TheRetroArcade
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Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
The original High On Life connected with me on the absurdist comedy level like nothing else I had ever played before. I’ve laughed plenty in other games, but what Squanch Games pulled off in the original clicked with me on several hysterical levels. It hit me at the start with what seemingly felt like a joke-a-minute and never really let up, on everything from fart sounds to sight gags to snappy dialog. I really enjoyed my time with it.
Now with High On Life 2 available today for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and day one with Game Pass Ultimate with support for Xbox Play Anywhere, I had a chance to connect with Narrative Director Alec Robbins to learn a bit more about the science behind the funny, and crucially, how you help tell jokes with a player, not just to them.
“If it makes us laugh, nine times out of ten it makes it into the game,” says Robbins when asked about the development of a joke for High On Life 2. “Sometimes that’s a random line of dialogue, other times it’s ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we made a real, fully-fleshed-out murder mystery?’ Most jokes in the game come from either something that’s making us personally laugh or from something we’ve always wanted to see in a video game. I would say a huge amount of jokes come from the characters themselves.”
Some of those characters are also the main weapons in High On Life 2, the talking Gatlians, who each have their own personality to write to. “Sheath is deadpan, Creature’s a wildcard, and Travis is a selfish, pathetic coward,” Robbins explains. “Often we’re writing directly to the performer – we know exactly what sort of line Ken Marino (“Wet Hot American Summer” and “Party Down”) is going to be able to work with, and we know what a better fit for a different voice actor might be; Tim Robinson (“I Think You Should Leave”) is one of my favorites to write for.”
Travis’ introduction in High On Life 2 demonstrates this in action. Befriending him at a bar, he’s clearly distraught that his wife has moved on, leaving him with an extra cruise ticket in his possession, which we need to complete our next mission. Marino’s performance here captures this perfectly as he shifts from misery to hilarity in the span of a few minutes, as the two of us engage in a series of drunken and disorderly activities, giving Marino a chance to bring this new character to life, channeling bits of his known acting charm and talent into the role.
Most jokes in the game come from either something that’s making us personally laugh or from something we’ve always wanted to see in a video game.
But how do you balance humor with fun gameplay, so it resonates with such a wide audience? High On Life 2 is a complex first-person shooter with a wide variety of exploration elements to consider. Robbins tells me that one of the ways to strike that balance is to have it run counter to what a player may expect in each situation – sometimes the best jokes come from intuiting what would be the funniest thing to happen at any given moment to the player.
“A lot of good comedy comes from surprise,” Robbins tells me. “When you stand in front of Gene (your mentor and handler) while he’s watching TV, he gets mad at you – that’s not really a joke, but it might make you laugh because it’s an observed, relatable thing. In the first game, when you agree to watch a guy’s bicycle for him, it magically and inconveniently disappears the exact second you finally look away from it – that’s full-on absurd set-up, punchline stuff, and it’s something you could only do in a game. We’re trying to fill the game with a good mix of grounded humor, like Gene and the TV, and surprising interactive humor, like the bicycle gag.”
The trick to a lot of this is timing. Because High On Life 2 is an interactive experience with many moving parts, I was fascinated by how hard it must be to ensure the timing of a joke hits at the right time. Compared to a film or a TV show, there’s no control over how the player is going to react, or even pos...Read more: Full article on news.xbox.com
What do you think about this?
Now with High On Life 2 available today for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and day one with Game Pass Ultimate with support for Xbox Play Anywhere, I had a chance to connect with Narrative Director Alec Robbins to learn a bit more about the science behind the funny, and crucially, how you help tell jokes with a player, not just to them.
“If it makes us laugh, nine times out of ten it makes it into the game,” says Robbins when asked about the development of a joke for High On Life 2. “Sometimes that’s a random line of dialogue, other times it’s ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we made a real, fully-fleshed-out murder mystery?’ Most jokes in the game come from either something that’s making us personally laugh or from something we’ve always wanted to see in a video game. I would say a huge amount of jokes come from the characters themselves.”
Some of those characters are also the main weapons in High On Life 2, the talking Gatlians, who each have their own personality to write to. “Sheath is deadpan, Creature’s a wildcard, and Travis is a selfish, pathetic coward,” Robbins explains. “Often we’re writing directly to the performer – we know exactly what sort of line Ken Marino (“Wet Hot American Summer” and “Party Down”) is going to be able to work with, and we know what a better fit for a different voice actor might be; Tim Robinson (“I Think You Should Leave”) is one of my favorites to write for.”
Travis’ introduction in High On Life 2 demonstrates this in action. Befriending him at a bar, he’s clearly distraught that his wife has moved on, leaving him with an extra cruise ticket in his possession, which we need to complete our next mission. Marino’s performance here captures this perfectly as he shifts from misery to hilarity in the span of a few minutes, as the two of us engage in a series of drunken and disorderly activities, giving Marino a chance to bring this new character to life, channeling bits of his known acting charm and talent into the role.
Most jokes in the game come from either something that’s making us personally laugh or from something we’ve always wanted to see in a video game.
But how do you balance humor with fun gameplay, so it resonates with such a wide audience? High On Life 2 is a complex first-person shooter with a wide variety of exploration elements to consider. Robbins tells me that one of the ways to strike that balance is to have it run counter to what a player may expect in each situation – sometimes the best jokes come from intuiting what would be the funniest thing to happen at any given moment to the player.
“A lot of good comedy comes from surprise,” Robbins tells me. “When you stand in front of Gene (your mentor and handler) while he’s watching TV, he gets mad at you – that’s not really a joke, but it might make you laugh because it’s an observed, relatable thing. In the first game, when you agree to watch a guy’s bicycle for him, it magically and inconveniently disappears the exact second you finally look away from it – that’s full-on absurd set-up, punchline stuff, and it’s something you could only do in a game. We’re trying to fill the game with a good mix of grounded humor, like Gene and the TV, and surprising interactive humor, like the bicycle gag.”
The trick to a lot of this is timing. Because High On Life 2 is an interactive experience with many moving parts, I was fascinated by how hard it must be to ensure the timing of a joke hits at the right time. Compared to a film or a TV show, there’s no control over how the player is going to react, or even pos...Read more: Full article on news.xbox.com
What do you think about this?