Extra Credits
(2008-Present, Ages 16 and Up)
7/28/15
NOTE: Information on Extra Credits has changed greatly since this episode/blog entry was written. Check the links below for more details.
In July 2014, my YA novella, Allie’s Adventure on the Wonder became an ebook! On a similar note, the month of July is also the anniversary of a web series that, despite its primary focus on video games, encourages creative thinking for anyone pursuing an interest or even career in any kind of artistic media.
Extra Credits is a web series that was conceived while creator and animator Daniel Floyd was a student at Savannah College of Art and Design, making lecture videos for his courses in Respective Art History and Media Theory. He later began making more videos—then unofficially called “Video Games and . . .”—with the help of game designer James Portnow, who’s “worked on everything from Call of Duty to Farmville.” Initially featured on the online magazine, The Escapist, as well as on the Penny Arcade distribution channel, PATV, as of 2014 the official series has begun airing on its own YouTube channel on a weekly basis.
Episodes typically run 4:30-10 minutes, and the visual style of the show, according to Floyd, is “loosely based” on that of Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw’s YouTube series of video game reviews, Zero Punctuation. Floyd himself hosts and narrates each episode, standing behind a podium like a professor before a class of students, and addressing the viewers in a voice that has been altered to an amusingly higher pitch than normal. Adding to the entertainment value of the presentation, he, Portnow, and the rest of the show’s staff are presented as cute cartoon stick-figure-like “doodles,” and video games when described generally are personified as green squares (because of how many games today come in green cases, i.e. XBOX) with faces, hands and feet, all engaging in exploits that, along with random internet images, become visual puns when coupled with whatever statement Floyd is giving at the moment. For example, in the episode, “Mailbag #1”, in response to a fan question as to what the show’s staff does in the game industry, Floyd describes Portnow thus: “. . . and James . . . well, as he would put it, he gallivants”; here viewers are shown an image of the cartoon Portnow in a running position, smiling with a rose in his mouth dashing hero. In “Symbolism 101”, while Floyd is describing the psychological horror concept of “The Uncanny”, at one point he says, “So even though nothing frightening is happening, the viewer is left disturbed, unsettled, perhaps even shaken.” During these last three words, there is a picture of Pierce Brosnan as “007” enjoying a martini. (Get it? “Shaken, not stirred”?) And in “Sharing Our Medium”, in Floyd’s introduction on how people like to introduce their loved ones to video games, there is an image of a cartoon man appearing to propose to a cartoon woman on bended knee with a tiny box in his hands, only instead of a ring, inside it is a copy of Pokemon. To me, one of the funniest running gags of the series is when the artist for a given episode (there have been both official show artists and guest artists who may do the art for just an episode or two throughout its seven plus seasons) is depicted as being the one that is the craziest of the bunch and the one whose antics are among the quirkiest. For instance, the show’s original main artist, Allison Theis, often drew her cartoon form with claws and fangs, or with a giant pencil, the eraser end of which she would carry threateningly; “she” would then chase and attack the panicked cartoon forms of Floyd and Portnow or others figures for comedic affect. Another tradition of theirs I enjoy is when, for their Halloween episodes, the cartoon staff dress up as famous video game characters.
Juxtaposing this entertaining style is the show’s didactic premise: Extra Credits means not only to educate future video game designers on how to create engaging, high-quality games and how to market and sell them to both publishers and players, but to promote video games as a legitimate and respectable form of art, just like literature, film, and music. There are numerous topics related to games that each episode covers. According to their Youtube channel playlists, some of these include:
- Game Narrative – how to tell memorable stories effectively in games though mechanics and gameplay as well as visuals.
- Game Community – how players treat non-players and each other both inside and outside of video games, especially with regards to politics, controversy, and social issues like racial and sexual diversity.
- Game Industry – essentially the business end of video game creation, presentation, and distribution.
And my personal favorite,
- Game Analysis – exploring games, both individual and in general, and how they can—and do—impact the real lives of people and what these games teach us as players, designers, and most importantly, human beings.
It was one of these videos that I found first and was thus introduced to Extra Credits. While I was searching for videos of Journey, an exquisite video game from the developer, thatgamecompany, I discovered the two-part episodes, “The Hero’s Journey,” in which Floyd discusses the narrative concept of “The Hero’s Journey”, as first coined by famed mythologist Joseph Campbell in his book, The Hero With A Thousand Faces, using examples from Journey to illustrate how this concept can be used more effectively in video games.
The Extra Credits Youtube channel also features some other shows created and hosted by the same staff and shown with their signature animation style. These include:
- Extra Remix – in which Floyd talks about musicians specializing in remixing video game tunes with their own unique styles.
- Design Club – in which Floyd discusses a specific game level, item, or mechanic and how it serves to enhance its respective game and the experience of the gameplay.
- James Recommends – a sort of expansion of the “Games You Might Not Have Heard Of or Tried” episodes, this one exception to the animation rule features Portnow—in live action—as he chooses a game that may not have gotten a lot of attention upon release and talks about what’s interesting about it and why it deserves to be played.
- Extra History – in which Floyd, rather than talking about video games, instead focuses on lesser known events in real-world history, such as the Seminal Tragedy that led to WWI; the Second Punic War; and the history of the Zulu Empire in Africa, just to name a few.
Side Quest – similar to the “Let’s Play” videos seen all over YouTube, this spin-off features Dan playing Dark Souls with James coaching him along, and both of them discussing the game throughout.
New episodes of Extra Remix and Design Club have been temporarily postponed, but new episodes of the main Extra Credits series, James Recommends, and Extra History are uploaded to the EC Youtube channel every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, respectively. Side Quest is uploaded to YouTube every Monday and Thursday with the Dark Souls portion having a planned running time of about six weeks as of June 1st. Whether this series will continue with other games is unknown at this time.
In Floyd’s own words, the EC team has called themselves “gaming’s evangelists”, trying to disprove all of the negative stereotypes of video games and all who enjoy them, namely “the Cheetos-eating, basement-dwelling, troglodyte that lives with their parents, or never leaves the dorm room; the ultra-hard-core, gay-bashing, noob-hating shooter fan and the eight-year-old tea-bagger.” This is especially important as games are so often used as scapegoats whenever senseless and tragic acts of violence—like public shootings—occur, among other reasons. It’s not only that they want to show that games aren’t bad; it’s that they want to show how and why games can be and are good and that they have redeeming value and potential to be educational and therapeutic as well as entertaining. Extra Credits is fun, informative, and a must-see for game enthusiasts, media students, and creative thinkers as a whole.
CREDITS:
All images, audio, and links belong to their respective owners; no copyright infringement is intended.
MAIN THEME:
“The Call” – Briand Morrison and Roxann Berglund
In July 2014, my YA novella, Allie’s Adventure on the Wonder became an ebook! On a similar note, the month of July is also the anniversary of a web series that, despite its primary focus on video games, encourages creative thinking for anyone pursuing an interest or even career in any kind of artistic media.
Extra Credits is a web series that was conceived while creator and animator Daniel Floyd was a student at Savannah College of Art and Design, making lecture videos for his courses in Respective Art History and Media Theory. He later began making more videos—then unofficially called “Video Games and . . .”—with the help of game designer James Portnow, who’s “worked on everything from Call of Duty to Farmville.” Initially featured on the online magazine, The Escapist, as well as on the Penny Arcade distribution channel, PATV, as of 2014 the official series has begun airing on its own YouTube channel on a weekly basis.
Episodes typically run 4:30-10 minutes, and the visual style of the show, according to Floyd, is “loosely based” on that of Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw’s YouTube series of video game reviews, Zero Punctuation. Floyd himself hosts and narrates each episode, standing behind a podium like a professor before a class of students, and addressing the viewers in a voice that has been altered to an amusingly higher pitch than normal. Adding to the entertainment value of the presentation, he, Portnow, and the rest of the show’s staff are presented as cute cartoon stick-figure-like “doodles,” and video games when described generally are personified as green squares (because of how many games today come in green cases, i.e. XBOX) with faces, hands and feet, all engaging in exploits that, along with random internet images, become visual puns when coupled with whatever statement Floyd is giving at the moment. For example, in the episode, “Mailbag #1”, in response to a fan question as to what the show’s staff does in the game industry, Floyd describes Portnow thus: “. . . and James . . . well, as he would put it, he gallivants”; here viewers are shown an image of the cartoon Portnow in a running position, smiling with a rose in his mouth dashing hero. In “Symbolism 101”, while Floyd is describing the psychological horror concept of “The Uncanny”, at one point he says, “So even though nothing frightening is happening, the viewer is left disturbed, unsettled, perhaps even shaken.” During these last three words, there is a picture of Pierce Brosnan as “007” enjoying a martini. (Get it? “Shaken, not stirred”?) And in “Sharing Our Medium”, in Floyd’s introduction on how people like to introduce their loved ones to video games, there is an image of a cartoon man appearing to propose to a cartoon woman on bended knee with a tiny box in his hands, only instead of a ring, inside it is a copy of Pokemon. To me, one of the funniest running gags of the series is when the artist for a given episode (there have been both official show artists and guest artists who may do the art for just an episode or two throughout its seven plus seasons) is depicted as being the one that is the craziest of the bunch and the one whose antics are among the quirkiest. For instance, the show’s original main artist, Allison Theis, often drew her cartoon form with claws and fangs, or with a giant pencil, the eraser end of which she would carry threateningly; “she” would then chase and attack the panicked cartoon forms of Floyd and Portnow or others figures for comedic affect. Another tradition of theirs I enjoy is when, for their Halloween episodes, the cartoon staff dress up as famous video game characters.
Juxtaposing this entertaining style is the show’s didactic premise: Extra Credits means not only to educate future video game designers on how to create engaging, high-quality games and how to market and sell them to both publishers and players, but to promote video games as a legitimate and respectable form of art, just like literature, film, and music. There are numerous topics related to games that each episode covers. According to their Youtube channel playlists, some of these include:
- Game Narrative – how to tell memorable stories effectively in games though mechanics and gameplay as well as visuals.
- Game Community – how players treat non-players and each other both inside and outside of video games, especially with regards to politics, controversy, and social issues like racial and sexual diversity.
- Game Industry – essentially the business end of video game creation, presentation, and distribution.
And my personal favorite,
- Game Analysis – exploring games, both individual and in general, and how they can—and do—impact the real lives of people and what these games teach us as players, designers, and most importantly, human beings.
It was one of these videos that I found first and was thus introduced to Extra Credits. While I was searching for videos of Journey, an exquisite video game from the developer, thatgamecompany, I discovered the two-part episodes, “The Hero’s Journey,” in which Floyd discusses the narrative concept of “The Hero’s Journey”, as first coined by famed mythologist Joseph Campbell in his book, The Hero With A Thousand Faces, using examples from Journey to illustrate how this concept can be used more effectively in video games.
The Extra Credits Youtube channel also features some other shows created and hosted by the same staff and shown with their signature animation style. These include:
- Extra Remix – in which Floyd talks about musicians specializing in remixing video game tunes with their own unique styles.
- Design Club – in which Floyd discusses a specific game level, item, or mechanic and how it serves to enhance its respective game and the experience of the gameplay.
- James Recommends – a sort of expansion of the “Games You Might Not Have Heard Of or Tried” episodes, this one exception to the animation rule features Portnow—in live action—as he chooses a game that may not have gotten a lot of attention upon release and talks about what’s interesting about it and why it deserves to be played.
- Extra History – in which Floyd, rather than talking about video games, instead focuses on lesser known events in real-world history, such as the Seminal Tragedy that led to WWI; the Second Punic War; and the history of the Zulu Empire in Africa, just to name a few.
Side Quest – similar to the “Let’s Play” videos seen all over YouTube, this spin-off features Dan playing Dark Souls with James coaching him along, and both of them discussing the game throughout.
New episodes of Extra Remix and Design Club have been temporarily postponed, but new episodes of the main Extra Credits series, James Recommends, and Extra History are uploaded to the EC Youtube channel every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, respectively. Side Quest is uploaded to YouTube every Monday and Thursday with the Dark Souls portion having a planned running time of about six weeks as of June 1st. Whether this series will continue with other games is unknown at this time.
In Floyd’s own words, the EC team has called themselves “gaming’s evangelists”, trying to disprove all of the negative stereotypes of video games and all who enjoy them, namely “the Cheetos-eating, basement-dwelling, troglodyte that lives with their parents, or never leaves the dorm room; the ultra-hard-core, gay-bashing, noob-hating shooter fan and the eight-year-old tea-bagger.” This is especially important as games are so often used as scapegoats whenever senseless and tragic acts of violence—like public shootings—occur, among other reasons. It’s not only that they want to show that games aren’t bad; it’s that they want to show how and why games can be and are good and that they have redeeming value and potential to be educational and therapeutic as well as entertaining. Extra Credits is fun, informative, and a must-see for game enthusiasts, media students, and creative thinkers as a whole.
CREDITS:
All images, audio, and links belong to their respective owners; no copyright infringement is intended.
MAIN THEME:
“The Call” – Briand Morrison and Roxann Berglund
EPISODE SONG:
“Bonus Level” - Andrew Lipke
“Bonus Level” - Andrew Lipke
All other music and sound clips are from the web series, Extra Credits (created by Daniel Floyd and James Portnow; produced and distributed by Extra Credits LLC)
OST SONG:
“Penguin Cap” – CarboHydroM (Extra Credits Opening Theme)
- EC - Season 1, Ep. 8: “Gamer”
- EC - Season 1, Ep. 10: “Project Ten Dollar”
- EC - Season 1, Ep. 13: “Mailbag #1”
- EC - Season 1, Ep. 14: “Symbolism 101”
- EC - Season 3, Ep. 14: “Zombies”
- EC - Season 4, Ep. 20: “The Hero’s Journey (Part 1)”
- Extra Remix, Ep. 1: “CarboHydroM - Rock and Chiptune Video Game Music”
- Design Club, Ep. 1: “Super Mario Bros: Level 1-1 - How Super Mario Mastered Level Design”
- James Recommends, Ep. 1: “The Swapper - Dark, Atmospheric Puzzle Platformer”
- Extra History, Ep. 1: “Rome: The Punic Wars - I: The First Punic War - Extra History”
- Side Quest, Ep. 1: “Dark Souls - 1: Character Creation and Introduction - Side Quest”
Download the full 15-minute episode here!
Extra Credits on Wikipedia
Extra Credits's Official Website
Extra Credits's Official YouTube Channel
Daniel Floyd's Official YouTube Channel
Extra Credits's Facebook Page
Extra Credits's Twitter Page
Extra Credit's Patreon Page
Extra Credits's Steam Page
^^ Back to T.V. Shows, Web Series, and Other Narrative Programs
OST SONG:
“Penguin Cap” – CarboHydroM (Extra Credits Opening Theme)
- EC - Season 1, Ep. 8: “Gamer”
- EC - Season 1, Ep. 10: “Project Ten Dollar”
- EC - Season 1, Ep. 13: “Mailbag #1”
- EC - Season 1, Ep. 14: “Symbolism 101”
- EC - Season 3, Ep. 14: “Zombies”
- EC - Season 4, Ep. 20: “The Hero’s Journey (Part 1)”
- Extra Remix, Ep. 1: “CarboHydroM - Rock and Chiptune Video Game Music”
- Design Club, Ep. 1: “Super Mario Bros: Level 1-1 - How Super Mario Mastered Level Design”
- James Recommends, Ep. 1: “The Swapper - Dark, Atmospheric Puzzle Platformer”
- Extra History, Ep. 1: “Rome: The Punic Wars - I: The First Punic War - Extra History”
- Side Quest, Ep. 1: “Dark Souls - 1: Character Creation and Introduction - Side Quest”
Download the full 15-minute episode here!
Extra Credits on Wikipedia
Extra Credits's Official Website
Extra Credits's Official YouTube Channel
Daniel Floyd's Official YouTube Channel
Extra Credits's Facebook Page
Extra Credits's Twitter Page
Extra Credit's Patreon Page
Extra Credits's Steam Page
^^ Back to T.V. Shows, Web Series, and Other Narrative Programs