The International House of Mojo

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.

Source: Adventure Gamers

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.

Source: Bill Tiller's Twitter

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

Source: Thunder Chunky

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!

Source: ResidualVM.org

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.

Source: Juan Solís García's blog

So there's this web show called "Matt Chat," a production of Armchair Arcade in which video game people of interest are interviewed via webcam. I've been alerted to two recent Matt Chat interviews of interest to our Objective.

First up is an interview with the legendary David Fox, creator of Zak McKracken:

And here's one with George "Fat Man" Sanger, consummate audio guru from LEC and Humongous' glory days:

Some great stories to be heard there. And both of these interviews are apparently the first of multiple installments, so stay tuned.

Source: Armchair Arcade

When assaulted with contemporary games that are aggressively mediocre, it is understandable that Star Wars fans would prefer to reminisce about the halcyon days when, say, the Super Star Wars trilogy for the SNES was proffering some highly decent side-scrolling translations of the classic movies.

The folks at NowGamer were struck by such nostalgia and were inspired to write a feature about these 16-bit gems, and what really makes it awesome is that they thought to pursue the games' producer and lead designer Kalani Streicher for some reflections. As a result the article contains all sorts of great background info, and Streicher even expresses the desire to return to the series some kind of way, if LEC would ever be interested. Take a look.

Source: NowGamer

And there are no small Maniac Mansion retrospectives.

Source: Gameranx

Microsoft announced the games coming to Xbox Live in the US in the next few weeks, and Jurassic Park: The Game is scheduled to come out on Xbox Live On Demand on April 10.

So far, there's no news about an international release, but since the non-Telltale published European retail Xbox 360 version was cancelled in Europe, the presence of an online version in the US is a still-slim chance that European Xbox 360 owners may receive this game through a Telltale published online release.

So we're about a two months late on this one, a Mixnmojo phenomenon known as "par for the course," but we've really got to report it.

You might recall that Jonathan Ackley, the co-project lead of The Curse of Monkey Island who isn't Larry Ahern, has been a Disney Imagineer for most of his post-LEC years, and in that capacity has worked on all kinds of neat stuff.

His latest project is "Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom" - an attraction that's sort of a treasure hunt mixed with a role playing card game that was launched at the Magic Kingdom in February. Armed with a map and spell cards, guests partake in a narrative in which classic Disney villians are scattered throughout the park in order to retrieve crystal shards at the behest of Hades. Guests solve quests by tracking down and activating Magic Portals and doing battle with the villains using their spell cards, which are divided into nine different spell classes.

A better explanation of the whole thing, complete with Ackley quotes, can be found here. Sounds like something I could get into. Yes, I'm trying to invite myself to your next Disney trip.

Update: Well whaddya know! Some diligent stalking of Larry Ahern's Linkedin, a daily Mojo rote, has led to the revelation that he in fact worked on "Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom" with his old cohort. Now we just need those guys to resurrect Vanishing Act.

Source: Orlando Sentinel

Who knows when Star Wars: Battlefront III will ultimately be made, but today you can check out eight minutes of leaked footage from the version that Free Radical was working on several years back before the plug got pulled. That plug has subsequently been re-inserted and removed in sexually suggestive ways - some concept art from a possibly-not-fraudulent version of the long-awaited sequel by Slant Six has emerged, and the latest rumors hold that Spark Unlimited is making the game now.

In any case, here's the Free Radical footage:

Source: Game Rant

"No!", says Jason.

Ages ago, some journo over on CHUD posted a feature saying Tim Schafer should make other stuff and Jason replied with this.

After Double Fine's success on Kickstarter, more game developers are eager to get on the bandwagon.

First up is Replay Games with their Kickstarter campaign named Make Leisure Suit Larry come again!. The goal is to raise $500,000 for a remake of the first Larry game, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. Their future plans include remaking the other five games in the series as well as making new sequels.

The second one is Jane Jensen and her newly established studio Pinkerton Road with a Kickstarter campaign where the backers can vote on which games they want made, including a sequel to the 2010 adventure game Gray Matter.

If you ever wanted to dance with Han Solo to Jason Derulo's "Ridin' Solo", then there's good news for you. Kinect Star Wars is in stores now.

The reviews so far say that the dancing mini-game, the rancor destruction mini-game, and the pod racing mini-games are fun, but the game's most anticipated feature, the Jedi fighting mini-games, are unresponsive, making the game overall a let down.

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.

Source: News