The International House of Mojo

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:

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

Source: Grumpy Gamer

In last weeks Deathspank: The Baconing news post we said that release dates for the Xbox 360 and pc were unknown. They've now moved from unknown to imminent, with both versions released today.

Savvy gamers can still get 20% off if they buy it on Steam before the launch. Hurry though, there's only 3 hours left at the time of writing.

Source: Steam

The Ron Gilbert-less third DeathSpank's PSN release date has been revealed. You can pick up (virtually) The Baconing on August 30th. The game is part of Sony's PSN PLAY program which means that if you pre-order it before the 25th, a PS3 theme is included along with an extra companion named Roesha: One Bad Mutha. There's also a 20% rebate for plus subscribers.

Release dates for the Xbox 360 and PC are still unknown at this point

Source: RPGamer

You've heard the commentary on Monkey Island 2 SE, now be prepared to watch it (or at least some of it)! Videos courtesy of gen16.com's Youtube channel.

Thanks to reader Threepwood4life for telling us about these.

Source: gen16.com

Ron Gilbert loves you, and you love him. At least he really really wants you to love him, if his Google+ account is anything to go by. Here he posts the type of Monkey Island related stuff only a true connoisseur can appreciate, like what The Ronzo has on his desk, his ties and... You know, stuff only misunderstood purveyors of good taste like yourself truly could appreciate.

Go circle him on Google+ and laugh mockingly at those still using Facebook, the MySpace of our generation.

Maniac Mansion got reverse engineered. Find all the technical aspects of the game here, which are, according to Maniac Mansion co-creator Ron Gilbert, about "90% right". It's worth reading, so read it!

Source: Pagetable.com

(Thanks to Threepwood4Life from the forums for pointing out this news story.)

So Hothead Games pulled a (mini) Telltale today and announced a couple of titles in one go. Douglas Adams fans, rejoice: there's a new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game in the works. Ron Gilbert fans, rejoice: there's a new DeathSpank game headed your way. Hothead is baconing beckoning you with The Beckoning The Baconing, a new and 100% natural Curse of Monkey Island-esque sequel to last year's beloved DeathSpank: Thongs of Justice, now touting Hothead-powered "improved gameplay" and the industry-catchphrase "improved AI":

I'm going to digress for a moment here. If the gameplay indeed got "dull", then why did Thongs of Justice receive higher all-around scores than the original? Because the jokes certainly remained proudly at toilet level. So I'm going to guess that either: 1. the gameplay didn't get that dull, or 2. Someone at Kotaku really, really loves poop jokes.

Anyway, the game comes to XBLA, PC and - assuming it's still alive by then - PSN. Read the Kotaku article again if that gives you any pleasure.

Source: Kotaku

This is a little late, but anyways: if you're a fan of Monkey Island and the 2009 movie Moon, you might want to check this out.

See the update on the same page for Ron Gilbert's response, and click here for the subsequent "Woohoo!" from Moon director Duncan Jones, and here for Ron Gilbert's response to that.

Anyone here seen Moon? What do you think of it?

Source: Man Made Movies

As you know, Ron Gilbert gave a postmortem about Maniac Mansion at GDC, and it, along with a bunch of postmortems for other classic games, has been archived online at the GDC Vault. Ron's talk is pretty much exactly the same as the one he gave in Germany prior to GDC, which has also been posted online, but at the very least the Q&A is different, so why not hear about Maniac Mansion's fascinating development again?

Those other postmortems are an embarrassment of riches, too.

Source: GDC Vault

So GDC has come and gone, and with the dust having settled, there are two panels from the conference to point out to you that we did not report on at the time.

The first is Video Games as Art: An Apology for Roger Ebert. This was a lecture delivered by none other than Brian Moriarty (of Loom and, in an alternate universe, The Dig fame), the subject of which you could probably guess. By all accounts the talk was worth hearing, but unfortunately there are nothing but a few quotes reprinted online. Keep an eye out for the content of the speech to appear on Moriarty's official site someday.

Then there was a panel by Clint Hocking, LEC's big profile hire from last year and the studio's current Creative Director, whose creativity we hope to see imbued in an LEC game should the day come that they choose to make games again - but let's not get greedy. He gave a presentation about meaning in games, and this is the best write-up I found on it.

Ron Gilbert apparently also spoke about Maniac Mansion, but from what I know it was a repeat at most of the talk he gave in Germany (which, need I remind you, is fully streamable online!).

Sean Howard worked as dialogue writer on DeathSpank and its sequel Thongs of Virtue. He also makes web comics for his web site over here.

Join us as the writer of DeathSpank's puns shares his views on the video game industry, franchises, how he got involved with DeathSpank, and what he's up to now.

Update by Kroms: I thought I'd get a word in here and thank Sean. The interview was originally supposed to happen in October but, due to circumstances outside of my control, got delayed. I neglected to inform him of this change, and kept him waiting, so to speak, for the questions. So, a heartfelt thanks for his patience and for his answers.

Along with Myst, Pac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, and World of Warcraft, The Secret of Monkey Island will be in an exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum from March 16, 2012 - September 30, 2012. Fully playable too!

You can also vote on what other games will be shown in the exhibit (though, not playable).

Now, let's all ask the most important question: What version of the game will they have on display?

Source: Ronzo's Twitter

In a move that's sure to delight parents with a taste for the fine wine that is Double Fine, it's been revealed that the next game to come from Tim Schafer's unstoppable studio is Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster.

The game is being developed exclusively for Kinect, Microsoft's creepy body-reading device for the Xbox 360, which means you get to not only enjoy the exquisite experience of playing a Double Fine game with your children — or by yourself should you be particularly into The Muppets — but you also get to look like a dong get fit while doing so!

On a slightly more forward-thinking note, hopefully Double Fine getting more well-known licenses under its belt will give it the funds and clout it requires to develop more of the kind of games we've all been gagging for the studio to develop (Psychonauts 2).

Whether or not this game is part of the infamous 'Amnesia Fortnight' collection is unclear. Considering Ron Gilbert's experience with children's games it's very much possible he's leading this project, meaning we could still see the promised four games in addition to Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster.

Source: Destructoid

As noticed by the prone-to-notice Ascovel in the forums, you can view a nice Youtube interview with Ron Gilbert, recording during his appearance at "Game Forum Germany 2011," where he gave that Maniac Mansion talk that I know you're about to host for us any second now.

The interviewers are informed and ask good questions, so I would definitely watch the interview. Attempts are made, unsuccessfully, to get some details on whatever Ron is developing at Double Fine; also discussed is how much he'd like to see and/or partake in a Maniac Mansion remake, some miscellaneous adventure game breeze-shooting, and the inevitable mention of the "real" Monkey Island 3 among other [double] fine topics.

Seriously, get going!

Source: Youtube

And tfarr isn't the only one loving it!

The look of justice you're wearing on that headset-adorned face of yours tells me you're already more than aware that DeathSpank's soundtrack was, in a move that some would call "awesome," released for free by Hothead, but have you read this new interview with composer Jeff Tymoschuk?

Source: Gamasutra

Of course I care - the talk is going to be about Maniac Mansion. On his blog, Ron reports that he has been invited by Game Forum Germany to hop a plane over to the country where adventure gamers flow like wine to speak on the topic of his choice. The topic will be the making of the first SCUMM game, the first game to feature a can of Pepsi and, perhaps most influentially, the first game to deal with the taboo subject of death by sexually aggressive tentacle:

Ron also mentions his anticipation for visiting the home of the frankfurter for the first time since his days of doing international pimping for Total Annihilation as well as his discovery of some LEGO Maniac Mansion fan art, so you should probably make your head less emulative of a tuna and read his words.

(To at least one willing German who will be in attendance: Please record his words as well.)

Source: Grumpy Gamer

The madness of Steam's wallet-emptying Holiday Sale is now upon us! Let's check out the games you should be interested in.

1. 50% OFF The LucasArts Catalogue. Tightly doesn't include The Force Unleashed II. You'd think they actually didn't want the game to sell.

2. 73% OFF The Telltale Holiday Pack. Includes Sam & Max Seasons 2 and 3, Puzzle Agent and Poker Night. Not sure what makes them holiday games (barring Ice Station Santa and the fact that there's a lot of snow in Puzzle Agent), but it's a good deal nonetheless!

3. 33% OFF DeathSpank and 25% OFF DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue. These games are already great for the price (they're huge and lots of fun), now they're on sale despite only being out recently (TOV only came out three weeks ago!). THAT is how you get people to buy your new game, LucasArts.

4. 90% OFF The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom. That's 39-49 pence for a great puzzle game. What's this got to do with us? It's a storybook puzzler similar to LucasArts' Lucidity, and reportedly (by us, though I can't find it now) the teams of both games maintained a close relationship throughout development.

5. 50% OFF Time Gentlemen, Please + Ben There, Dan That. Two genuinely funny comedic adventures purposefully done in the style of LucasArts adventures, with a Use Partner gameplay mechanic lovingly ripped off from Sam & Max Hit The Road. Buy. The first game's free if you want to try it first though. The second game has Nazi robot dinosaurs.

6. 50% OFF Mata Hari. An adventure made with assistance from the Fate of Atlantis Dream Team of Hal Barwood and Noah Falstein. Flawed, but good for this price.

7. 50% OFF Jolly Rover. Another great comedy adventure that's obviously strongly influenced by (and with plenty of references to) LucasArts, specifically Monkey Island. If you're pining for the days of quality funny adventures from LucasArts (if not, why are you reading this site?), Jolly Rover and Time Gentlemen Please are essential purchases.

BONUS SALE: While it's not part of the Steam sale, seeing as Autumn Moon or their publisher have an irrational fear of hot water vapour, A Vampyre Story is £7.49/$9.99 at Games For Windows.

Source: Steam

Our God Ron Gilbert has been interviewed by io9 in their weekly The Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. He talks about DeathSpank and Tales of Monkey Island along with the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

I would go listen to it now, but I've been summoned by our guinea pig overlords to go fight ninja-robots on Mars. What better way to spend the holidays? You should listen though!

Source: io9

DeathSpank has finally landed on Steam for the Mac. And now I can finally be DeathSpankified.

Also, check out the awesome Mac category icon! At least I don't recall seeing it since Mojo X launched.

Hothead Games, developers of this year's two Deathspank games, seem interested in gaining some feedback. Didn't like the fetch quests, the ever-prevalent toilet humour, the sounds of slurping Deathspank produced when consuming freshly-slaughtered chicken? Let 'em know.

Let the rumours centered on a new Deathspank project commence.

Source: Hothead Games blog