The International House of Mojo

Another year of PAX Prime has come and gone. The companies that Mojo covers were represented there, so I thought I'd make a big post covering everything Mojo-related that happened there. But then I realized that the pickings were small for the Mojo crowd this year, so a long post isn't needed.

Telltale had their live recording of their Playing Dead webseries that looks inside the making of The Walking Dead game with questions asked by fans and answered by the writers and developers of the game. They also had some neat swag called the Undead Survival Kit that they were giving away to a lucky few attendees. That's it, unfortunately. It was all Walking Dead oriented. No news on King's Quest or even Fables, which was said to be arriving by quarter three of this year. Since this month would be the last month of the Q3 2012 release window, I think it's safe to say Fables will miss it's original announced release date.

Double Fine was also represented there, with footage shown from the 2 Player Productions documentary about the Double Fine Adventure. They also showed off Ron Gilbert's upcoming adventure with platforming elements, The Cave. There's a load of new screenshots at Mr. Gilbert's blog. The big news is that The Cave isn't just coming to PlayStation 3, PC, and Xbox 360. It's also coming to the Wii U eShop.

Double Fine also showed off their sequel to Happy Action Theater, which has been renamed Kinect Party (it's a wonder publisher Microsoft let them use a clever original title for the original in the first place). Interestingly, in an interview with Eurogamer, Double Fine mentioned they'd like to do an "after dark" version with minigames that aren't child friendly such as "a level that made players shoot explosive diarrhea from their bottoms anytime they'd bent over", "a system that allows you to attach objects to characters such as extra limbs or body parts, and some of them are not meant for family", and most interestingly "having scary things happen only when one player would be present. Then people would drag their friends over to show them the offending terror only for it to not happen with another person present. Then they'd look crazy". Letting the Double Fine go crazy with uncensored Kinect minigames would certainly be interesting, to say the least.

Those waiting for The Walking Dead episode 3 on PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and PS3 shouldn't have to wait much longer. Telltale has handed off the episode to their release partners and are waiting to get word on when they will be releasing it on their respective services. Telltale posted a new episode 3 screenshot on their twitter with word that it's coming VERY soon (emphasis is theirs).

While the rest of gamers interested in Telltale's latest series wait for episode 3, iOS users will finally be able to play episode 2 of The Walking Dead later this week according to Telltale's blog.

Rounding out the Telltale related tidbits is Wallace & Gromit's Musical Marvels: Wallace & Gromit at the BBC Proms 2012 (Prom 20), which aired on BBC One yesterday and is available on iPlayer to those in the countries where iPlayer videos are available. What makes this Telltale related is that Wallace is played here by Ben Whitehead (who voiced Wallace in Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures), rather than Peter Sallis. This makes it Ben's first credited role as the voice of Wallace in plasticine form (although unofficial word is that he played Wallace uncredited in the short film for the National Trust for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, Wallace and Gromit in A Jubilee Bunt-a-thon, as well).

Update: It's been a long time coming, but The Walking Dead Episode 3: Long Road Ahead is out now on PlayStation 3 through the PSN today in North America. It will be out on PC, Mac, and XBLA tomorrow. The iOS version of episode 2 will be released tomorrow as well.

Update 2: PC/Mac and XBLA versions of Episode 3 are out now. Episode 2 is out on iOS as well.

Telltale is going to be at PAX Prime again this year. They haven't revealed any of their PAX plans yet (hopefully Fables will be shown off, as it is scheduled for the 3rd quarter of 2012, although it remains to be seen if The Walking Dead's delays will affect the release window - oh and at least a little bit of information on Telltale's King's Quest would be nice too).

But, Telltale did announce that they will be filming an episode of their Playing Dead video series on the making of their The Walking Dead game live at Pax. Audience members will be able to ask questions direct to the game's project leaders, Jake Rodkin and Sean Vanaman, as well as story consultant Gary Whitta (writer of post-apocalypse movie The Book of Eli and the upcoming blockbuster After-Earth). For more information about what Playing Dead Live will cover, check out Telltale's blog post about it.

While we're on the subject of zombies, I should mention the Humble Music Bundle, which includes the excellent Zombie related song Re: Your Brains by Jonathan Coulton (as well as 13 other songs by him), a rarity album by They Might Be Giants that includes the 200 sbemails song from Homestar Runner's Strong Bad Emails in which TMBG voiced The Poopsmith in a rare silence breaking moment. It also includes decidedly not Mojo related music (but still worth buying) by MC Frontalot, Christopher Tin, and Hitoshi Sakimoto (the best of the Valkyria Chronicles). If you spend more than the average you will also get 12 remixes of 4 OK Go songs (the average is currently just over $8.25 US).

Indie Royale's July Jubilee is still going (for one more day), even though it's August now. If you pay the minimum amount (currently just under $5.50 US), you will receive Puzzle Agent, Geneforge Saga, Oniken, Mutant Storm Reloaded, SWIFT☆STITCH, and Unepic. If you pay $8.00 or more, you will also receive the music CD, Chiptune, full of (shocker) chiptune music.

Former Telltale employee (and I think still intermittent contractor) and justly lionized designer/writer Chuck Jordan posted his thoughts on Telltale's first two episodes of The Walking Dead on his blog after getting around to playing them. He's ahead of me there, I'm embarrassed to say.

Most reviews don't warrant their own news post, but then most reviews aren't 7000 word exegeses as worthy of your time as Jordan's. Whenever he ruminates on his favorite topic, interactive storytelling, he catches third gear and his thoughts become even more compulsively readable than usual, and The Walking Dead clearly struck a chord with him, to our benefit. Recommended reading.

For a chaser, why not enjoy this haphazard Dumb and Dumber meets SCUMM mock-up that appeared on Cracked at some point? Empty calories are largely harmless in moderation.

You've played the computer version, you've played the console version, and now you'll be able to play the handheld version too. "Now" means this Thursday when The Walking Dead will hit iOS, with the first episode pricing in at just under $5. You can pick up the additional four episodes for $15 or just keep paying for each game individually if you like wasting money.

Check out Telltale's blog for some screenshots. Looks like the touch interface is nicely thought out.

The Verge's gaming site, Polygon, received word direct from Telltale that "the five-episode series would not be the only games set in the Walking Dead universe that the studio plans on creating".

Along with the news of additional games by Telltale set in the Walking Dead universe, they have also announced plans to give the first five episode season a disc release to retail outlets in North America after episode five is released.

Activision also announced today that they are publishing an unrelated The Walking Dead game (confusingly called The Walking Dead Video Game), which will be developed by Terminal Reality (the developer's of Kinect Star Wars and Ghostbusters: The Video Game). Terminal Reality is basing their game on the television series rather than the comics (the latter is the universe Telltale's The Walking Dead is set in). It's going to be a first person shooter, though there is supposedly a limited amount of ammo and options for stealth available as well.

The Walking Dead Episode 2: Starved for Help is out now on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360.

The release dates for the other systems have been announced as well. On Friday, June 29, the game will be available to gamers on the PlayStation 3 through the PlayStation Network in North America, as well as on PC and Mac worldwide.

Update: It's out on PSN and PC/Mac at the Telltale Games store and on Steam now too.

I'll give the word to GOG.com as they can explain this much better than me:

Like most GOG releases, the games include several extras, like the Sam & Max soundtracks, and developer commentaries.

Source: GOG.com

The Escapist has a preview from E3 of the next episode of The Walking Dead. They got to see the first twenty minutes of the episode, so beware that it is full of spoilers. It does show that the choices in the first episode effects this one and that there are even more choices in this episode, so The Walking Dead's branching storyline continues to branch, leaving even more possibilities and reasons to play through the game multiple times.

Source: The Escapist

The iPad was the only platform to get Jurassic Park: The Game in Telltale's usual episodic format. Telltale was releasing the games monthly until episode three. Then, there was a long break. But, iPad users need fret no more, as, after a four month hiatus, Jurassic Park: The Game: Episode 4: The Survivors for iPad (iPad 2 or higher recommended) is now out and ready to be ordered at the iTunes store.

The fourth episode of the on-line talk show Playing Dead has just been released. Join lead designers Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin (of Mojo fame) as they talk about the first episode of The Walking Dead and share juicy tidbits about the upcoming second episode.

Last week Telltale reported on the release of a visual upgrade for the iPhone version of Tales of Monkey Island. The update is available to those who own the "Retina" capable iPhone 4 and 4S models, and the difference is like Wally B. Feed with and without a lighthouse lens.

The upgrade is free to those who can make use of it, and there's apparently some sort of discount going on with the series at the App Store right now, so, you know, food for thought for your nonexistent people who have an iPhone, read this site and never played Tales of Monkey Island.

Source: Telltale's Blog

And that would make it Telltale's fastest-selling game to date by the estimation of this press release.

Telltale has made upping themselves in sales figures a fairly routine occurrence. You might call them a going concern. Be sure to keep an eye on this promising team of "television adventure game" developers.

Source: MarketWatch

Hey, look, a timely review! Or it would have been timely had Mojo not died.

Regardless, pretend like you haven't played "A New Day" yet, and read our review.

The Walking Dead: Episode 1: A New Day is out now on Steam and PSN.

For those on the fence, the reviews so far say that it's a return to Telltale's usual form of making the best use of the license. The game's method of using dialog choices to influence the outcome of future events in the game is particularly praised, as is the story (as par-for-the course for a Telltale title). It should be noted that there are a lot of action sequences, and that it lacks traditional inventory-based puzzles found in most of Telltale's adventure games, but it's a huge improvement over the gameplay found in Jurassic Park.

The game is not out on Telltale's site yet or on XBLA. It will be out on Telltale's site later today, and on XBLA soon.

Update: Telltale found a server issue that only concerns the build that was intended to be uploaded to the Telltale website. They've been trying to fix the issue all day, but it doesn't appear that they'll be able to fix it tonight. Thankfully, they posted news on their forums that everyone who pre-ordered the game from Telltale's site will be sent Steam codes to their e-mail addresses so they can play the game via Steam (and get the extras like Steam Achievements that go with it).

Update 2 (April 27): It was released yesterday at Telltale's site. It's out now on XBLA as well (and of course, PSN and Steam).

Adventure Gamers previewed The Walking Dead about a week or so ago (sorry). Written up by Emily Morganti, who's back scribing for Adventure Gamers after her stint at Telltale, the impressions include an overview of the controls and a taste of how the much-ballyhooed choice system functions.

There's also some obligatory talk about whether or not the puzzle volume and complexity will appeal to hardcore adventure gamers that gets extended in the comments, but I fell asleep so I can't tell you where that one landed.

Source: Adventure Gamers

The last episode of Sam & Max Beyond Time & Space (Season Two) is now out on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Now there are six episodes of Sam & Max available on iOS devices, if you count the iPad release of the first episode of Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse (Season Three) back in 2010. There's still no word on whether Season Three will be finished up on iPad, or if Season One will get an iOS release. But, iOS users can rejoice in the fact that Telltale has finally released a full season of Sam & Max on their platform.

You can purchase What's New Beelzebub? for iOS from iTunes here.

This and more revealed in this fine, career-encompassing interview with Steve Purcell by the fine chaps at Thunder Chunky.

Source: Thunder Chunky

Sam & Max Beyond Time & Space: Episode 4: Chariots of the Dogs is now out on iOS. This is the penultimate episode of Season Two, meaning just one more episode is left in the season before all episodes in the season are available for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPhone.

The episode can be purchased from the iTunes store here.