ResidualVM, the sister project of ScummVM designed to run Grim Fandango on modern systems (with official builds on Windows, Mac, and Linux), has received a bug fix update. And what an update it is! There's around 40 gameplay fixes in the newest release, including fixes for 14 bugs that were present in the original 1998 release, making ResidualVM the best way to run Grim even if you have a computer that can handle the original executable.
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Here's three Mojo tidbits for the new year:
Firstly, Did you miss the first public Double Fine Amnesia fortnight? If so, you still have a chance to redeem yourself for your misdeeds. Head to Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight page where you can still buy the games in digital form for $10 USD. If that's not enough for you, for an extra $20 USD, you can now pre-order a collector's package that comes with a DVD with all five Amnesia Fortnight prototypes (plus the bonus prototypes Brazen, Happy Song, and Costume Quest), the 15-track Amnesia Fortnight 2012 Soundtrack, and a Blu-Ray disc of 2-Player Productions' Amnesia Fortnight documentary footage. If that's still not enough for you, for an extra $15 on top of that, you can have the package include a collector's edition cover featuring art of one of the five 2012 protoypes signed by the project leader for that prototype. If you're still not satisfied with these awesome options, feel free to pay $70 USD for a collector's package featuring covers with art from all six prototypes, all signed by each project leader.
Secondly, Telltale's finally openly talking about their upcoming announced projects, but it's not Fables or King's Quest. Instead, they're talking about The Walking Dead Season Two (which should surprise no one). In an interview with Polygon, Telltale CEO Dan Connors talks about the next season's pre-production story meetings. It seems the next season will feature at least some of the same characters as season one, since according to Mr. Connors:
"We're talking through different scenarios, though I don't think we've talked through one where we just start with a new set of characters."
Another interesting bit from that interview is that Telltale is open to the possibility of having the game characters meet the television show characters. It will be interesting to see if they can work that out, since it seems the television show and comic book are handled by two separate corporate entities (judging by the Terminal Reality developed shooter based on the television show that's coming out next month, and the fact that Telltale's game got no publicity from AMC, the network that produces the show).
Lastly, do you remember the Wallace & Gromit's Musical Marvels show at the BBC Proms last year? The one that Mojo covered because it was Ben Whitehead's (of Telltale's Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures) first official credited appearance as Wallace in plasticine form? Well, the good news is that if you missed it last year, you still have a chance to see it live since it's proved popular enough to now become a full touring show. It just premiered yesterday at The Plenary in Melbourne, Australia, and will be touring elsewhere later this year (with the short A Matter of Loaf and Death screened at each performance as a bonus). You can view a list of the full touring locations at the Wallace & Gromit's Musical Marvels website.
Today Gamaustra has published an article by psychologist and semi-regular contributor Jamie Madigan, who explores the neuroscience of how Telltale's eight hundred time Game of the Year winner The Walking Dead emotionally manipulated us.
Just what sort of malignant intent was the moonstruck Jake Rodkin embedding into the design document with crooked-grinned glee? Read to find out.
Source: Gamasutra
Update (February 2, 2012): The Linux release of The Cave has been delayed a bit longer.
It's delayed another week according to a Steam forum post by Justin from Double Fine:
"The Linux version will be released for anyone on Linux. It's delayed another week unfortunately, due to some tricky driver/GL bugs we still have to resolve. Sorry for the delay guys =/"
Original Post:Those of you who are waiting for the Linux version of The Cave won't have to wait very long.
Ron Gilbert has updated his blog with news that the Linux version of The Cave will be released next week.
Source: GozzoMan
Not that it's the only delight to avail yourself of in this new interview with Ron Gilbert slung by Digital Spy as The Cave expands its release today:
"But the thing about it that really started to intrigue me was talking to people who played Maniac Mansion, and it really became clear to me that people had their favorite characters, their dream team for going into the mansion.
They love Bernard, they love Razor, so they just always play with those two characters. I wanted to capture a little bit of that with this.
But to make sure that the characters, unlike some of the characters in Maniac Mansion - like Jack, I mean, who plays Maniac Mansion with Jack... nobody, right? - so it was kind of about making each of the characters very, very different, each of them having a very ,very different ability to allow them to solve puzzles differently from the other characters and everyone having their own story, their own themed areas of the cave.
So I wanted to re-look at that, learning what I'd learned from Maniac Mansion."
Source: Digital Spy
ResidualVM, the interpreter that allows users to play 3D adventure games on modern PCs, has reached a major milestone. After 9 years of development (the ]initial revision of Residual (the original name of ResidualVM) was released by former ScummVM and ResidualVM project leader James "Ender" Brown on August 15, 2003), the first stable release is here, with full support for Grim Fandango. The stable build, version 0.1.0, is available to download for Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
1UP's Retronauts have managed to steal Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer away from making games of the year and kickstarter-backed adventures to talk about their classic adventure game Day of the Tentacle which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Listen to the resulting conversation in the latest Retronauts Live podcast and also, as their own site points out, check out our own awesome Secret History feature while you're at it!
Source: Retronauts Live Episode 57
PC Gamer conducted an interview with Ron Gilbert, where Ron stated that he wants to make a Monkey Island game and that he intends on talking to Disney at some point about getting the rights to Monkey Island so he can “really make the game I want to make.” However, he also stated that he wasn't optimistic that he'd ever retrieve the series he created, saying that Disney seems like a company which "hoards IP". And in a related interview with Metro about The Cave where they discuss Ron contacting Disney about making a Monkey Island game, Ron states that he wouldn't be willing to change the genre of Monkey Island for a new game stating that "Monkey Island has to be a point 'n' click adventure game".
There's another Ron Gilbert interview at Eurogamer, where Ron explains why his upcoming adventure game, The Cave, has no inventory.
Telltale is raking up the awards for The Walking Dead, including 5 awards from Spike TV's Video Game Awards: "Game of the Year", "Best Adapted Video Game", "Best Downloadable Game", "Best Performance By a Human Female" (for Melissa Hutchinson's Clementine), and "Studio of the Year". Telltale was also awarded "Best Downloadable Game" and "Best Character Design" for Lee Everett at the Inside Gaming Awards.
ResidualVM is making progress on its supported games. Escape from Monkey Island is now playable to Lucre Island (and is still a work in progress, and not officially supported), and ResidualVM's only supported non-LucasArts game, Myst 3, is now completable with glitches and missing features (as of the December 9 daily builds). The ResidualVM team can still also use your help in testing Grim Fandango (which is fully completable and fully supported). They request that any bugs that you encounter be submitted to the issue tracker and that you post on their forums when you complete the game.
The UK's Channel 4 commissioned an online adventure game inspired by LucasArts classics for their animated sitcom, Full English. The game contains five chapters (which are individually selectable at any time) and features Day of The Tentacle inspired multiple playable characters with inventory sharing. It also includes references to a certain Lucasfilm license.
Want the absolute latest on what Bill Tiller's been up to? Well, don't check his Twitter, the Autumn Moon web site, either of his blogs or Facebook - Bill knows that if you want maximum exposure, you want the Adventure Gamers forums. There he contributed to a thread rightfully exalting his well-known SCUMM Bar painting and went on to share some updates on the A Vampyre Story situation.
Cliff Notes: the Kickstarter video is 80% done, the campaign will launch "after New Year," and Bill is semi-hopeful that A Vampyre Story 2 could be his next project after Year One. He is also apparently full-on freelance again, having completed his stint as staff art director at MunkyFun.
Source: AG forums
New York's Museum of Modern Art's New Video Game Exhibition is beginning with 14 video games from the 1980's to the 2000's. However, they eventually intend to extend that collection with more games over the next few years, including Grim Fandango.
For the full game list, including the games planned for the future, check out the Museum of Modern Art's post about the exhibit.
The final episode of Telltale's The Walking Dead, No Time Left, is out now on the PlayStation 3 through the PlayStation Network.
It will be out on European PSN, Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade, PC, Mac, and even iOS tomorrow. Additionally, all five episodes will be released on disc at retail stores for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in North America on December 5th.
Update (November 21, 2012): It's out everywhere now already, including Telltale's store.There are three games by Mojo-related companies that are soon to be released. One has a firm release date. That one is the final episode of The Walking Dead, which will be released on November 20th for PlayStation Network in North America and on November 21st for XBLA, PSN in Europe, and iOS.
The next game that's coming very soon is Double Fine's Kinect Party, which according to True Achievements, now has a placeholder page on Xbox.com with screenshots and cover art (although they didn't reveal the url of the placeholder page, they did post the aforementioned images at their site).
The third incoming game is another Double Fine title: the free-to-play iOS game Middle Manager of Justice, which was featured as a recommended download for iOS in this months Game Informer (so either the editors of the magazine are just wishful thinkers, or the game is coming out soon).
It's a funny thing. The Disney buyout seems to have served, in part, to remind people of all the great games LucasArts once made, leading them to wonder why in the hell they're being kept in cold storage. The remarks by Disney about a potential focus on mobile platforms in particular has fueled the question: why not bring the oldies to handheld devices?
You take this guy over at Android Apps, who searches for logic in the dearth of PC games, modern and legacy, on his favorite gadget, and comes up short:
I look at games like Deponia and a new Edna & Harvey episode, point-and-click adventure games built like the old LucasArts SCUMM games from the '90s, and wonder how it's possible they aren't available on my tablet.
[...]
And then there are the archives. GOG.com is a great place to find old games, but can you imagine them having a mobile marketplace? Older titles like Fallout, Syberia and Syndicate would probably kill on mobile.
And what about this suggestion by Pocket Gamer of ten LucasArts classics to find a home on iOS and Android? The list, which represents the space opera only with Super Star Wars, reads like a roll call of beloved LEC originals.
It almost seems like there's this indeterminately sized society of weirdos that loves those old games and would like to see them given the modest respect of a place in the digital space. It's too bad this admittedly profane cult of individuals can't happen to include the people who actually have the power to make it happen.
GOG.com, the DRM-free digital game store, is having a 80% off sale this weekend on all of the games by Telltale Games that are part of their catalog. The games on sale are Sam & Max Save the World ($5.99 USD), Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space ($5.99 USD), Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse ($6.99 USD), Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures ($3.99 USD), Back to the Future: The Game ($4.99 USD), and Tales of Monkey Island ($6.99 USD).
Here's another post chock full of tidbits related to the companies Mojo covers, but that aren't big enough news to warrant their own news post.
Double Fine's Middle Manager of Justice should be coming out for the public on iOS soon. The team is still hard at work killing bugs, polishing the game, and addressing feedback they have received from the people who have become beta testers after the accidental release of the game this summer. In the meantime, to tide fans over until the game is released, there's a nice blog post over at Double Fine about the origins of Middle Manager of Justice as an amnesia fortnight prototype, including the original pitch video and character concepts.
Also, for those of you (if there are any of you reading Mojo, which is doubtful) who haven't yet pre-ordered Double Fine Adventure, there's still time to become a slacker backer at the current $15 USD price tag. That price includes the game once it's finished in DRM free form for PC, Mac, or Linux and a Steam code to get the game through the Steam client, access to the unfinished beta on Steam (once it's available), and digital access to the Double Fine Adventure documentary series. You'll get over a dozen of the Double Fine Adventure documentary videos right now. In a week the price will be raised to $30 USD, to reflect the amount of goods you'll recieve, as well as how much you'll receive immediately (as opposed to before, when there weren't as many goodies already available to backers).
Finally, the Grim Fandango inspired The Journey Down: Chapter One, the first part of a four chapter game, by Mojo forum poster Skygoblin, is now available on IndieGameStand at a pay-what-you-wish deal (starting at only $1 USD). It's well worth picking up, if you haven't already. It's an excellent chapter that's a great tribute to the LucasArts classics, while holding it's own amongst them.
As is the norm with iOS releases of their games, Telltale has not updated their blog about it, but the iOS version of The Walking Dead is finally caught up to the other versions. Episode 4 was released for iOS yesterday (and the iOS version of episode 3 was released on October 18th). The game can be purchased in a multipack or as a single episode inside of the application.
Some guy discovered a gem while rooting through Sub-basement #7194 of Archive.org. It's an interview with Tim Schafer circa 1996 about the freshly released Full Throttle:
Source: Double Fine forums
Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption is a new kickstarter project by Corey and Lori Ann Cole, based on the School for Heroes, their previous email based webgame. You may recognize The Coles as the creators of Sierra's Quest for Glory series, the children's adventure game Mixed-Up Mother Goose, and Castle of Dr. Brain (which was the ancestor of puzzle games such as Brain Age, Professor Layton, and Puzzle Agent).
Hero U is being co-developed by Transolar Entertainment (The Cole's current development studio, as FAR Studio is now used for art and web development) and the Australian video game developer Brawsome, the developer of the adventure game Jolly Rover and the puzzle adventure game MacGuffin's Curse. Brawsome is run by Andrew Goulding, who was the Assistant Producer at Krome Studios Melbourne on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
The goal of the Kickstarter project is $400,000 USD. Currently, the total stands at just over $137,000 USD with 28 days left to go.
For those of you that haven't purchased Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse (is there even anyone reading Mojo that hasn't?) or for those of you who want to buy the game cheaply a second time to get it on Steam, the Indie Royale Halloween Bundle has it and four more games (Home, Pathologic, MacGuffin's Curse, and Evil Quest) for the minimum low, low price of less than $5 USD.
The release dates for The Walking Dead episode 4: Around Every Corner have been announced. It's coming out in North America on PSN later today. Then, tomorrow, it will be coming out on North American XBLA, and on PC and Mac worldwide.
Release dates for the European market have not yet been announced, nor have release dates for episode 3 or episode 4 for iPad. Not much is known about episode 5 either at this point, but since the entire series is coming out on retail in North America on the 4th of December, the fifth episode will be out sometime before that.
Update: The fourth episode is now out on PC, Mac, and XBLA. Early reports say this is the episode where your previous choices come into play, meaning that the big choice in episode one is no longer the only choice that meaningfully effects gameplay. This is also the episode where the winner of the contest has a character modeled after them who dies and later becomes one of the undead. The runner-up winners are members of the zombie hoarde. So if you won, keep an eye out for yourself. :)