The International House of Mojo

This seems to happen every once in awhile. Ron will make some overture, like this tweet, about wanting to buy the Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion IP from Disney, dozens of sites will seize upon it, fans will work themselves into a tizzy, and then nothing happens.

And nothing happens because nothing will happen. Big companies do not sell their properties pretty much as a matter of policy, and even if they did it's not like Ron would ever be able to meet their quote. It took having the right friends at Sony for Double Fine to get licenses for their recent remakes from Disney, and Ron has made it clear that licensing isn't good enough for him. So what motive is there to beat this drum?

The last time Ron made sure to pump some oxygen into the flame of that mythical creator-sanctioned "Monkey Island 3a" was last fall:

So guys, please, don't bug Ron about making another Monkey Island until Disney sells the IP to him first. Be reasonable here. I mean, gosh, why were you guys even bringing it up in the first place?! Wait...

Maybe I'm just a jerk, and Ron is shrewdly trying to build enough interest to get himself invited to a negotiating table. Maybe that is somehow something that's actually possible in the real world. Show me the light in the comments if you've got any to shine.

Source: Ron's Twitter

It's easy to forget that Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick's retro adventure game and fated masterpiece Thimbleweed Park is less than a year from release. We haven't been particularly good about keeping on top of the coverage, but our laziness isn't the only factor - the game's really been getting around lately.

Still, it's mostly the laziness thing, so to make amends for being lax in our duties, here's a handy compilation of just a few of the previews from the past two months:

-Hands-on Preview + Interview: Thimbleweed Park and Ron Gilbert
-How Thimbleweed Park recreates the glory days of graphic adventure games
-Thimbleweed Park Is the Adventure of 'A Total A**hole'
-PAX East 2015 Preview: 'Thimbleweed Park'
-How Thimbleweed Park updates classic adventure games for a modern audience
-Ron Gilbert on Thimbleweed Park, what made adventure games great, and VR skepticism
-Hands-on: Thimbleweed Park is like a long-lost LucasArts adventure for the modern era
-Thimbleweed Park preview: Welcome Home
-If Ron Gilbert made Twin Peaks, it would be Thimbleweed Park
-‘Thimbleweed Park’ Is A Fantastic-Looking Mashup Of ‘The X-Files’ And ‘Maniac Mansion’

Those oughta hold you for awhile.

Thimbleweed Park has evidently been making the rounds at GDC, a conference in desperate need of a vowel, and consequently a few new previews have sprung up, including this one by USGamer and another from Pocket Gamer.

Looks like there could be a new screenshot or two to be found in those articles, but I'll be damned if I've been keeping close enough track of all the media released to date in order to declare that with any authority. Get off my lawn!

Ron has posted a new trailer for Thimbleweed Park. It's narrated by the character of Ray, one of the detectives investigating the murder that kicks off the game's story. At least, I think. I know next to nothing of what the game's about and kind of like it that way.

Ron collected a few thoughts commemorating this occasion on his blog.

He also can't help but reference Monkey Island 3a, which is unfortunate.

Other than that, it's a good read. Pictures included!

Source: Grumpy Gamer

Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick's upcoming adventure game will debut on Xbox One on the same day it releases for Windows, Mac, and Linux. To mark the announcement, a new trailer has also been released.

I always try to do a news post of Mojo related tidbits after our downtime. This one's going to be a long one. At least, with the new server, it'll likely be the last.

Christian Adam has found a solution to allow the people who have graphics hardware below the requirements of Grim Fandango Remastered to play the game in classic mode.

Double Fine is making games in conjunction with Adult Swim Games, as well as Zoink Games.

On the subject of Double Fine, Massive Chalice went out of early access and received it's full release, and Iron Brigade has had Game for Windows Live replaced with Steamworks, fixing matchmaking. The latter was possible thanks to the fact that Double Fine has regained the rights to Iron Brigade from Microsoft.

At E3, it was revealed that ex-Mojoer and former Telltale developer extraordinaire, Jake Rodkin's company Campo Santo will have the console debut of their first game Firewatch on PS4. It is also going to be released on PC, Mac, and Linux. No release date has been set, but Campo Santo is aiming for release by the end of 2015.

Telltale is making a three episode miniseries that will be DLC for The Walking Dead: Season Two called The Walking Dead: Michonne, set during the period of the comics when Michonne is absent from the group. They also finally showed a little bit of what their Minecraft: Story Mode will look like.

Lucasfilm is working on a fully interactive 3D virtual Star Wars world, via their ILM experience lab.

Humongous Entertainment games are starting to make their way to GOG.com. The Pajama Sam series made its way to the service earlier this month.

The co-creator of Maniac Mansion and Thimbleweed Park, Gary Winnick, had his best selling comic, Bad Dreams, released in trade paperback format on the 17th of June.

While we're on the subject of Thimbleweed Park, be sure to check out the Thimbleweed Park development blog, as lots of good inside information about the development process of that game is being posted regularly.

Remember Humongous Entertainment? Darby McDevitt, who once urinated next to Ron Gilbert, tells the tale of a company and the making of one of its best games Moonbase Commander. It's a tale of hope, deceit, and since Shelley Day is involved, probably a bit of bank fraud, too. Go read!.

Obligatory second link.

Back when we had a functional games database (a revival effort for which Remi will surely be taking donations), I Was a Teenage Lobot may have existed as a content-free entry stub. It was one of those unproduced games that we knew pretty much one thing about: a title. It was a game Ron, along with David Fox and Noah Falstein, pitched to Lucasfilm Games management between Koronis Rift and Maniac Mansion. It didn't happen, obviously, and the world grew just a little bit darker.

And now the design document is out, courtesy of Aric Wilmunder's mad archival skillz. Now you can find out what the game was, which includes Ron's first known use of the name "Chuck" and a penchant for threatening teenaged brains that would find its way into his next realized project. The rare document even contains some concept art. Damn we're relevant.

Source: Grumpy Gamer

Perhaps you already knew about this, in which case quit showing off, but about two weeks ago Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick launched a development diary for Thimbleweed Park, and they've been updating it fairly regularly. Might be something to keep an eye on.

Source: Thimbleweed Park Development D

More maniacs have joined the team for Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick's Thimbleweed Park.

The first is Ken Macklin, who designed the cover for Maniac Mansion. He will be doing the cover for Thimbleweed Park as well.

Secondly, is the creator of Zak McKracken, David Fox. He worked on Maniac Mansion as well, doing most of the SCUMM scripting for the game, and is apparently the one we have to thank for the hamster in the microwave joke.

So if you haven't backed yet, or want to move up a pledge tier, now's the perfect time to head over to the kickstarter and back the game.

Twenty-three days left, and Thimbleweed Park is funded. Woo! But, now we have actual stretch goals and particularly the highest one, $625,000, needs to be reached. I mean, a talkie version? In 1989 that'd be like magic. Dark magic.

So, run and fund! Screw retirement, this is like investing in your own future.

The goals:

$425,000: Game translated into German, Spanish, French, and Italian. Up it by $1, and the game will be translated into German by the guy who did Monkey Island, Boris Schneider-Johne. (Pretty sure he is made up.)

$525,000: iOS and Android conversion.

$625,000: Magic!

There are questions one can ask the duo behind Thimbleweed Park, and there are important questions one can dig into. We chose the latter -- Will Chuck the Plant make an appearance? Will there be nude statues? Is Ken Macklin making a comeback? -- and you reap the benefits.

Run and read our interview with Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick. You'll never ask for those five minutes back.

(Run.)

So, here's one for us all to enjoy: Ronzo "Ron" Gilbert -- you know him from… oh, you know him -- and Gary "Maniac Mansion" Winnick have teamed up to make another old-school adventure: Thimbleweed Park.

Let that one sink in for a bit. Then look at the screenshots.

And then watch the trailer:

Better let it all sink in again, before you Kickstart the hell out of it. Yes, it's a Kickstarter thingy. Sorry, but it'll be worth your while, we kinda promise-ish. :~ (And we'll announce a new Jason video soon!)

Find the press release after the cut.

Keep Reading

It was with justifiable outrage that avid Mojo groupie Rum Rogers seethed the following rebuke at us in the comments of the prior news post:

We stand chastened. Or do we? Can you really prove that we haven't been sitting on this intel deliberately in an attempt to spur a gesture of your pledged love for us? Seems it's you who had the wool pulled over his eyes! Also: we're pregnant.

In all seriousness, we apologize for not being on top of this. But you've got to expect this kind of lassitude now that Mojo is a publicly-funded entity. Oh, you heard me. Yeah, might want to pay closer attention to those little amendments that get tacked on to the highway bill before you pull the lever next time, ya saps!

Source: Grumpy Gamer

The Humongous Flash Bundle is on now, with a bunch of Humongous Entertainment games for cheap, with a portion to go to charity. Best of all, if you pay $20 or more, you can get all of the games that have been released on Steam so far (that's 1/5 of the usual price). You'll also get DRM-free versions for Windows, but if you run a different operating system, rest assured that most of the games run on ScummVM, so if you run the Windows versions of the game through ScummVM on the platform of your choice, you'll still be getting the same experience.

So, Ron Gilbert was cleaning out more of his Seattle Storage Unit and found the original pitch documents for Maniac Mansion. And as he already did with his Monkey Island sketches (we reported that, surely?) he scanned them and posted them for your general amusement.

Read the whole thing and marvel at the illustrations here on Ron's Grumpy gamer blog.

Source: Grumpy Gamer

Not sure what you did to deserve this, but the internet has published another one of those excellent interviews with the Lucasfilm Games elders for the likes of us to enjoy. It was conducted by Jaz Rignallm, who'd visited the studio in 1985 on behalf of ZZAP! 64 when games like Koronis Rift and The Eidolon were the hot titles in the pipeline.

The article mostly reads like a transcripted discussion between Rignallm and the following: Steve Arnold, David Fox, Ron Gilbert, Peter Langston and Chip Morningstar. There is rare art and fascinating anecdotes aplenty, including a proposed sequel you surely weren't aware of:

This discussion took place around GDC 2014, before this Grim Fandango remastering business came to light, so here's hoping the missed opportunities stand a chance at being, you know, un-missed in the future.

Source: US Gamer

While we were down, things kept right on going. So, here's what we missed during our downtime:

The Wolf Among Us Episode 4 finished releasing on the already announced platforms (PC/Mac/PSN/XBLA/iOS) and The Walking Dead: Season Two Episode 3 finally received a release date for PS Vita: June 3rd in North America and June 4th in Europe. Also, Telltale announced a bunch of disc versions of their games: PS4 and Xbox One will be getting The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and The Walking Dead: Season Two. There will also be disc versions of The Walking Dead: Season Two and The Wolf Among Us for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. No release dates yet have been announced.

And last but not least, Ron Gilbert's Match 3 puzzle game, Scurvy Scallywags, is now on Android, Tommo and Night Dive released 5 more Humongous Entertainment games on Steam, and bjbennyboy's Telltale Explorer now supports Poker Night 2, Law & Order: Legacies, and The Walking Dead: Season One.

The Humongous releases just keep coming. Steam now has more Humongous Entertainment games for sale: Putt-Putt Travels through Time, Freddi Fish 3: The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell, Pajama Sam 3: You Are What You Eat from Your Head to Your Feet, Spy Fox 3: Operation Ozone, and Putt-Putt and Fatty Bear’s Activity Pack.

There are still 10 games to go, which will release in two batches, on May 29th and June 6th. If you want to get them all now, Steam also has a pack for each franchise as well as a pack for all 28 games, which costs just shy of $100 USD.