We're now a week into 2017, which means it's the perfect time for a new poll. We couldn't just put one up on the first day of the new year. That's just not The Mojo Way™.
There's a lot of goodness coming out this year, from just about every company that this site covers. So go to the poll on the right and let us know which one has you excited the most.
Let's just quote our friends at Birth. Movies. Death. on this one:
"If you've got a PlayStation 4, a PlayStation Plus account and you have exceptionally good taste in video games, you need to be aware that LucasArts' classic adventure game, Day Of The Tentacle, will be free to own during the month of January, starting on Tuesday."
Well, if BMD says so, though they accidentally forgot to mention it also was Mojo's Game of the Year in 2016.
Look down in the comments and you will see one Jake Rodkin trolling around, decrying Grim and poo-poo-ing the new Full Throttle trailer.
Oh, and if you own a 360, Mojo Game of the Year… what, 2013?… is free for Gold members. That's The Cave.
Yeah, I don't know what PSX is either, but Psychonauts: Rhombus of Ruin was apparently available to play there, and consequently a bunch of new previews popped up. Here's a list:
- PlayStationLifeStyle.netBoy, that sure seems like some kind of video game!
It was almost a year ago that Full Throttle Remastered was announced, and since then we've known we could look forward to a developer commentary just as Day of the Tentacle had.
Well apparently that commentary was recorded this past week. Check out the photo Double Fine posted on Facebook:
Hopefully media from the game is soon to follow.
Source: Facebook
While Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp will not be a playable environment in Psychonauts 2, the team has recreated Raz's old stomping grounds in the new engine as a sort of sandbox for prototyping the sequel's gameplay and upgraded graphics. Check out the newly released video of Tim and project lead Zak McClendon playing this demo that we never shall.
Source: Youtube
"That's as good as money, sir. They're IOUs."
Back in May, it was reported that Psychonauts 2 had not actually yet collected the entirety of the $3.8 million it had raised in its massively successful Fig campaign.
This is because nearly half of that funding came in the form of investment money, a pledge option which Fig offers to backers as an alternative to the Kickstarter-like option of simply donating money in exchange for rewards. It's kind of Fig's whole premise. The problem is that allowing such investment, which can come from just about anybody, constitutes a bit of a legal thicket, and while it was being sorted out the significant money contributed by investment backers was actually just a reservation to pledge, meaning Double Fine didn't actually get the money.
Happily, it's all been sorted out on the legal end with Fig being granted SEC approval for non-accredited investors. Now Double Fine has to actually go and collect the money from those backers, who are hopefully just as eager to complete the transaction now as they were back in January.
In the meantime, production of the game itself seems to have been going smoothly. At least Remi did nothing to prevent that.
Source: Polygon
It appears that the Day of the Devs lounge that was at the GDC in March isn't the only Day of the Devs event that's being held this year. Double Fine's fourth annual Day of the Devs event is going to be available to the general public soon.
It is a day that is full of gaming fun, from Double Fine and other developers. Plus this year, they are accepting game submissions from the public. The game selection will be locked down in the next few weeks, so if you want to take part, head over to the website now and fill out the form linked at the bottom of the page.
The event takes place this November 5th at The Midway in San Francisco, and, as always, admission is free.
Jennifer visited PAX East and she wrote about it! Read about the whole thing here.
Josh "Cheeseness" Bush, the man behind the recent port of Double Fine's Day of the Tentacle Remastered to Linux, has posted an excellent retrospective on his experience in porting the game. He has also shared the sourcecode of the Coming Soon app that was live on Steam before the Linux port was released.
Be sure to check it out, if you're a fan of Day of the Tentacle (who here isn't?), as it's quite an informative and interesting read.
It's a terrific listen courtesy of the Dev Game Club podcast. Day of the Tentacle is the primary subject, but a broader discussion about adventure games emerges.
What makes the interview particularly worthwhile is that the hosts are Brett Douville and Tim Longo, who worked at LucasArts around the turn of the century, when a developer's assignment was pretty much guaranteed to be a Star Wars title. It's interesting to hear the different perspectives from the four alumni who were involved in different eras and concentrations of the studio. More crucially, Jake gets namechecked.
Source: Dev Game Club
Reboot Develop being a game developer conference in Europe. Tim seems to have done an interview on stage for about forty-five minutes, and we noticed the resultant Youtube video a record six days after it was published. Best not to get used to such breathless velocity from us.
Anyway, here's Tim, recorded in rather dubious audio quality. But who the hell am I to judge?
Source: Youtube
Day of the Tentacle Remastered is now available on Linux, thanks to the porting efforts of J Bush Productions. It's now live on Steam and the Humble Store.
Double Fine has been showing off their PS4-exclusive, virtual reality Psychonauts "bridge game" at E3, so a number of previews have been springing up. Let's look at the one on Gamespot, which includes screenshots and a video clip of what appears to be the first five minutes of gameplay. Accompanying the media is an interview with Tim and project leader Chad Dawson.
I think it's really interesting you guys are developing Psychonauts 2 and Rhombus of Ruin simultaneously. I was curious about the extent to which those two have influenced each other, and how you're working on making them fit together, given that Rhombus of Ruin bridges the gap between the first and second full games.
Schafer: The main thing is that I've had a storyline for the whole experience in my head for ten years. Before Psychonauts had finished, I had this whole idea for what would happen in Psychonauts as Raz is delving into his past, his family, and the curse, and all these things. So in my head, it's one long, continuous story, and I'm working on both projects so I am able to make sure they all flow well together. But within that story structure, the Rhombus team can do things that make sense for VR and have it be really different in that way but still plug in the story beats.
Read the rest of the interview here. And may I just say, the game looks great. I love how it opens up right where Psychonauts left off. Shame I don't have a console. But some of you look to be in for a treat.
Source: Gamespot
You'll recall that the Fig campaign for Psychonauts 2 was an immense success, raising $3.8 million to produce the long-awaited sequel, currently due out in 2018. However, according to Polygon, Double Fine is unable to actually collect about $1.8 of that dough, for the moment.
You might be aware that the main thing distinguishing Fig from Kickstarter - and indeed its primary mission statement - is that it offers the option for backers to invest invest in the project (which means potential, eventual profit participation) along with the usual donation choice, which often gets you fun rewards.
However, allowing investments from unaccredited investors (like you or me) requires a review process with the SEC, a process Fig obviously intended to get through by now. The Psychonauts 2 campaign was the first of its kind in offering an investment opportunity from pretty much anybody, and I suppose when you're the vanguard you get to be the first to learn certain painful lessons like these delays.
Per the article, Fig is hopeful to have the matter resolved soon, though technically there's no guarantee that every backer who's been waiting these months for their money to get collected will hold to their commitment until the gates finally open. It'll likely all end the way everyone wants, but it will still have been another interesting challenge faced by Double Fine, a studio continuing to tighten its commitment to the constantly expanding landscape of game crowdsourcing, a landscape they played a pretty direct part in paving.
Source: Polygon
Before work began on the Day of the Tentacle remaster, Tim and Dave sat down and played through the original game in its entirety, equipped only with their memory. The result is fascinating, humorous, and three hours in length:
Source: Double Fine Youtube Channel
