The International House of Mojo

The beta (which is a near-complete version of the game that can be played from start to finish) for Massive Chalice is out now for people who pledged $50 or more. If you're one of those people, you should have received your codes from Humble Bundle. If not, contact Humble Bundle support and they'll get you sorted. According to the Massive Chalice blog, the plans for the release of the game for those who didn't back high enough for beta access will be announced soon, after the team sees how the beta period goes.

While we're on the subject of Double Fine, they're going to be holding a free to attend Day of the Devs event again this year, on November 1st at the Old Mint Building in San Francisco from 4PM to 11PM. They'll have lots of recent and upcoming Double Fine games to play, like Costume Quest 2, Massive Chalice, Grim Fandango Remastered, and more. There will also be a lot of games available to play from the other developers that are part of the event. To see the full list of games and to make a reservation for the event if you plan to attend, check out their Facebook event page.

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 has teamed up with Indiebox, the subscription service that ships boxed collector's editions of indie games to gamers' doors each month, to release a Brütal Legend Limited Edition for PC, Mac, and Linux to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the release of the game.

You can subscribe for as many months as you want (which will give you another indie game special edition each month), but if you only want Brütal Legend, there's an option for one month for $16.99 USD + shipping and handling.

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.

The Steam version of Costume Quest 2 is out now for PC, Mac, and Linux.

It will also be coming soon for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One, although release dates for those versions have not yet been announced.

We reported in September that Spacebase DF-9, Double Fine's open-development, early access space station simulator was gearing up for a 1.0 release, thus ending a production that was originally hoped to go on for at least five years.

In a Steam forum post referenced by PC Gamer, Tim explains the business reality behind the decision to finalize the game earlier than originally anticipated.

For the entire explanation, read the complete article.

Source: PC Gamer

For a good twenty minutes! Twenty minutes that were recorded.

Source: GameNGuide

Spacebase DF-9, the space simulation game by Double Fine, is joining its Early Access sister Hack N Slash next month in leaving early access, complete with a source code release. The 1.0 release of Spacebase DF-9 will have new features that make it a complete game: a tutorial mode for helping new players learn how to play the game, and a goal system that will let you work towards concrete objectives. Shortly after the 1.0 release, they will release the game's full LUA source code to allow the community to create mods for the game to do anything they want with the game, from adding new functionality and new content, and even changing some fundamental game behaviors. After the 1.0 release, Double Fine doesn't plan on adding any new features after 1.0, as the fans will now be able to do so themselves, but they aren't abandoning the game as they still plan on making official releases for bug fixes and will still be offering support for the game.

Costume Quest: Invasion of the Candy Snatchers, the hardcover comic book by Zac Gorman of Magical Game Time fame, is now available to pre-order. If you preorder it from the Double Fine store, via the link above, for $25, you'll also receive a bonus tote bag (perfect for holding all your Halloween candy) and a Steam code for Costume Quest 1. The book is scheduled to be shipped in mid-October.

Hack 'N' Slash, Double Fine's action adventure that involves hacking the game world, is now at 1.0, as of yesterday. This means that the final act is now included, and it is no longer Early Access and is now considered a full release. Because it's out of Early Access state now, Double Fine has added Steam Workshop integration. They've also added mod support and even included the source code. Since the game revolves around a hacking mechanic, it should be interesting to see what people come up with now that they can modify the world however they want. If you head over to the Steam Hack 'N' Slash page before September 16, you can pick the game up for 33% off in a special launch promotion.

The first eight minutes is the latest 2 Player Productions video you've probably already seen, but behind that is a recording of the entire PAX panel.

Source: Twitch TV

The newest title published under Double Fine Presents, the comedic brawler Gang Beasts, is now available to purchase on Steam Early Access for $14.99. They've also released a launch trailer and launched a new website if you want to find out more about the game before buying.

The sequel to Tasha Sounart's Costume Quest, developed by Double Fine and published by Midnight City (Tasha is now at Pixar, so she's not involved in the sequel, beyond some ideas that she came up for a sequel to Grubbins on Ice while she was still at Double Fine), will be arriving just in time for Halloween on October 7, 2014. If you pre-order on Steam (for Windows, Linux, and Mac) now for $14.99, you will also get four classic costumes to use in the game: Robot, Unicorn, Eyeball and Pumpkin – each featuring their signature moves. A gameplay trailer has also been released, which contains enough awesomeness that it should make your decision to pre-order the game that much easier. What are you waiting for? Pre-order the game today!

Double Fine is hosting Devs & Bevs, which is a night of drinks and games with a quintet of game developers. The event will be held at the Hard Rock Cafe in Seattle, WA on Sunday, August 31st from 6:00 to 10:00. The lineup for the evening is extraordinary.

• 6:00—Fantasia from Harmonix
• 6:30—Firewatch from Campo Santo
• 7:00—Tharsis from Choice Provisions
• 7:30—Below from Capy
• 8:00—Massive Chalice from Double Fine
• 8:30—Costume Quest 2 from Double Fine
• 9:00—Gang Beasts from Boneloaf

If you are planning on going, you can find the Facebook event page here.

Double Fine has announced the fourth game in their indie publishing program, Double Fine Presents. Gang Beasts is a multiplayer brawler by the UK-based studio Boneloaf that is made in the style of Streets of Rage or Double Dragon. It includes both cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes. It is described as a game that is "a jolly good time full of silly procedural animation and ragdoll physics that will no doubt insight giggles and guffaws".

If you are going to PAX Prime, Double Fine and Boneleaf will have a demo of the game available to play at booth #117. It will also be playable at Fantastic Arcade, along with seven other spotlight games, including one of Double Fine's other spotlight games, Mountain.

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.

So apparently Dan Adelman, former "Indie Lead" of Nintendo, had the idea of bringing back Grim Fandango a long time ago!

I suppose we can guess why it didn't work out. Adelman could have petitioned Tim all he wanted, but it was LucasLegal he would have had to strike a deal with. Maybe Sony just screams louder?

I think it's kind of awesome that Nintendo was pursuing this. It also potentially just goes to show how much of a massive asshole you apparently had to be to score a job as a gatekeeper for Lucas-owned licenses.

Source: IGN

From recording tests with Noah Falstein as Bobbin Threadbare in 1992 to her present work voice directing Broken Age, Khris Brown has played a crucial role in making your favorite Mojo classics talk.

In a new interview with Gamastura, Brown discusses her career, sharing insights she gained from her decades in the field:

I'm not sure I agree - everyone knows that Doug Lee's best work comes after twenty-five takes, like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. Anyway, read the full interview.

Source: Gamasutra

There's a few comic related news bits that we missed. First, Zak Gorman, the creator of Magical Game Time, is creating a Costume Quest graphic novel called "Invasion of the Candy Snatchers". It flips the Costume Quest story around, telling the story of the original Costume Quest from the point of view of a Grubbin named Klem.

Secondly, Maniac Mansion co-creator Gary Winnick's Bad Dreams #1 comic was in the list of the top 6 new comics and sold out in it's first week of release. Mojo wishes Mr. Winnick a (very) belated congratulations. Oh, and while we're on the subject of comics, Dirt Nap by Gabe Miller, the Double Fine comic about zombies, is oddly the only one that's still alive. And it's awesome. So, read it, if you haven't already.

The Double Fine Action News page has been updated with news that the remastered version of Grim Fandango will will be releasing simultaneously on Windows, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 4, and Vita.