DoubleFine's latest game, the post-post-apocalyptic rogue-like, RAD, is released today for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. It's the latest project led by Lee Petty (Stacking, Autonomous, and Headlander), and I'm sure the obligatory Mojo review is just around the corner.
Source: DoubleFine
While some of us were ready to group Double Fine in with Telltale as companies we would never get to see (or touch as it might be) any new games from, a glimmer of hope has surfaced. Matt Booty, Xbox’s first-party studio head, mused thusly about Microsoft’s studio umbrella’s potential multi-platform releases:
Yeah, I think we would. I think that the question is less binary about, ‘should it be on Switch, should it be on PlayStation?’ and more, ‘does it make sense for the franchise?’ [..] With something like Minecraft, I think it was a no-brainer that we were never going to try and take anything from players that existed on those platforms, and certainly we’ve added platforms since that acquisition.
So there you go. The possibilities of seeing Double Fine titles fall under "dooes it make sense" in our world, followed up with a ringing "yes" endorsement, so consider that a full on guarantee.
Source: VGC
As you probably remember, Double Fine is now a Microsoft property, which means a whole host of things, potentially most so for those who invested in the Psychonauts 2 Fig campaign. Looks like Christmas will come early for said investors, with payments now being sent out in September, according to
Destructoid. This because publishing rights have shifted to Microsoft.
Of course, who knows if it will amount to a happy Christmas or not -- a 139% return is nothing to sneeze at, unless, of course, Psychonauts 2 beats all estimates. That seems unlikely to me, but consider that only one handsome man’s opinion.
Did you invest? Sound off in the comments if so, though I never considered the Mojo crowd the investor type.
Source: Destructoid
DoubleFine has revealed a post-E3 update for Psychonauts 2 (put together by the folks at 2 Player Productions) and also revealed that the game's release has been pushed back to 2020. As they said to backers:
We know it’s always disappointing when you have to wait a bit longer, but we also know that you are an amazing, supportive bunch, who - just like us - want the game to be as good as possible. So we’re hopeful you’ll understand! <3
I think we do, but if you're struggling, checkout the update to kill 15 minutes and 1 second while you wait for next year:
Earlier in the week, Tim demoed to convention goers the first level from Psychonauts 2, which also featured in the gameplay trailer that debuted around that time. I’ve collected links to a few of the previews that resulted, settling once and for all the question of whether I can type a phrase into Google News:
The previews also indicate that the game has been quietly pushed back to 2020. Not hugely surprising, and after all a five year development schedule is an elemental bona fide of any Psychonauts installment.
I leave you with three videos. The first is the new trailer which we’ve linked to a few days back but which is now embedded for your convenience. The second is nine minutes of footage from the game narrated by Tim, and the third is an hour-long “E3 Coliseum” panel for the game featuring Tim and Jack Black.
It’s true: Double Fine is now officially part of Xbox Game Studios, and… I don’t even know. Check what Tim has to say, and Mojo will be back with more. Meanwhile, check out some Psychonauts 2 goodness.
Psychonauts has seemingly been made available for every platform under the sun at this point, but it hasn't been printed as a physical release since the Majesco days.
That will change this Friday, June 7th, when Limited Run Games will be releasing a PS4 port of Double Fine's classic in both standard and collector's or "Psycho-Portal" editions -- the latter including a SteelBook case, a reversible poster, and a soundtrack CD. So that's pretty nifty. What with the run being limited and so forth, you'll want to act fast on Friday morning if you're in the market for this, which you are, definitionally, by being Mojo reader.
Source: https://twitter.com/LimitedRun
Double Fine's upcoming Roguelike, RAD, has a competition running to have your graffiti artwork featured in the game.
You could also win a RAD Skateboard, a RAD Lunchbox, a RAD Floppy Disk, a RAD Action Figure, and Digitally RAD Copy of the Game, provided you live in the USA and submit your entry by the end of June.
Why not give it a shot? Submit your RAD artwork here
(Question: Will it ever get tiresome saying RAD all the time? Answer: Yes.)
Source: Bandai Namco
Some sad news is making the rounds today, reporting the death of programmer Stephen Ash, a veteran of LucasArts, Double Fine, Ion Storm Dallas, Factor 5 and his most permanent home, id Software.
Ash's career at LucasArts included work on Grim Fandango, and like a number of developers on the Grim team, he was one of the earliest employees of Double Fine, where he developed the physics system for Psychonauts. Tim acknowledged his contribution and passing in the following tweet:
Saying goodbye to Stephen Ash, a brilliant programmer and kind, soft-spoken person. Everybody wanted Steve on their project. We were lucky to get him on Psychonauts in the early, unheated warehouse days of Double Fine, to help get our first engine off the ground. Thanks, Steve!
Source: Gamasutra
Psychonauts 2 excitement is building, and E3 looks to be the epicenter for some long-awaited information on the title. During the conference, we'll see Jack Black (courtesy of his Jablinski Games YouTube series) and Tim demo the game, and the final release date -- set for this year -- should also be revealed.
Additionally, Rad, which to this quasi-reporter-ish looks almost as exciting, has an official release date of August 20th.
Thanks to Jason for kindly letting me post this on his behalf.
Source: Dual Shockers
I mean, it's from The Onion, but seeing things are slow, why not take three minutes and check out their exclusive preview of Psychonauts 2's legal disclaimer screen?
Like I said, slow times. Mojo is still investigating if rumors of Jason getting a haircut hold any truth. We will be back with more.
Faithful reader, Rum Rogers, was recently out on one of his . . . colorful . . . web surfing voyages when, out of the blue, popped this rather adult looking ad:
Always a man who wants to get to the bottom of things, so to speak, Rum dug a bit deeper, and found that the aforementioned logo, which at least was a somewhat modified version of Ben, was not one of a kind:
We got nothing, other than utter bafflement.
… which incidentally is the name of their new game. Headed by Lee Petty Rad looks to live up to its name…
The game will be available for pretty much every platform under the sun; no release date is given other than this “summer.”
If you remember, Double Fine's Costume Quest is now an animated series. It released three days ago—say one thing about Mojo, say we're on that breaking news cycle, like a petulant man-child on Twitter—and you can watch it here.
Anyone seen the show? What did you think of it?
It's crazy to think that Costume Quest released nine years ago. You could do worse than pass a few hours punching ogres for candy. I'm going to be playing Costume Quest 2 this Halloween.
Source: Amazon Prime
There’s not much more to say, really. Jack Black, his YouTube channel, Brütal Legend. Watch it like crazy:
GOG.com's got most of their Double Fine catalogue on sale, including AAA games like Psychonauts and Brutal Legend, smaller fare like Massive Chalice (I had to make that joke), and LucasArts reissues like Grim Fandango: Remastered and Day of the Tentacle: Remastered. The exception is funky sci-fi platformer Headlander, which is coincidentally the only one of the lot I don't own. Maybe next time, Headlander.
As is par for the course with GOG, getting the games gets you all sorts of extra goodies.
Other games are on sale, too, including Samorost.
Thanks to Javier Tolstoi for bringing this to our attention.
Source: GOG
While we've been somewhat worried about Starbreeze's current financial issues (what with them publishing Psychonauts 2 and all), Tim himself has soothing words for us through GameIndustry.biz.
"At a show like DICE, other publishers come by and say, 'Yeah, how's that going? If anything happens, give us a call,'" he said. "With Psychonauts 2 having been high profile and already having a great trailer out there, there would be enough interest in other people funding it and finishing it if something happened. But I've got no reason to believe Starbreeze isn't going to come through and publish it well."
See, it's all good, and going by the previous times in the past years we've been assured not to worry — Trump will never be elected president, Brexit won't happen, etc. — we see no reason for this to go down the toilet either.
Mojo: Cynical Since 1997™.
Source: Jason
Actually, he granted an interview to The Hollywood Reporter, or more specifically its hosted blog Heat Vision, in one of apparently many press encounters Tim had during last week's D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas. Still though, be a sport and check out what he has to say about Psychonauts 2:
You are an established voice in this industry –
Oh, established voice. I like that.
Does that make it harder for you to live up to expectations when you’re releasing a new game like Psychonauts 2?
I don’t think about that too much. I think the reason we made the first game was that we were just making what we enjoyed. I think we’re doing that again. You definitely think more about your obligations to the characters than to the audience. We definitely keep in mind the player’s experience from the first game, but it’s what’s true to these characters and what situations do we want to put them in and how will they react. That’s more of what I think about.
When do you decide to come back to a series?
For a long time, we never did it. Psychonauts 2 is really my first time going back to a narrative but it doesn’t really feel like going back to it because you get into this frame of mind when I made the first game and we had all these hooks and plotlines that we put in the first game for the next game. We always thought we’d do a second one but it kind of got shelved for a few years. It was surprisingly easy to inhabit those heads again just because you know them really well.
The full interview isn't a whole lot longer, but read it anyway.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
During last week's DICE Summit in Las Vegas, Tim found himself cornered by a journalist at VentureBeat; the result is this interview in which various Double Fine topics are touched upon. Points of interest:
Fortunately, Tim does not mention any publisher troubles, so I guess we can rest easy that the impact of Starbreeze's recent woes does not extend to Psychonauts 2. Although you have to admit, it would be downright Shakespearean given that we're almost exactly fifteen years downriver of this.
Anyhow, read the whole article here.
Source: VentureBeat
Hey, remember how Costume Quest is being turned into a TV show from the studio that animated Adventure Time? Well, we now know the show will debut on March 8th on Amazon Prime. Here's a trailer:
Based on one of my favourite Double Fine games and created by Tasha Harris—who apparently left Double Fine in 2011 (where does the time fly?) and now works at Pixar—Costume Quest is the story of a twin out to rescue their sibling from the clutches of a monster. To do this, they use their costume's ability to harness super powers. More friends join, and the party barrels towards the final showdown. It's cutesy, light, and friendly, and is one of only two Double Fine games to get a sequel (in 2014; how has it been five years already?).
Think you'll be watching?
Source: Eurogamer