South Park: The Stick of Truth

Unreleased South Park: The Game is an upcoming role-playing video game based on South Park, currently being developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by THQ. It is set to be released in 2012 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.

Series creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker are overseeing development, writing the script, and doing voice-over work for the game.

Plot
The game will take place predominantly within the town of South Park, where the children are all caught up in live-action role-playing. The player takes on the role of a new kid in town, joining in their game and ultimately making friends with the characters on the show.

Because Matt Stone does not like talking protagonists, the player character will be silent, better allowing the player to identify with their character.

Gameplay
The game world is two-dimensional, but divergent paths will take the player into the foreground or background, allowing greater freedom of movement while preserving the two-dimensional feel of the show.

Platformer elements will be absent from the game; jumping was trialled, but ultimately shelved early on in development.

Combat
The game will feature turn-based combat similar to the kind seen in the Paper Mario and Final Fantasy games. However, fighting also has a timing component to it, with well-timed successive inputs resulting in larger combos or more successful defending.

Weapons can also be augmented in a style similar to Final Fantasy VII, through different upgrades such as "fire", "electricity" or "poison."

There will also be a summoning system, allowing the player to summon other characters to help in battle. Most battles will involve the player and his party against a group of enemies. Players will also control all members of their party so that they can remain in control throughout combat.

Fitting in with the theme of South Park, all weapons, armor, and gear will look as if they were created or found by children. Obsidian says one can expect to see weapons such as rolling pins and wooden swords, and armor such as football helmets and pasta strainers. The combat of the game is described as, in essence, "kids being kids" (ie. "little bastards"), with lots of "juvenile violence" with "unsafe toys" - including flaming tennis balls, gardening implements and ninja stars.

Character Customization
The game starts off with the player creating his or her avatar with Cartman. As the game is a role-playing game, there will be multiple ways to customize one's character. Obsidian claims that the level of customization outstrips that of any known online character generator.

One definitive aspect is what class the player chooses, which informs the approach the player takes to combat. There are five classes:
 * Fighter
 * Mage
 * Thief
 * Cleric
 * Jew - A paladin/monk type class invented by Cartman. Described as being "high risk, high reward", the player becomes more powerful the closer they are to death.

Quests
Because the game aims to emulate the South Park style, typical role-playing quests wherein the player is sent to a cave to retrieve some lost artifact wouldn't be thematically appropriate. Quests will be more grounded within the South Park canon, with one example being retrieving Kung Pao chicken from City Wok for Cartman. The way to City Wok may be imagined into something else, but the emphasis remains on making the player feel as if they are in the South Park universe. In this capacity, Stone and Parker have taken a direct role in the direction of the game's plot and general atmosphere.

Smart Phone
A smart phone that is carried by the player character will act as the main menu for the game. The smart phone contains a Facebook-like app where the player can see the events going on as well as any active quests. It also tracks how many friends the player has made, and the player character's standing with different factions in the game.

Items
Currently disclosed items include "health potions" such as sodas and speed-augmenting items such as Tweek's coffee. Although few details have been released, it appears that there will be multiple collectables throughout South Park. The two that have been confirmed so far include dirty magazines and Chinpokomon dolls. Some never-before-seen Chinpokomon toys that were cut from the show will also be featured in the game.

Development
Stone and Parker have stated that they enjoy role-playing games and that they believe the genre is the best fit for bringing the South Park universe into the interactive medium. They also stated that the learning curve was greater than anything else they had done apart from The Book of Mormon.

The Obsidian team working on the game is relatively small, "maxing out" at around 50 people. Many artists also had to be hired from outside the company, since many of the artists already working at the studio preferred working in three dimensions, rather than in the two-dimensional environment of the game. Some other staff at the studio also didn't feel comfortable working on a South Park-related game due to its controversial subject matter.

Stone and Parker initiated talks with Obsidian Entertainment on their own behalf, as opposed to the more common route whereby a publisher acquires the license before contacting the developer. This presented the game developers the unusual opportunity of being able to collaborate directly with the license holders. Consequently, Stone and Parker, who are avid gamers themselves, possessed much more creative control in comparison to previous South Park video games, to which they were able to contribute very little.

Graphics
Previously released South Park games, such as South Park (1998) and South Park Rally (2000), featured three-dimensional graphics and gameplay that bore little resemblance to the show's distinctive two-dimensional cardboard cutout animation style. Stone and Parker, who have been openly critical of previous South Park games, decided early on in development that great emphasis had to be placed on emulating the show's aesthetic and feel were another game to be made.

To this end, the developers created two proof-of-concept pieces for Stone and Parker; a suite of the South Park gas station and an interactive version of Stan's house, featuring a highly customizable avatar and detailed interactions with the environment (as well as Randy, clad in his underwear, playing Guitar Hero). The creators were reportedly incredibly impressed at Obsidian's recreation of the show's every last detail, right down to the texture of the construction paper. Upon seeing the presentation, Matt Stone favorably commented, "It's like playing the show!"

Obsidian was granted access to 15 years' worth of Maya assets that were used in the making of the series; specific sequences (such as the show's distinctive walking animations) were reverse engineered and integrated into the game. The game runs on the Dungeon Siege III engine, which had to be heavily retrofitted to display the desired two-dimensional graphics.

Audio
Authentic sounds from the series, such as the signature guitar bumpers, will also be included in the game. The same composer who creates the show's score will also be providing incidental music for the game. Due to the large volume of new voice work needed for a role-playing game, dialogue animations will be generated procedurally, using the same mouth shapes as those used on the show.

Gameplay
The game is intended to accommodate fans of both South Park and role-playing games. Thus, the game world is not only in-depth, for hardcore gamers willing to invest a lot of time into the game, but also includes many settings featured on the show, allowing South Park fans to visit the places that they've come to be familiar with.

Stone and Parker had a hand in shaping the geography of the game world, deciding where places visited on the show were actually situated in the town of South Park itself.

Narrative
In emulating the premise of the show, Obsidian also aimed to include the swearing, gratuitous violence and physical humor of South Park, but in a way that did not become stale after repeated invocations. The game also derives some of its humor by satirizing and parodying other games. However, Obsidian has stated that the game is much more than a simple satire on role-playing games, forming a cohesive narrative similar in scale to the South Park movie.

Characters
The following characters are seen on the cover for Game Informer: Characters whose inclusion has not been confirmed, but who are likely to make an appearance, include:
 * The Vampire Kids
 * The Ginger Kids
 * The Goth Kids
 * The Raisins Girls
 * Hippies
 * Crab People
 * Underpants Gnomes
 * Jakovasaurs
 * NAMBLA
 * The Harley Riders