
You'll be familiar with Troy Baker from his many performances in video games — from Joel in The Last of Us to Jack Pepper in MOUSE: P.I. for Hire — but it seems he has ambitions to make his own titles.
Speaking on the Kinda Funny Gamescast, he talks about his desire to create original games with his own studio:
"To be able to take those tenets and principles, lessons, and losses, and be able to form something new out of that — I want to tell my own stories," Baker says when asked about the matter.
"I want to proliferate the wisdom and the experience those other great studios — and bad — have given me, and be able to fold that into new experiences, and try my hand at it."
He says he wants to build a studio and a team of people he trusts, and ask them "Here's my idea, how can you make it better?"
Host Greg Miller asks how far along this project is, and Baker responds by saying he doesn't want to rush into it.
"Because I've seen a lot of people that have rushed into opportunities, and I want to do it right," he says. "Especially if I'm gonna create a studio where other people are gonna be responsible for my choices, I have to make the right ones."
This follows on from recent commentary from Baker in which he says he feels like he "just got started".
Though he was mostly talking about his acting work, it seems he has ambitions to do more. It sounds like we may not see the result of this effort anytime soon, but it'll be interesting to see where it goes.
[source youtube.com]





Comments 33
Wish him luck for when it happens.
He can save a lot of money by voicing all characters himself
Good luck to him!
EDIT: That read sarcastically which wasn't intentional. I genuinely mean it... I hope he pulls this off and makes something amazing! He's been able to work with some of the best over the years. Yes, as an actor, but I'm sure he learned a lot about how games are made too.
More power to him.... I hope the game is good at least.
I wish him well but I can't help but feel like this will be another inevitable 'game studio closing'
I almost always like his performances but having watched a fair few Alannah Pearce podcasts when Troy was a recurring guest (until they fell out), I wasn’t really a fan of his. I can appreciate a man (or woman) who takes their art seriously… but there’s a difference between that and being pretentious. Personally I found Troy regularly seemed the latter.
In this economy! 😅
I’m not holding my breath. Baker is a wonderful voice actor but making a game is a whole different skill set.
His game will probably come out before a Naughty Dog game does.
@tameshiyaku As @tatsumi pointed out, he can save a load of money by voicing all the characters himself.
That's got to save him a fair few bob 😀
Hire Laura Bailey and Phil Lamar. The 3 of them alone can voice over 100 characters.
I feel like he would gave the vision for great single player games.
I hope it goes well for him, but he's legally obligated to call his studio Troy's Bakery.
Wasn't he briefly an AI shill? He's a solid voice actor and I wish him well, but he has some opinions I'm not overly fond of.
Sounds like confirmation he hated the LOUP2 as much as well all did too.
I'm still waiting on the Slightly Mad console to happen, so we can think up as many things of people saying things and how much happens? XD
To be serious though.
Could go either way. Other Indies, or some other bland boring cinematic games I refuse to buy.
If he can go about it well sure, but maintaining a team, making one to make other money opportunities as a business man sure, but otherwise I don't have high hopes.
Ownership or actual leadership I do wonder.
Not impossible, just doesn't always go well is more so the line of thinking there.
AI or otherwise who knows. I don't have high hopes. When I see artists make their own labels/publishers for music I go sure. Or animators/other staff making a new studio, sure.
But an actor wanting to form a game studio, I am more particular about.
I'll keep buying the few Western/Eastern FMV games sure, but otherwise I'm not buying cinematic animated games with story first and bland gameplay, easy pass.
I play all genres, and FMVs are new for me, doesn't change my stance on how boring modern games are.
Cozy ones, big budget ones, Indies, whatever the case. I'm just not impressed at all.
Indies need depth and many of them aren't that great either.
The heavily inspired ones. The genuinely creative ones sure I respect therm or play them. But not many are my thing but I can respect them.
But so many aren't appealing to me at all.
Bet those stories dont end with a golfclub in his face.
@RudeAnimat0r Was it AI or NFT crap? I do vaguely remember him shilling something controversial and having to backtrack and apologize.
@pyrrhic_victory yes, it was NFT, if I remember correctly, where he famously said the words, "you can hate or create." 😬
@species
LOL
He isn't JUST an actor, he's also been Performance Director on Middle Earth Shadow of War and I think another one or two, musician in TLOU2 and DS2
Seems to give his all to everything he does, loves his craft, has worked with many of the best in the industry and likely learned from them. Fingers crossed he can make that all come together into something worthwhile. Best of luck to him and all devs.
@AhmadSumadi He is close to Laura Bailey and her husband talented VA Travis Willingham so it's pretty likely if he goes down the Abubakar Salim / Surgent Studios route of gathering / hiring talented friends.
The shine really came off of Baker when he was involved with the AI voice acting shenanigans; I was really disappointed by that whole fiasco to the point that I do't follow his work at all now
First title, Guitar Simulator.
@StitchJones Plenty of eager, unemployed game devs to choose from.
"I want to do it right." Who does he think wanted to "do it wrong"? This is a massive financial risk, but the benefits cannot be measured in money alone. Maybe this will lead to some unexpected opportunities?
@StitchJones Yeah, he does strike me as a pretty highfalutin type dude. He has the chops, but I can only handle someone going off on the importance of "their art" so many times before it becomes groan-inducing. That said, he does go out of his way to give praise to everyone on the dev teams he works with, so I do appreciate that.
@StitchJones Haha, I don't know if I'd go that far. I don't think he's insincere in his praise, his generosity, or his desire to do something positive, but I do also think he has a very high opinion of himself.
Another one to throw on the pile of "recognisable name involved in new game". And that usually ends...well, I guess it just sort of ends.
@StitchJones Yeah, we're on the same page for sure.
Confidence with a dash of modesty can go a long way.
The man has worked at soo many great studios he no doubt has picked up a lot of knowledge along the way.
With the sad layoffs and closures we’ve seen from studios lately he could snap up some really great talent atm and really make something great.
Troy just turned 50 1st of this month reeks of some kind of april fools mid life crYsis
Let's go! Recently picked up learning Unreal for the same reason. Just don't have the capital overhead
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