The International House of Mojo

This is a little late: Telltale have joined onto the Humble Indie Bundle Great Adventure Bundle of 2010, which is your chance to get your hands on some classic adventure games while giving 25% of proceeds to one of five good causes.

The games are Telltale's Puzzle Agent, Sam and Max: Beyond Time and Space (Season Two), Daedelic Entertainment's The Whispered World, Deck13's Jack Keane, and Sierra's King's Quest I, II, III, IV, V, VI and VII. Hothead's two first Penny-Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness episode features as well, though it is worth noting they are not adventure games.

The bundle goes for $19.99. The games are all PC only, and Telltale's games unlock after a certain goal is reached. It's a good cause, and one worth considering.

Update: The deadline has been extended by another week. 3000 more bundles must be sold for Sam and Max: Beyond Time and Space to unlock, so anyone interested must get cracking.

Source: Telltale Blog

At PAX, the representative of The Spoony Experiment, one Spoony, went to Telltale's Back to the Future display and taped an interview with Dennis Lenart, the director of the series' first episode. The video is right here.

Lenart isn't able to say a whole lot, at least not a lot that you wouldn't know already, but due to the caliber of the questions asked I still recommend giving it a watch - the part that concerns you begins at 3:00.

Source: The Spoony Experiment

So, anyone got any good Ewok/Back To The Future puns? The best I could do was "EndorLorean".

UPDATE: Followed up by this. We now need Ewok/Back To The Future/Spaceballs gags.

Source: CNET

AlfredJ in the Mojo comments points us to a youtube clip filmed at the Telltale "Make a Scene" panel at last week's PAX. You may just see a few new character models.

Source: YouTube

Telltale's Jake Rodkin and Sean Vanaman discuss the background to Poker Night at the Inventory with GamePro, and reveal a few more tidbits about the gameplay and character interactions.

It seems the poker game will be Texas Hold'em again, which is slightly disappointing, but I'm sure every thing else will more than make up for it.

Source: GamePro

Demonstrating rather resolutely where his loyalties lie, JP reports from the Telltale forums about a small interview with Back to the Future co-writer and producer Bob Gale about his involvement with the upcoming games conducted by Digital Spy. Here's the whole thing given its brevity:

I also want to point out this Slash Film write-up that ran right after the USA Today ("I WAS FRAMED!!!") piece broke, which claims that the series will be released for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii, PC and Mac. I don't think Telltale has officially announced platforms yet; it will be interesting, and certainly unprecedented, if they attempt to hit all of the above simultaneously.

Source: Digital Spy

In a short interview with Telltale's Dan Connors, he reveals to Wired that Poker Night is part of Telltale's Pilot Program.

100,000 - 200,000 sounds like a lot of sales. I wonder if Puzzle Agent needs to sell similarly to be considered a success (though it is on more platforms than Poker Night)?

Source: Wire

(click for enlargement)

Real? No idea. USA Today says "yes".

Great? Undoubtedly.

Update: In a likely embargo busting an exclusive first peek from USA Today: "Lloyd will also provide his voice for the games.

Bob Gale, who wrote the screenplays for the three films, is working with the game developers on the plot for the planned five "episodes"."

Another Update: You can read the full, unedited press release (The game will be out 'soon after' the 25th Anniversary movie re-releases on October 26th) on the new game teaser site.

Source: USA Today

Telltale have released more details of their 'crossover game', by adding the title to their store for pre-order.

Expect more details to be released soon...

Update: Some screenshots are up at Steam. Also, amazing promotional poster by Chuck BB.

Source: Telltale Games

Over in our forums in the requisite DeathSpank thread, Threepwood4life has noticed that a surprisingly story-centric <a href="http://www.gametrailers.com/video/ex...-thongs/703926

">trailer for DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue has appeared at GameTrailers. The game looks low on virtue if high on great. And yes, it seems like we'll get to explore a pirate setting in a Ron Gilbert game again after all.

For those attending PAX, it'll probably be of interest for you to know that Hothead will be showcasing the DeathSpank sequel there. The expo is otherwise saturated with awesome due to the already announced presence by Telltale, who will be letting you take pictures in front of a Delorean, presumably because the replacement of the Back to the Future ride means you can no longer do so at Universal's theme park. Not sure about Costume Quest as I couldn't find THQ's line-up following a diligent fifteen seconds on Google.

Oh, and I checked: Southpeak's PAX line-up contains neither Insecticide's second half nor a keynote apology.

Source: Lucasforums

Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent has today been released for the iPad and iPhone for $6.99 and $4.99 respectively. The game, the first in Telltale's "Pilot Program," debuted on the PC and Mac earlier in the summer. The version for WiiWare, the remaining platform it was announced for, is forthcoming.

I wonder how long it will be until Telltale can decide whether or not this was successful pilot and warrants a full season?

Kroms beat me to this news story literally by seconds, proving that he wanted it more.

Source: Telltale

Telltale's Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent has now arrived at iPad and iPhone. The iPhone version will cost you $4.99, and the iPad version $6.99. The PC/Mac version will set you back $9.95. A WiiWare version is in the works.

For those who don't know, Nelson Tethers is the debut episode of Telltale's new "Pilot Program", which, as its name suggests, aims to make one-shot episodes that test whether or not people are interested in a certain game. If people are interested, a full series is developed and vice versa. It was developed in collaboration with Grickle-creator Graham Annable, as can be seen in the game's art style and felt in the game's tone. Read Mixnmojo's review to see whether it's your cup of tea, or just take a leap of faith and buy it.

Source: Telltale Blog

Dave Grossman has written an insightful article for Gamasutra about moving toward the type of mentality it will take to bring games into the same level of ubiquitous acceptance enjoyed by television, the "Holy Grail of media mainstreamedness."

Using his mother-in-law as his test subject, the 20+ year industry veteran used the very first puzzle (which was later transformed into a tutorial) of Sam & Max: Season 1 to witness how someone completely foreign to video games would respond to interactive design he took part in - a design most gamers would probably argue is about as accessible as it gets. The results are equal parts interesting, humorous and educational.

Fans of intelligent game design ruminations or just plain good writing, both being fortes of Grossman, would do well to read the whole piece.

Source: Gamasutra

Over at Eurogamer, someone managed to interview one Dmitry Andreev on LucasArts' new technology, a "framerate upscaler", which is an intriguing little thing conceived in an orgy of love, science, buckets of George Lucas's cash, lateral thinking, and a lack of Jim Ward. I quote:

Woohoo! It's great stuff, if a little unclear. Read the interview, as well as the associated presentation and any videos, by going here. See how kids are all about speed, nowadays? Just like the news pundit on TV said.

30 Mojo Cookie Pirate points to whoever can come-up with the best acronym (SCUMM, iMuse, INSANE, etc) for this thing.

Source: Eurogamer

Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse is on sale at Steam. What once cost me $34.99 (totally worth it) will now cost you $19.99 (probably worth it), and will continue to cost you $19.99 all the way to September 8th, 2010. Read our review of the finale here, or just skip ahead and buy the game here. If you're a little crazy, do both.

Save on saving the world! (Sorry.)

Source: Steam

Having just wrapped up their latest and strangest case, Sam and Max have directed their attention to the Telltale company store, where the collector's disc for Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, which will include commentary and behind-the-scenes goodies, "should be available for order very soon." Steve Purcell's excellent cover art for the DVD case can be seen on the product page, and following tradition, is available as a poster print in both signed and unsigned flavors.

Then there is a collection of five mini-posters of all that cool 70s-like movie poster art that was used to promote each episode of this season, some of which if I'm not mistaken is the work of talented Telltale web art director Stephen Whetstine. Telltale is also selling those stylized Sam & Max Symbiote figures with the big heads, and on top of all that is the retro Sam & Max T-shirt from the 1992 Comic-Con that they resurrected not too long ago.

Ouch, says my wallet. At least until I get that check from Telltale for pimping all their stuff.

Source: Telltale

Today is a day of exciting releases. The first is of course the long awaited finale of The Devil's Playhouse (check out our review!) The game is apparently not quite out to season's subscribers, but it should be available before the night's through, Pacific Standard Time, so keep an eye either on your inbox or your Telltale account page. Hopefully, Kroms can refrain from flaunting his access to review copies to too many of you before then.

The second big release today is the North American retail version of Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island, almost a year after its initial release in Germany. The hand-painted pirate adventure game by Bill Tiller and his well-treated minions got an English release in the UK early this year and has been available worldwide in various digital outlets for almost as long, but today it can finally be found boxed and on store shelves in the United States and Canada. It's retailing for only $19.99, too, so you should probably show us that you're smarter than you look and order it from a place like Gamestop or Amazon (where the price is currently slashed at a ridiculous $10.86).

On the subject of Autumn Moon, you're running out of hours to submit your winning entry for the Pumpkin Post site redesign contest. Hopefully you didn't blow this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity which, not taken, would surely haunt you throughout your adult life until it is violently and mercifully syncopated by the cold grip of Death.

Anyway. Happy Monday, all!

Update: Capn_Nacho reports that The City That Dares Not Sleep is now available to season subscribers. Rev those downloads!

It’s been a long time coming, but we’re at last here at the finale of arguably the greatest series Telltale has yet produced. The Devil’s Playhouse will be revealed, characters will return, assumptions will be shattered, and shockles will be shocked. With four excellent episodes behind them, will the last one screw it all up or will it be a fitting conclusion to an epic storyline? Read on to find out! Or, y’know, play the damn thing. [spoilers for previous episodes, but no spoilers for this episode follow]

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GameTrailers TV is teasing something Telltale related today (12:30 EST on SPIKE), and look likely to reveal some "very special guest stars" in the game.

From Geoff Keighley's Twitter feed: There is speculation on the Telltale Forums that some of the Back to the Future voice talent may have been cast and is going to be revealed, though something related to Sam & Max s03e05 makes more sense.

Update: The teaser has aired, you can view it here.



It is some kind of crossover game, and the teaser features four silhouettes, looking like Max, a Team Fortress Heavy, Strong Bad and Tycho from Penny Arcade.

And they're all holding cards, as can be seen in this full resolution screencapture.

So, this title will be revealed in full at PAX next week.

Source: Twitter

Telltale, like all the cool kids, will be at the Penny Arcade Expo next week. Members of the Sam & Max team and Grickle/Puzzle Agent creator Graham Annable will be on hand to answer questions, including "when's Puzzle Agent Episode 2 coming out?" I hope.

There will be Back To The Future news at last, with Telltale bringing along "an actual DeLorean Time Machine" apparently. They'll be travelling back to March 2004 and try to set right what once went wrong presumably. Or am I thinking of Quantum Leap?

And yes, as you deduced from the story title there will be "a surprise game announcement" there too. Tales of Monkey Island Season Two? Puzzle Agent Part Two? Another Pilot Program game? Who knows?!