Don't get used to this, but we actually published a review. on time. Of The Cave. Which you actually can read. So... you know... Read it!
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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
Update 2 by Jennifer: It looks like The Cave made it's January 23rd release window on Steam afterall. So, it's totally out now.
Original post: Word has it you can find The Cave on Wii U in the US. PS3? Well, that's supposed to happen too. The rest of us will have to wait until tomorrow.Meanwhile, the reviews have started to come in. Kotaku tells us we should play the game, while IGN is restrainedly positive about it. Digital Spy, meanwhile, just says meh. Mojo? We will review it... Someday.
So good, OK, or meh? Run and download The Cave as soon as you can to find out.
Update by Jennifer: It's out now on Xbox Live Arcade too. The Steam release has been pushed to tomorrow, the 24th of January.Source: OzzieMonkey
Update by Mr We Just Say Manager: Ronzo "Ron" Gilbert has confirmed a January 23rd release date for XBLA and Steam -- PSN and Wii U will see The Cave one day earlier. (That's the 22nd.) And, it will also hit Mac and Linux! What?!
Remember when Mojo almost shut down because we didn't have any new games to write about?
Original post: According to MyXboxLive, The Cave has appeared on the Xbox Live Marketplace with a release date of January 23rd! How much space will it use? Exactly 1010.70 MB according to Greg Rice at Double Fine!
Source: MyXboxLive
You may know that publisher THQ filed for bankruptcy last month, and it seems that their individual assets are soon to go up for auction.
Among the studios that have requested THQ's bankruptcy filings, implying an interest in the Company of Heroes publisher's properties, is none other than Double Fine Productions. This helpful paragraph from Gamespot's coverage of this development explains why you probably don't need to get too intrigued:
A Double Fine representative told GameSpot, "Double Fine owns the full intellectual property rights to Costume Quest and Stacking. However, THQ retains certain limited distribution rights that have not expired yet, and we are exploring our options with respect to those."
Ron Gilbert's "The Cave" is now available for pre-order on Steam, here. The pre-order price is between US$14.99 and US$19.99 depending where you live (thanks SEGA). There's no firm release date yet, still just "January 2013".
People who pre-order also get some Cave related Team Fortress items.
Update: Looks to be US$14.99 on Greenman Gaming, regardless of territory.
People who pre-order also get some Cave related Team Fortress items.
Update: Looks to be US$14.99 on Greenman Gaming, regardless of territory.
Source: Steam
Two major interviews with Double Fine have recently been published, both of them with designer JP LeBreton and writer Chris Remo. One is a sprawling Gamasutra feature about Amnesia Fortnight and an insightful examination of the studio's strategies in general, and the other is a competitively long interview about The Cave at Adventure Gamers. In both cases, Remo is a former writer of the publication interviewing him, which is not exactly average trivia. That's why I'm calling it above-average trivia.
You guys realize that The Cave comes out this month, right?
Among the better articles we failed to front page due to recent downtime and general neglect was this Tim interview by VentureBeat. It's an in-depth piece covering a range of topics from Tim's recent hosting of the Umloud event (an annual Rock Band jam-off for charity) to progress on "REDS." And since all of you are backers, you've got some pretty intimate insight on some of the challenges the game's team has been facing recently.
Source: VentureBeat
Double Fine's Five Amnesia Fortnight 2012 Games are now available to download from supporter's download pages at the Humble Bundle Amnesia Fortnight page.
A Soundtrack album for all five prototypes is also available at the same location for those that supported the Amnesia Fortnight Humble Bundle.
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
Middle Manager of Justice, Double Fine's free-to-play iOS strategy RPG is now out for non-Canadians as well, as today mark's the game's worldwide release. US iOS owners can download the game for free from here, while UK users can get the game from here. People from other countries should check their respective iTunes stores, as the game should be out for you as well.
Kinect Party, Double Fine's upcoming mini game compilation for Xbox Live Arcade using all of the Kinect's abilities (and the sequel to Double Fine Happy Action Theater, which was released earlier this year) will be released on the 18th of December.
Even better, Microsoft's Major Nelson announced on his blog that Kinect Party will be free for a two week period upon it's release from December 18-December 31. In 2013, it will be sold at its regular price of 800 Microsoft Points ($10 USD).
The San Francisco based charity Umloud is holding an eBay auction that gives the high bidder and four of their friends a chance to get a private preview of Kinect Party (the upcoming sequel to Double Fine Happy Action Theater) and to play the game with Tim Schafer himself! At the time of this writing there is less than an hour to go. But at a current bid of only $355 USD, this is a steal!
I'd totally bid myself if I had the money and lived on the correct side of the United States. If you are lucky enough to have those two important qualities that I lack, then bid now.
Middle Manager of Justice, Double Fine's free-to-play superhero management (and fighting) game for iOS, was released yesterday on the Candadian iTunes store.
The game was accidentally released in September, and project leader Kee Chi decided that release would become a beta and people who downloaded the early beta would be beta testers. The team has been tweaking the game since then, fixing bugs, and adding improvements to the game play. It's now ready for it's original plan, a small release in Canada, followed by a worldwide release soon after. There's no news on when the game will be available on the US, UK, and other iTunes stores, but it should be within the next few weeks.
The Double Fine Amnesia Fortnight Humble Bundle Votes Have Been Cast, and the four pitches to become prototype games have been decided:
Hack n' Slash led by Brandon Dillon: an action-adventure (2D Zelda-style) where a young elf uses her hacking skills to cheat her way through.
Spacebase DF-9 led by JP LeBreton: a simulation game where you build a space base where aliens can live and work, and watch interesting stories emerge from their simulated lives.
The White Birch led by Andy Wood: an ambient platform game (in the style of Ico or Journey) in which a young girl climbs a tower to escape a dark, hazardous forest.
Autonomous led by Lee Petty: a first person perspective construction and action game where you where you collect primitives and energy to build self-directed automatons to both explore and survive the hazardous environment of the futuristic "junkyard world".
Also, make sure to check the Double Fine Amnesia Fortnight Humble Bundle site at 2PM PST today, where Double Fine will have a live stream going.
Update: The list of games being made into prototypes has expanded to five! The additional pitch being made into a prototype game is:
Black Lake led by Levi Ryken: an action-adventure where you track animals trough a folk tale forest and purge evil from their dreams which have spilled out into the world.
For those who missed the voting period, you can still donate to the bundle and get the five new prototypes, and prototypes for Costume Quest and Happy Song (which became Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster). If you donate more than the average (currently $7.22 USD), you'll also get the prototype of the stop-motion and Monster Hunter inspired RPG Brazen.
The Amnesia Fortnight Humble Bundle is still going on, flaunting its uniqueness in its on-going effort to get you to donate to it so you can vote on which of the four game pitches will become prototypes over the two week period that is this year's Amnesia Fortnight.
To sweeten the deal, Double Fine has added a new prototype to the mix: Brazen. This prototype, led by Iron Brigade project leader Brad Muir, mixes Monster Hunter with Ray Harryhausen inspired visuals (the stop motion special effects seen in classic Hollywood films such as Jason and the Argonauts and the original Clash of the Titans).
A DRM-free direct download and a Steam key will be given for Brazen to everyone who beats the average (currently just under $7 USD). Everyone who already donated to the bundle will receive the bundle, regardless of the amount spent (think of it as an early adopter's bonus).
You probably remember Amnesia Fortnight, Double Fine's game jam that gave us awesomeness like Costume Quest and Once Upon a Monster. Well, Double Fine is doing it again, and this time you can vote for your favorite concept!
This all runs through Humble Bundle and by contributing there, you not only get to vote, but you also get to download prototypes from this year and last year's Amnesia Fortnight, and... Really, don't read this, but go read and watch the actual announcement instead. Then spend, damn you!
(Spend.)
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).
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.