As you probably know, Ron Gilbert joined the Canadian based developer Hothead Games as the company's Creative Director around two years ago. Although the veteran designer publicly began his role serving as a "consultant" on the Penny Arcade episodes, it seemed that his primary reason for joining the company's ranks was to see his latest brainchild, DeathSpank, come to fruition after the studio signed on as its publisher. This is more or less confirmed by today's Grumpy Gamer blog post, where Ron reveals that he has ended his term at Hothead as production on the game is wrapping:
I wanted to let all the Premium Gold Level Grumpy Gamer subscribers know that I left Hothead. When I started working there two years ago, my goal was to make DeathSpank the most awesome game ever made and have it win a Nobel Prize and the early word out of Stockholm is that DeathSpank is neck-in-neck with some string theory dweeb (eleven dimensions my ass).
As DeathSpank ends the creative and production phases and start down that long and winding road of certification and testing of the XBox and PS3 and [REDACTED] versions, it's looking quite amazing and is damn funny. So, to quote my childhood hero George W. Bush: Mission Accomplished.
I will be working closely with EA and Hothead on the PR for DeathSpank as the release date of [REDACTED] draws closer.
I have also vowed to blog more and try and remember my twitter password.
Roll on DeathSpank, and best of luck to Ron in his future endeavors, which hopefully includes making video games at a slightly less relaxed pace.
Source: Grumpy Gamer
I'm more upset about Dierdra getting fired though, she's a very talented game developer (I've helped beta test one of her indie adventures and it was excellent, you should try them).
From her blog:
"Last month, I lost my job. It was something I knew would happen to me one day, eventually — nobody ever said a career in the video game industry would be stable and secure. Still, given that this was the first time anything of this sort had ever happened to me, I was unprepared for the stress and anxiety that resulted from such a significant life change. I’ve since recovered somewhat, and am doing the best I can to keep my chin up and look forward to what the future will bring. "
Doesn't really sound like someone who wanted to leave. And it certainly doesn't sound like she made a choice, it just sort of happened to her. Note the word 'I lost my job' at the beginning. Also, the fact that she was unprepared for the job-searching life makes it sound like she wasn't expecting to be out of a job right now.
I don't know anything more than what was written in that post of course. I hope you're right and I'm wrong, but I fear that's just not the case.
Deirdra (a she, by the way) worked at Telltale for a while. I believe she worked on the first season of Sam & Max (as a designer), and possibly the Bone games, but I would have to check that last part. After Telltale she went to Hothead who, as I said, fired her recently. I think she was also mentioned on this blog a couple of times after she started accepting donations for an indie adventure game she's developing on her own. She didn't say what the exact reasons were for Hothead firing her.
@Kroms
Yes, fired. As old man JP said, see for yourself at http://www.deirdrakiai.com
Is it compatible with my Motion Plus?
Does it run Linux? And ScummVM?
:P
Me, I'm right excided to play it.
the latest entry; http://www.deirdrakiai.com
AlfredJ
Deirdra Kiai mentioned in a blog post that she was fired at Hothead
Holy! Was she really? I can't find anything about it. You sure she didn't just leave?
I wonder what Ron will do next. From a MixnMojo point of view, Telltale seems the obvious choice.
Or, you know, he could just go back to make the REAL Monkey Island 3. : |
Excited for Deathspank.