"Q4 2014" isn't merely the vague release information Telltale has offered on its upcoming Game of Thrones adaptation; it's basically the only information. So you can imagine my surprise when Telltale re-states that the first episode will be released before the new year.
This coincidentally puts the release three hundred and eighty-seven years ahead of George R.R. Martin's next release in the book series, which is expected to hit shelves December 2401.
Update: The link to the confirmation is now broken because it was a leak of information GOG intends to make public tomorrow. Check back then for the real deal.
Original Post: As Jennifer broke, the rumors were true! GOG has cut a deal with Disney to release LEC games on its service. And now we have titles. GOG confirmed that "about" 30 games will be made available in total, starting tomorrow with the following six:
Star Wars™: X-Wing Special Edition - digital distribution debut, on GOG.com!
Star Wars™: TIE Fighter Special Edition - digital distribution debut, on GOG.com!
Sam & Max Hit the Road - digital distribution debut, on GOG.com!
The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition
Indiana Jones® and the Fate of Atlantis™
Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic
You'll note that only three of those are digital debuts, but hey, Sam & Max Hit the Road and TIE Fighter are finally available again! Let's hope all fourteen classic adventures make the cut. Seriously, these are exciting times. Speculate below!
Source: Good Old Games
We've gotten our hopes up before that LucasArts games would be released on GOG.com when the site previously teased that they were going to add a large publisher to their catalog (not to mention the Night Dive rumors). Well, the rumors are here again, as GOG.com is teasing that another publisher will be adding their games to the catalog, with a countdown timer on their main page.
There might be some weight to the rumor that the publisher is LucasArts this time, as a GOG.com user has reportedly found three countdown images on the GOG.com website that use well known LucasArts fonts. Of course, if it does end up being LucasArts, it's uncertain if any games that aren't already released digitally will be released on GOG.com, as the three franchises represented (Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Monkey Island) already have games available digitally on Steam. But, at least this time signs do seem to point towards DRM-free versions of LucasArts games finally being available soon.
It's been awhile since we've had anything firm, hard, or otherwise unyielding to pressure with regard to the second half of Broken Age, but Double Fine has offered an update a few days ago. They published said update on their Kickstarter page, and since there's an installment of the ongoing 2 Player documentary to go along with it, the post is backer-exclusive. Which means I can't really do much but tell you to go check it out, a suggestion I make under the safe assumption that a few of your dollars rest among the 3+ million the project racked up.
In the absence of a link, I can give you the Cliff Notes version, which is that Tim has finished writing the game, and the voice recording is nearing an end. There's a few other milestone factoids like that, but what they get vague about real quick is the release date you likely sought. In light of that I'm gonna go ahead and assume we won't get to play this until 2015, which is fine by me, because Remi has made short work of my free time lately.
Source: Broken Age Kickstarter
Double Fine's remastered version of Tim Schafer's magnum opus of his LucasArts years, Grim Fandango, was demoed at Indiecade. Game journalists have played that demo and shared their thoughts.
IGN describes the new version as follows:
You have the ability to toggle back and forth between how the game originally looked, and how it looks now, and holy moly the difference is night and day. Thanks to the new lighting, shaders, and other technical enhancements that flew way over my head, Manny and company now look incredible. Their in-game models appear to be nearly identical to their cut-scene counterparts, which is great. The game is still presented in 4:3, but you have the ability to stretch it to widescreen (for the love of everything good, please don’t do this). The borders are black right now, but I was told that the developers are toying with some ideas for what could stand on the two sides of the screen.In addition, Double Fine has also added some bonus features to the game:
The final big change I stumbled across was the awesome inclusion of nodes scattered throughout the world that contain small snippets of commentary from Tim Schafer, Peter Chan, Peter McConnell, and a ton of other folks who helped make the game so special back in 1998.Polygon has also shared their thoughts on the demo, and have confirmed that the original's tank controls will be an option for the purists who prefer to play the game that way.
It looks like Grim Fandango Remastered is shaping up to be great. The rest of us will get a chance to play it for ourselves once it's released in early 2015.
Update by Jennifer: The campaign is also now accepting Paypal donations for the digital tiers (you'll find the Paypal links at the bottom of the main page). So, if you wait for that option before backing a crowdfunding campaign, and if you want to play a campaign with an awesome art design by Bill Tiller and a game design by Dave Grossman, Bill Tiller, and Gene Mocsy, then you can now be a backer as well.
Oh, and my rendition of the pirate song is on its way. Since I actually made that promise myself, I'll try to get it done soonish. :)
Original post:
There's a first time for everything.
Duke Grabowski up and got itself funded by the skin of its teeth, and there was much rejoicing. Don't forget that although the minimum amount has been reached, you can still pledge money to the project so that it can hit some of its stretch goals. One of them is "new swashbuckling music," which I'm taking to mean that Pedro Macedo Camacho will compose new stuff as opposed to his Ghost Pirates tracks being recycled.
As for me, I apparently owe you guys some sort of re-creation of the wedding scene from Monkey Island 1? At least, that's what Remi seems to have effeminately (and unilaterally) obligated me to, and I'm nothing if not a man of Remi's word. So while I'm not putting a clock on it, stay tuned for a deranged grotesquerie of some sort.
Source: Kickstarter
The Duke Grabowski Kickstarter now needs less than $5,000 to make it's goal. There's just three days left to go, but it's certainly doable. They've posted an interesting update about how Dave Grossman got onboard. Apparently Bill's helping Dave out with art for one of his projects, and Dave's helping Bill out with game design on his. So, we'll hopefully be seeing the results of another Dave Grossman and Bill Tiller collaboration in the future.
The update also includes information about slots being opened up for the higher tiers. So, if you've been holding back because you wanted to back at one of the sold out higher tiers, you're in luck, as more slots have been added to these tiers. Go ahead and grab them quick if you're interested (there's some neat goodies in there, like getting to voice a character named after you for $300, or if you have some money to burn, having Bill fly to your house and paint a mural on your wall for $10,000).
Of course, the most important incentive is that if this is funded, you'll get to watch Jason reenact the Melee Island wedding scene, and watch me perform the Curse of Monkey Island pirate song. So, go ahead and back. You know you want to.
The game is excellent, but if you'd prefer to try before you buy, chapter one (the first third of episode 1) is available on iTunes for free.
Update: If you don't have an iOS device, you'll have to wait a bit longer. According to The Perils of Man Frequently Asked Questions page, they are currently developing the game for Android devices as well as PC, Mac, and Linux.The final issue of Maniac Mansion co-creator Gary Winnick's five part comic book series, Bad Dreams, was released on Wednesday. The print issues are somewhat hard to come by (if you want to pick them up at regular price) since they sold out pretty quick, but you can pick up all issues digitally from Comixology.
Another Mojo-centric release is soon to be happening as well, since the Bill Tiller and Gene Mocsy designed The Perils of Man Episode 1 will be released on the Apple App Store in three days. Chapter One is out already. If you have an iOS device, make sure to pick it up, as it is excellent.
A little over $15k remains before Bill Tiller and his good friends (who now include Dave Grossman!) have their modest graphic adventure game Duke Grabowski funded, and there's only twelve days to go pick your favorite tier (among them a brand new option).
Don't get me wrong, it's cute that you're this fashionably late with your pledge, but you really don't want to be the reason Bill's painting Bounty Bots 56 instead of an adventure game background. Because you will be forced to wear a T-shirt to that effect.
Source: Kickstarter
The latest daily builds of ResidualVM now officially support a game besides Grim Fandango, Myst III: Exile. In order for the game to be fully supported in the next stable release, they need your help to ind the last few rough edges by playing through the game in the latest daily build thoroughly and submitting any bugs that you find along the way to their issue tracker.
In other ResidualVM news, you might be wondering how ResidualVM's first Summer of Code went. Quite swimmingly, it seems, since Escape from Monkey Island is now completable with glitches in the latest daily builds. Unlike Myst III, this game isn't ready to be added to their supported list, but they are now accepting bug submissions for Escape from Monkey Island at their issue tracker if you want to give it a try.
This year's ScummVM Summer of Code went quite well too, as Sfinx is now completable in the latest daily builds (the English translation isn't yet up for public consumption though, so you'll have to use the Polish original to play). Galador: The Prince and the Coward is also completable, but you'll have to compile it from the sourcecode yourself if you want to try it at this point, since it hasn't yet been added to the main tree (and, likewise, the English translation isn't yet ready for public consumption).
Well, if you, like the rest of the world, were not following us on Twitter ¬¬, you probably don't know any of this stuff. Because, where else than the internet Mojo would you learn all of it? PAX, in a nutshell:
The Firewatch trailer! Campo "Mojo" Santo's sequel to WONKY is looking good.
Grim Fandango, touched, consoled! Second part of the Making of… excites anyone who is not an awful human being.
Costume Quest 2 has gameplay! Granted, we already posted that one, but you probably want to watch it again.
… as does Massive Chalice!
And, finally, the answer to your largest question in life, finally answered: No, ScumSoft in Space Quest III was not in any way a jab at LEC's SCUMM engine. So now you know.
Update! If you have issues seeing any of the videos, here are the direct links: WONKY 2, Grim, Costume Quest 2, and Massive Chalice.
Cliqist has an interview up with Bill Tiller about Duke Grabowski, including the hows and whys of choosing to go to Kickstarter, why they chose to make another pirate themed game, and a fine selection of haikus, including this gem:
Duke, red with fury
Terrifies men and women
No one sees his heart
There is also an update on the Kickstarter where Bill Tiller draws an Inn with no name and is holding a contest to find the best name for it. It should be something piratey and fun, probably incorporating the word "Inn". For more details about the contest, see the above link to the update.
In an effort to raise awareness for their adventure game Kickstarter, Bill Tiller and two of his Autumn Moon cohorts, operating under the label Venture Moon Industries, have set up a Steam Greenlight page for Duke Grabowski: Mighty Swashbuckler!, which has garnered a little attention.
As for the Kickstarter itself, after quickly raising $15,000 of its $40,000 goal, things seem to have stalled a bit, but there's still 46 days to go. This should be far more achievable than last summer's A Vampyre Story: Year One Kickstarter, which rang up $77,000 despite the recurring complaint that it was not an original adventure. With that issue addressed and with a much more modest goal, I'd like to think this one should have a happy ending. Unless you snatch it away, ya penny-pinchers!
Source: Steam
Double Fine is going to be holding a panel at this year's Penny Arcade Expo, entitled Grim Fandango: Bringing the Dead Back to Life! The panel will be jam packed full of people who worked on the game, including creator Tim Schafer, artist Peter Chan, musician Peter McConnell, Double Fine Productions executive producer Matt Hansen and Sony’s Gio Corsi as moderator.
They will discuss development of both the original game and the new remastered version. They will also be unveiling a new development documentary episode from 2 Player Productions. If you are going to PAX this year, you won't want to miss the panel. It is happening on Saturday, August 30th at 4:30 in the Main Theater.
