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).

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!

In a news story that will likely go down in history, gaming entrepreneur Markus "notch" Persson has announced his successful purchase of Double Fine Productions.

Earlier in the year, the independent game developer, known for his successful game "Minecraft", announced tentative plans to help fund a Psychonauts sequel. Since then all has been quiet, overshadowed by Double Fine's successful Kickstarter project.

Today "notch" broke his silence and announced his successful acquisition of Tim Schafer's company, only to immediately shut down the company.

In his statement made to press, Persson said: "I knew they were worth at least $3.3M from the Kickstarter donations, so I made sure I paid less than that. Now I get to keep the difference!"

Double Fine Productions ceased business at 12am PST this morning. Rumours that they'll resume normal operations on Monday 2nd, April, are so far unfounded.

It's hard to believe that it's been 33 days since the news of Double Fine's Kickstarter Campaign eclipsed news of notch possibly funding Psychonauts 2... but here we are! A mere day away from production officially starting on the first Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert adventure game in over a decade!

With only 24 hours to go, the funding total stands tantalizingly close to the $3 million mark ($2,874,158 million at the time of writing), and you can't help but wonder: Will they hit $3 million?

Time will tell, but one thing's for sure: This is your last chance to Tweet, Blog, Facebook about the campaign, or to increase your funding to the most you can afford!

So get to it! : http://www.tinyurl.com/DoubleKick

Whatever happens, it's been a fun ride so far, and it's only the beginning!

Update: Tim Schafer has posted details on how to become a backer if you don't have a Credit Card. His instructions can be found here! Hurry!

Not one to be forgotten during all this Double Fine Adventure excitement, Ronzo "Ron" Gilbert has posted two new pieces of concept art of his upcoming game. "What is it of?!", you cry.

A ticket booth! That's right. An old carnival ticket booth. And a ceiling mounted laser cannon!

Looks pretty dang awesome to me!

Retronauts, 1UP's classic gaming blog, has interviewed Ron Gilbert. The topic is Maniac Mansion, which is turning 25 this year! To check out the whole podcast, head over here!

Want to know what game Ron is working on at Double Fine? Then get in line, but in the meantime check out two pieces of character concept art he's put up on his blog along with this:

The concept art looks rather Nathan Martz-y Stapley-ish (but is actually the work of Derek Brand).

In last weeks Deathspank: The Baconing news post we said that release dates for the Xbox 360 and pc were unknown. They've now moved from unknown to imminent, with both versions released today.

Savvy gamers can still get 20% off if they buy it on Steam before the launch. Hurry though, there's only 3 hours left at the time of writing.

The Ron Gilbert-less third DeathSpank's PSN release date has been revealed. You can pick up (virtually) The Baconing on August 30th. The game is part of Sony's PSN PLAY program which means that if you pre-order it before the 25th, a PS3 theme is included along with an extra companion named Roesha: One Bad Mutha. There's also a 20% rebate for plus subscribers.

Release dates for the Xbox 360 and PC are still unknown at this point

You've heard the commentary on Monkey Island 2 SE, now be prepared to watch it (or at least some of it)! Videos courtesy of gen16.com's Youtube channel.

Thanks to reader Threepwood4life for telling us about these.

Ron Gilbert loves you, and you love him. At least he really really wants you to love him, if his Google+ account is anything to go by. Here he posts the type of Monkey Island related stuff only a true connoisseur can appreciate, like what The Ronzo has on his desk, his ties and... You know, stuff only misunderstood purveyors of good taste like yourself truly could appreciate.

Go circle him on Google+ and laugh mockingly at those still using Facebook, the MySpace of our generation.

Maniac Mansion got reverse engineered. Find all the technical aspects of the game here, which are, according to Maniac Mansion co-creator Ron Gilbert, about "90% right". It's worth reading, so read it!

(Thanks to Threepwood4Life from the forums for pointing out this news story.)

So Hothead Games pulled a (mini) Telltale today and announced a couple of titles in one go. Douglas Adams fans, rejoice: there's a new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game in the works. Ron Gilbert fans, rejoice: there's a new DeathSpank game headed your way. Hothead is baconing beckoning you with The Beckoning The Baconing, a new and 100% natural Curse of Monkey Island-esque sequel to last year's beloved DeathSpank: Thongs of Justice, now touting Hothead-powered "improved gameplay" and the industry-catchphrase "improved AI":



I'm going to digress for a moment here. If the gameplay indeed got "dull", then why did Thongs of Justice receive higher all-around scores than the original? Because the jokes certainly remained proudly at toilet level. So I'm going to guess that either: 1. the gameplay didn't get that dull, or 2. Someone at Kotaku really, really loves poop jokes.

Anyway, the game comes to XBLA, PC and - assuming it's still alive by then - PSN. Read the Kotaku article again if that gives you any pleasure.

This is a little late, but anyways: if you're a fan of Monkey Island and the 2009 movie Moon, you might want to check this out.

See the update on the same page for Ron Gilbert's response, and click here for the subsequent "Woohoo!" from Moon director Duncan Jones, and here for Ron Gilbert's response to that.

Anyone here seen Moon? What do you think of it?

As you know, Ron Gilbert gave a postmortem about Maniac Mansion at GDC, and it, along with a bunch of postmortems for other classic games, has been archived online at the GDC Vault. Ron's talk is pretty much exactly the same as the one he gave in Germany prior to GDC, which has also been posted online, but at the very least the Q&A is different, so why not hear about Maniac Mansion's fascinating development again?

Those other postmortems are an embarrassment of riches, too.

So GDC has come and gone, and with the dust having settled, there are two panels from the conference to point out to you that we did not report on at the time.

The first is Video Games as Art: An Apology for Roger Ebert. This was a lecture delivered by none other than Brian Moriarty (of Loom and, in an alternate universe, The Dig fame), the subject of which you could probably guess. By all accounts the talk was worth hearing, but unfortunately there are nothing but a few quotes reprinted online. Keep an eye out for the content of the speech to appear on Moriarty's official site someday.

Then there was a panel by Clint Hocking, LEC's big profile hire from last year and the studio's current Creative Director, whose creativity we hope to see imbued in an LEC game should the day come that they choose to make games again - but let's not get greedy. He gave a presentation about meaning in games, and this is the best write-up I found on it.

Ron Gilbert apparently also spoke about Maniac Mansion, but from what I know it was a repeat at most of the talk he gave in Germany (which, need I remind you, is fully streamable online!).

Sean Howard worked as dialogue writer on DeathSpank and its sequel Thongs of Virtue. He also makes web comics for his web site over here.

Join us as the writer of DeathSpank's puns shares his views on the video game industry, franchises, how he got involved with DeathSpank, and what he's up to now.

Update by Kroms: I thought I'd get a word in here and thank Sean. The interview was originally supposed to happen in October but, due to circumstances outside of my control, got delayed. I neglected to inform him of this change, and kept him waiting, so to speak, for the questions. So, a heartfelt thanks for his patience and for his answers.

Along with Myst, Pac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, and World of Warcraft, The Secret of Monkey Island will be in an exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum from March 16, 2012 - September 30, 2012. Fully playable too!



You can also vote on what other games will be shown in the exhibit (though, not playable).

Now, let's all ask the most important question: What version of the game will they have on display?

In a move that's sure to delight parents with a taste for the fine wine that is Double Fine, it's been revealed that the next game to come from Tim Schafer's unstoppable studio is Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster.

The game is being developed exclusively for Kinect, Microsoft's creepy body-reading device for the Xbox 360, which means you get to not only enjoy the exquisite experience of playing a Double Fine game with your children — or by yourself should you be particularly into The Muppets — but you also get to look like a dong get fit while doing so!

On a slightly more forward-thinking note, hopefully Double Fine getting more well-known licenses under its belt will give it the funds and clout it requires to develop more of the kind of games we've all been gagging for the studio to develop (Psychonauts 2).

Whether or not this game is part of the infamous 'Amnesia Fortnight' collection is unclear. Considering Ron Gilbert's experience with children's games it's very much possible he's leading this project, meaning we could still see the promised four games in addition to Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster.

As noticed by the prone-to-notice Ascovel in the forums, you can view a nice Youtube interview with Ron Gilbert, recording during his appearance at "Game Forum Germany 2011," where he gave that Maniac Mansion talk that I know you're about to host for us any second now.

The interviewers are informed and ask good questions, so I would definitely watch the interview. Attempts are made, unsuccessfully, to get some details on whatever Ron is developing at Double Fine; also discussed is how much he'd like to see and/or partake in a Maniac Mansion remake, some miscellaneous adventure game breeze-shooting, and the inevitable mention of the "real" Monkey Island 3 among other [double] fine topics.

Seriously, get going!