Since Mojo last looked at Kickstarter, Replay Games' drive to collect half a million dollars to remake the first Leisure Suit Larry game finished with over $150,00 in surplus. This week, Jane Jensen's Pinkerton Road kickstarter is nearing its end, having met its goal of $300,000.

The Two Guys from Andromeda (famous for the Space Quest series) have also decided to get on the bandwagon with their SpaceVenture kickstarter to see if they can get enough money to make another adventure game set in space. Last, Chris Jones and Aaron Conners' Project Fedora is firing up its campaign to collect $450,000 to make a sequel to the famous Tex Murphy adventure games.

Seems the fine folks over at Kotaku just received a package from Double Fine with a puzzle inside. Putting it together and you get some interesting picture (which, I'm guessing, is probably related to Ron's game).

It's true! Just head on over to the GDC Vault, where it is now preserved.

The prices of Double Fine's PC games are now at an incredibly low price ($9.99US in a bundle with Psychonauts, Costume Quest, and Stacking, $2.99US a piece for Psychonauts and Costume Quest, or $7.49US for Stacking) at Amazon. As a result, Psychonauts is currently #1 on Amazon's list of best selling video games, and Costume Quest is #4.

It's good to see Psychonauts finally at the top of the charts where it belongs (especially now that there is no external publisher sharing in any profit Psychonauts makes).

There's some new Star Wars game rumors floating around. First of all, Siliconera noticed that Lucasfilm registered a trademark for Star Wars 1313, for use for video games. The fact that a game was registered by Lucasfilm rather than LucasArts isn't unusual. Lucasfilm also registered the trademark for The Force Unleashed in 2006. GameSpy suggests that the Star Wars 1313 may be a game about Boba Fett, because Boba Fett apparently used CT-1313 as an alias in a Star Wars novel.

The second rumor concerns re-releases rather than new games. Apparently a pre-order for a Knights of The Old Republic I & II bundle for PC has popped up all over at places like Newegg.com J&R Electronics, and Smart Game Shopper. The latter has the release scheduled as 6/27/2012, but considering the (lack of) reliability of release dates by retailers, I'd take that release date with a grain of salt.

Zipline Games issued a press release today announcing that Double Fine has selected their Moai platform to power their upcoming adventure game.
I guess SCUMM got rejected. The press release also indicates that the studio is aiming for a Spring 2013 release. Oh, and here's a video:

What game is being referred to here? I'm going to assume that middle finger means "just tell me" - it's Star Wars: Battlefront III.

Yes, the oft-cancelled sequel to the lucrative shooter franchise is back in the headlines yet again thanks to a juicy interview between GamesIndustry International and Steve Ellis, co-founder of Free Radical, that sheds a little more light on how the relationship ended, and apparently it wasn't pretty.

It turns out the game was nearly finished and the publisher-developer relationship didn't sour until the arrival of that destructive force that dooms even Star Wars projects, a management shift.

The whole sordid affair, as well as more insider tales from Free Radical's storied history, can be found in the full interview.

Hey, look, a timely review! Or it would have been timely had Mojo not died.

Regardless, pretend like you haven't played "A New Day" yet, and read our review.

We're back! Most things should work, but if you find something wonky, don't hesitate to tell us in the comments.

The Walking Dead: Episode 1: A New Day is out now on Steam and PSN.

For those on the fence, the reviews so far say that it's a return to Telltale's usual form of making the best use of the license. The game's method of using dialog choices to influence the outcome of future events in the game is particularly praised, as is the story (as par-for-the course for a Telltale title). It should be noted that there are a lot of action sequences, and that it lacks traditional inventory-based puzzles found in most of Telltale's adventure games, but it's a huge improvement over the gameplay found in Jurassic Park.

The game is not out on Telltale's site yet or on XBLA. It will be out on Telltale's site later today, and on XBLA soon.

Update: Telltale found a server issue that only concerns the build that was intended to be uploaded to the Telltale website. They've been trying to fix the issue all day, but it doesn't appear that they'll be able to fix it tonight. Thankfully, they posted news on their forums that everyone who pre-ordered the game from Telltale's site will be sent Steam codes to their e-mail addresses so they can play the game via Steam (and get the extras like Steam Achievements that go with it).

Update 2 (April 27): It was released yesterday at Telltale's site. It's out now on XBLA as well (and of course, PSN and Steam).

The Be Mine 2 Bundle is up now, and it includes a lot of things for whatever you wish to pay. And, like the other indie bundles, a portion goes to charity (in this case Feed Them With Music). But, most importantly to Mojoans, is that it includes The Baconing (the Hothead-helmed Ron Gilbert-less sequel to Ron Gilbert's Deathspank), along with Roesha DLC.

The full list of things it includes is not just games, but comics and music as well. It includes a bunch of stuff like Madballs in...Babo: Invasion and DLCs, Beat Hazard and DLCs, Plain Sight, Sol Survivor. If you pay $5 or more you get more things, such as Killing Floor. Once 75,000 bundles are sold, Scratches: Director's Cut will be available, and another bonus will be shown to be available at a certain amount of bundles sold after that.

The games also include Steam keys, so what are you waiting for, pay what you want on the Be Mine 2 Bundle now!

Several years back - I think it was somewhere around December 10th, 2005 - we spread the good word about a book called Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution, a detailed, acclaimed, behind-the-scenes look at various technology companies of the George Lucas empire. At the time, author Michael Rubin had put up the book's eighteenth chapter, a fascinating examination of the early days of Lucasfilm Games, up on his blog.

Now we receive word that the book has recently gotten a Kindle re-release. If you've ever had any interest in the genesis of companies like LucasArts, Pixar, and Industrial Light and Magic (or if, to put it a simpler way, you read Mojo), Rubin's insider look at the story behind them is by all accounts compelling stuff. Check out the new digital release or stick with the easier-to-cuddle analog version, if you prefer.

And maybe stay tuned for a review of Droidmaker from us sometime in the future. Who knows, crazier things have happened.

Adventure Gamers previewed The Walking Dead about a week or so ago (sorry). Written up by Emily Morganti, who's back scribing for Adventure Gamers after her stint at Telltale, the impressions include an overview of the controls and a taste of how the much-ballyhooed choice system functions.

There's also some obligatory talk about whether or not the puzzle volume and complexity will appeal to hardcore adventure gamers that gets extended in the comments, but I fell asleep so I can't tell you where that one landed.

The last episode of Sam & Max Beyond Time & Space (Season Two) is now out on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Now there are six episodes of Sam & Max available on iOS devices, if you count the iPad release of the first episode of Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse (Season Three) back in 2010. There's still no word on whether Season Three will be finished up on iPad, or if Season One will get an iOS release. But, iOS users can rejoice in the fact that Telltale has finally released a full season of Sam & Max on their platform.

You can purchase What's New Beelzebub? for iOS from iTunes here.

Autumn Moon will jumping on the Kickstarter bandwagon soon. This is not conjecture, or have you not seen Bill's Twitter?
I presume that A Vampyre Story 2 is still tied up with Crimson Cow and that this would be for the prequel and/or altogether new Autumn Moon projects. The Double Fine Kickstarter has inspired a saturation of copycats, but it had the unparagoned advantage of Tim's celebrity status within the industry combined with the ridiculous amount of goodwill his studio has accreted over the past ten years that has expanded beyond niche circles. With household adventure icons like Al Lowe straining to raise half a million dollars, I hope Bill Tiller sets a reachable goal when he joins the fray.

I hate to be cynical, though, and it's hard to be when there's any indication that we'll be getting more graphic adventure games from Bill. The Autumn Moon logo has been collecting dust for three years too many, and I know my wallet will be opening to the cause.

This and more revealed in this fine, career-encompassing interview with Steve Purcell by the fine chaps at Thunder Chunky.

Garry M. Gaber, who worked on LucasArts Star Wars titles of varying critical acclaim (including Rebel Assault II, Shadows of the Empire, Jedi Knight, Force Commander and the Galactic Battlegrounds series) has launched a kickstarter campaign for a new Space Combat Simulator 'Starlight Express Inception' for PC and... Playstation Vita?

You know the deal, here's the Kickstarter page - $150,000 needed (~$40,000 at the time of writing).

Of special interest is this: So, not only a chance to fund, but also a chance for modders to work on the game.

Good luck, maybe this will also inspire Larry Holland, who is the person most associated with the Star Wars Space Combat Simulator legacy.


Edit: If you don't want to wade through the screeds of text on the Kickstarter page, Gaming Union have just posted this interview with Garry M. Gaber regarding the game.

ResidualVM are about to reach a major milestone, their first Beta release, and they need your assistance in testing it.

All you need to do is download the latest pre-release build (not daily build) of ResidualVM for your system from here, and play Grim Fandango.

The devs will appreciate any information about major bugs you encounter here!

Sam & Max Beyond Time & Space: Episode 4: Chariots of the Dogs is now out on iOS. This is the penultimate episode of Season Two, meaning just one more episode is left in the season before all episodes in the season are available for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPhone.

The episode can be purchased from the iTunes store here.

Remember that Monkey Island 2: Special Edition E3 trailer that ended with a surprise 3D twist that had us all talking? Here, refresh your memory:


The 3D stuff was the work of Blur Studio, and one of the artists involved has offered a closer look of the Guybrush and LeChuck models on his blog. The blog post is apparently a year old, but judging from the attention this has been getting on the Telltale forums, it hasn't been seen by many.