For over 30 years, the films of Kevin Smith have been been making fans laugh, especially at the antics of local drug dealers Jay and Silent Bob. Starting next year, fans will be able to get into business with Jay and Silent Bob in their upcoming video game Jay & Silent Bob’s Joint Venture from indie game company Nitrate Games. Shortly before the company’s New York Comic Con panel on Thursday evening, I was able to sit down for roundtable interviews with Nitrate Games co-founders Montana Sommese, Daniel Kendrick, and game designer Idan Saban to talk about the game.
Everyone involved in the game is very excited to work with Kevin Smith. I asked Montana how the Jay & Silent Bob’s Joint Venture came to be. Did Kevin Smith approach them? Was it always a Jay and Silent Bob focused game? Or was it a generic weed farming game before Kevin Smith was involved? Martin answered, “No, we wanted to do a Jay and Silent Bob game. We really like the characters. Myself, my cofounder Daniel Kendrick, and our third partner Nick Madonna, we grew up with that. We have an appreciation for Jay and Silent Bob, and that universe.” Daniel Kendrick agreed, saying “I’ve been a fan of the View Askewniverse since middle school, when I discovered the Clerks franchise. Specifically Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back was my entry into the world. Then I went on a marathon. All my friends in high school were obsessed with these movies. We knew this was a world we wanted to live in and bring to life in a new way.”
Fans of cozy games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley will recognize the game mechanics of Jay & Silent Bob’s Joint Venture. In the game, “you’re helping Jay and Silent Bob build up their weed business in New Jersey” explained Montana Sommese, adding “We were trying to figure out what would a game look like for this kind of weird genre? There’s been a few Jay and Silent Bob games. They’re kind of beat ’em up. We felt that at the heart of it, Kevin Smith really with those movies in particular, they’re kind of romantic comedies. They have a little bit of an edge to them. They’re snarky. They’re sardonic. But they’re basically romantic comedies. As we were thinking about what games facilitate that, we were thinking like a Stardew Valley. There’s always that romantic, marriage system. We thought it would be really funny to parody that genre. That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re inspired by South Park: Stick of Truth as well. If you’ve ever played South Park: Stick of Truth, it’s a phenomenal take on a RPG game. You even have it in the UI and the UX. The classic thing is the choose difficultly mode. If anybody’s ever not seen the meme, look it up. We’re trying to do similar things to that.”
Daniel Kendrick went further, stating, “This is a satire of cozy games like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. In those games, you’re growing radishes and turnips. In this game, you’re growing marijuana. We’ve built this extensive, deep marijuana crossbreeding system. You can create thousands of strains. It’s full of endless possibilities. It’s based on a color wheel. Your strain can exist anywhere on that color wheel. Depending on where it lands, it will have different effects that characters will love or hate. Story wise, hanging out with your neighbors, as you grow you relationship with them, you deepen your band. At a certain point, you can become a hetero life mate with the characters, or you can marry certain characters. We’re really leaning into that. You can sow, smoke and screw.”
And fans of the View Askewniverse will be very happy as well. Dan Kendrick said that players will be working directly for Jay and Silent Bob, and that other View Askewniverse characters will show up as well. He explained, “All the memes about Tom Nook being an oppressive boss, we think that maps onto Jay and Silent Bob so well. You start out at the henchman to these crazy bosses and together you build this operation. There’s a whole brand new storyline in the View Askewniverse that we’re going to be telling through the main missions. It will have this cool adventure that you go on with Jay and Silent Bob where you go to other wacky places. We’re going to touch heaven. We’re going to touch hell. There might be some familiar demonic and angelic faces in his game. We’re pulling from all of his films.” I wonder if Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will lend their voices to the game.
Idan Saban added that “Our game is based on Red Bank. It’s not a literal translation of course. We made sure to look at the source material and include all the must have locations: the Quickstop, RST Video, Moobies. Throughout this world, there’s tons of characters to meet.” Kevin confirmed that Dante is alive in the game. He went on, saying “It takes place somewhere around Clerks III but just before. It’s not necessarily any specific moment in the View Askewnivesre.”
Game mechanics involve farming weed, creating new strains, and a take on the Animal Crossing activity of fishing, but with a Red Bank twist: dumpster diving. Kevin walked through the game mechanic, “You can dumpster dive in the dumpsters of New Jersey. You never know what you’ll put up. There’s a crafting feature, where you can create stuff with what you find.”
Jay & Silent Bob’s Joint Venture will debut on Steam, Xbox and PlayStation in 2027. No official release date has been announced as of yet.
Stay tuned to The Beat for more news from NYCC ’26.
