We all knew it’d happen eventually, right? Or maybe we just dreamed it would?
My only question was whether or not NBC/Universal and/or Sony would have the foresight to hire a developer, craft the tie-in, and sell it via PSN…or if a canny group of fans would make the attempt first.
NBC nearly cancelled the low-rated but brilliant Community this year….only to bring it back to finish out its third season…then they renewed it for a shortened season…then they publicly and shittily ousted its creator Dan Harmon (yeah, he’s a difficult dude – but whatever. Thirteen more episodes and you’d never have to deal with him ever again, you idiots – why not just let him finish what he started instead of creating yet another fan-alienating shitstorm). Expecting anything like foresight from them is folly – so in the end…the quest was taken up by a lone code-savvy Community fan: reddit user Deferman.
Deferman has crafted the ultimate piece of Community memorabilia – a playable version of Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne, the video game seen in this season’s Digital Estate Planning episode.
You can choose to play the game as one of the Greendale Seven, and choose from one of their many guises to boot (BATMAN). The fidelity to the episode’s spritework is pretty amazing, and the whole thing is a delightful 8-Bit throwback.
The game is open-source, and is being constantly tweaked by its creator (take a look at what the poor guy is dealing with on his page) and other reddit denizens. It’s only (only?) three screens strong at this point – but it’s a fine and hilarious start to things, and I’m willing to wager that Deferman and the community of Community fans on the web will band together and push this project streets ahead of its current state in no time at all.
You can download the Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne HERE.