One of my responsibilities during the development of Bulletstorm was managing the names for the Skillshots. Not to say that I came up with them all, because I didn’t. Everyone helped out and each idea was crazier than the next, but I hold great pride in one of the Skillshots I named – The MAN TOAST.
Do you even know what that is?
Heck, if there is such a thing, not even I know what it is. But it sounds badass!
A long time ago, I was given a Mentos (y’know the candy) by Jonny, one of our Level Designers. I was instantly thinking “Hey, we got free Coca Cola Light in the office…”, but I decided it wouldn’t be wise to do that in the office.
Later that day at lunch, I was talking to Ed (Lead Gameplay Designer) and told him I got a Mentos. But see, there was some communication problems.
We continued to talk for a good 15 minutes. The problem was, that no one seemed to realize that he thought I was saying that Jonny had given me a Man-toast, whatever that might be. I assure you, whatever it is, Jonny has not given me one.
- A what?
- A Mentos.
- A Man-Toast?
- Yeah, a Mentos?
- What’s a Man-Toast?
- Uh, a famous candy? You never heard of it?
- What?! Man-Toast is a candy?
- … Yeah?
Why Ed was thinking Man-toast I have no idea. That’s for him to explain.
I actually have the very Mentos we were talking about still with me on my desk!
THE Mentos
Anyway, this quickly turned into an inside-joke amongst some people here in the office. Having a man-toast now and then. Maybe it should have stayed that way.
Later in development we had this Skillshot when you kick an enemy into fiery hot reactors in the Dam-level. We thought of many different names like “Hell”, “Hotty”, “Burner”, etc. But nothing really stuck.
That’s when it hit me. A man kicking another man to his fiery death? The absolutely perfect name for this event, must obviously be MAN TOAST!
Man Toast, coming up!
The first step was to convince Ed. He laughed at the suggestion and said something like, “Sure, go for it if you think you can convince Adrian.”. I remember the suggestion being sent to Adrian (Creative Director) to see if he would approve the name. I tried and really push for Man Toast by highlighting it, more so than for any other decision made during the development! Here’s the actual mail conversation. It still makes me laugh.
The decision was made!
He didn’t get it. But Adrian is man who knows good game design when he sees it!
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Quality! I’d always wondered the origin of that particular name and the email made me laugh out loud!
I had been wondering what was behind that skillshot being called Man Toast… That’s funny though, I love this story.
man-toast really is one badass move..and a very funny story indeed..going to put this article into my bulletstorm review..
That was a nice toast…I mean story.
Didn’t get the chance to play that part of the game in Echo mode though but will do ASAP.
Ain’t nothin like some good ol’ man toast in the mornin.
Interesting, how a personal story can make it’s way into work life. Video Game Design and personal life tend to be mixed.