The International House of Mojo

Double Fine's Broken Age Kickstarter received plenty of attention during and after its lifespan due to being what was at the time the most successful project on the crowdfunding site, video game or otherwise.

Some of that attention proved to be negative, with scrutiny becoming particularly fashionable when the scope of the game, and therefore its schedule and cost, began to inflate. I always saw it as a weird sense of entitlement that required the willful misunderstanding of what a donor is (versus an investor), but at any rate there was, at one point, in some circles, what you might call a controversy.

But it doesn't seem to be a controversy the studio has profited from. Reports Schafer:

Tim clarifies that the purpose of crowdfunding from his perspective is to remove the categorical dependence on publishers, and by that criteria, the Broken Age experience was very successful.

Source: gamesindustry.biz

At the Skybound panel at Comic Con today, Telltale and Skybound unveiled a little bit more about their miniseries about Michonne, which is set during the period in the comics when Michonne is not present.

It tells a story during a time when Michonne is at her lowest, and she is "bereft". She also will be wielding a machete rather than her trademark sword, as she doesn't have it at this point. Since Michonne is an action character, the game will require more action, and Skybound tweeted that "you will be pleasantly surprised". It will be released as a three episode DLC for Season Two late this fall.

They also released two pieces of concept art for The Walking Dead: Michonne during the panel.

Sad news today as we learn that character actor Irwin Keyes has passed away at the age of 63. Check IMDB for a list of the actor's many credits, the most famous probably being his roles as bodyguard Hugo Mojelewski on "The Jeffersons" as well as the inhaler-dependent assassin Wheezy Joe in the Coen Brothers’ Intolerable Cruelty.

Here at Mojo though, he will always be remembered as the voice of Bruno the Bigfoot, whose rescue is the primary concern of the 1993 classic adventure game Sam & Max Hit the Road.

Source: The AV Club

Can anybody explain to me what Disney Infinity is? I did my due diligence and skimmed the Wikipedia page, but I can't make heads or tails of it. I'm just too old.

But the reason I'd like to know is that there's this Polygon interview with some vaguely-titled muckety–mucks of Lucasfilm and Disney Interactive where they say, well, this:

What the hell, Ada?!

Source: Polygon

I always try to do a news post of Mojo related tidbits after our downtime. This one's going to be a long one. At least, with the new server, it'll likely be the last.

Christian Adam has found a solution to allow the people who have graphics hardware below the requirements of Grim Fandango Remastered to play the game in classic mode.

Double Fine is making games in conjunction with Adult Swim Games, as well as Zoink Games.

On the subject of Double Fine, Massive Chalice went out of early access and received it's full release, and Iron Brigade has had Game for Windows Live replaced with Steamworks, fixing matchmaking. The latter was possible thanks to the fact that Double Fine has regained the rights to Iron Brigade from Microsoft.

At E3, it was revealed that ex-Mojoer and former Telltale developer extraordinaire, Jake Rodkin's company Campo Santo will have the console debut of their first game Firewatch on PS4. It is also going to be released on PC, Mac, and Linux. No release date has been set, but Campo Santo is aiming for release by the end of 2015.

Telltale is making a three episode miniseries that will be DLC for The Walking Dead: Season Two called The Walking Dead: Michonne, set during the period of the comics when Michonne is absent from the group. They also finally showed a little bit of what their Minecraft: Story Mode will look like.

Lucasfilm is working on a fully interactive 3D virtual Star Wars world, via their ILM experience lab.

Humongous Entertainment games are starting to make their way to GOG.com. The Pajama Sam series made its way to the service earlier this month.

The co-creator of Maniac Mansion and Thimbleweed Park, Gary Winnick, had his best selling comic, Bad Dreams, released in trade paperback format on the 17th of June.

While we're on the subject of Thimbleweed Park, be sure to check out the Thimbleweed Park development blog, as lots of good inside information about the development process of that game is being posted regularly.

In his capacity as the illustrious guest on the latest episode of the Playstation Blogcast, Tim discusses all kinds of topical Double Fine things, including Broken Age, Grim Fandango, and his favorite text adventure game.

And there's a shoutout for Spaff as well!

Source: Playstation.Blog

Eurobricks member Vitreolum has lovingly recreated Monkey Island's Guybrush Threepwood and Largo LeGrande in LEGO. Click through for more images.

Source: Eurobricks

Brian Moriarty's postmortem on LOOM that he presented at GDC 2015 is now available to view in the GDC vault.

Our very own curator of all things cut and changed from LucasArts and Sierra games, ATMachine, has captured three of the images from the video and corrected the aspect ratio (as the images in the presentation were cropped, meaning the original rooms must have been even wider). He has presented them to you in the most authentic manner possible.

These images are from lost rooms in Crystalgard. They include an alternate shot of the outside of Crystalgard, the hall of mirrors with the Chromax Conundrum, and the infamous lost room with the three sandglasses.

Source: ATMachine

The GOG and Steam releases of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream included an enhanced version of the soundtrack.

With the help of ScummVM developers, two fans by the names of SirAlastor and Alpheon, went through the game and found all the music cues, and Alpheon posted instructions tto change the music from the included soundtrack to tracks that ScummVM would read, so the music could be played within the game itself. He also posted a video showing the enhanced music in action, compared to the music from the original game, which you can view embedded below or here if the embedding doesn't work for you. The difference is quite striking.

IF Games has announced that their adventure game, The Perils of Man, which has a design by Bill Tiller and Gene Mocsy of Autumn Moon, and is also co-written by Mr. Mocsy, will be released on April 28, 2015 for Windows, Mac, and iOS. Episode 1 of the game was previously only available on iOS, and for those who have already purchased the iOS version of Episode 1, the app will be updated to the full version at no extra charge once it's released. They also released an announcement trailer for the game, which has been embedded below. You can see the trailer here if the embedding doesn't work for you.

Update (26th of March): The Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter page has been updated with the news as well. As suspected, the computer versions won't have separate release dates. Broken Age will release on Windows, Mac, and Linux worldwide on the 28th of April. Only the PlayStation releases will vary by region, since releases on those platforms only happen on certain days, and the release days are different in North America and Europe. The cover art for the Nordic Games retail release has been revealed in that update as well. The backer box will be bigger and will have a different design (although the art of the box will be based on this one).

The release date of Broken Age Act 2 has been announced. It will release on April 28, 2015 in North America and April 29 in Europe. It will be released for Windows, Linux, Mac, and will be available for cross-buy on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. It's unknown if the separate release dates for regions relate to the computer versions as well, since the IGN article makes it seem this way. This is unlikely though since Steam and GOG.com don't have any region blocking for ordering (unless, presumably, required by law), as far as I know. However, even if that ends up to be the case, at least it's only a day.

While you're at IGN, if you don't mind spoilers for Act I and the first part of Act II, they have a video up where they play through the same 12 minutes of the game that was previously revealed, but this time they play through it with Tim Schafer. They discuss what has transpired in the three years since the Kickstarter was announced, the decision to split the game in half and what to expect from the rest of Act 2.

IGN has just posted a video of the first 12 minutes of Broken Age Act 2 from the PlayStation 4 version of the game.

I doubt you're going to be watching this if you haven't played the first act yet, since it's going to be spoiling a bit of Act 2 for you, but just in case, it should be noted that the video does contain spoilers from Act 1.

Telltale just announced the release dates for the third episode of their episodic cinematic adventure based on Game of Thrones. It will be released tomorrow on Windows, Mac, and on PS4 and PS3 in North America. Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, and PS3 in Europe will get it on Wednesday. Then on Thursday, it will be released for iOS and Android.

They also released a launch trailer for the episode, which you can view below, or if the embedding isn't working for you, you can watch it here.

Double Fine has just announced that they have just locked down the release candidate for Broken Age. All that's left now is for one final week of testing to go on to track down any remaining bugs, after which it will be submitted to Sony for certification on PlayStation 4 and Vita, and sent to the pressing plant for discs to be made for the Nordic Games retail release on PC, Mac, and Linux.

Since they are in the final stretch, the promotion period will begin, which will consist of IGN dedicating a week of coverage to the game beginning on Monday. They will also be announcing the release date as part of that coverage, as well as including an interview with preview footage of Act 2.

Since the game is at release candidate stage, 2 Player Productions has nearly finished filming the next episode of the Double Fine Adventure documentary about the project, except for a few interviews. They are going to be working on making a final cut of the episode and making a final audio pass, and then the next episode of the documentary will be released as well. The project is truly reaching the home stretch now.

For those, like me, who have been wondering how the second and final episode of the Bill Tiller and Gene Mocsy designed Perils of Man is coming along, developer IF Games has announced an estimated release window of Spring 2015 for the full game.

Perils of Man will be released for iOS (people who already own Perils of Man Episode 1 on iOS will get the second episode as an update to the game app at no additional charge), and IF Games also have announced their intention to release the game on Steam for PC and Mac in the same estimated Spring 2015 timeframe.

Those of you are have been playing Telltale's Game of Thrones series who are also fans of the show know that Telltale's attempt to weave their "new" characters into the existing canon has been pretty clever. It may be even more clever than you think.

Screenshots for the upcoming third episode suggest that it will take place during the infamous Purple Wedding, and eagle-eyed fans have recognized something intriguing: Mira Forrester, a protagonist of the game and one of Margaery Tyrell's handmaidens, is clearly meant to be the unnamed girl in the TV show that Grand Maester Pycelle (aka Walter Donovan) is making a pass at during the wedding feast.

I realize I'm late to this particular party, but still - damn. My hat is off to Telltale on that maneuver.

Source: Intelligent fans

The still unique and haunting Loom was a welcome addition to yesterday's GOG.com LucasArts drop, but it poses a problem for purists: the version offered - the only version commercially available - is the VGA Talkie version.

This is a fine version of the game and no doubt for some definitive. For others, the original version, with its incredibly inventive EGA graphics by Mark Ferrari, complete script (the voiced version was re-written for disc space restraints) and gorgeous character close-ups is at least as worthy of preservation.

And the game's creator, Brian Moriarty, took to Twitter to count himself among them:

So buy Loom, then play the version of it you want.

Also, this is a good time to mention that the version of Zak McKracken that got released yesterday is the excellent FM-Towns version. No word yet from David Fox on whether he tacitly supports obtaining the older versions after purchase, but my nearest available authority, Remi, feels that "it's probably fine."

Source: Brian Moriarty's Twitter

The timing of this couldn't be better, seeing as his magum opus Zak McKracken is today available after what might literally be fifteen years out of circulation. Industry vet and adventure game icon David Fox was video interviewed for an hour and a half by "Sup Holmes?," which appears to be a weekly Youtube show by some Destructoid refugees that is by all accounts significantly better than its name.

Though the Skype-like video is a little unsettling in effect, I encourage you to power through the creepiness in order to get to that warm nougat center of insight and great stories from Fox, who covers his history at Lucasfilm Games all the way up to his current projects, which include Thimbleweed Park. I guarantee you will be ninety minutes older after watching it.

Source: Sup Holmes?

Now this is more like it. GOG.com has made six more LucasArts games available on its service, and the inductees are:

- Outlaws
- Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
- Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
- Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge: Special Edition (RIP vertical scrolling)
- The Dig
- Loom (Talkie version)

I am pleased by this direction. Naturally, some of those are already available on Steam, but that's fine because we want 'em all, and GOG has knocked 20% off those particular titles. (A savings of over a dollar!) The inclusion of Outlaws and Zak McKracken provokes a particularly hearty fist-pump from yours truly.

I'm now at the optimistic point where I think the only adventure games that will be skipped are the ones that have special editions coming. I use the plural form, because it would not surprised me if Double Fine tackled Full Throttle after Day of the Tentacle.

Anyway, exciting times. And if I find no reason to be a cynic, nobody should.

Source: GOG.com

My dad passed away 15 years ago this month. He was a special education teacher and substitute principal who made a point to teach his students (and my sister and I) that differences should be embraced, and I've begun a Kickstarter project to seek funding to create six 11 minute children's cartoons and a family friendly adventure game in the spirit of the Humongous Junior adventures.

My dad left his greenhouse to his school and his students picked the name and dedicated it "Mr. Mac's Rainbow Greenhouse". The name is going to live on in this project to honor his legacy.