NJ?
If he did actually say this, not only is it insulting to really talented people trying to write their way into the industry, but it also shows he's seriously out of the loop as far as game dev is concerned.
It's practically saying, "Hey, I can't model, animate, or create any of the art assets, oh yeah and I can't help code the engine, but I can write the back-story for a game. Actually, you can watch EVERY movie I've made because they are all about the same thing. But I really want to be involved."