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Dropchord, Double Fine's "music driven score challenge game" is out now for the Leap Motion controller for PC and Mac. It will be available for the Ouya on July 31 and for iOS and Android on August 1.

The game's soundtrack is also now available on iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play.

If you're unsure what all the hubbub is about, Double Fine released a video of their Dropchord release party, which we've helpfully embedded below:

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If we ever checked our forums (seriously, haven't we all migrated to Twitter by now?) we would have known about this days ago...

An entrepreneurial young lady has put together a grog machine iPhone cover. I'm not entirely sure what kind of signal you'd be sending walking around with one of these, but either way... They exist and you can buy them.

Go look and/or buy before Disney finds out it owns Monkey Island.

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Remember how the SCUMM Bar was updated? Jason did, and angrily deemed the movie section to have skipped over the perceived Pirates of the Caribbean/Monkey Island connection.

And you know what, he might have been right.

Therefore the editorial staff of the SCUMM Bar accepted his long, vaguely scary manifesto; edited it into their own views; drizzled some facts and rumors on top; and came to a conclusion that will leave you in shock and awe. (It probably won't leave you in shock or awe.)

With the many crazy rumors surrounding these two movies out there, we did at least try to keep our views balanced and let sanity prevail. Read it and see if you agree.

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Well I've got one for ya: The SCUMM Bar has been updated. What a world we live in.

Following a quiet and thankful revert to their old design back in February, they have now made some sizable content updates. This mainly includes a much more corpulent Tales section, a more comprehensive collection of known info about the cancelled animated film, and a revamped MP3 section that now covers Tales.

I don't mind telling you, I needed those MP3s. Go visit The SCUMM Bar! Your children may be the age you are now before its next update, after all.

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Gamasutra recently got in touch with Aric Wilmunder and he regaled them with stories of SCUMM over e-mail. They compiled it all into one long feature which you can read over here.

Source: Gamasutra

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The sidescrolling platforming game Runner 2 is getting some DLC on Steam this Thursday (and later on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii U) called the Good Friends Character Pack, which brings characters from other games into Runner 2 as playable characters. The good news is that when you buy this pack, you will be able to play as Raz from the excellent game Psychonauts!

Gaijin Games has released a trailer for Raz's appearance in the game (complete with a voice over by the game's narrator, Charles Martinet), which is embedded below for your viewing pleasure:

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Bill's response to the failure to get his game crowdfunded? Ramping up production:

Working on PR assets for our PR firm, the engine (now going to use Unity! yeah!), and two new backgrounds. We will start on the opening cut scene next week. We have the storyboards done for it and a scratch track. And we have Bay Area sound helping with the sound FX and VO, when the time comes! yeah! Thank you Julian and Co.! Just thought I'd give you a quick up date.

What's interesting about the switch to Unity is that Bill had said that the decision not to use it in the first place was because it would have required more than the $200k he was requesting for the Kickstarter. Since he is ultimately collecting $0 from the Kickstarter, I don't know how that one works, though it probably has to do with a now indefinite schedule.

What I do know is that Bill and co. are totally pushing forward with this game. Good to know that Bay Area Sound are lined up. I guess the next big thing to look forward to on the Autumn Moon front is their new web site, hopefully one armed with an online store gravid with goodies.

Source: AVS Facebook page

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Tim Schafer posted news about Broken Age's monetary and development woes, and plans to relieve some of those woes through releasing half of the game in January through Steam Early Access. Backers of Broken Age can read Tim's message here (or through the Backer only forum at Double Fine's forums).

News sites are picking up the story, so if you didn't back, you can still get the skinny on what's happening. Apparently, Tim designed the game too big in scope, so he's had to cut it down in order to fit in the budget. Unfortunately, the Kickstarter money still isn't enough for the large scope of the game, so he's funding the game additionally from the money Double Fine made from the games they're self publishing. He doesn't want to have to cut large things like the girl or the boy from the game, so he's decided to get additional funding through Steam Early Access. Steam Early Access will allow gamers to play the first half of the game in January 2014, and then play the rest of the game in a free update in April or May of 2014.

Those who backed the game don't have to worry, you'll get the Steam Early Access at no cost (this Steam Early Access plan is for additional purchases, not those already made). You'll also still be able to get access to the beta even earlier than that, as originally promised.
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If you don't frequent the Telltale forums -- and heavens, we can understand why you don't -- you have missed out on an actual interesting post titled "Monkey Island photography". In it, a deranged passionate fan has put together diorama replicas of various Monkey Island screenshots and... All snark aside, these photos are pretty damn impressive.

Run over and check them out. Fan-art sure has taken the right turn from what it used to be like.

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Well, on PSN in North America. Here's the complete list of release dates by platform:

  • Tuesday, July 2nd – PlayStation Network(SCEA, North America)
  • Wednesday, July 3rd – PC/Mac (Steam, Telltale Games Store, Worldwide)
  • Friday, July 5th – Xbox Live (Worldwide)
  • Wednesday, July 10th – PlayStation Network (SCEE, Europe)
  • Thursday, July 11th – iOS App Store (Worldwide)

Here's the launch trailer. Oh, wait, we don't have any age gates implemented so we can't embed it directly. Feel free to check it out over on Youtube, though...

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Earlier this month, Paypal's TechXploration hosted a panel called The Story of LucasArts moderated by Douglas Crockford. The developers in attendance were Noah Falstein, Randy Farmer, David Fox, Ron Gilbert, Chip Morningstar, Aric Wilmunder, and Gary Winnick. For those of you who couldn't make it, Paypal made the entire thing available on Youtube in eight parts:

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Thanks to reader salty-horse for the heads-up!

Source: Youtube

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The Kickstarter for A Vampyre Story: Year One was unsuccessful, but Bill Tiller has restated his plans to develop the game regardless.

Even better, as a show of gratitude for the fans who did chip in on the Kickstarter, Mr. Tiller has posted Paul Mica's storyboard for the opening sequence of A Vampyre Story: Year One. And, it's available to everyone, so even those who didn't back can see it by clicking here.

Also, those of you who really wanted to purchase some of those A Vampyre Story themed items that Bill was planning on having made for the Kickstarter don't have to worry. He plans on having some of those made, and selling them through an online store with a Paypal option.

Finally, the old Autumn Moon website will finally be getting an overhaul this summer. Hopefully that includes the forums as well, since they're currently populated by a bunch of spambots.

Oh, and sign up for the A Vampyre Story: Year One mailing list if you're interested in following its development. Or just read Mojo, since we'll likely be shamelessly copying and pasting the e-mails posting about the game's development here as well.

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