With a name that could only have come from the mind of Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland, Squanchtendo is a VR game studio founded by Roiland and former Epic Games producer Tanya Watson to “[combine] edgy, mature comedy with refined, high-end gameplay mechanics and stories.”
While many of you may remember the official VR game Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality that was announced back in July, it seems as if the development of that title will remain in the hands of the venerable Owlchemy Labs while Roiland’s own Squanchtendo will focus on original IP.
The new studio is making its existence known ahead of PAX next week where they’ll reveal their first VR project.
Roiland, who voices both Rick and Morty on the show, has significant experience in the world of TV production. More recently he’s voice-acted for a number of games (including VR titles The Lab and Hover Junkers) however it appears that Squanchtendo marks Roiland’s first significant step into the world of videogame development. If you haven’t seen Rick and Morty, you can get a sense for him and his unique style of comedy writing from the bio shared on the Squanchtendo website:
Justin is afraid of his mortality and hopes the things he creates will make lots of people happy. Then maybe when modern civilization collapses into chaos, people will remember him and they’ll help him survive the bloodshed and violence. Global economic collapse is looming. It’s going to be horrible, and honestly, a swift death may be preferable than living in the hell that awaits mankind. Justin also really hates writing about himself in the third person. I hate this. That’s right. It’s me. I’ve been writing this whole thing. Hi. The cat’s out of the bag. It’s just you and me now. There was never a third person. If you want to know anything about me, just ask. Sorry this wasn’t more informative.
Balancing Roiland’s comedy prowess with some significant experience in the world of game development is co-founder Tanya Watson who spent some 10 years with Epic Games, working across Associate and Executive Producer positions on games like Unreal Tournament 3 (2007), Gears of War 2 (2008) and 3 (2011), Bulletstorm (2011), and Fortnite.
While Roiland may be new to game development, it’s clear to anyone following his Twitter feed that he’s been thinking of jumping into this space for quite some time:
I'm five months into designing/ writing/ developing (on paper) an original HTC vive game. I'm obsessed. I will get funding. I will.
— Justin Roiland (@JustinRoiland) June 10, 2016
Oh god VR. Oh god. Oh god VR. Oh god. Oh my god VR. Oh god VR. Please. Oh god please VR. Oh my god VR please. Oh god VR
— Justin Roiland (@JustinRoiland) June 10, 2016
He’s been brainstorming ideas for VR games for a while as well, and was also a backer of the original 2012 Oculus Rift Kickstarter.
Squanchtendo is currently hiring for Design, Art, Programming, Production, and Admin roles; we can only hope that squanching will not be part of the job descriptions.
