The International House of Mojo

Adventuregamers has just posted an interview with Autumn Moon's Bill Tiller and Gene Mocsy. The interview focuses on A Vampyre Story 2, and Ghost Pirates gets a mention or two too.

Check the whole thing out here.

On the game's official site, LucasArts has uploaded a new video about Staff of Kings (the last clickable one on the right), this one about the game's co-op mode. As if you couldn't have already guessed it (and who knows, maybe it was already announced for all I can remember), the second playable character is none other than Henry Jones, Sr.

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings comes out in North America on June 9th, JUNIOR!

Bill Tiller just sent us this new press release for A Vampyre Story 2, revealing the release of an art book for the first game (which includes a comic inside it!), as well as advertising for a publishing partner.

<:MORENEWS:>

Petaluma, CA - May 28, 2009 - Award winning Autumn Moon Entertainment, is looking for a publishing partner for their exciting, dark humored, new point-and-click adventure game, "A Vampyre Story 2: A Bat's Tale (AVS2)".

Autumn Moon has also published it's first art book entitled Art of A Vampyre Story. The book contains all the painting from A Vampyre Story 1 as well as a sneak peak at A Vampyre Story2: A Bat’s Tale. There is even a short A Vampyre Story comic book in the book as well done by character artist Jean Louis Sirois. Fans can purchase it at www.lulu.com

Building off the commercial and critical success of the award-winning, "A Vampyre Story", AVS2 returns the player to the world of Mona de Laffite, French opera starlet-turned-vampire, and her wisecracking bat, Froderick. Play as these two characters in a comic mis-adventure as appealing as Parisian pastry. With a substantial portion of the game already complete, AVS2 follows up the award winning style of "A Vampyre Story". This sequel will continue the trend started in A Vampyre Story 1 of having spectacular settings, ghastly characters and enough Vampyre humor to wake the dead. Be a part of this terrific project. Take a look at some tasty samples at www.avampyrestory2.com.


The Storyline:

Mona, the unwilling vampire who is mired deep in denial, is trapped by the vindictive Dr. Riga Mortus in his secret lab in Draxsylvania. Players will guide Froderick the bat, through the macabre town of Gothford Falls, where he will encounter old enemies and make some new friends, including an inept magician- The Great Fauxdini, conceited local Goth artist- Raven Gothguy, and Jack the Gimper among many others. Mona and Froderick will explore many interesting locations, such as Dr. Legume's Home for the Sanity Challenged, an Executioner's Practice Grounds, Mortus Labs, and, the scariest of all, a tavern full of disgruntled sports fans low on beer! Help Froderick free Mona then play as Mona as she scours hundreds of shamelessly padded résumés looking for the perfect day-time guardian to watch over her when she returns to Paris!

The game will feature over twenty-five 3D characters, forty gorgeous hand-painted locations, fifteen hours of game play, and will include dialogue written by two ex-LucasArts game designers, Larry Ahren and Jesse Clark. Their experience from working on so many LucasArts classics such as Sam and Max: Hit the Road, Monkey Island 2, Full Throttle, and Curse of Monkey Island, will be a welcome addition to the already experienced Autumn Moon team.

About Autumn Moon Entertainment:
Autumn Moon Entertainment, the best source for all things Vampyrish( www.amegames.com ) is a Northern California-based developer, founded by games industry veteran, Bill Tiller in 2004. In 2008, Autumn Moon released "A Vampyre Story" which won awards including "Best Graphic Design 2008" and "Reader's Choice: Best Gameplay, Best Animation 2008" from adventuregamers.com. Autumn Moon specialized in adventure games with an emphasis on story, art, and quality of experience. The company is completing work on "Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island", due to be released in January, 2010.

If you need A Vampyre Story 2 for your catalog or you just love adventure games contact AME's Executive Producer Bill Dwyer at info@amegames.com.


To follow Vampire Story 2 on Twitter please visit http://twitter.com/avs2

So E3 is in three or four days (depends where you live on the planet) and you must be wondering, "Hey, are my favourite game developers going to be there?" (or, if you are Tim Schafer, "Will I finally get Kroms's autograph?"). But because of my genetically-inherited laziness and the fact that I've been on the run for my life in the past two weeks (after declaring Star Wars an overrated pile of steaming manure to a bunch of fanboys clad in golden bikinis), I'm going to link without doing all the reading for you. You want details, you click. Or wait till Gabez fires me and updates this post, whichever comes first.

- Telltale are announcing a new series at E3. They are also saving you a good amount of cash because they love you, and have put up the old Summer of Sam and Max page for you to reminisce about the good ol' days of 2007. And speaking of Sam and Max, Steve Purcell recently got nominated for an Eisner (and there's a reason it kinda rhymes with "Oscar"). You can vote for him to win. He's also posted something of a behind-the-scenes look at working on a Sam and Max piece. Then this guy professed his love to him. And Max went sini. Oh, and Mike Stemmle's a daddy. Congratulations, Mr. Stemmle!

- Brutal Legend will also be at E3. I'm guessing there's going to be a new trailer, but for a lot of you the real highlight is going to be your chance at interviewing Tim Schafer. All you need to do is to sign-up at Twitter and then, at 7PM PST, June 2nd (that's Tuesday), basically spam the guy with your questions and then hope to whatever you believe in that he picks it. How to do it posted by Ryan/Thrik, who may seem calm but has since frozen himself in an ice cabinet to pass the time, not realising he forgot to take off his creamed pants before doing so. And if you live in America, you can sign-up for the Brutal Legend newsletter and stand a chance to win a real Tenacious D guitar (the kind with strings). Also, if you're into that sort of thing: watch a full minute from one of the first cutscenes in the game.

- LucasArts will be doing something. My slow internet prevents me from knowing what.

- I have no idea if Autumn Moon and Hothead are going to be there. It'd be pretty great if we got more details on Ghost Pirates, Vampyre 2 or DeathSpank.Autumn Moon will be there, to show-off the new and lovely Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island. But it doesn't look the same for Deathspank, unfortunately.

As Winston Churchill once famously said: "Exciting!"

The worst-kept Indiana Jones computer game-related secret this year since Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings has now appeared: Lego Indiana Jones II: The Adventure Continues has now been announced at last.

Confirmed for all major platforms (yes, even PC) and obviously based on, at least, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, as well as giving players a level editor at last to add the longevity missing from all the other titles so far.

LucasArts boss Darrell Rodriguez had this to say:

"LEGO Indiana Jones 2 delivers something a little different for everyone. Parents will enjoy the humorous take on the classic moments from their favorite movies, and their kids have an opportunity to experience the most authentic LEGO experience by building their own fun levels brick by brick."

So "everyone" translates as "parents or kids" does it?

Still, at least it's not 'The Complete Adventures' as many suspected. But will Indy IV be enough for a whole Lego game? And how exactly are LucasArts getting developers owned by other publishers to make games for them?

UPDATE: Teach me to read CVG. According to LucasArts' own press release, it is going to be "The Complete Adventures" as feared.

UPDATE 2: We have a cover.

UPDATE 3: And screenshots, too. There's even a pic of the... very basic level editor.

Live in London, or have access to it June 10-11th? Well then, you too can go and see Double Fine's Scott C in all his comic-drawing glory!

He's got a two-man show at the Miles Gallery with artist Jim Mahfood, which is on show from June 11th-July 3rd. That's great if you can't do 10-11th, but if you can make it in then Scott will around to sign copies of Double Fine Action Comics Vol 1 and things. On the 11th he'll be at the Opening Reception for the show, and on the 10th he'll be at Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue.

If you can't go or can't make London, don't worry, you can preorder signed copies of DFACV1 from them.

Fright of the Bumblebees is finally available on Xbox Live for 800 MS Points. The main addition to the Xbox 360 version is achievements gained by progressing through the game and other challenges.

In other news, Telltale has also made the first two episodes available separately on PC for those who want to try out an episode before buying the whole season. Each epsiode costs $8.95 and there will be an upgrade path available soon for people who decide to buy the entire season after buying one episode.

The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition? Old news!

All the hipsters know that Curse of Monkey Island, or "CMI" in cool-speak, is where things are really "at."

Point your browsers to our Secret History article to rediscover this classic game (or perhaps find out what you've been missing).

Thanks a lot to Jonathan Ackley, Larry Ahern, Chuck Jordan, Bills Tiller and Eaken and Dominic Armato for their thorough behind-the-scenes talk, everyone who sent in a reader review, and to Paco Vink for the spaztastic header art.

Update: Larry Ahern very kindly got back to us with an interview ages ago, and I forgot to include it!! I've since put it into the article, so you can all read it now. Interesting titbits and anecdotes about LucasArts abound. Thanks a lot, Larry!

LucasArts have posted a new video at the Indy Staff of Kings site, looking at the Hot Set environments and using objects and areas to Indy's advantage. There's also a nice reference to the famous shooting-the-sword-guy moment in Raiders.

Frankly though, as fun as it's looking that's not the good part for me. The good part is that the video clearly shows that we'll be able to turn off those annoying health bars on enemies. Phew!

The hype machine for Brütal Legend keeps on trucking with Jack Black hamming it up in commercials. Go watch.

According to the German ratings board USK, a Special Edition version of The Secret of Monkey Island may be on its way to (of all things) Xbox 360. Presumably this will be downloadable via Xbox Live rather than boxed.

While obviously this must be counted as rumour (not least of which because it raises many questions), let's not forget that just last year USK were the ones that first alerted the adventure gaming community to the existence of Broken Sword on DS and Wii.

Whatever happens, let's hope it's true and that it's coming out on PC and Wii too. Until then, let your imaginations run riot over the tantalising phrase "Special Edition"...

(Additional thanks to Diduz for spotting this first!)

Want to get Psychonauts for PC for free? Well, your ideal response should be "no thanks, I've already got it, but I appreciate the generous offer", but in case you have a friend whose life might benefit from some Double Fine in his/her life, GameTap are now offering it for free.

You have to sign up with them, but that doesn't cost anything. They also offer Sam & Max: Abe Lincoln Must Die! for free too, but that's been done. I also should point out that there are other great free games to choose from (STALKER, Deus Ex, Thief 3, Tomb Raider Legend, Earthworm Jim etc), but we don't care about those.

Over at iDesign iPhone is a lovely piece of fanart - a glorious iPhone wallpaper of LeChuck in voodoo striking pose. Obviously, the 3D work pales in comparison to this, but a respectable effort nonetheless!

Thanks to reader Ivo for the tip!

Telltale's new poker-oriented survey sure seems to suggest it. Telltale Texas Hold'em was the company's first and for now only casual game, although in the past they've hinted that they might make more at some point. Hopefully if that ever happens they'll do something with more variety than just a bunch of poker games, but for now a Texas Hold'em sequel is fine with me. Oh, and if you take that survey you get the original game for free.

Telling is turning five years old, and to celebrate the occasion Telltale is offering a unique promotional deal on their products.

The way it works is this. Visit this page for a unique coupon code that will enable you to buy any individual Telltale game for $5. This coupon code can be shared with anyone, and every time a person uses your coupon code, you get $1 of credit on Telltale products. The more people you share your code with, the more credit you'll receive! The promotion lasts 34 days.

If that doesn't interest you, there's still the fact that Telltale's main page is now decorated with a huge image of pretty much every character that has appeared in a Telltale game. Which is pretty awesome.

Update: The event's press release reveals an interesting little statistic - over one million Telltale episodes have been sold since the company began.

The Brutal Legend coverage just doesn't stop as Gamespot has some brand new impressions of the game up. An in-depth look at the how the battle system works is provided, and a handful of brand new screenshots are featured as well, so you should look into that.

In other Brutal Legend news, and the perfect example of the kind of thing you can easily miss if you don't go to BRUTAL! everyday for news (in addition to us, of course), is a plethora of awesome concept art that comes from the GDC "Brutal Art of Brutal Legend" panel from back in March. It's all superb, and it's all conveniently archived by the most Brutal of fansites just for you.

For no good reason I can fathom (other than it required no new character model) Han Solo is an unlockable character in Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings. But with Indy's weapons, not his own trademark blaster.

View the trailer here.

Now, I'm waiting with bated breath for the announcement that Bob Falfa from American Graffiti is the 2nd bonus character.

If there's one thing you can count on even more than annual Mojo downtime or regularly scheduled mass firings at LEC, it's Monkey Island 5 rumors. The latest comes from Destructoid, which has the following to say:

A source recently revealed to us that LucasArts is planning to resurrect a classic franchise at E3. The million dollar question -- what series is it -- is unknown to our source. However, we do know that titles like Grim Fandango and Monkey Island were uttered within earshot as examples of a LucasArts' golden oldie.

Hopefully we don't have to tell you that this is rumor material to the extreme, but there you go.

After months (years?) of nothing but a bare product page, LucasArts has finally posted their official site for Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings. Poke around to check out some new screenshots, concept art the, promise of new upcoming videos, and a whole bunch of Flash-enabled time wasters.

Update: I should also point out this in-depth interview with LEC voice director David Collins about the game.

http://www.google.com/trends?q=lucasarts:



You guys had better step it up with the LucasArts Google searches. No one else can do it for you.

Incredibly exciting news comes today as LucasArts has announced the foreshadowed Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes, an action/adventure game based on the animated series of the same name and developed by Krome Studios, who were responsible for Lightsaber Duels and the low-end ports of The Force Unleashed.

You can check out the riveting press release here. (It couldn't kill you to check out the official site either, I guess.) The game releases this September for all platforms (yes, even PC), assuming you don't succumb fatally to your anticipation first.

Big thanks to Risine from the forums for pointing this out. RPG Codex has posted an (email) interview with Ron Gilbert about the upcoming Deathspank (he with the Thong of Justice). Some nice little details are given-out, and explanations of things like why the game is no longer episodic. Good read.

Those of you who are season subscribers of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures should have already received an e-mail about the availability of the second episode, "The Last Resort," in which Wallace decides to build a community beach resort in his basement in response to poor weather conditions. What with the episode being out and all, it makes one wonder what you're still doing here.

Update: Check out our very own review.

The CMI article will be published very soon, which means we're ready to take reader submissions for the Grim Fandango retrospective. All of you had best be sending in one, and remember we're also willing to take full-fledged editorials if there's a particular aspect of the game you want to write an entire piece about.

Viva La Revolucion!

Bioware has revealed the Trooper as the second playable class in their MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic.

They've updated the class pages and added some new wallpapers featuring the Trooper. GameSpot has also conducted an interview focusing on the new class with principal lead writer Daniel Erickson and lead combat designer Damion Schubert.

In a press release sent out today to promote the release of the latest Wallace & Gromit episode 'The Last Resort', an interesting little fact appeared at the end.

Last but not least, we’re gearing up for E3. If you’ll be at the show and would like to see Telltale’s newest games, let’s schedule a meeting! We will be showing a sneak peek of the final Wallace & Gromit episode, plus a brand new series that we’re announcing at the show. Should be pretty exciting…

I've confirmed from Emily at Telltale that this new series is not the third season of Sam & Max but is an entirely new series. Will it be Telltale's first original IP or another exciting license? We'll find out June 2-4th!

And for those of you who haven't bought Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures yet, here's a new video.

LucasArts is running a series of videos about Staff of Kings on the game's Facebook page, and the first is up, and worth watching for some new gameplay footage.

I also recommend checking out this Italian preview. Even you're like me and don't speak Italian, there's new screenshots and gameplay videos to check out, so check them out you should.

As you may be aware, for years there's been a sister project to SCUMMVM called "Residual," an interpreter for GrimE games, and essentially the SCUMMVM counterpart for Grim Fandango and Escape from Monkey Island. Very slow progress for Residual has always gone on behind the scenes, but with the launch of its own web site, the project seems like its going to be moving forward more briskly in the future.

Like with SCUMMVM, the Residual team needs the help of fellow fans to become a success, so why not hang about the forums and otherwise become an active follower of the project? I know I'm looking forward to playing Grim on my Etch A Sketch.

Eurogamer have a new interview up with Tim Schafer. Excellent stuff, not least because of (finally) a high-quality clip from the Spike TV awards. Bonus: they promise that you can submit your own questions in the coming weeks.

And for those of you who pre-order Brutal Legend from Gamestop (PS3, Xbox360): you get a Gamestop exclusive (in-game) guitar, which "will feature an entirely new and different suite of effects – not only a unique, sexy body inspired by the members of Tenacious D, but new sound effects, new voice over work from Jack Black and Kyle Gass and a new visual effects suite – trust us, it’s going to rule very, very hard."

I hope that means Kyle Gass is in the game. If there was ever an underappreciated guitarist/musician, it's him.

Chris Remo of Gamasutra had a chat with Dan Connors about episodic gaming, and Kevin Bruner sat in on an episode of HotSpot, the Gamespot podcast. Give them both a look/listen!

After previews that have, as far as I know, been based on LEC demonstrations, IGN actually got to have some hands-on time with Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, and their impressions are positive:

It's easy to scoff at a game that embraces motion controls with such first-generation gusto but LucasArts seems to have done a grand job marrying physical movement to onscreen action in a way that successfully heightens immersion rather than detracts through pointless gimmickry.

Interestingly, the preview claims that the Nazis will not ever be referred to as Nazis in order to keep things "family friendly." Seriously? I did notice the iron cross looking emblems on the Germans in the screenshots in lieu of swastikas, and I know putting Nazis on LEGOs is a touchy subject, but since when can't a non-toy based Indiana Jones game call the Nazis...Nazis? Anyway, check out the whole preview.

Now this is utterly fantastic. Poster quality. Also note the particularly grumpy-looking Dart in the bottom-right corner.

Apparently it's in the latest issue of PLAY magazine, alongside a massive Brutal Legend preview that been mentioned over at Double Fine Action News. Go buy!

Just watch. I think we all feel the same.

As the venerable Brutal! lets us know, a two-part video interview with Tim is now available at GameTrailers.

There's also an interview from a few days ago that we missed by Gamespot AU in an episode of Crosshairs. (The Brutal Legend stuff starts at 14:37.)

Oh and look what I'm literally just seeing on Gamespot - some sort of "Rock Special" by Gamespot UK in which Brutal Legend and Rock Band get checked out. So, that's three Tim interviews.

Easily beating the Brutal Legend trailer for sheer brilliance (no, sorry, poor lie), GameSpot have a new Video Preview and, um, Written Preview for Indiana Jones and the Staff of East London. There's some shots of Fate of Atlantis in action too, along with a very nice segue from the game's MIDI Indiana Jones theme into the full orchestra version. Game's looking good too, surprisingly.




More gameplay videos can be found on their page here, as well as a load of new screens.

GameTrailers will be premiering a brand new trailer for The Rockin' Game Brütal Legend on Thursday night, so make sure you stay up late to watch it. We'll update this post as soon as it's up for everyone to see.

Thanks to MarioColbert for the tip!

UPDATE: Not quite here yet (tonight!) but here's an in-depth new preview at Eurogamer, because you can never have too much Brütal Legend in one day.

UPDATE UPDATE: A new batch of screenshots has also been released, which you can check out over at Brutal!

UPDATE: Oh my lord it's here. You might need an extra pair of pants around:

Contrary to popular belief, The International House of Mojo has no underground sources in Telltale Games. At least, none that give us any information.

However, intelligence gathered by our network of spies suggests that Telltale will be revisiting the CSI license in the near future. Watch the compelling evidence in this video around the 9.40 mark. To quote:

"We've got some super secret stuff... we've got the CS--oh... different games *embarrassed smile, glances nervously off-camera*"

My conclusion? This is all further evidence of...


(There's also gameplay video and information nuggets in that video for the new Wallace and Gromit episode -- stay tuned for our episode review coming soon).