\n
Check the Xbox Store and you might find an unusual new point-and-click adventure there. Looking like it stumbled out of the very earliest animations, The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo<\/strong> is a mixed media, surrealist graphic adventure that can\u2019t help but catch the eye.\u00a0<\/p>\nOf all the games we play, it\u2019s the eccentric, unusual ones that we look forward to the most. But there\u2019s a conflict there: a point-and-click needs to have some logic to it, or it will be impossible to complete. That\u2019s going to bump up against the eccentricity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To find out more about how this was solved, among other questions, we leapt at the chance to interview the man behind Mr. Coo, Nacho Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n
\n
The Many Pieces of Mr Coo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nHi, could you please introduce yourself and your role on The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo?<\/strong><\/p>\nHello! I\u2019m Nacho Rodr\u00edguez, creator of Mr Coo. I directed the game, wrote the script and animated every frame of it. I\u2019ve been a professional animator for more than 20 years now, always aiming to work on creative and personal projects.<\/em><\/p>\nCould you give us a quick overview of the game?<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Many Pieces of Mr Coo is a surreal point and click, with rich cartoon animation, no words and minimal interface. The player will be immersed into a dream-like experience, full of mysteries, puzzles and laughs.<\/em><\/p>\nThe Many Pieces of Mr. Coo looks truly amazing, one of the best-looking and most original games coming to Xbox. How did you hit upon his and the world\u2019s look? It seems to draw on a lot of early animation from several countries.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nThank you! I\u2019ve been drawing all my life, always trying to explore new creative territories. In the early days I wasn\u2019t sure what my style was. And it turns out you don\u2019t need to worry about style, it just develops by itself. One day, after years of drawing and animating, I found out I did have a personal style, and it keeps evolving. I just followed my aesthetic interests without fear of mixing different languages or contradicting elements. Like the big collage of styles that make up this game. They work because they\u2019re filtered by a single artistic intention, even if I couldn\u2019t predict the result as I was creating it.<\/em><\/p>\nAs for the animation references, I do indeed have great interest for early animation, like 30\u2019s rubberhose cartoons, but also eastern european and russian animation from all the 20th century. You can find many gems of amazing creativity. And I was impressed as a child by the great Italian movie \u2018Allegro non troppo\u2019 by Bruno Bozzetto.<\/em><\/p>\n\n
This is amazingly unique<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nThis isn\u2019t the world\u2019s first exposure to Mr. Coo, is it? What has been his journey so far?<\/strong><\/p>\nMr Coo\u2019s design inspiration comes from the white guy from Pink Panther. I was already drawing Mr Coo when I was a teenager, but he didn\u2019t have a name yet. He got his name when he first appeared as a 1 minute animation in 2004. From then to 2007 I put together 4 animation parts into the 8 minute piece \u2018Las aventuras de Mr Coo\u2019. In 2008 I created the first Mr Coo videogame, \u2018El laberinto esf\u00e9rico\u2019, an animation\/comic-based point and click. He also appeared in a music video for the song \u2018\u00c7a \u00c7a Mirlaquerr\u2019, in 2011. Then in 2012 \u2018The Many Pieces of Mr Coo\u2019 started its long journey.<\/em><\/p>\nHow did your collaboration with Sara L\u00f3pez begin? Her props and backgrounds in The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo really ground the surrealism \u2013 and look beautiful too.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nWe first collaborated in a short film\/music video called \u2018A Lifestory\u2019 (2013), which was nominated for the Goya awards. She contributed with her beautiful objects, and a fantastic sense for collage and atmosphere as an illustrator. So as the Mr Coo game advanced, I just needed to have the yellow guy jumping among this antiquary universe. We built the sets together, in some ways the objects themselves gave birth to puzzles and game mechanics. It nevertheless took great work of Photoshop to integrate the photos with the drawings, so that they blend, without trying to hide the collage. It was important for me that you could feel the physicality of these objects, so we used stop motion, video, and dedicated great care to lights and shadows.<\/em><\/p>\nYour background is in animation, so what has it been like transitioning to game development? Is the leap as big as someone would think?<\/strong><\/p>\nFor me it was quite natural. In the early days, when I was learning Flash as an animation tool, I was equally interested in its coding capacity. So I was both animating and making little games, and Flash made this blending seamless. My interest is in making the animation truly alive, so adding interactivity to it just boosts this aliveness. My only concern is that Flash and its simple coding language is now outdated, while the industry hasn\u2019t provided a good alternative for crazy people like me who would like to code over different timelines of thousands of frames. Flash did that easy.<\/em><\/p>\nAnimation and videogames are actually so close. But I\u2019ve been in contact with both industries, and there seems to be an invisible wall, where you are either on one side or the other (with exceptions, of course). But every day we see more and more animation-rich games.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n
How will you solve the problems in Mr Coo?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nSurrealism and point-and-click adventuring must be an odd mix to get right. You want to include some logic so that players can solve problems, but surrealism demands illogic. How have you got the mix right?<\/strong><\/p>\nExactly, it\u2019s an odd mix. The crazy stuff has to be logical and consistent. Some ideas would work wonderfully as mere animation, but don\u2019t work in a game, because the player has to understand the mechanics he\u2019s using, and his puzzle solving has to be logical and fair. These are riddles that I enjoy solving in the design phase. First, it helps to have a powerful, coherent subtext, so even if crazy things happen, there\u2019s an underlying logic and meaning to it all. Then any action can be surreal and crazy, but with its own internal coherence, so the player will be first amazed, and little by little connect the dots and solve the puzzle. And all this without words, which adds to the challenge. The eureka moments when I find a good solution for this design paradoxes are some of the most satisfying parts of the process.<\/em><\/p>\nCan you tell us anything about how Mr. Coo has ended up in pieces? Who did this to the poor little guy?<\/strong><\/p>\nIt was a mischievous crocodile. Although it happens after a few chapters into the game, this was one of the main ideas when I started the project. To have Mr Coo cut in 3 parts, with different personalities, so they have to collaborate between them. It\u2019s like shuffling the deck of cards at the beginning of the game, you need some chaos in order to play.<\/em><\/p>\nYou have talked about burnout and the issues of developing a game alone on Inside the Artist\u2019s Studio. What advice would you give to a solo developer looking to make their first game?<\/strong><\/p>\nOh, that one interview came out a bit too dramatic for my taste. I\u2019d like to clarify that I don\u2019t have back pain, as it states there. I was just struggling to find the perfect chair. Sometimes my words denote more drama than what I actually mean to. Then the interviewer\u00a0 gets carried away. (He\u2019s actually a friend of mine, and I send him a hug from here!)<\/em><\/p>\nIt\u2019s funny how that interview was made in 2018, a much simpler and easier time, but that didn\u2019t keep me from worrying. I was just starting to work with the game\u2019s producers, and I was in a hurry to finish. Pre-pandemic, pre-many troubles.<\/em><\/p>\nSo yes, this project went through hard times. Although I never thought about quitting. It\u2019s true that one has to take good care of one\u2019s energy, and know when to rest. We usually learn the hard way.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nI\u2019m afraid to say that the hardest parts of the process came up when working with others, and not as I was on solo mode. This is a very personal creation, and its quality for me is a must. This sometimes conflicts with the logic of the industry, which is \u201clow cost first, and quick\u201d. But Mr Coo likes to get into trouble, and this has been a deeply learning experience.<\/em><\/p>\nMy advice to any solo developer is probably not original: keep it small in order to keep it finishable.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nAnd most important: know your tools. Be sure you have a solid technical base from which to build. It\u2019s not that you must be the best coder, but to make sure that the system you\u2019re using can take you all the way to the end of the project without surprises. Every second spent on settling that base will save you months (maybe years).<\/em><\/p>\nOh, and since I\u2019m advising the young folks here: Be unapologetically yourself, even if you\u2019re not sure what you are (you\u2019re on the good path then). Bring something unique to the world.<\/em><\/p>\n\n
Make sure to keep it simple<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nWhat was your experience like working with Ubisoft on the O.zen project?<\/strong><\/p>\nI moved to Lille in 2010 and spent a year and a half working as animation director for that very innovative project. Great talent all around. They did the thing I just advised: to build the proper tools, in close collaboration with the workers, in order to make sure that the production would flow. Also, the working conditions were way better than what we\u2019re sadly used to in Spain. Even if the game aesthetics were not 100% my style, I was able to contribute with doses of cartooniness and crazy flowy life. They also appreciated my narrative and creative inputs. But I don\u2019t last long under the same roof. After finishing my part I went back to freelancing. A while after that the game was released, along with its cool biofeedback hardware (the game synced with your breathing via your pulse). But mysteriously it disappeared from the store after some time. I have no idea what happened. It might have been too innovative for the gaming world. Anyhow it\u2019s refreshing that a big company like Ubisoft had these daring, uncertain projects. And I keep in contact with S\u00e9bastien Kochman, the very talented creative director.<\/em><\/p>\nHow are you feeling, knowing that your debut game is releasing soon?<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019m feeling like a pregnant mother after an 11 year gestation. Big uncertainty, mood swings, and the only intention for the child to be all it can be.<\/em><\/p>\nAnd finally, you wake up like Mr. Coo, with two body parts missing. Which ones can you do without?<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s funny how I got a similar question in a recent interview. Let\u2019s see\u2026 The point is that it\u2019s not up to us to choose. Life comes and takes away what it will. And with whatever I\u2019m left I\u2019ll try to keep making good animation and games. Or just music if the rest is impossible. Maybe we can do that with just a foot?<\/em><\/p>\nThis long and trying project has indeed cut me into pieces in many ways. I\u2019d like to think I\u2019m in the way of alchemically rebuilding a new Nacho, quite different from the one that started over a decade ago.<\/em><\/p>\nBut, to take your question literally: my head works too much and gives me a lot of unnecessary trouble, so that one goes out. The legs have some practical bits to them, but they have been used and enjoyed a lot already. Let\u2019s keep the torso, whose arms are quite convenient, but most importantly has a heart inside with many more mysteries to unravel.<\/em><\/p>\n\n
You don\u2019t have to wait long to wrap your head around The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo. In fact, you don\u2019t have to wait at all: it is out now, and is ready for you to tinker with. We will be tinkering right beside you, as a review is in progress as we speak. Expect a verdict soon!<\/p>\n
Huge thanks go out to Nacho for giving us some time in the lead up to release of Mr Coo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo is available from the Xbox Store<\/strong> for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. It\u2019s also on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and PC.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n
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