Momocon 2014: BioShock Infinite & The Last of Us Interview and Panel

Momocon 2014 invaded Atlanta, Georgia for the weekend of May 23-25, 2014 and brought out tons of great guests from the video games industry. Some of the biggest guests at the event included voice actor Troy Baker and his two co-stars in two of the biggest games of 2013 in Courtnee Draper, who voiced Elizabeth in BioShock Infinite, and Ashlee Johnson, who voiced Ellie in The Last of Us. Each game featured its own panel over the weekend with each show hosted by IGN's Greg Miller. The panels were both informative and entertaining, so fans should read on now to learn some of what they missed.

BioShock Infinite Interview Highlights:

QUESTION: So let's start at ground zero. Troy and Courtnee, how different is your life now based on when you started working on BioShock Infinite?

Troy Baker: Oh God,

Courtnee Draper: Well three years so definitely a lot has changed.

Troy Baker: We've covered a lot of ground....zero.

(crowd laughter)

Troy Baker: Well my God, Courtnee, you've had the biggest arc. It's interesting to me because Elizabeth had the biggest arc in the game. There's more revealed about Booker I guess, but it's interesting how much, to me at least, how your character paralleled you starting off. You started off wide-eyed and (mocking Courtnee), "Oh, I don't know anything about games!" Then by the end of it, look where you're at, so I want to hear more about that. Would you guys like to hear more about it?

(crowd cheers)

Courtnee Draper: Yeah it was cool. I was lucky to have a teacher like Troy; he definitely took me under his wing. We met on the plane to go for our call back, and I was like, "Umm, can you tell me about new games as a whole, like the whole industry?" So he tells me what's going on, and then what he talked about really blew my mind and I just really fell in love with the industry. Working on a game like that for three years, you just get to know everyone so intimately. I don't know; it's really cool, and I feel like this whole world blown open, and that's really exciting. I think it really is kind of like us, except, spoiler alert, I didn't get vengeful and go on a killing spree, yet. It's really crazy; I can't believe just how much knowledge I've accrued about video games, and meeting all the fans the last three years has been such a crazy ride. It's awesome.

Troy Baker: She was like (mocking Courtnee), "This is my first game." I was like, "Well, you started off pretty good."

QUESTION: Was that the first step, to explain to her how big a deal this was?

Troy Baker: Yeah, so I was like, "You're not going to play Soldier A in a game, because that's how most of us cut our teeth." But yeah, it was so interesting. It was a very intense process. If nothing else, the download that we got from whatever fever dream Ken (Levine) had at that specific moment of the stuff that we were going to record. We were learning about Columbia as we were going along, and there was a lot of stuff that Ken held back. I had done a few games before, but that whole time period was just this exponential rocket ship, because we had The Last of Us and we had BioShock at the same time, and we were going back and forth. So, it was interesting, because everyone knew from the very beginning that they would be Game of the Year contenders, and to see how parallel and different they were. Where I am now is light years away from where I started just because there is so much that has happened since then. I've learned more about games in the process of development. It was so cool that Ken was open through the process with both of us, and we got to see the dirty underbelly of making a game, and it's not pretty. It's, "And then you die." But I think anytime you make something good, there's always casualties whether it's people that leave, or a developer shuts down or different things. It's hard, and anything that's good requires that much effort.

Courtnee Draper: I think it's just risk taking. We always knew the whole time that we were all taking such a big risk by creating these characters and how do they even work? It was a question from a technical standpoint if she would even work and if we would fall in love and feel connected with our characters. It's one of the things when we first started talking about the franchise and from the way it was explained it was clear Irrational was trying to do something very different and ground-breaking. That's why I fell in love with the project. I really appreciated that they took risks, because I think without that, there isn't as much reward. The would not be as, in my personal opinion, phenomenal as it was.



The Last of Us Interview Highlights:
QUESTION: So then, you've both been in a lot of projects. Ashlee, where does this fall on the list of most intense projects to work on?

Ashlee Johnson: It's up there. I would say it may be even a top three. I've worked on a lot of independents that deal with a lot of really intense stuff. But I think because we shot this over a long period of time, at the end of every work day, because the scenes were so intense, it's not like we left feeling good at the end of the day, especially after we shot all of the scenes for the Winter section of the game.

Other highlights from both panels included what Troy and Courtnee thought about working with Irrational Games Creative Director Ken Levine, how Troy and Courtnee got along behind-the-scenes, and how Troy got into the mindset to play Joel in The Last of Us.

For more information on the event, check out the official Momocon website.