How Trombone Champ Evolved from an Inside Joke to a Viral Success

Combine the dramatic story of Dark Souls (if it had baboons in it), the gameplay of Guitar Hero (if Guitar Hero was drunk, and played with a single button), the card collecting of The Witcher 3 (if the cards were chiefly of dead composers), and you might get a game akin to Trombone Champ. What began as just a single, funny idea from husband-and-wife development team Holy Wow Studios has become 2022’s most hilarious game, created with a simple philosophy: 'If it’s funny, it goes in.'

Trombone Champ is a rhythm game that has players – in its own words – “honk, blow, and toot” their way through more than 20 songs as they attempt to solve the mysteries of the Trombiverse and collect Tromboner Cards as they go. It’s ridiculous, and creator Dan Vecchitto knows it.

“My ethos for this game was: if it's a funny idea, do it,” Vecchitto told IGN. “I didn't let standard rules of game design or common sense inhibit the comedy. I let the game gradually grow into a big sloppy pile of jokes: lots of poop jokes, lots of inexplicable baboon references, and lots of parodies of other games.”

But where did the idea for a trombone-based rhythm game come from? Again, a joke. “I originally imagined Trombone Champ as an arcade game, where the player used a huge, rubber trombone controller and attempted to desperately play along with squiggly note lines,” Vecchitto said, but “at that point, it was nothing more than a funny mental image.”

It wasn’t until later he imagined using a mouse to emulate the motion of playing a trombone, and from there Vecchitto created a prototype that was almost as funny as he imagined. “I decided that it was a solid idea and worth developing into a full game,” he said.

Holy Wow had made games before, but these were all smaller, browser-based titles. The Curse of the Chocolate Fountain is a sidescroller about chronic diarrhoea and dodging birds. Icarus Proudbottom Teaches Typing is a typing game with fun facts such as: “Typing was invented by Steve Jobs in January, 1984”. World of Typing is an episodic, Twin Peaks inspired sequel, followed by Typing Party, a two player local multiplayer spin-off.

"My ethos for this game was: if it's a funny idea, do it. I didn't let standard rules of game design or common sense inhibit the comedy."

Trombone Champ is the team’s first game that’s being sold as an actual product, however - despite Vecchitto expecting it to be a relatively quick and easy game to make. “I thought the project could be completed in under six months but, as is often the case, it proved to be much more work than expected,” he said.

It ended up taking four years to develop in total, with a few starts and stops along the way. Holy Wow isn’t a full-time game studio, with the work done during evenings and weekends, outside of Vecchitto's day job as a web designer.

One thing that extended Trombone Champ’s development was the need for an additional hook that would keep people playing beyond the few hours of songs. The first thing to be added was the Tromboner Cards mechanic, where players can open packs and collect cards with famous trombone players like J. J. Johnson, Al Grey, and more. These are also a parody of lootbox systems in other games like FIFA, as players unlock the packs in a variety of over the top ways.

Inspiration from other games was taken too. “The storyline is a direct parody of the Dark Souls series, which I found funny because those games are intensely dark and serious, the exact opposite of a goofy trombone game,” Vecchitto said.

While Trombone Champ has blown up now – with Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam – the game only had a small following throughout its development: fans of the comedy in Holy Wow’s previous games. An open playtesting period one month before launch caused the first stir of wider interest, though, with Holy Wow receiving a completely unexpected and overwhelming 600 feedback forms. Things really exploded at launch though, which came as a complete surprise to Holy Wow.

“I've always thought the game concept was fundamentally solid, and knew it would have some viral appeal,” Vecchitto said. “But realistically, what I expected was for a handful of people to share funny videos, and for those videos to go viral.

“I really didn't expect the virality to lead to an explosion of interest in the game itself. It's been nice, but is also overwhelming — it's too much demand for us to keep up with. We're currently trying to strategize how to deal with it.”

"[The success has] been nice, but is also overwhelming — it's too much demand for us to keep up with. We're currently trying to strategize how to deal with it."

While the future is still a little unclear, Holy Wow is committing to work on Trombone Champ for a while instead of moving onto other games. “I have a ton of game ideas, and my initial idea was to update Trombone Champ for a while and then move on,” Vecchito said, “but given the intense response, we'll probably stick with Trombone Champ for a while.”

A console version may also be released eventually. “I can't say for certain that Trombone Champ will come to consoles, but I can say for certain that we'll start pursuing it soon,” he added. Holy Wow will explore other ways to expand its audience too, such as localising Trombone Champ into different languages, but there’s still a lot of different things for the duo to figure out.

Vecchito puts it in terms worthy of the game itself: “The challenge for us will be navigating this without losing our minds."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.