The International House of Mojo

In what is quickly becoming known as the most exciting news story in all of history, Notch has Tweeted an apparent interest in making Psychonauts 2 episodic!

Earlier today, he posted: "Let's split it up in episodes! Episodic gaming is the future!"

Whether he was serious or not remains to be seen. He's also cautioned the world to, "please don't get your hopes too high yet. Everything is extremely vague!"

Far too late for that, Mr Persson!

Source: @Notch

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Bearded Swede in fedora wants to help make Tim Schafer's babies happen 07 Feb, 2012 / 19 comments

Disregard that last news update. Someone has taken the bait.

In honour of it being Charles Dickens's 200th birthday - a man who spent his 58 years on Earth creating as many babies as he created novels - popular indie guy Notch, head of developer Mojang and creator of popular game Minecraft, said the following words to Tim Schafer over Twitter: "Let's make Psychonauts 2 happen."

And then Steven Dracogen, who brought you Stacking and Costume Quest to PC, was like, "I'm in." And I was like, "Woah". And then maybe I screamed like those girls at Ed Sullivan's show when The Beatles came on. Skip to 1:35 in that video. That was so totally me.

This normally wouldn't be news-worthy, except for two reasons: Rock Paper Shotgun's confused question about whether or not to post the story, which makes a Mojo news update actually more timely than someone else's for once (Professionalism ho!); and Notch's reply, where he says he is serious (and calls Psychonauts "Tim's baby").

So! Would you like a Psychonauts sequel? It'd be interesting to see any Psychonauts-related work coming-out - doubly so since people like Erik Wolpaw (who wrote 20-30% of the dialogue) and Scott Campbell (the art director) have since left Double Fine.

Source: Twitter

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Another, less epic, Schafer interview 06 Feb, 2012 / 2 comments

The chicken that represents internet interviews with Tim Schafer has laid another egg. While not as gigantic as the recent Gamasutra one (in the sense that it isn't five pages long), Digital Spy can still lay claim to a compelling gab session with The Shafe, as no one has ever called him.
Here's the part of the article that has naturally spread like a rash since its publication:

Is it difficult to go against that pressure and create new content instead?

"It's not that we don't have a choice! I mean I get a lot of, on Twitter or whatever, daily questions about Psychonauts 2. And I would love to do Psychonauts 2, I've actually pitched that to publishers several times and no-one has taken the bait so far.

Go vote for quality using your eyes!

Source: Digital Spy

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Gallons of internet ink spilled in epic new Schafer interview 04 Feb, 2012 / 1 comment

Hot off the heels of the release of Double Fine Happy Action Theater, the first Double Fine project since Brutal Legend on which Tim has served as the lead, Gamaustra has published a feature interview with the man about all things Double Fine. It's huge and great and informative, and what's more, it's a huge. Here, have a free sample from Schafer's thoughts on developing for Kinect:

I think the best games are yet to come with Kinect. Like this, where people just start from scratch with no preconceived notions about what a game can be and just build up the experience from nothing using what Kinect is good at. I think it's going to be good. I think we're going to come up with whole new genres of experiences that just haven't existed before.

Consume the full five page spread like the smorgasbord of heart-healthy sustenance that it is.

Source: Gamasutra

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Today is a Double Double Fine day 01 Feb, 2012 / 2 comments

By Rémi

Double Fine Happy Action Theater? Released! ~~Trenched~~ Iron Brigade: Rise of the Martian Bear DLC? Also released! Today! Right now! I mean, my lord, get on your Xbox and download them both!

Update: And if that wasn't enough for you, then PC fans will be pleased to hear that Steam is offering 50% off their "Double Fine Pack" -- Today only! That includes Costume Quest (with the Grubbins on Ice DLC) and the updated version of Psychonauts for your PC. Half price!

Link: 50% Off The Double Fine Pack

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Watch Tim Schafer stand in a river of lava 20 Jan, 2012 / 3 comments

Popular games website Giant Bomb have put up a new QuickLook video, centering on Double Fine's new game, Happy Action Theatre. The video features Tim Schafer and someone dressed in a hotdog suit, don't you know.

QuickLook videos are GiantBomb's lovely way of showing you gameplay, and the games covered range from relative unknowns to big blockbusters. The Happy Action Theatre video shows a variety of levels, and gives a good idea of the kind of gameplay on offer here - minus, I think, Tim Schafer and a hotdog suit.

Source: GiantBomb

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Double Fine Happy Action Theater has a release date 13 Jan, 2012 / 4 comments

By Rémi

And it is February 1st.

In other words, it is time to get that Kinect out of storage, as it look like this game could be fun. Joystiq has a good preview up of it.

Source: Tim's Twitter

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Double Fine Secretly Releases More Podcast Episodes 13 Jan, 2012 / 0 comments

You'd never know it (unless you're already subscribed to their podcast RSS feed) but Double Fine keeps releasing new episodes of their podcast, and not telling anyone about it.

The latest episode (number five, no less!) features Steven Dengler, the "shady-but-benevolent" investment partner who personally funded the Costume Quest PC and Psychonauts Mac releases.

Keep abreast of new episodes by entering the following URL into your favourite podcast/RSS software (or just by visiting it in your browser):

http://www.doublefine.com/rss/ActionCast/

But don't let Tim Schafer know I told you.

Source: DoubleFine.com

0

A New Year, A New Poll 12 Jan, 2012 / 10 comments

It's a new year, so probably about time for a new poll. This time we're asking our Mojo readers about their gaming systems... Just what hardware is the discerning Adventure Game fan packing in 2012?

As for "Which of Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight games is your favorite?", all is finally revealed below! (Well, kind of... Iron Brigade has only just been released in Europe, and Once Upon A Monster isn't even on the list -- but, er, never mind!)

Which of Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight games is your favorite?
I am ashamed that I haven't played any yet		19
Costume Quest/Grubbins on Ice		11
Stacking/The Lost Hobo King		11
Trenched (for those who've been allowed to play it)		0
Total votes		41

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Trenched Iron Brigade finally released in Europe (last year) 12 Jan, 2012 / 1 comment

After being delayed since June, ~~Trenched~~ Iron Brigade has finally been released on the XBox 360 in Europe... or, it was on six weeks ago.

Along with this release, the US version of the game has been given an update. It's no longer known as ~~Iron Brigade~~ Trenched, but has been renamed to ~~Trenched~~ Iron Brigade, so that multiplayer can be enjoyed internationally.

As a reward for fans tolerating all these shenanigans, Double Fine have added a new Survival game mode and new Loot for free, as part of the patch!

And as an extra bonus, a new Iron Brigade T-shirt has been revealed in the Double Fine Store.

Still no release date for the "Rise of the Martian Bear" DLC, though!

Source: DoubleFine

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Tim Schafer tapped for voice acting on haunted house game! 04 Jan, 2012 / 6 comments

Here's some wild and cool news for you. So, Japanese rhythm-game extraordinaire Masaya Matsuura (perhaps best known for the ahead-of-its-time PaRappa the Rapper for the PS1) is working on a Kinect-based XBLA game called Haunt. The description I've read makes it sound like a sort of first-person Luigi's Mansion, wherein the player navigates a goofy haunted house with the aid of a flashlight.

The main NPC of the game, which is to release "soon," was already voiced when Masaya and co. bore witness to Tim's charismatic hosting of the GDC Choice Awards and everything changed. Reports Joystiq:

"He's very, very interesting for it," Masaya said when asked about Schafer's participation. Apparently the main character's voice had already been recorded, but after hearing Schafer's speech at a GDC "Choice Awards" ceremony, the Nana-OnSha folks reconsidered. "We talked about 'maybe something is missed,' still," Matsuura said. "And one day you told me about how Tim would be a good voiceover actor," he added to Tanner.

Tanner said that Tim's time was understandably constrained, being the head of another game studio and all, but the team "managed to squeeze him in nonetheless ... a couple of afternoons and we were pretty much done." Tanner also pointed out that Haunt isn't exactly a serious endeavor, and Schafer's "passé humor" was perfect for the role.

Hopefully Tim can parlay this into a career on Broadway. Until then, cool gig, Tim!

Source: Joystiq

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Double Fine penciled in for GDC 2012 lecture 29 Dec, 2011 / 1 comment

Looking for an inconvenient and expensive way to occupy your time next March, but your normally stratospheric excitement level for the Game Developers Conference hasn't quite hit critical mass yet? The ante may have just been upped now that Double Fine's Nathan Martz is scheduled to give a lecture at next year's GDC called "Fun for Everyone: Lessons in Accessible Design from Sesame Street: Once Upon A Monster."

Looking back on the studio's recent Kinect-based children's game, Martz will explore how to best introduce mechanics and teach players about a game, even if it's the first one they've ever played.

There is currently no word on how Jason intends to elegantly conclude this news post.

Source: GDC

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Stacking coming to PC! 16 Dec, 2011 / 5 comments

In his acceptance video for X-Play's Best Downloadable Game Award (Double Fine was nominated for both Stacking and Iron Brigade, with the former taking home the gold), Tim reveals that Stacking is coming to PC. No word on a release date, but surely Tim describing the PC version as a "seductive idea" while speaking for a doll is enough to hold you over until that information comes to light.

Now they just need to port Iron Brigade to PC so that I can play it. I reckon there will be a little bit of a struggle in putting Once Upon a Monster on Steam, though.

Source: G4TV

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See concept art for Ron's new game 29 Nov, 2011 / 8 comments

Want to know what game Ron is working on at Double Fine? Then get in line, but in the meantime check out two pieces of character concept art he's put up on his blog along with this:

Here are a couple of fine pieces of concept art from the game I'm making with the amazing folks at Double Fine. I'm so excited. This is an idea that has been in my head for a long long long time. It predates Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island. It's a game that needed to be made.
These are two of the playable characters. That's all I can say right now, but more will follow later.

The concept art looks rather Nathan ~~Martz-y~~ Stapley-ish (but is actually the work of Derek Brand).

Source: Grumpy Gamer

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Costume Quest is cheap today 01 Nov, 2011 / 10 comments

Costume Quest is cheap on Steam right now. I only beat the game yesterday, and my verdict is this: buy it. It's lovely. There's precious little time left on the sale, though, so hustle.

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Oops! The Double Fine announcements actually all announced 26 Oct, 2011 / 5 comments

Quick clarification/correction to make here, as we have misled you. Apparently the "six products" that Double Fine was touting at their special press event on October 14th are all now known, as three of the most recent Double Fine releases were included among that number. For the record, as Tim explained on the Double Fine forums, the six things being referred to were:

1) Psychonauts Mac
2) Psychonauts Vault Viewer
3) Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster
4) Costume Quest PC
5) Iron Brigade: Rise of the Martian Bear
6) Double Fine Happy Action Theater

Some sites, including this one, mistakenly interpreted the "six products" thing to refer to six upcoming things, but that was not the case. Sorry for the confusion. To make it up to you, allow us to point you to these limited edition posters from the press event that you can buy.

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It's HAT time! 19 Oct, 2011 / 11 comments

Tim Schafer's Double Fine studio is working on Happy Theatre Time, a collection of eighteen minigames heading through XBLA and for your Kinect sometime this winter. Kotaku are enthusiastic about Happy Theatre Time, having played a little, and describe it as a party game that's best experienced with a sufficient amount of alcohol or number of children at hand. Eurogamer talk some more about the game here. Destructoid has videos.

This whole thing, though, has made me notice a certain pattern, and not for the first time. From the press release:

Created by famed developer Tim Shafer and Double Fine Productions Inc., “Double Fine Happy Action Theater” is a series of vibrant, exciting activities designed to activate gross motor skills, inspire imagination and entertain players of all ages, from preschoolers to grandparents.

Seriously, who is this "Tim Shafer" guy, and why does he always get mentioned alongside Tim Schafer? Is this a subtle way of telling us that Tim, much like Paul from The Beatles, isn't really Tim? Or is this guy's more involved in day-to-day Double Fine things than we know? Because - from the frequency of this mistake - it couldn't possibly be some sort of incompetence, could it?

Source: Eurogamer

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Iron Brigade DLC announced 18 Oct, 2011 / 2 comments

I guess the various announcements that Double Fine announced during their event of announcements on Friday will be trickling out gradually depending on whatever embargo the press is bound by. Joystiq has confirmed one of them, it being DLC for ~~Trenched~~ Iron Brigade called "Rise of the Martian Bear."

The premise goes like this: nemesis and all-around poster boy for the evils of Monovision, Vlad, was defeated, but not before he had time to transfer his consciousness into his pet bear. And that did the obvious thing and ran to Mars in order to regroup and rebuild the forces of evil and what we presume is more red-tinged bad reality television.

Rise of the Martian Bear doesn't have a release date, though Double Fine told us it should be "soon." Like, really soon. Meanwhile, once you do get your hands on it, you'll bask in the wonder of new missions and an objective-oriented wave-based survival mode. Which is kind of hard, judging by the small bit we played last week.

Stay tuned!

Source: Joystiq

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The single Double Fine post that could have happened if we'd been paying attention 15 Oct, 2011 / 9 comments