The International House of Mojo

Update 3/29: For those still interested, the last two keychains on the Key Party website were Claptrap's eye and a companion cube for GLaDOS. Now we'll just have to wait until Monday to see how much information on Poker Night 2 Telltale plans to release, and if the Key Party theme actually ties into the game somehow.

Update 3/27 #2: It turns out it is indeed Poker Night 2. The box art and screenshots have been found on the xbox.com website. So, it seems the game will be available for at least PC/Mac and Xbox 360. The characters are Sam, Brock, and Ash (as already revealed), as well as Claptrap from Borderlands 2 (rather than Handsome Jack as previously assumed). GlaDOS from Portal seems to be taking the place of Reginald Van Winslow as the host.

Update 3/27: The Key Party site now has a keychain with the Necronomicon for Ash.

Update 3/26: The website hasn't been updated yet but the key was revealed on Adult Swim, and retweeted by Telltale. As expected, it's Brock from Venture Bros. (the keychain of his big knife, which will also be a Team Fortress 2 unlock). It will be interesting to see what keychains they use for Evil Dead's Ash, Borderland's Handsome Jack, and Portal's Chell, Wheatley, or GlaDOS (that one's harder to pinpoint, since the boots can belong to any of them).

Update 3/25: The first key is up, and it's a key to a DeSoto. So, that means it's Sam's. So it looks like The Key Party is indeed the Poker Night sequel (which the background for the key text pretty much gave away anyway as it matches Poker Night's user interface). Although whether it's another card game or an entirely new genre altogether is still up in the air.

Original post 3/22: Telltale has unveiled a website called The Key Party. The website claims that the answer as to what The Key Party is will be revealed on April 1st.

However, we'll most likely get some clues before hand, since if you mouse over the key, you'll see that the "guests will start to arrive March 25th, 2013".

So what is it? Poker Night 2? Fables? King's Quest? Theodore Dudebrough's Excellent Adventure? Your guess is as good as ours.

The Wolf Among Us press release is now out with a bit more info about the upcoming series:

Perhaps. Have a look!

Telltale's game based on Bill Willingham's Fables comic now has a title. It's called The Wolf Among Us, and it's set to come out on Xbox 360, PC, Mac and PlayStation 3 this summer. As previously reported, players take on the role of Fables' Big Bad Wolf, Bigby Wolf. However, more has been revealed (including some of the "Fables" you'll meet in the game). Bigby will try to keep fairy tale characters including Mr. Toad and the Three Little Pigs undetected in our world.

According to IGN, more news on The Wolf Among Us will be revealed in the coming weeks.

The Fables convention in Rochester, MN is over now, and people who visited the Saturday panel got a first look at Telltale's Fables game.

The rest of us will get a look at the game when Telltale has their official reveal on Wednesday. But, until then The LA Times has an article about the Fables convention that has some information about the game:

“Fables” fans also got to see their favorite winged monkey librarian take flight Saturday during Telltale Games’ preview of the upcoming video game set in the comic’s world. The title won’t be announced until Wednesday, but Telltale’s Richard Iggo said gamers would play as Bigby Wolf, that there would be new characters and that the story is set before Issue 1 of the series. He said players will feel the “narrative clock ticking” in the game, and that outcomes are not determined only by choices, but also by the timing of those choices.

“We’ve always strived to see the players of our games … as the last collaborator in the creation of the story,” he said.

Willingham said the game is canon, and there are ideas Telltale originated that he wants to “steal” for future “Fables” issues.

Here's some small bits of Mojo related news for the month of March:

First of all, the first look at Telltale's upcoming series based the comic book series Fables will take place at the Fablescon in Rochester, MN this Saturday during a panel with Richard Iggo from Telltale and Fables creator Bill Willingham. The two will reveal "a few visuals from the game, and give away as few secrets as they can hold on to."

Secondly, do you remember the Indiegogo campaign for Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!", the black and white claymation detective adventure game presented as a musical with singing by Deidre Kiai (former programmer on Deathspank and even further back a former intern at Telltale Games)?

No? Well, you'll get a chance to rectify that and buy a copy for yourself on Windows, Mac, or iPad on April 1st. If you were one of the lucky who backed the Indiegogo campaign at a tier high enough to come with a copy of the game, you are even more lucky, as you are able to get it now. Check your e-mail, since you should have already received a link to get the game.

I've played it, and I can attest that it's well worth the money. Play the demo and see if the musical style fits your tastes. If it does, don't hesitate to buy it once it's available, since the story and detective style dialog-based puzzles are excellent.

Remember that interview that said that Telltale is working with Warner Bros. to release Poker Night at the Inventory in 2013? It seems like there might be something to it after all.

There are some items released in the latest Team Fortress 2 update that contain the PN2 prefix. Softpedia and a smattering of fans think they are related to a Poker Night 2, since they contain the PN2 prefix. The items are Sam's hat from Sam & Max, Handsome Jack's mask from Borderlands 2, Ash's crown from Evil Dead, Chell's boots from Portal, and Brock Samson's knife from Venture Bros.

But that's not the only piece that fits into the Poker Night 2 puzzle. "Poker Night 2 Early Access Comp" has been added to the Steam Database. Additionally, a Steam Group for the game's id is available, but not yet active.

So it does seem like we'll be getting a sequel to Telltale Texas Hold'em's spiritual sequel soon.

Telltale producers Kevin Bruner (also co-founder) and Kevin Boyle had a little chat with God Is A Geek to discuss what's going on at their adorable little company.

The two offer their theories as to why The Walking Dead was the project that cranked awareness for the near decade-old studio up to eleven, prove to be immune to attempts to have plans for the second season teased out, and of course mention Fables (real title pending), which is now the company's project of focus.

So, be ready for that.

Source: God Is A Geek

(Granted, that might not have been a verbatim quote.)

But! Gary Whitta, writer of episode four? three? an episode of The Walking Dead did say more content will appear before season two is released. What does that mean? An expansion pack? Facebook game? Who knows?! But it's clear Telltale isn't quite ready to let go of this success story quite yet.

Source: Polygon

There's another interview with Dan Connors that talks about Telltale's upcoming Fables game, this time at Game Informer. In it, the protaganist is revealed to be Bigby, Fables' big bad wolf. There's also a hint as to how the choice based gameplay that was featured in The Walking Dead might work in Telltale's Fables game:

"Fables is coming along really well. We’ve gone back in and really tried to take a lot of what we learned from The Walking Dead and get that integrated into the story with Bigby and the characters that he meets. We want to make it a real interesting battle for Bigby between: Should he give in to the wolf side, or should he try to get along and keep everybody safe? There’s a lot of work in trying to make that work."

Also, Polygon posted an article with an image from the PlayStation Meeting 2013 showing all the third party companies that are committed to making games for the upcoming PlayStation 4. They mentioned Double Fine by name, but intrepid viewers can also spot the LucasArts and Telltale Games logos among those companies listed.

All the details are in their latest blog post, but since you're lazy - Telltale is soon to relaunch their web site with a new design, and they want your assistance and feedback in finishing it up.

Assume the role of a company's uncompensated QA team and get to work. This is similar to how we're going to be focus testing the next design of Mojo, except of course there will be compensation: you will be paying us for the privilege.

Source: Telltale blog

It seems I may have jumped the gun a bit when I teased Telltale Games for only openly talking about The Walking Dead Season Two rather than their other announced projects.

In an interview with IGN, Dan Connors finally revealed some of the details about Fables that fans have been wondering for years. Namely, that Fables won't be called Fables (presumably due to legal reasons due to the title's close similarity to that of the RPG Fable).

Secondly, and most importantly to readers of Mojo, some news about how the game will play has finally been revealed. The game has taken longer to release than Telltale originally anticipated due to the success of The Walking Dead. Telltale is taking that success to heart, and is working hard to incorporate many of that season's game mechanics into their as-of-yet unnamed series based on Fables.

Here's three Mojo tidbits for the new year:

Firstly, Did you miss the first public Double Fine Amnesia fortnight? If so, you still have a chance to redeem yourself for your misdeeds. Head to Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight page where you can still buy the games in digital form for $10 USD. If that's not enough for you, for an extra $20 USD, you can now pre-order a collector's package that comes with a DVD with all five Amnesia Fortnight prototypes (plus the bonus prototypes Brazen, Happy Song, and Costume Quest), the 15-track Amnesia Fortnight 2012 Soundtrack, and a Blu-Ray disc of 2-Player Productions' Amnesia Fortnight documentary footage. If that's still not enough for you, for an extra $15 on top of that, you can have the package include a collector's edition cover featuring art of one of the five 2012 protoypes signed by the project leader for that prototype. If you're still not satisfied with these awesome options, feel free to pay $70 USD for a collector's package featuring covers with art from all six prototypes, all signed by each project leader.

Secondly, Telltale's finally openly talking about their upcoming announced projects, but it's not Fables or King's Quest. Instead, they're talking about The Walking Dead Season Two (which should surprise no one). In an interview with Polygon, Telltale CEO Dan Connors talks about the next season's pre-production story meetings. It seems the next season will feature at least some of the same characters as season one, since according to Mr. Connors:

"We're talking through different scenarios, though I don't think we've talked through one where we just start with a new set of characters."

Another interesting bit from that interview is that Telltale is open to the possibility of having the game characters meet the television show characters. It will be interesting to see if they can work that out, since it seems the television show and comic book are handled by two separate corporate entities (judging by the Terminal Reality developed shooter based on the television show that's coming out next month, and the fact that Telltale's game got no publicity from AMC, the network that produces the show).

Lastly, do you remember the Wallace & Gromit's Musical Marvels show at the BBC Proms last year? The one that Mojo covered because it was Ben Whitehead's (of Telltale's Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures) first official credited appearance as Wallace in plasticine form? Well, the good news is that if you missed it last year, you still have a chance to see it live since it's proved popular enough to now become a full touring show. It just premiered yesterday at The Plenary in Melbourne, Australia, and will be touring elsewhere later this year (with the short A Matter of Loaf and Death screened at each performance as a bonus). You can view a list of the full touring locations at the Wallace & Gromit's Musical Marvels website.

Today Gamaustra has published an article by psychologist and semi-regular contributor Jamie Madigan, who explores the neuroscience of how Telltale's eight hundred time Game of the Year winner The Walking Dead emotionally manipulated us.

Just what sort of malignant intent was the moonstruck Jake Rodkin embedding into the design document with crooked-grinned glee? Read to find out.

Source: Gamasutra

In his spare time, Telltale Games' programmer and designer (and former Mojo staffer), Andrew "telarium" Langley, apparently likes to creep people out. This tendency is no better shown than by the video embedded below of real life animatronics programmed to sing the "Ted E. Bear's Mafia Free Playland and Casino" song from Sam & Max Season One: Episode 3: The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball.It's actually a pretty clever feat, accomplished by replacing the innards of Wowee's Chimpanzee Alive and Elvis Alive animatronics with a custom programmed controller.

For those of you who are affected by the stuttering and freezing problems in the retail version of The Walking Dead for Xbox 360, an official solution has been given in Telltale's support forums.

The problem only affects Xbox 360 4GB models not fitted with an internal hard disk drive, playing the disc-based (retail) version of the game.

According to Telltale team member Matt P:

"Acquiring and installing an internal hard disk drive compatible with your Xbox360 4GB console will resolve this issue (a hard disk drive connected via your Xbox 360’s USB port will NOT provide a remedy).

If you are unable to acquire and install an internal hard disk drive for your Xbox 360 4GB, we will supply you with codes to download season one (5 episodes) of The Walking Dead from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace at no charge as outlined in the associated Claim Redemption Form [Click here to download].

Upon confirmation of proof of purchase, Xbox LIVE Marketplace codes and instructions for their use will be sent to you at no charge.

We value our customers and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused."

UK magazine GamesTM has interviewed Dan Connors where he says that Telltale is looking to start working on a new, original IP within the next two years, probably with a partner. He also reveals that Fables (based on the comic three of our readers have read) is coming next, with no mention of King's Quest. Does this mean they've ditched it? Did they realize that making a game whose fans' idea of fun is getting stuck, solving insane puzzles, and dying a million times would be no fun at all? Stay tuned!

Source: The Capel Tingler!

In an interesting interview with Venture Beat, Telltale's senior vice president of publishing Steve Allison expanded on this quote by Dan Connors:

Allison clarified by saying:

I'd love to see Telltale work with Disney on a Star Wars game, though that's in part because the relationship might bode well for future games using classic LucasArts IP. Or something based on The Muppets.

Source: Venture Beat

1UP's Retronauts have managed to steal Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer away from making games of the year and kickstarter-backed adventures to talk about their classic adventure game Day of the Tentacle which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Listen to the resulting conversation in the latest Retronauts Live podcast and also, as their own site points out, check out our own awesome Secret History feature while you're at it!

Source: Retronauts Live Episode 57

All five episodes of Telltale's The Walking Dead have been released at retail today on the Xbox and PlayStation 3, at places like Amazon and GameStop.

Best Buy also has a Windows retail version available.