Trivia / Brütal Legend

• Actor-Inspired Element: Eddie Riggs was at first designed as a general roadie with a hint of Deadpan Snarker, and he even took after Lemmy for a while. As the character was developed, elements of Jack Black were thought of, but the designers couldn't have guessed that Jack Black himself would approach them to work on the project (he was a fan of Double Fine's previous work, Psychonauts). Eventually, Eddie became Jack.
• Colbert Bump: A few of the bands featured in the game received some healthy boosts in popularity after the game's release. Wikipedia reports that sales of the included tracks went up 700%. Tim Schafer says he was overjoyed about the bands in the soundtrack getting exposure and creating new Heavy Metal fans, which was exactly one of his goals.
  • Brocas Helm, which was so obscure you couldn't purchase anywhere, enjoyed sales on digital services for a time due to popularity of their song "Cry of the Banshee".
  • Skeletonwitch and 3 Inches of Blood both expressed pride in being in the game.
• Creator Killer: The commercial failure nearly bankrupted Double Fine, who was still reeling in the pain from the commercial failure of Psychonauts.
• Development Gag: The older roadie in the intro is based off discarded concept art for Eddie.
• Divorced Installment: As stated below, Brutal Legend itself was originally set to be distributed (by Activision) as a Guitar Hero Gaiden Game called "Guitar Hero Adventures". Tim Schafer and Double Fine wanted it to be a stand-alone game.
• Follow the Leader: Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.
  'Tim Schafer on Twitter': "Holy Crap! They even stole our intro music!"
  • Oddly enough, Brutal Legend itself was originally set to be distributed as a Guitar Hero Gaiden Game. Double Fine's resistance to this was what caused Activision to drop the game.
• Money, Dear Boy: The reason Metallica, AC/DC and Led Zeppelin do not have music in the game (in the latter case, in any game).
  • Lemmy expressed that he does not like Brütal Legend or Guitar Hero, despite being in both.
  Lemmy: "No one is going to suck your dick playing a plastic guitar."
  • Iron Maiden was thought to be this until an interview with Tim Schafer revealed the real reason: they thought the name "Eddie Riggs" would imply an endorsement.^* Iron Maiden's mascot is named Eddie, and Derek Riggs is the artist who created him. By the time they decided they actually wanted in on it, it was too late.
• Promoted Fanboy: Jack Black apparently loved Psychonauts, and that was one of the reasons why he took the job of voicing Eddie Riggs.
• Screwed by the Network: EA refuses to drop the money to make the patches created by Double Fine available to the public, including the desperately requested PS3 patch to stop crashing. Players who complain to EA have received copies of different games for free. Brütal Legend is not included in EA's Games on Demand on Xbox Live, or in any of its sales. They are working hard to pretend their relationship with Double Fine never happened.
• Self-Plagiarism: The Deuce looks exactly like the Bone Wagon in Grim Fandango. Tim Schafer worked on both projects.
• Stillborn Franchise: Although Tim Schafer intended for the game to have at least one sequel, the disappointing sales figures make it very unlikely that a sequel will ever happen. That said, he did, apparently, say that it could still be in the cards if Psychonauts 2 sells well (and being financially backed by Microsoft would help in that endeavor).
• What Could Have Been: Many things that were planned were cut from the game because of time and budget constraints.
  • The story was going to be twice as long, and there was going to be a third continent that would have served as the Tainted Coil's homeland.
  • An AI "autopilot mode" would have been available in which Mangus handles all RTS segments.
  • Fleetus was going to lead a fourth faction. The Tick Chopper units were originally his, and are the only creature of his army to stay in the game. (The Tainted Coil uses them instead.) Fleetus hints several times in-game that he has a whole army hidden somewhere and they will seek revenge on Eddie. Concept art reveals he had wings like the other factions, and there is a picture of him enjoying a beer alongside Eddie, implying friendly rivalry.
  • Ophelia was going to stay dead. But Tim Schafer didn't want to leave Eddie alone with Lita.
  • A sequel was in the pre-planning stages, but was canceled after the first game's disappointing sales figures.
  • According to this article, when Tim Schafer was pitching the game, the execs wanted to make it a hip-hop or country music game.
  • Also, they originally wanted Ronnie James Dio to voice Doviculus (probably a good pick given his performance as Dr. X in Queensrÿche's Operation: Mindcrime II), but at a certain point in development, the team thought Tim Curry's voice suited him better.

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