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Metal Cover: How Brutal Legend landed in mainstream media and on a newspaper cover

• By Dave Rudden
• October 16, 2009 19:59 PM PST
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You don't see games get on newspaper covers that often. You also don't see games like Brutal Legend that often. Find out how the game landed on the mainstream media's radar and the cover of the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Released this week, Double Fine Productions' Brutal Legend has won over more than just gaming critics. It also landed on the cover of one of the Bay Area's biggest weekly newspapers. I got the chance to chat with Tim Schafer and the man who penned his SF Bay Guardian bio about how it all came together.

San Francisco Bay Area gamers woke up to a metal treat on Wednesday morning. The recently-released Brutal Legend had landed on the cover of popular weekly newspaper the San Francisco Bay Guardian. The SFBG, which boasts a circulation of over 106,000 copies a week (according to the Association of Alternative Newspapers), beating out the other major weekly in San Francisco, the SF Weekly by roughly 5,000 readers.

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Both the Bay Guardian and SF Weekly typically focus on San Francisco's vibrant art, music, and nightlife--this week, for example, was the SF Weekly's annual music awards issue--but the Bay Guardian decided to choose a video game for the cover of its latest issue.

Brutal Legend's wide range of cultural significance may have played a large role in getting on the cover. Mixing motifs from almost every form of popular media, the game, which celebrates heavy metal music, stars popular movie actor Jack Black as the roadie action hero Eddie Riggs in a world filled with imagery created by comic book artist and Double Fine Production Designer Scott Campbell.

Even though the game had received plenty of gaming press, landing on the covers of Game Informer, Official Xbox Magazine, and Play in the US alone (see the covers on GameSetWatch here, here, and here, respectively). Brutal Legend has also had plenty of mainstream media exposure due to late night talk show coverage on both Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel Live, the fevered pitch about the had not spread to traditional print. When asked if this was the first time Tim Schafer, Double Fine, or any of their games had made the cover of a non-gaming magazine, Schafer stated "I think so. Unless you count People's "Sexiest Man Alive" issue."

Tim Schafer

The article's author, Ben Richardson, who began his employment at the Bay Guardian as an intern for the music section before moving onto game coverage, explained the need for traditional print to reach out to video games and its enthusiasts.

"I think it is in a paper's interest to try to cast as wide a net as possible, especially to ensnare younger fish who prefer to read stuff online, who are in turn more likely to enjoy video games." Richardson said. "Gaming also provides striking images (like Eddie Riggs and his axe) which will always look cooler on the printed page.

Double Fine's San Francisco roots led to a easy-sell cover story, according to Richardson, who explained "I think gamers, at least speaking for myself, have this idea of games being made in these hidden bunkers and then sort of lobbed into the world, but they're not. They're made by people in your community."

The local angle love was mutual. Tim Schafer, the founder of Double Fine and designer of Brutal Legend, is an avid reader of the Bay Guardian, and took great pleasure in seeing his latest game snag the cover. "I have grabbed a Guardian off the rack every week for years," Schafer said "to reach in there and see Eddie Riggs smiling back at me-I had to look around to make sure I wasn't being Punk'd. Or is it P'nked? I thought I was on Candid Camera, I mean."

While Richardson shared heavy metal fandom with Shafer, being a fan of the man himself certainly didn't hurt "The game just spoke to my tastes in this really specific way." Richardson said. "Tim Schafer's games are among my favorite games of all time. He probably has at least two of the top five."

Ben Richardson

Of Schafer, Richardson also said "If you travelled back in time and told 13-year-old me that [I would get to meet Schafer], he would have a fatal conniption," a quote that parallels Schafer's awe in casting Brutal Legend, as he told the E3 Show Daily "I've met almost all of my heroes from my teenage years based on this game"

Both Richardson and Schafer hope coverage of gaming in general can follow Brutal Legend's lead and reach the public at large "[Video games have] reached a point where they deserve to be taken seriously by the world at large." Richardson said. "Part of that is putting their best stories in front of people who know nothing about video games, and putting forward their best creative talents as artists worthy of widespread approbation."

Schafer concluded his thoughts on Brutal Legend's newspaper cover, stating "It reaches a whole other audience this way. My non-gaming friends. Oh, wait. I don't have any non-gaming friends, really. Maybe this issue will help me make some."

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