The International House of Mojo

Bonus Update: The episode has aired, and you can check it as a re-run all this week here.

A developer working on Midway's Area 51 game is on for the first third of the show, but following that we are treated to some brief video from Tuesday's Psychonauts launch party featuring quick interviews with Scott Campbell, a director at Majesco, and Tim Schafer's dad! Following that Tim appears, and (after the Gamespot guys try to shame him with a story about a short story he wrote in college and never showed his mom) starts talking Psychonauts.

During the Q&A session, Tim also addresses the fan responses to his scandalous remark in a recent magazine interview that graphics killed adventure games, relates elements of Psychonauts to Jordan Mechner's classic adventure game The Last Express, and admits that he doesn't yet own a PSP. Check it out.<:MORENEWS:>

Update: Tim Schafer will be making a guest appearance on tonight's On the Spot, Gamespot's weekly online TV show thing! You can watch the show live (it starts in about 3 hours, 50 minutes) and if you're a Gamespot Complete member, you can harass Tim with your questions during the show through a handy form they provide.

Old News: Will Psychonauts be making a repeat appearance on Gamespot's live weekly "On the Spot" show tonight? Nobody knows! But, artwork from the game does appear in the banner ad Gamespot is using to promote tonight's show, and they generally cycle those ads out every week to reflect the upcoming show's content.

Maybe we'll get a demo of a previously unseen area? Maybe we'll get a glimpse of the PC port? Maybe we'll see some embarassing booze-addled footage from Tuesday night's Psychonauts launch party? Or maybe Psychonauts won't even be featured in tonight's episode. Check it out here live, about 5 hours from now!

Psychonauts and Tim Schafer were previously featured on On the Spot about a month and a half ago, if you missed it. Schafer chatted it up with the Gamespot guys and gave a decently lengthy demo of some early levels. Scroll through the archives on the On the Spot page down to 2/17/05 to watch the rerun.

New super-hip fansite Razputin.net has gone and got itself a complete new design (after only being up for a month or something!). It is sporting a fancy new brown look, and some new features to boot, like a better screenshot gallery, and a little sentence bar at the top that doles out tips for you to consider. Also, if you hate the new design, a "Razputin.net 1.0" skin will soon be made available so you can switch back. Check it out.

Keep an eye on www.psychoportals.com. Something might be appearing there eventually. Maybe? Metallus found the URL on a piece of glossy magazine paper at a party last night, and thinks it might be important.

While LEGO Star Wars: The Game might seems like a joke to most of us, it is actually getting some good reviews. Take this GameSpy review which calls it "One of the best Star Wars games to date" for example. Will LEGO Indiana Jones: The Game follow?

Bill Tiller drops The Mojo an exclusive Character Sheet from the pre-production documents of A Vampyre Story.

"It is an image of Dr. Riga Mortus, one of the many villains in the game. He captures Mona at one point because he wants to experiment on her. He wants to figure out how vampires get such spectacular powers."

Stay tuned for more "A Vampyre Story" developments in the coming week...

Source: AME

After a three month gap, a new version of ScummVM has been released. ScummVM 0.7.1 deals mostly with bugfixes and can be downloaded here.

1up.com has a new preview up of everyone's favorite upcoming game, Psychonauts. Their preview is a bit different from the others because in addition to playing the game, the 1up guys got a chance to sit down with Tim Schafer and chat it up for a bit.

While it does talk about the gameplay a bit, the end result is the article winds up being more a "the true history of Psychonauts" than anything else.

"We wanted it to be a sort of self-tuning game where players who are talented at combat and physical stuff can clear some of the trickier action-oriented puzzles through skill alone. But people like me, without super reflexes, might find it more fun to wander around the camp, looking under the trees and up on rocks, finding things -- the pirate scope, the glass eye, and such, finishing the scavenger hunt, and therefore powering up to get past the puzzles."

Check out the rest of the preview over at 1up.com.

A new interview has appeared on the internet. This one is about Bone and features three Telltale employees: Dan Conners, CEO of Telltale; Graham Anable, Creative Director; and Heather Logas, Designer.

I don't really know what to say about it other than it's worth reading, since it's the first Q&A with Telltale folks to scratch the surface of their development on Bone - well, the first to scratch deeper than "we're making a Bone game, and it's an adventure game." Also some new concept art is featured. Check it out.

Bone!

PS: Also if you missed it (I did) there was an interview/profile of Telltale game designer Heather Logas posted the other day which is also worth reading.

It looks like Episode III might not be the end of the Star Wars franchise after all. According to this SyFy article LucasFilm has more or less confirmed that the rumored television show will happen. How will this impact LucasArts?

"Certainly with LucasArts, we are looking into interactive games; not only the kinds of things that are there now, but as technology progresses we're looking at what direction that can go," Sansweet added. "We're also continuing to see how we can expand Lucas Online in various ways."

Food for thought. In almost unrelated news, you might want to check out this LEGO Star Wars interview too.

Looks like our friends over at Telltale Games are expanding their horizon, at least if the news post from the sexy beast known as Adventure Gamers is anything to go by. A new game called Ankh is apparently being developed by deck13 and Telltale, and you can see a preview of it over at Adventure-Archiv.

It's sort of unclear what role Telltale is playing in the development, though Adventure Gamers speculates that it might be as an advisor. Make sure you check out the Ankh preview; it's "a sure thing that they are aiming at the Monkey Island-community" with it. So you might like it.

Source: Adventure Gamers

Yes, already! Majesco has mailed out the third issue of their Psychonauts newsletter, "The Bootcamp Bulletin." This issue talks about an "interactive" Psychonauts print ad campaign Majesco is running, the tshirt preorder deal at Gamestop, Psychonauts' appearance on that college game tour thing, but most importantly: first magazine reviews!

Psychonauts will be gracing the cover of this month's Play Magazine, featuring an 8 page mega-review culminating in the game getting a 9 out of 10. The game has also been reviewed by Playboy of all things, who give it 4 out of 4, and Blender magazine also gives it 4 out of 4, calling it a condender for game of the year!

Not too many heavyweight game mags in that early mix, but still, very promising signs on the review front! If you want to receive these newsletters yourself instead of reading about them here, I'm sure Majesco would love it if you would stop by Psychonauts.com and subscribe for yourself!

In what seems to be his main job the past month, Tim Schafer talks to GameSpot about storytelling in gaming, and how it doesn't seem to envolve with the pace of technological advances. An excerpt:

People seem to be against story in games. But that's because they are usually terrible. Gamers really haven't been exposed to that many great stories, or even semi-decent writing I think.

Check it out over at GameSpot. There's even a little video tribute in there.

GameSpot Rumor Control is filled to the brim with crazy LucasArts rumors today.

The first one claims that parts of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: The Sith Lords's story was cut out from the game, something which apparently was proven by a bunch of unused dialogue being found on the discs and was also confirmed by Obsidian Entertainment. The Force.net has gone as far as to call it a "controversy", which is a bit silly seeing that this happens to just about every story-based game ever. (Check out the Curse of Monkey Island CDs for similar discoveries.)

Secondly the Star Wars Imperial Commando rumor is apparently just that - a rumor. I'm sure it might happen at some point anyway though.

Go read it all - and more! - over at GameSpot.

Looks like the official A Vampyre Story site has gotten a makeover, as well as some more content. Check out the gallery for some familiar looking screenshots and, more importantly, some nice looking wallpapers.

Do it!!

The design has been revealed for the promotional tie-dyed Psychonauts t-shirt being given out by GameStop when you pre-order the game from them. Yeah, it looks awesome. Remember that EBGames is giving out a deck of Psychonauts black velvet-style playing cards when you pre-order it there, so the choice is yours. Check out the t-shirt design though!

According to a new interview with Telltale CEO Dan Connors at Computer Games magazine the first Bone game is slated for a Fall (3rd Quarter 2005) release. Also a bit more is revealed about any divergence between comic and game storywise;

Dan Connors - We plan on executing the story as it is told in the comics. There will be added interactivity and we will take some license, but we are trying to stay true to the comic... For our first design meeting we just sat down and started walking through the compendium. The first book "Out From Boneville" just seemed the perfect size for our first game. It's a good introduction to the characters and the world, and has plenty of elements that make for interesting gameplay. Going forward into the rest of the story we will take the same approach

Source: Computer Games magazine

Gamespot has posted some impressions of GDC's Thursday panel called "Why Isn't the Game Industry Making Interactive Stories?" which included contributions from Tim Schafer, as well as Warren Spector and Neil Young (no relation, I assume). A small excerpt:

Schafer discussed his desire to see video games incorporate other types of story genres. "There's more to life than science fiction and fantasy," he stated, adding, "[there are] so many other places to seal from." Instead, Schafer suggested that game designers draw directly from their own personal life experiences.

You can read the whole enchilada over at Gamespot.

The second issue of psychonauts.com's Bootcamp Bulletin email newsletter arrived earlier today. Hopefully by now you've all signed up with the site to receive your own, but just in case, we've once again archived the letter here. ... Contained within:<:MORENEWS:>

Demo news: the Psychonauts Xbox demo will finally make its appearance in the May issue of Official Xbox Magazine. The "May" issue should hit the store shelves in mid-April, just a few days before the game's release!

New movies: Honestly I recommend you avoid these, at least the Edgar Telgee and Sasha Nein ones, if you're looking to avoid learning too much about the characters for spoiler reasons, but new in the Gray Matter section are three gameplay videos.

National promotion: Whaa? "The Psycho-Portal Challenge is Coming." A national promotion, apparently. So get ready for that! "We have mountains of Psychonauts stuff we want to give you."

Insanity: If you want to get mentioned on psychonauts.com, or in your local newspaper (possibly under the "police calls" section), Majesco wants to see you do whatever you can out in public to promote the Excellent Game. "Tell all of your friends, post fliers around the neighborhood and stand on the corner naked wearing nothing but a sandwich board that instructs everyone to "Pre-order Psychonauts RIGHT NOW!" Please send us pictures and we'll post them for the Dirty Little Secrets section of our web site (but only if the ESRB will let us)."

Other stuff: More press clippings, news on the strategy guide, and use of the word "peepers" await those who actually read the newsletter.

So, be sure to subscribe to get future Bulletins, and for now check out number 2 right here at Mojo.

If you for some reason should be stopping by E3 this year, you might want to check out some of their conferences and workshops, as there are some interesting stuff going on.

Example; Tim Schafer will be on the "Developing Better Characters, Better Stories: How a Game Character's Emotion, Passion, and Intelligence Makes the Game Experience Real" panel. Other noteworthy panelists include people from Bungie (Halo) and Valve (Half-Life).

Representatives from LucasArts's marketing department will also be on hand, talking about "Identify and Understand the New Consumer of Digital Entertainment: Adapt to the Latest Rules of Fun or Get Left Behind" and "Smart Marketing: How an Intelligent Approach to Research can Boost your Bottom Line".

As Udvarnoky points out on the forums, Telltale Games has published a short animation from Bone on their website. It's not much (and you have to sit through a Telltale Texas Hold 'em pitch first), but it sure looks nice.

Go view it.

If you can handle a 227MB download, and want to see a rather different take on the Star Wars Universe, you could do worse than grabbing a copy of the PC Demo (featuring the whole first level) of the forthcoming Star Wars LEGO platformer.

It's up at Yahoo already and probably at the other usual places in the very near future.

The full game's released on PC, Xbox, PS2 and GBA next month.

Source: Yahoo

GameStop has apparently upped the ante at the card table of Psychonauts Collectible Thingamabobs? (and mixed metaphors). Persons who pre-order there will get a Psychonauts tie-dyed shirt with delivery (while supplies last, of course). I guess there's nothing left to do but to let the trinket wars commence! Will you choose the shirts, the playing cards, or will you wait to see what other online stores offer? Go on, debate it.

Remi
I like it ;

Gabez
Yeah I guess

Gabez
Maybe a bit much though?

Gabez
It looks like it should be kjhkjh^&UG&^%& [connection lost in reference humor]

Using what has to be the worst title since The Phantom Menace, LucasArts has announced a new expansion pack for Star Wars Galaxies called Rage of the Wookiees. The game will apparently contain scenes from Revenge of the Sith and the wookies' home planet of Kashyyyk will be one of the central locations.

The download will be available on May 5th.

If you're one of the lucky and upwardly-mobile persons who gets to attend the Game Developers Conference this week, be sure to stop by the Nvidia or Creative Labs booths for a chance to play the PC version of Psychonauts! It makes me smile that the game is getting shown off by big-timey video card-type hardware(ey) companies, but anyway. The Nvidia booth where the 'Nauts demo is occurring is number 410; the Creative booth that is doing essentially the same thing is #920, so go check one/both of them out, or else!

Ok, so it might seem like we've taken over the role of Double Fine Action News lately, what with all the Double Fine updates and all, but anyway... If you haven't checked out the Action Comics lately (and why haven't you?) you'll have missed the timely return of the captain and Thompson! Obviously the other comics have been updated too, but we're fans of the spacemen.

At least I am. And Jake. ?

Dudes and dudettes: If you haven't checked that huge Psychonauts banner at the top of our site lately (it's that banner at the top of our site, the huge one about Psychonauts), you might have missed the fact that EBGames.com has put in a rather sweet bonus for people who pre-order the excellent game Psychonauts. While supplies last, pre-orderers will get a deck of Psychonauts playing cards, apparently designed in the style of that one black velvet level which features playing cards prominently. Rawk.

In addition, you can now pre-order Psychonauts at EBGames for all platforms (that the game is being released for), rather than just that big black and green one. It's probably safe to say that a lot of Mojo readers are into this kind of promotional tchotchke, so I shouldn't have to remind you how much you want these cards. Just go pre-order the damn game, man. Here are some bonus links if you are averse to scrolling up:

Xbox | PC | PS2, too

Another Psychonauts interview has surfaced, this time from Computer Games Magazine. It's an interesting enough read, and does not include as many spoilers as the IGN preview mentioned below. For those of you who chose not to read that one, it's probably worth mentioning that the Xbox version of Psychonauts now is a done deal, and that the PC version is close to being wrapped up (possibly as we speak).

Hey, so what does that mean? Seven years to the next Tim Schafer game? We don't know, but for now, check out the interview.

Accompanying a short interview that sheds some more light on Telltale Games' forthcoming adventure Bone are a couple of early screenshots.

Dan: First, we have made the solemn adventure game vow that the puzzles need to make sense in the context of the story. Second, we are focused on improving our dialog system to make it more flexible and varied than what people are used to. Third, we are working on ways for the player to solve puzzles in a more active way... We want our game worlds to really come alive for the players. That means that the world continues to move around them and doesn't just wait for players to interact with it. Ideally, we would like our puzzles to not only make sense within the context of the game world, but also within the pacing of the story.

Source: Quandry

Yowza! Yowza. IGN PS2 has a new preview of Psychonauts up on the world wide internet. But hey, this time it's a preview where there's some media and information that some mojo readers probably haven't seen or read already! Wooo!

In Psychonauts: The Saga of Goggalor, IGN says many more good things about Psychonauts, as well as revealing a fair bit of new gameplay where enter the world of Lungfishopolis (a city inside the mind of the camp's resident Lungfish) as a giant, and are assigned the title of GOGGALOR by the city's residents. Without spoiling too much more, I'll just point out that there are several new videos and screenshots included with this feature, so it's definitely worth gazing upon. If you want a lot of spoilers.

Source: Kolzig, Idle Forumite

Unless you're a US college student, of course.

Thanks to Razputin.net for pointing this out: The 2005 Game Live College Game Tour, a small, free, traveling game exposition, is starting to make its way through American universities. Among the 20 or so titles that will be playable at the event is everyone's favorite game, Psychonauts!

To see if your university, or one near you will be a stop on the tour (you don't have to be a student there to attend the event), check out the press release or the Game Live website.

Also Republic Commando will be on the tour, for those interested in Repubic Commando.

Yikes, March 3rd. It's been that long. Everyone might want to remove their caps and observe a moment of silence for Freelance Police.

To be honest, we think you'd be better off in your mourning by rounding up some friends and playing a celebratory game of Fizzball, but sulking on our forum is okay too.

Or, alternatively, if you don't feel like sulking or Fizzball, stop by the quiz-filled and fun-ridden Freelance Police Memorial thread on our forum, care of "The Tingler." Enticing, no?

Does April 19th just seem to far away? Here are a couple of previews that might tide you over.

Razputin.net brings word of a "new" IGN preview (it's about a week old now, but shhh) which features some positive impressions and some nice new screenshots.

Second we have a generic, but positive write up from GameDaily. Nothing new there, but hey...

Now, if you're a real fanboy, you can call in to Majesco's First Quarter 2005 Financial Results on Wednesday, March 9 at 5pm EST. You can call in at 888-694-4676 or watch the thing from Majesco's web site.