Apple TV
The latest comedy from Apple TV Plus comes from a group of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia alums. It is called Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet and is a workplace comedy set in a video game development studio. When viewers join the story, the creators of “Mythic Quest” are about to release the expansion called “Raven’s Banquet.”
There is a lot of in-game footage featured on the TV show, so viewers might be wondering if “Mythic Quest” is an actual MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) that they can play? Here’s your answer.
Mythic Quest Is Not a Real Game… Not Yet, Anyway
When speaking with three executive producers, Rob McElhenney, David Hornsby, and Megan Ganz, at the 2020 Television Critics Association winter press tour, we asked if there was any chance of cross-platform marketing by releasing some kind of playable game, even if just for mobile as opposed to a PC or gaming console. McElhenney told Heavy there was talk of that, but they didn’t have the time or the money to create something that would be up to the standards of the gaming community.
“Under the auspices of not wanting to make something that was below the standards and expectations of the community, a game like this would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to do it right. And so we thought, well, let’s just put the first season of the show out first and see what happens,” says McElhenney.
“But we’re open to it,” says Hornsby.
The Creators Have Definitely Done Their Video Game Research
To write a show like this, the creators didn’t just rely on their own amateur gaming experience. They brought in experts, both from the show’s production company Ubisoft, which is a video game publisher based in Montreuil, France, and also from other video game companies. They also hired writers who are serious gamers.
“We definitely had people from the industry come in and speak to us about their jobs,” says Ganz. “We had a monetization expert in and we had some coders come in, we had people … not only from Ubisoft, we really wanted to get a wider range of people’s experiences. … We have a few writers on staff that are very serious gamers, so they brought in a lot of that knowledge to us.
“Like having a doctor for a medical show — they can defeat a certain level,” says Hornsby with a laugh.
But Ganz continues, “It was just really fascinating because [the monetization expert] fully came in and was like, ‘Oh, yeah, everybody hates me. Everybody that I work with all the devs, they hate me. They think I’m soulless.’ … And we said, ‘Well, why would you want to do a job where everyone hates you?’ And she’s like, ‘Because I’m really good at it.’ And we were like, ‘Cool. Like, I can back somebody that does that. And I can find a way to like that person [on the show].'”
So they definitely relied on their experts to ground the show in realism, even if the comedy is absurd at times. But perhaps the most thankless job of the entire show was the woman in charge of getting the name of the video game cleared with the legal department.
The name Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet Took Forever to Land On
So, how many names did they try before they landed on Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet?
“I can tell you exactly how many we considered — 55 different titles before we found one that would clear because there’s so many titles out there. So it was really hard. It was a very difficult process,” says Ganz.
“It had a couple of different titles and then we would come back and find out that it didn’t clear and then we would change it and then we got to the point where we just said fine, we’re going to give you a list of 55, please, please clear them and she came back she said none of them cleared,” explains McElhenney.
“I think the clearance person may have quit. She was like, ‘Look, I’m done. I’m out. Whatever you guys want to do, but I mean, there’s a limit,'” quips Hornsby.
Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet is out now on Apple TV Plus.
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