Our first round of answers:

1) We still got lots of questions about Season 3 of Leet World. This kind of surprises me, because as much as I know people loved the show, it has in fact been over for 2 years. People have done some pretty cool things on the Internet since then, and I highly recommend checking some of them out. Such as this nifty Portal 2 machinima. The writing’s not fantastic, but I’m impressed with what they pulled off, technically speaking. And there’s always Red Vs Blue, which has gone into a stratosphere that no other machinima creators can hope to touch.

2) If you ask us if you can be the one to continue Leet World, my answer will always be that nobody can stop you from doing what you want, but you’re not going to get our blessing. I’d encourage you to make your own thing, in your own way. Because I’m tyrannical like that.

3) All of us have recently rewatched The Leet World for the first time in a very, very long time, and I’ve got to say… I’m still baffled we did it. There’s a lot of technical stuff going on in a lot of those scenes that a lot of effort went into, and in some ways nobody can ever truly appreciate it but us. Weird to think that we pulled it off with all of the hurtles we had to overcome.

4) Not to make light of a serious situation, But I think Player is ready for the London riots. Seriously though, stay safe out there you guys.

I’d write a big thing about my thoughts about the year since, but I’d rather hear more of what you guys think. What are some of the highlights and lowlights of you for TLW? I’ve got a few of my own.

Highlights: Mendoza’s arc. Both season finales. The “can of worms / Council of Elrond” episode, S2E11, where most of the mysteries were spilled (still feel like we pulled that off decently). S1E7, because I feel like it was the first episode where we “got it” and the formula and quality for all subsequent episodes clicked.

Lowlights: I know a lot of people will boo me for this, but S1E1. The fact that we introduced Mendoza so late. Probably the only true “filler” episode we did, S1E6. The faceposing in Season 1. Not having the time to utilize the comrades/SWAT Bras more fully.

Go ahead and share yours.

In other news, we’ve been told from a Canadian friend that Day in the Life of a Turret was shown/referenced on TV there. While we’re unsure of the network (though it might have been G4), it seems the context wasn’t entirely positive. Still, we’re curious if anyone saw this?

Also, if you were planning on checking out Daniel’s panel appearance on Rooster Teeth’s Best of Machinima Panel this weekend at Fantastic Fest, that has been officially moved to Sunday at 2:30 PM. This is a bummer for me, because I was going to drive down for it on Saturday, but now I can’t. Sad. Face.

It’s funny thinking back to those first few weeks. We’ve told the story several times in a variety of different ways, but we honestly thought we would only make a few episodes and then stop the whole thing. It was unplanned, partially spontaneous, and then the support for what we were doing was ludicrously overwhelming, which helped us through some of the more brutal production runs. Interesting fact: we came this (imagine me holding my finger and thumb really close together) close to quitting during the production of Episode 11 of Season 1. Two series and a few years later bring a bit of perspective, and it’s been a mostly nice ride, though it’s had its own share of bumps. Which is why the current break is rocking our faces.

Anyway, I’m curious: of the people left that are still faithfully checking this site (thanks so much, by the way), how many of you were here since the very beginning? If not, when did you first stumble across our humble abode on the Intertubez? Answer away, commenters and lurkers.

P.S. Stay tuned for more free tracks of the TLW Season 1 soundtrack.

Many big thanks to JJ, who penned a great episode yet again. Also, I’d like to give a shout out to Miguel, who plays Scott, and did a fantastic job. Give those two guys a hand, as well as Jace, who always kills it each week on the musical front. These people are like ninjas at their crafts, so it’s cool that I know ninjas, I think.

And now for some news…

The season 2 finale (Episode 25) will also be the finale of the show itself. Next week will mark the end of Web Zeroes. We’ve known that’s how it was going to be for a month or so now, but couldn’t really talk about it until the release of this episode. I wish we could have told you guys sooner, but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. I think it’s important to note that ending the show is our decision, mostly because it has just been too exhausting to do the show as a part time job in addition to our day jobs. We’re thankful to Revision3 for the opportunity to broadcast this show to a much bigger audience than we had before, and for allowing us the privilege of being their first scripted series.

What does this mean for the future of Smooth Few Films? Well, we’re not entirely sure. We need a few months off to sort things out, take some rest and then go from there. I’ll be talking about that more in a future post, but I’ll go ahead and say that it does not mean the return of Leet World. In fact, this experience has convinced us more than ever that we have to go about things differently in the future. But as I said, we’ll be talking about that more later.

For now, enjoy the episode, because I think it’s a good one. And if you live in Texas, you should go read up about our Web Zeroes Wrap Party, and come hang out with us.

Watch, spread the word, and enjoy, dudes. Also, thanks for watching. We really appreciate it.

Even though almost a year has gone by since the show’s end, we still receive plenty of inquiries about these features, so I thought I’d bring it back with even more tidbits that you guys never knew.

So let’s get started. Details are after the jump!

• The chip in Ahmad’s head.

In S2E10, Asher hints to Ahmad (and us) that our lovable noob had a chip in his head that the Producer used to communicate with him. This is probably the biggest dangling plot thread (along with the Comrades) that got left over from the storyline, and one of my bigger regrets. There was actually an explanation scene for this in the first Season 2, Ep 13 script, but we ultimately cut it because Ahmad’s return made this thread less important.

Here’s what the deal was: when Ahmad auditioned, he had a chip put into his head so that the Producer could communicate with him, since he was particularly impressionable. When he started taking hacks, the Producer spoke to him as Adam Sizzler, a figure he trusted, to get him to move the drama to new heights. Remember, it was Sizzler who told Ahmad where to go in S1E12. When Asher jammed the communications to the house in S2E9, the Producer had his “ace in the hole” that he could talk to — Ahmad. Basically, the Producer was responsible for his death.

Like I said, we ultimately cut this. Once we changed things around and decided to bring Ahmad back, the information was less pertinent. Oh, I’m sorry. That leads us into the next bullet point.

• Ahmad was supposed to stay dead.

Yup. All that stuff on the site that I posted about saying goodbye and putting characters into danger immediately following S2E10 wasn’t just me jerking you around the way Valve does to everyone about Half Life 2 Episode 3. It was the honest to goodness truth at the time, because Ahmad was supposed to be dead dead. We made the decision back in Season 1 to kill off a main character, and we designed Ahmad’s arc to see if we could make people loathe him and then love him.

So why did he come back? Simply put, fan service. Our Revision3 deal came up right in the middle of Episode 12/13 production. Once we committed to them, we knew that left a huge possibility for never being able to revisit the story in the movie, as we had wanted to do. Rather than risk leaving everyone on a humongous cliffhanger (seriously, the Season 2 ending was just mean), we went with what had always been our backup plan in case something crazy happened like Daniel moving or having Valve shut us down or any number of other things. That’s the ending you saw, and we figured, since everything was going to have a nice bow on it, let’s just tweak it and bring Ahmad back.

Does it cheapen what we wanted for the show overall? Yes and no. The original plan was going to be pretty cool, but I think we still delivered an ending we were proud of. Ending the season on that cliffhanger would have left people hating us forever. About that…

• The Season 2 ending.

  Along with Ahmad’s death, we had the Season 2 cliffhanger planned out since around S1E4, Dust 2 Dust. We even hinted at it a few times throughout the series. Remember the “Island of possibilities” line that the Producer dropped at the end of Season 1? Or Montrose saying he needed to find a nice beach to retire to after the show was over? All hints towards the end of Season 2.

  Let me set the stage: instead of blowing up in the Death Room, Player was going to detonate in the house, eradicating all of the bots and himself to save his friends. As his countdown is nearing zero, Leeroy rushes to his lair to copy his core, while the other characters run away in hopes of avoiding the explosion. Unfortunately for them, they don’t quite escape and get knocked out in the ensuing blast. The Producer’s soldiers would arrive to a destroyed TLW house. The cast is knocked out. Player is destroyed. Leeroy is missing. The Producer instructs his men to collect the cast.

  Cut to: a blue sky, the sound of waves crashing. Ellis wakes up, and looks around to see the other cast members, lying on a beach. Season 2 was going to end with our characters waking up on a stranded island.

You guys would have hated us for it. And we would have laughed silly, I think.

Anyway, there are a few more where those came from, such as what were the plans for Season 3, but I’ll save that for another time. As I said before, it would have been cool to make, but none of us regret that we couldn’t do it. We love Leet World (well, some of us), but we’re glad this is all behind us. Still, a part of me sometimes wonders how crazy everyone would have gone with that Season 2 cliffhanger.

So, got any more questions?

In other news, we just released another episode of our GamerSushi podcast, the E3 edition. Lots of fun, check it out!

However, in the absence of a good and proper new Web Zeroes episode, I’ll be releasing another post concerning some more Lost TLW Factoids, including the whole deal with Ahmad’s chip as well as some other lesser known gems. I think any Leet World fans out there will want to come take a look at it for sure.

Last week, I posted a cool fan video that re-created The Office intro with Web Zeroes clips. This week, I bring another similar treat in the form of the Law and Order intro re-made with Web Zeroes. This was a big hit with us during filming over the weekend, and we stopped shooting just to watch it once we saw that it was out. Much thanks. Stuff like this that you fans do is such a treat for us. The idea that anyone would spend time paying tribute to something I work on still baffles me.

In other news, this is E3 week, and we are covering it over on GamerSushi, so you should check it out. Nick has been tweeting the press conferences from the GamerSushi account, and it’s an absolute riot. In addition, we’ve recapped the Microsoft press conference, as well as the Sony and Nintendo conferences. The Sony one includes some Portal 2 information. Head on over to the site and join the community, it’s a great place.

What are you guys looking forward to from E3? Left4Dead 3? Lol j/k.

There are just 2 more episodes to the season, and we are eager to be done with them. Both for the work involved, but also with some of the gags planned, particularly for the finale. Unfortunately, we’ve hit a snag in production, so we will be taking the next two weeks off to get those wrapped up and delivered back-to-back. I know it stinks, but we just couldn’t stay on target the way we wanted to. Like Luke did.

Anyway, I’m a big fan of this newest episode. Having the scenes at Alex’s work make for a nice break from the normal zaniness of the trio, and have added a nice new dynamic to the season I feel like. This episode and and the next were another pair written by the totally rad Jeff James, so give props to him. Also, Jace’s work is stellar yet again. He always manages to surprise me, and hearing how his style has grown since The Leet World is pretty cool.

Anyways, hit the jump to see the episode!

As always, visit Revision3 to get a downloadable version of the episode.

In other news, also check out our newest GamerSushi feature, where we talk about the Multiplayer Map Hall of Fame. I’ve also got a new post on my blog about how everyone is truly a nerd at heart.

Many thanks and kudos to my good-natured (and lovely) wife, who puts up with more than she ought to regarding our Web crazyness. This show constantly finds new ways to land close to home, and this episode really does kind of imitate what an average weekend is like for Jen. Minus actual hobos, though Miles does play the part a bit too well. This episode officially sets us up for the final arc of the season, and the next three episodes really build on one another until an epic and hopefully hilarious conclusion. I think you guys will like what’s coming, but then again, I say that all the time.

Over the next couple of weeks, you guys are going to start to see a few more updates around here, as I’ve been itching to get past my WZ writing so I can put in some good content for you. Look forward to that, which will include more lost TLW information, episode outtakes, and then some. In the meantime, hit the jump to see the episode!

To download this thing, visit Revision3.

In other news, I am a beast at Five Finger Filet in Red Dead Redemption, and we’ve got a new GamerSushi podcast up. Check it out, fools!

Enjoy!

In addition to the Halo Reach beta madness, I was wondering if you guys had seen the news about Counter-Strike: Source getting a new beta, a big update and some achievements? Pretty interesting timing for that. It makes me wonder if they’re getting ready to return to that old CS well for more multiplayer goodness. To be honest, if they ever did that, I would play the junk out of that game. The Counter-Strike series still remains the best multiplayer gaming experience I’ve had, so I’d be excited for a new one. Then again, this is all speculation on my part.

Confession: I spent an hour today going over the TLW TV Tropes page. If you’ve never seen it, it’s a very insightful breakdown of some of the major tropes, themes and characters of that show. I almost went back and watched a few episodes because of it. Almost.

Speaking of Leet World, sometimes I do the voices on set of Web Zeroes. Sometimes, the camera catches me doing this. See the example below…

These little behind the scenes snippets may start coming more regularly. Kthx.

As I mentioned last week, we are actually on something of a late Spring Break from releasing Web Zeroes for the next couple of weeks. That’s not to say we aren’t still working on the show, which we totally are. So it’s not really much of a real break. How lame is that? Regardless of the nature of the break’s lameness, the show will resume on its normal release format on May 19th, so hold on to your butts until that moment.

I say that things are “wild” all the time, so I’m trying to expand my vocabulary in that regard a bit, but it’s shocking that we’re half way through the second season. We’re looking forward to getting the rest of it shot and delivered. It gets way more meta. Some won’t like that, I don’t think, but we are fans of meta things. Hell, Chet was always Meta Guy in Leet World.

In other random SFF related news, you may have missed the fact that we run a pretty awesome video game Web site known as GamerSushi. We’ve got a cool community over there, so come swing by. We just released our first podcast, too, which features SFF dudes Nick, JJ and myself. Go check it out.

You also might have missed Daniel’s appearance on Film Riot, another Revision3 show about film production and techniques. We shoot Web Zeroes on a Canon 7D DSLR. If you’re unaware, DSLR filmmaking is kind of a hot topic right now, as it enables people to shoot high quality projects for a relatively low budget. Daniel gives a pretty cool breakdown of how we do our audio process for the show, so it’s a nice behind-the-scenes look at Web Zeroes, if you’re interested. Daniel appears at the 6:40 mark.