Dissecting Turgle, the Irrepressible Frog of Jedi: Survivor

This article contains mid-game spoilers

Oh, Turgle! That squirming, scheming, swindling, irrepressible frog! When Richard Horvitz, the actor who voices Turgle, got halfway through our script, he stopped and asked — does he really feel this, or is this just one of Turgle’s schemes? It’s a fair question, and core to Turgle’s character. So let’s dissect this frog!

While characters like Turgle are really fun to write in the moment, they're difficult to pull off across an entire game. Why? Because ideally, characters grow over the course of a story, even if they just gain a new perspective. The question we asked in the writers room during development was — would Turgle change? Could Turgle change?

To plot out character growth, the writing team mapped out every macro state for the game. Macro states are basically the points that correspond to the acts in Jedi: Survivor, determined by both plot and tone. From there, we added substates within these acts where an important story beat or tangible tonal shift would occur.

We'd list every NPC in the cantina (and there are a lot of them), and brainstorm, character by character, how they might react to Cal’s story, and otherwise what they'd most likely want to talk to Cal about — we're talking hundreds and hundreds of pages of dialog to be revised, edited, and recorded.

With so many characters, we were always careful to weigh who was aware of the main story, or otherwise what else an NPC would have on their mind. It’s hard work, but seeing the reaction from players, it's absolutely worth it. Which brings us to Turgle. If Turgle changed — what would cause him to change, and how?

Would he become less of a coward? More honorable? Stop his endless scheming? Would he learn anything from Cal's heroic example? Would Turgle become a better frog? Would he aspire to become mayor of Rambler's Reach? Would he fight back against the Raiders? The Empire? Could Turgle become rebel #1? Nah!

Because Turgle's reactions swing so wildly, he's got the feel of a Looney Tunes character. In the end, it didn't feel right to give him a traditional character turn. The fun of Turgle is that he's deeply upset one moment, and arrogantly scheming the next. That said, he couldn't be ONLY a cartoon character. Turgle had to have some genuine emotions underpinning his wild mood swings.

Our challenge was figuring out the few moments where Turgle would flip over and reveal his frog underbelly. Which brings us to Richard’s question, mid-way through recording.

Spoilers below. Beware!

There are a few moments in our game where you get a window into Turgle's… dare I say… genuine side. One story moment occurs after a major plot point involving Turgle's raider nemesis, and if you're still reading this, it's the death of the Bedlam Raiders leader, Rayvis at the hands of Cal Kestis.

Turgle feels responsible for Rayvis’ death and attempts to drown his sorrows at the cantina. When Richard got to the conversation where Turgle confesses his guilt to Cal and he asked me whether this was genuine, or just Turgle being Turgle.

To me it was genuine — despite Turgle's slippery, scheming ways, he doesn’t want to do people actual harm. Even to those who attempt to kill him. There’s an echo you can find on Koboh that speaks to this, as well.

Aside from guilt, another moment that opens Turgle up as a character is an echo where you learn about Turgle's loneliness and social isolation. We added this near the end of development, along with another echo where unofficial town mayor Doma Dendra saves Turgle's hide, in order to give Turgle a bit of backstory to complicate his character.

In the end, we decided that one of Turgle's defining character traits would be something strangely admirable, especially given the state of the galaxy. No matter what happened to him, he would always bounce  back on his feet. Turgle is irrepressible.

You've got to respect a frog who suffers the slings and arrows and then tries to send aforementioned slings and arrows back to you.