2/29/24 Lore Stream Recap
Here is a recap of newly shared lore from Creative Director Ronnie Hobbs.
Community Representative Andy Cleves and Creative Director Ronnie Hobbs sat down to discuss more lore about the characters within The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. As Creative Director, Ronnie is responsible for the overall creative vision for the game including the game world, characters, their lore, art, dialogue, and more.
Below we are going to be highlighting key points about each of our Victim’s lore as shared by Ronnie on stream. These highlights aren’t the full picture and anyone wanting to catch all the details can scroll to the bottom of the page for the full stream!
Sonny
Sonny is a huge sci-fi buff. Some of the films he’s into are 2001: A Space Odyssey, Godzilla, and War of the Worlds. He has a girlfriend named June that he watches movies with! She is a character that Ronnie was not able to create concept art for, as she is not a main character. However, she is a big influence on Sonny’s sense of fashion. Sonny is both the voice of reason and one of Leland’s biggest confidants. While Sonny may not be the toughest, he loves and cares for his friends immensely. When leaving on the trip to find Maria, he tells June that he’ll see her when he gets back.
As there is no official concept art for June, we would love to see how you all envision her looking!
Connie
From Paris, Illinois, Connie comes from a loving and caring family. Connie was never the rebellious type. Instead, she’s yearning for a life outside of farming. She loves her parents but she wonders what’s out there for her. College in a big city is all Connie could dream of. Connie dated a girl in high school that she left for college. Despite loving her, Connie made the difficult decision to pursue her future and head to University instead. Connie and her girlfriend kept themselves a secret as they didn’t want anyone to know.
Ronnie made the decision to have Connie blend in to disguise her ingenuity and toughness. Jodi Foster was a source of inspiration for Connie’s design! Lastly, Connie is closest with both Maria and Ana.
Ana
Ana is still living at home before the events of the game. She was a cheerleader in high school, dating the star football player. When the time came for them to go to college, Ana stayed behind. With the passing of her father, her sister at college, and her boyfriend leaving as well, Ana takes the sacrifice to stay at home with her mother. She’s unsure of what she really wants to do. She’s a hard worker and she’s determined to figure out what’s the next move.
While she bears many sacrifices and endures through adversity, her determination still drives her to find Maria.
Leland
Leland and Maria interact for the first time when Maria sees Leland wearing his Coyotes Shirt from high school. As a native from Uvalde, her hometown mascot is also the coyotes. She squares up with him in a joking manner about who's the real coyote. That interaction is the start of how their friendship blossoms and how Maria is integrated into the cast of Victims you play as in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Leland was already friends with Connie, Sonny, and Julie. Leland and Sonny are incredibly close friends.
Julie
Julie is a tough and strong character. She’s very confident and her character does not possess a lot of self-doubt. However, that wasn’t always the case. As a freshman in high school, she got heartbroken by her ex-boyfriend. He left for college and left Julie in the dust. This prompts her to rebuild herself up into the SoCal girl we know and love. As Leland has a crush on her, Julie also has feelings for him but is still reserved and scared of what could happen. She want’s Leland to prove to her that he’s not going to break her heart. She doesn’t want her heart to be broken by any man ever again.
Danny
Danny has been through the foster care system. When getting to college, he first finds Leland. Through Leland, Danny meets Maria and asks for Leland to get them connected. Through talking to Maria, they bonded over many of their hardships. Danny’s parents left him, while Maria’s father had passed away. They share a deep bond.
When Maria left for her wildflower picture trip, he didn’t think she would be in any type of danger. The reason that Danny is not with the other Victims is because he’s the first one to leave to find Maria.
Now, we’re going to share some tidbits about Family members that were co-created alongside Kim Henkel such as Sissy, Johnny, and Nancy.
“Look back at the original film. People go, ‘who is The Cook? What’s his relationship? Who is Hitchhiker and Leatherface?’ Kim [Henkel] didn’t want you to know.”
- Ronnie Hobbs, Creative Director discussing honoring Kim Henkel’s original characters and remaining faithful to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Sissy
Sissy is created with the help of Kim Henkel’s character bible describing her as a free-spirit from the LSD drug craze of the 70s. As a rebel of the family, she becomes a drifter to get away from Texas and the Family. There is a radio broadcast in game talking about the Terror of I-40, which is about Sissy. She is similar to Hitchhiker in a way. For instance, she uses truck drivers to travel around. She seems normal but once someone makes a wrong move, Sissy is coming for their throat.
As a drifter, she eventually finds herself at Spahn Ranch. However, Sissy is such a free spirit that even within that community, she could not conform. This caused friction which led to Sissy leaving before any of the Manson murders occurred. She eventually makes her way back to Texas.
Johnny and Nancy
The idea behind Johnny is someone who was lethal but who blended into society. It makes sense considering how Johnny becomes a member of The Family. His biological mother, Judith, is lost on the way to leave his biological father. As he was abusive, Judith was attempting to give her and Johnny a better life.
Judith knocks for directions on the wrong door, Nancy’s door. Nancy, who wants a baby so badly, kills Judith to steal Johnny from her. However, during the fight, Judith did manage to land a hit which permanently damages one of her eyes, which is what you see in game. Johnny is essentially born in blood because of that. Due to Hitchhiker’s relentless teasing about not being a real part of The Family during Johnny’s early teenage years, Johnny attempts to confront Nancy about the truth. The facial scars he has comes from this confrontation with Nancy cutting him and putting him in his place because all monsters have their makers.
For the full stream, you can watch that here!
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