The Lethal Comedy of Zeekerss' Lethal Company

[@MrChocodemon]

Zeekerss is the legendary worker all companies want. A 21yo with 10+ years working experience.

[@Sahdirah]

Thank GOD he’s actually in control of his own means of production. I’m glad he gets to keep the profit from what he made. ❤

[@lemonlordminecraft]

@@Sahdirah incredibly based. I just learned who Zeekkers is from this video and I'm already feeling that proud parent moment feeling

[@MyNameIsPetch]

@@Sahdirah who doesn't get to keep most of the profit from their own idea that they developed alone?

[@gatnom]

Except he is most likely already a multi millionaire at that age and does not need employment.

[@adderous]

Anyone who has to fund the idea with investors.

[@its_miscu]

I've been watching a friend play through The Upturned and it blows my mind at how good this dev is at horror-comic timing. You really see them playing with that absurd animation speed as a means to emphasize a punchline.

[@KazikoWhite]

For the last few years, since Phasmophobia came out, I was wondering "How do you make proximity chat a core feature in a co-op horror game? How can it be used to enhance fear?" And this game figures it out. But my main design question was "How do you ensure that players won't just resort to Discord as it would be a more convenient way of communicating?" It turns out, if it's fun enough, people will just use the in-game chat.

[@cunt5000]

Barotrauma also does it pretty well, but in service to the overall anxiety levels... Nothing quite like when someone say "I'll go for a look" then just stops responding on comms XD

[@dominicparker6124]

If its a core part of the experience AND the game isn't competitive, then people will use it. Games like chrome hounds on 360 got subverted because xbox voice chat was so easy to use

[@Davbo37]

Also from my experience Phasmophobia hits you with a wall of text instructions to set up the voice chat when you boot it up, whereas in lethal company it just works. Maybe they've fixed that since I played it, but being just as easy as discord, or even easier, is also key

[@Petey5]

Labyrinthine also makes it fun on most of the levels

[@masterplusmargarita]

So much of the reason I end up using the voice chat is it's just so well implemented, and doesn't go out of its way to make itself a pain in the ass. I've played through most of the We Were Here games, and we gave up on the in-game voice chat because (after you coerce it into picking up your microphone, which is no easy task) you're forced to use walkie-talkies which mute your partner while you're talking, which is realistic but incredibly annoying to the point we weren't having fun. There's also no proximity chat - you can stand next to your partner and yell as loud as you can, but they won't hear you if you're not talking into your walkie. Other games take the "proximity" in "proximity chat" to an obnoxious extreme, and make walls impermeable sound-blockers. Lethal Company's voice chat is incredibly good at working without requiring you to fiddle with settings and is generous enough to not be annoying to use. Losing track of your teammates when they wonder off far feels fair and immersive, as opposed to restrictive and frustrating.

[@scruffopone3989]

I'm really happy for Zeekerss, not just because he's a young person with a great design philosophy, or that the games are generally a hoot, but it's that we all get to share together in this silly thing Zeekerss made and unlike some other viral sensation there's a genuine joy in sharing stories and experiences with this game where 4 turrets can spawn right next to each other in a room you teleport into.

[@Bluecho4]

I was not prepared to learn Lethal Company was made by the "It Steals" guy. I was _really_ not prepared to learn that guy only recently became old enough to drink, and has been continuously making games since age 12.

[@KeithBallardA]

Zeekerss has been such a gift

[@estebanrodriguez5409]

Didn't knew the dev had such an interesting catalog, I'm excited for what's next now. Now I have to ask, is the mod you are using official?

[@Kavaeric]

Even my furry friends don't know this game was made by a furry. On another note, I wonder if this is what Bennett Foddy was talking about about finding the difficult amongst the metaphorical "mountain of trash" that is indie games that don't need to be as polished or huge as a AAA corporate affair. It's interesting how it goes further than Foddy, because you could argue that Foddy's approach to making games more frustrating was still feeding into the idea of player empowerment and mastery: frustration is employed in Getting Over It so that those who make it to the top can feel an exclusive sense of pride and accomplishment. Lethal Company seemingly has no interest in this idea of making the player feel triumphant, at least in the traditional "beating a hard game" sense. Finding joy and fun in a system that is explicitly disempowering probably is something that resonates with a lot of people, the developer included.

[@Swiftieee]

Your conclusion about Zeekerss sense of horror also coming from his sense of comedy and trickery reminds me of Jordan Peele's rise as a filmmaker. I remember in an interview, Peele talked about how much in common comedy held with horror in terms of setting expectations, upholding or violating those expectations, and executing payoff/punchlines. His horror films essentially was an extension of the sketch comedy he did before Get Out.

[@BunnyChannel918]

I genuinely expected this game to be all social and die down quickly, but after actually trying it...I was completely wrong. As someone who's very try-hard and competitive, the design of the game revolving around fixed quotas, adapting to hazards, and needing to make strategies got me hooked, making the satire of capitalism and workplaces even more poignant. And it just keeps getting funnier.

[@MechanicWolf85]

the voice chat range is also perfect and should be added in so many games, hearing my friends from a distance only to either hear screams, quick curses or abrught silence, only to be met with isolation is great I have called out in the darkness for my friends only to hear foot steps thinking is one of my friends so I keep shouting only for the steps to come closer and the moment I see what it is I ran as fast as possible to the exit, or hearing the coil sounds and watching a coil head on the other side of the map thinking I can make a run for the door and close it in time only to hear the fast frantic movements of the statue and close the door the moment its in my face or be saved by a friend just in time to get out this game is fantastic, but sadly only great with friends strangers are a mix bag considering most of them will be below 13yo

[@Argusthecat]

The best part of a voice range is when you hear one of your friends going "No no no no no!" and you aren't sure if it's getting farther away, or CLOSER.

[@adamsbja]

The game is a wonderful story generator, every mishap comes bundled with a "how I convinced myself this was a good idea" gift wrapper. The monsters following rules, and there being a way to get Mastery of the game (which then falls apart as you try to handle multiple problems) really gives it legs. I've seen people try to mod things in that break that, like mimics that can just be anything, or Fire Exit mimics that eat you when you're trying to escape, and that doesn't work because there's nothing you can do about that. "This object that looked normal randomly decided to kill me" is not nearly as fun a story as "this creature that follows these rules randomly turned up in a situation where I couldn't follow the rules".

[@B_Skizzle]

That fire exit mod has so much unrealized potential. There just needs to be some kind of tell that you can use to distinguish a fake exit from a real one. Or, even better, it could randomly choose one from a list, with some being easier to spot than others. It might be as obvious as a different word on the door or as subtle as a slightly different shade of paint.

[@IDTen_T]

The fun part is: Even those modded monsters have rules that they follow, which you can slowly start to figure out. The mimic doors? You can whack them with a weapon to (mostly) safely reveal if they're real. I hope that more additions to the core game have the mastery of mechanical simplicity combined with that sense of "I got this! ...I DON'T GOT THIS!" energy that results from us players running into them.

[@bags.]

If you hit them with a shovel they groan.@@B_Skizzle

[@ConnorFishcat]

@@IDTen_T I believe for the mimic doors, there are tell tale signs that differentiate them from the real one. It's just that it's not always the SAME signs for each door.

[@ten-xlegacy4033]

​@@B_Skizzle They have tells! They'll sometimes say things other than 'exit' on the interact prompt, or have a middle finger. But most importantly, you can smack them with a shovel and they will growl! (You get two free, on the third, they open and eat you) By default they can also be slightly orange, or have a dimmer light, but I play with colorblind mode enabled in the mod settings

[@kezi_]

Thank you so much for pointing out the "horror and tension -> laughing to release tension" gameplay loop that makes Lethal Company such an outstanding and well-designed game for me. I think it makes the game intoxicating, because neither emotion ever outstays its welcome. No matter how long you're scared, you *always* get the release of tension afterwards, but then you *always* get back into the meat of gameplay within 30 seconds of starting a new day.

[@Woot100]

HOW did i not make the connection that this was by the same guy as it steals and the upturned?????? absolute legend

[@irislemon3474]

your analysis of zeekerss' style of design is very insightful!! by looking back at previous games i think you observed a core element of Lethal Company that i haven't seen expressed in any of the other videos about it. this is most elegantly expressed at 24:55 - "his games are, in a lot of ways, systems of delivering a series of practical jokes on the player." very well-said!!

[@superdude10000]

Lethal Company seems to have a lot of videos being made about it lately (I mean, I'm also working on one), and I think that has to do with how, as Game of the Moment games go, this one is fantastic. The depth of design to mess with you or produce comedy through lethality, but the emergent gameplay experiences, just give it so much staying power. It's too early to say if it sticks around, but as far as these games go, I feel Lethal Company is different. It's great! And I'm not bored after 20 hours like I was with Among Us, Phasmo, or some of the others.

[@Fenrir1]

I can say from experience that falling asleep while listening to a stream of Lethal Company can create some REALLY weird dreams.

[@Ghostmaw]

so glad you're covering this !! Their work before lethal company deserves so much recognition. Dead Seater is one of my favorite indie horror games.

[@Crocogator]

that neck break is absolutely hilarious and perfect. It makes me giggle every single time

[@GmodPlusWoW]

It's been a hot minute, but Campster's back! And he drops the bomb that the developer of Lethal Company is essentially one young man who's been developing games since he was a wee bairn. That's damn impressive, and hopefully the runaway success of this project doesn't go to his head. Though with that in mind, the breakout success of Lethal Company means that there'll be a lot of eyeballs on whatever he makes next, for better and for worse. (worse being the high expectations)

[@NeoShameMan]

The fable 21 years old with 10 years of experience from jobs proposal now make sense...

[@Xhantoss]

I was a bit shocked that "It steals" was a game that I already heard of. It was either another video essay about the clever game design or some sort of letsplay. In any case its interesting to run into the same solo-dev yet again. Sometimes the world is a really small place.

[@KyrickYoung]

omg the mummy(?) neck break sequence is hilarious. The scene where you were running with your light on, thought you lost it, found it again, turned your light off and panic ran through the dark had me in tears

[@cheesypoohalo]

I can't believe this, I watched all three of those games in Let's Plays years ago and thought they were great. For some reason I just thought the Lethal Company dev had just come out of nowehere with a smash hit, but now it all makes sense; he's got plenty of expereince making excellent games. Thanks for the great video, I bought a copy of Lethal Company a month ago even though I have no interest in playing it- it's made for some of the best KZbin content I've seen in years, and I can't wait to see what this dev puts out next.

[@hidood5th]

Would love to see this kind of dev retrospective for David Szymanski

[@estebanrodriguez5409]

I think comedy and horror have similar structures. No wonder why they go hand in hand so well.

[@underscore_5450]

Well at their core, both are about managing audience expectations and trying to surprise them. The build up of tension works almost the same for both genres. You want the audience off guard and not expecting what happens next.

[@daavpuke]

My man really just referenced a 15 year old meme, just in case anyone didn't think this was comprehensive enough. Good stuff. Some of your best, even 🙏

[@AkhierDragonheart]

I'm horrible with names so I didn't twig it right away, but I remember this guy's games! Found them a bit ago because Pastra did a video on It Steals.

[@DensetsuVII]

This game has fascinated me since it came out not because I like playing it, being not a horror fan myself, but from the story of its developer. So glad for this retrospective on his influences - classic Errant Signal fare!

[@rizon98]

Really enjoyed the retrospective on the developer's recent games! Zeekerss has some seriously interesting games I need to try, especially The Upturned, that's like right up my alley lol

[@UrpalZMKZ]

I remember watching the teaser for lethal company thinking it looked fine, but I didn't fully expect for it to be the one game to explode in popularity (because upturned and it steals were good enough) especially with how similar most of his games are. Also you should have played the silent dark because you can see the inspirations that would later come in his games now.

[@cjrecio5702]

A relevant paragraph from an interview with Push to Talk: “After making Dead Seater,” Zeekerss says, “I realized I was intentionally holding back a lot of my identity from my games, since I was so focused on making something scary. When I stopped confining myself to that one goal, my next game, The Upturned, suddenly became funny-in fact, my games had always been funny accidentally. But now, they could be funny and scary at the same time.”

[@Kirkklan]

I'm kinda reminded about what's been said about how Sam Raimi goes about his horror films. Even if the first "Evil Dead" was the only that really got me scared and anxious, the sequel one was more toned down and overly goofy and that carried into his later stuff. Heck, see the "Birth of" Doc Ock sequence in "Spider-Man 2".

[@n0etic_f0x]

I think one of the best moments from the game is when I was just calmly saying stop panicking to a guy and he was just screaming all the time, then his friends started imitating me and all you could hear was player one streaming then three "Stop panicking" normally when safely walking back to the ship. It just kind if worked the panic made sure we all moved and the meme made sure we did not panic and die.

[@Levyathyn]

A good look into this guy's previous dev work, and some of these mini horror concept games are very smart, and seem to be executed in nice, tidy little packages. Considering the 'early career' single dev fluke Lethal Company seemed to be, I always just assumed like most did it was a well timed guess on public consciousness, and a small indie gem made with care that hit the right spot through a bit of luck and some good free PR, earned of course by early adopters enjoying the shit out of it and spreading the word. But I can see the DNA of a lot of these early decisions this guy was making, often in his teens; I can definitely say Lethal Company seems a lot more planned, and a lot less lucky now, and I'm even more glad it found success.

[@claudenirmf]

Dude, your videos are such a joy to watch. Thanks for making them =)

[@Ilseroth]

Generally when I hear folks talk about lethal company, they tend to focus on the comedy aspect so it's good to see someone really emphasize on it's horror aspects. It's legitimately good at creating tension, particularly if the group is taking the goal of meeting quota a *touch* seriously. The atmosphere manages to be incredibly oppressive, and the limited inventory space combined with how cheap most tools are means that you're likely to want to just... drop that flashlight or walkie because it's getting late and you just found good stuff. That said I have a strange worry about the game, which is modding. Normally a game being moddable is mostly a pure win, however given the fact it's a game played with friends primarily, some folks are likely to only ever play it while it's modded in the way their friends play it. It's fine if they have a good time with the wacky silly mode of the game that can come from the mods, but it's kinda a shame that they may never really get to experience the game as it was designed to be played. They'll get a bunch of knowledge while playing the game even modded, and while the game is still fun when you know a lot about it, the process of your first few sessions being "on the job training" in the most fucked company of all time is sorta lost when meeting the quota is an afterthought because there's 10 players, extra loot, and everyone's got extra inventory slots.

[@wile123456]

That monster in the beginning reminded me to fix my posture.

[@hazeman671]

Great video! Loved the delving into the horror-comedy, something that is usually so hard to pull off being done so seemingly effortlessly here. It was also really interesting learning more about Zeekerss.

[@4dragons632]

Oh wow this guy is also the guy who made It Steals? This guy is a genius! Thankyou Roblox for getting Zeekerss into game design.

[@TheKarishi]

Interesting to hear your ruminations on judging people's EARLY work. Like, I'm 40+ and I still think of the things I INTENDED to make even in childhood as part of my "gameography" but at the same time there are obvious reasons someone studying my works couldn't make a video about that and perhaps I'd be embarrassed about having the board game I made for science class in grade school discussed in a video, I don't know.

[@CheesecakeMilitia]

Campster... Colin's Bear Animation music is from Mother 3, not Earthbound. There, that's all I can contribute in these comments, as Zeekerss' games are too spooky five me.

[@Quicksilvir]

I feel like there's more material than ever for great comedy in videogames. There's witty writing in Portal or Borderlands 2. Watching a plan fall into chaos like Monaco or Overcooked. Setting up expectations and then subverting them like Undertale. Ragdoll comedy like Skate 3 or TABS. Puns and taking metaphors and aphorisms literally in West of Loathing. Letting the player run headfirst into the consequences of their actions in Disco Elysium. Setting someone up for an ironic fall in Hitman. Lethal Company brings some fascinating avenues that have rarely been explored in videogames before. Cluelessly wandering into danger and then fleeing echoes Scooby-Doo, The absolute cheapness of life and death evokes black comedy like Monty Python or Tarantino (It's been done in games before but I think lethal company does it better than ever before by having the player be in the position of faceless minion victim), and dodging one trap only to run straight into another combines subversion with physical comedy reminiscent of Looney Tunes.

[@DigeeTheGenie]

Leathal Comedy is something of an unknown genre of video games; wherein the obstensive goal is something like "Blow up the statue of the silver monkey" but actauly succeding at that goal is, at best, a suggestion and any and all bugs that lead in hilarious death tend to have their ```//TODO: Fix this``` comments left unnoticed. The guys who made Helldivers are masters of it.

[@SirSoliloquy]

The funny hyperactivity reminds me of Sam Rami horror.

[@GameGod77]

It's interesting to learn just how young the dev is, as well as how his previous projects clearly culminated into lethal company's design.

[@StevenHarmonGames]

I'll know I've made it when Errant Signal covers one of my games. Just gotta make something good/bad enough first to warrant that.

[@anneelk9066]

The commentary about death scenes in Dead Seater didn't sound like a critique at all at any point cause the juxtaposition of vibes seems to be similar to the death scenes in Faith, and with that game, moments like these are a big part of its charm

[@embrefrosste6044]

Yo, the poltergeist from “it steals” is such a sick horror game monster idea

[@jameswood9512]

Thanks for covering this! I'm not really a multiplayer co-op person so I didn't much get the appeal, but I think now seeing the further context of their past work I get it.

[@Tintenseher]

Actually said "Aw, hell yes!" out loud upon seeing this in my feed :)

[@Mackinstyle]

Wish you a Merry Christmas in the wrong time signature is just perfection.

[@tsartomato]

resident evil? that's as alone in the dark as it only can get

[@DarkHarpuia]

Oh my god, he made The Upturned?? I loved that one!

[@snowflakeserpert6834]

WOOOOO ERRANT SIGNAL UPLOAD!!!!!!

[@frodothehobo9581]

"a dev who wasn't even old enough to drink." Ok but that means 15 in europe and 20 in the USA.

[@ghtddkc]

This is such an interesting take on comedy

[@SEGAClownboss]

These just don't really look like my types of game. It's one thing that I'm not comfortable with horror or psychological games already, but also marrying them to this low-asset and janky, twitchy humour that mirrors the overstimulation of Tiktok videos particularly gives me a really really bad taste. This makes me just wanna crawl into my hole and play my old PC strategy games from the 90s or something similarly not scary or edgy. I will say one thing though: That kid sure is massively, massively talented.

[@HappyWulf]

I played The Upturned in October 2022 for Halloween, and after checking his portfolio, had Lethal Company on my wishlist for a whole year until it's release. Then in early October 2023 I bugged people to play it when the demo was live for next fest, which can be seen by a clip on my channel. But sadly no one outside of my own friend group paid my recommendation any attention. Now it's a Smash hit and I get to unironically say, "I was a fan before it was popular." like a smug hipster. ;3

[@BryanBeast13]

Perfect way to cap off my Sunday night after this cowboys lost

[@leeverguy]

I LOVE how I can recognize the exact challenge moon you're on at 8:10 The very first challenge moon on patch day was so funny and bullshit.

[@TheBonsaiTreehouse]

Sounds like Zeekerss is very much the indie gaming answer to Sam Raimi.

[@iam9991000]

Anybody else not find the fast animations not funny?

[@NemoK]

God I wish I had friends to play games with.

[@Redo13164]

This is a classic errant signal essay! The kittyhorrorshow one was one of my favs, and this is def on the same level.

[@m1wula756]

Found it really interesting to learn about the similarities of Zeekerss' different games. Something that actually reminded me a lot of Acid Nerve and Titan Souls and their second title Death's Door. After having had a lot of fun with the latter, I found myself watching two or three videos on Titan Souls - which is somewhat like a "boss rush" game - and couldn't help myself but notice how similar a lot of the boss battles in Death's Door were to the ones from Titan Souls (oftentimes regarding the attack patterns and attacks itself but sometimes even thei design/look of the bosses).

[@djbeema]

When I first saw gameplay of this I was like "Oh it's just space phasmophobia". A little surprised you didn't mention it at all. Anyway, I hope to play it some day. But I'm on PlayStation, so seeing as how we just got phasmophobia, I probably shouldn't hope to see Lethal Company until 2027 😂

[@karasu9]

EXCELLENT video chris

[@gctypo2838]

21:20 That was one of the funniest things I've seen since Lethal Company.

[@bboollll]

wait... hang on.... ive seen that intro part from another view. (the one calling out that there is a mine) i didnt know you were on the team aswell. (i tend to return every 3-4 months to catch back up on your vids as i really enjoy them, (since spec-ops the line wich was my first)) and about once a year i dont only catch back up but re-binge your signal vids :)

[@Dayglodaydreams]

Given typical timeframe of production, a video could come out soon...we don't know what it will be, though...

[@kawaiiconcept7479]

one time I was making my way back with some pretty expensive items. I don't have the best directional sense. As I finally saw the ship it took off and the two remaining folks left me behind accidentally (they thought I was dead) my favorite enemy to face is coil heads but my favorite design wise is the Bracken.

[@jackschaefer7651]

Chris! Commenting for engagement. Really love your work and analysis. Easily my favorite gaming channel

[@b-roll2825]

Hey, I really appreciate all of your videos. It's some of my favorite content on KZbin

[@Cactrot]

Another great video from Ch Fr, Gr J

[@Kyrkby]

The Upturned is so freaking good, can highly recommend it.

[@Robert399]

Isn’t this just a cartoony Phasmophobia?

[@fluyd9]

yo the in the kingdom guy is making phobolis now

[@savag3salad813]

And when we needed him most... dad came back with the milk.

[@TheMexRAGE]

Was wondering how a 21 year old was able to nail the horror comedy satire of lethal company, but turn out zeekerss have been developing for far longer than most 40 year old have.

[@JediMB]

6:34 "Coil Heads are loosely based on SCP-173" ...Or the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who, which 173 is clearly a reference to?

[@JediMB]

Kids these days making cool games on their own, and here I am... not making anything.

[@mimszanadunstedt441]

Great video.

[@frogge8034]

You are easily my favorite video essayist on all of KZbin - always so insightful and entertaining. Super stoked every time I see a new video drop!

[@rngwrldngnr]

Coming to a Children of Doom near you, circa 2067.

[@dolvana]

Great job!

[@SolarFlorad]

Another wonderful video. Thanks man. You really brightened my day by helping me see the beauty of video games as an art form.

[@Meatjar20769]

Epic apostrohpe fail!

[@Dayglodaydreams]

He seems behind schedule.

[@Enemby]

I had no idea I was already familiar with almost all of this guys commercial works

[@hemangchauhan2864]

This was a great watch. I can tell you greatly enjoyed the game/story generator too.

[@kyletowers9662]

Interesting

[@Jekyllstein_Gray]

At first I thought, who's Bahamut Blast? Then I realized it's obviously Rutskarn. Edit: Wait, I guess it's not. Hmmm...

[@NoName......]

What happened to the lisa the pointless video?

[@wizlockfnordfinder]

The more you know. 😊

[@ORANOID]

Why is this video link only?

[@ScottAhearnShipbuilder]

Lethal Company? Like Boeing? YES I am TOPICAL

[@ORANOID]

Interesting

[@stevejakab274]

The common theme in all these games is they seem to be designed for streamers to react to. Which makes their staying power only last until the next popular thing comes along.

[@bags.]

u can play games with your friends btw, np for the tip :)

[@cassandratastrophe9000]

It's been a long time since the old Mass Effect lets play, but gosh it was nostalgic hearing Josh laugh.

[@steampunkerella]

not my cup of tea but i have enjoyed the clips

[@sodar42]

Will you continue Children of Doom series?

[@LazarheaD]

This guy, uh person is talanted...