The International House of Mojo

The Steam Holiday Sale has unofficially started early, with a few one-day-only bargains popping up before the full-on assault. Today of interest to us we have:

1. Monkey Island 2 Special Edition for £1.75/75% off. If you don't own the superb remake of the greatest game ever made, rectify this hideous error right now or we break your legs. Seriously, we know where you live and we have the hobblin' post ready.

2. Knights of the Old Republic for £1.75/75% off. A similarly great price for arguably the best Star Wars game. Even if you haven't liked anything Star Wars related since teddy bears with sticks brought down the Evil Empire, this is worth a look.

You have just a few hours to get these deals. We'll update this post as more stuff becomes cheap.

Source: Steam

Using Benny's newly updated and super-handy Telltale Speech Extractor, some mischievous rascals decided to give Poker Night at the Inventory a workout and apparently stumbled upon some evidence that Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People might be getting ported to Playstation and the iPad.

Don't tell Mom.

Source: Telltale forums

Bill Tiller's slice of Twitter has once again been flavored with a topping of Year One sneak peek-ery. Taken perhaps from a cutscene, Bill offers a bucolic image of Shrowdy von Kiefer sipping some crimson essence during a picnic, potentially on Lake Warg. What's on his mind? Is anyone sitting next to him? Could this somehow be used to extrapolate exact details of the ending? It's more fun than analyzing a Crystal Skull trailer!

Source: Bill Tiller's Twitter

I mean, I think the headline says it all.

Go look and think of what could have been.

Source: Spudvision

Today we have lost the director of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Let us all take a moment of silence to reflect upon the excellence that is that movie.

Source: Yahoo! News

Telltale’s latest Pilot Program title is a hark back to their first ever game, the pleasant Telltale Texas Hold ‘Em, except this time you’ll be playing against four famous gaming and internet characters who have never shared the screen before now (except the Heavy wearing Max’s head in Team Fortress 2 of course).

We dutifully review it within just a week of its release! Wow!

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Well, I'm glad you asked! Market research firm FADE (Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment) looked at the top 10 bestsellers on Xbox Live in October, and Costume Quest was in there at Number 7, selling 31,000 copies.

Considering that was in just the last week of October, only the 360 sales and up against such major digital titles as Sonic 4, Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, and Limbo, that's a very respectable position.

Click below to see the full chart.

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Source: FADE (via Eurogamer)

I’ve written a lot of complaints about certain games we like not turning up on PC. With Double Fine recently saying “it’s not our fault”, DeathSpank parts 1 and 2 coming out and my own constant moaning becoming a running joke here at Mojo, I thought it was time I set the record straight about my opinion.

I think Double Fine’s games have to be on PC. Read on for my justification, and why it’s probably not going to happen just yet.

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After presumably losing The Tingler's cell phone number, Tim Schafer updated the online Double Fine Q&A to address a certain subject that is quite touchy amongst The Tingler PC gamers:

I reprint what was implicit to all us due to the fact that this was for some reason picked up as a story on Gamasutra, and any debate in the comments there might be of more interest than the ones indigenous to The International House of Three Readers.

Source: Gamasutra

PC fans may have got no love with the announcement of Double Fine's new game Stacking, but fortunately at least one previously console-only game is coming, as DeathSpank: Thongs Of Virtue is coming to PC on December 1st.

As a slight apology for taking so long, the Snowy Mountain Dungeon DLC will be included free. As a further bonus, Mac games will also get both DeathSpank episodes on 14th December. It's available to purchase now on Steam with a 10% preorder discount.

I guess DeathSpank is doing pretty well on PC after all. Who'd have thought that a Diablo/Torchlight-style action-RPG from the creator of The Secret of Monkey Island would be successful on the platform that made both popular, eh?

Source: Eurogamer

Wootfly.tv has put up the first of a two-part video interview with Tim Schafer. It won't kill you to watch it, and I'll kill you if you don't. Prudence dictates going with the not me killing you choice.

Also, there's a small page for Stacking up on the Double Fine web site, featuring six screenshots and a brief overview of the game. It verifies the possibly well known fact that Lee Petty (Brutal Legend art director) is the project leader for this one, which is the second of the four Amnesia Fortnight games to be published by THQ.

Anywho, we'll have those screenshots nice and stolen just as soon as Zaarin adds Stacking to the database (thx!), but in the meantime you can do the noble thing and wreck Double Fine's own bandwidth.

Source: Wootfly

Steve Purcell's newest addition to the official Sam & Max blog is a large version of a cover painting he did for the animated series DVD release. After revealing that it includes "two levels of obscurity," readers in the comments got to work, and soon discovered was a "Spock photon torpedo coffin with our favorite Geek's last name inscribed." Is this the final fate of the much-maligned Geek?

Elsewhere on the internet's Mt. Olympus of LEC adventure legends, Bill Tiller updated the Autumn Moon blog, explaining with no shortage of detail (or references to Night Gallery) exactly why Mona, with her fancy-pants bat transformation powers, couldn't just fly away from Castle Warg and halve A Vampyre Story's playtime. Don't eliminate higher education from your day!

In a desperate attempt to grab headline space on Mixnmojo after a rush of not-Telltale news (see some Double Fine and Deathspank-related announcements below), Telltale Games has released four screenshots of their upcoming Back to the Future game on IGN. See Doc, Marty and a conversation tree. Go. Click there. See. We don't care. Mojo owns IGN, according to my colleagues, though they didn't clarify whether it owned it in the business sense of the word. We probably make all the ad money anyways.

Source: IGN (again)

Double Fine's new game has been announced. It is called Stacking, and, as far as I know, does not involve crates. Oh lordy.

The news comes exclusively from Mojo's sissy competitors IGN (or, as they would call Mojo, "worthy competition"), who have more details and a trailer.

The game is second in Double Fine's line-up of downloadable titles, and you should be excited for it if you: 1. don't exclusively play games on things that aren't PS3 or XBox 360, and 2. have access to PSN and XBLA. Otherwise you'll just have to hope to hype that it comes to other platforms, unlike a certain other game called Costume Quest (which Mixnmojo reviewed, by the way).

Expect the game in Spring 2011.

Source: IGN

Just in time for Halloween '11 comes our Costume Quest review.

Go over here to read it!

Poker Night at the Inventory is out on Steam and from Telltale's site. Those who own it from Telltale can also play on Steam. Enjoy!

It would appear that the PSN version of the original Deathspank is now on sale on PSN in North America. It's going for $7.49, instead of the regular price of $14.99. As is now traditional to say around this festive time of year, "Buy buy buy" (if you're interested).

Source: Playstation Blog

Two new BTTF interviews to report. The first is this Italian one, the Google translated version being here.

Second is an interview with AJ LoCascio, the voice of Marty, by Alternative Magazine Online. Can its brevity be forgiven by its closing promise of more to come?

Sometimes news is succinct.

Source: Telltale Blog

In Double Fine's efforts to replace The Nightmare Before Christmas, their Hallowe'en themed Costume Quest (which we will get round to review, promise!) will be getting a Christmas-themed DLC pack called Grubbins On Ice. GameSpot has the first preview.

I admit I intentionally haven't read too much of that preview (since it clearly says that it has spoilers for people who haven't played the main game), but Double Fine are aiming for around five hours of playtime. No word on the price yet.

This also marks Double Fine's first ever single-player DLC, as they only ever released multiplayer stuff for Brutal Legend. This post also would have marked the first ever time I didn't mention about a game not being on PC, if I hadn't had just done so.

Source: GameSpot

In a move that will surprise nobody, LEGO's partnership with Disney is bringing not only LEGO toys to the shelves, but also a LEGO POTC videogame. It's slated for PC, Xbox360, PS3, PSP, and NDS and is due out at the same time as the 4th Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

Read the whole press release here.

Source: Nintendo Life

Ever wanted to pretend you were an underpaid QA tester at LucasArts circa 1991? Ron Gilbert has got you covered with these scans of the Monkey Island 2 bug report. The best part of it is definitely the legend of bug classes on the bottom left.

Source: Grumpy Gamer

LucasArts, some company that put itself back into our collective hearts last year but is now trying its hardest to not stay there, has laid off an undisclosed number of employees. This depressing news comes, even more depressingly, from that eternal spring of fine journalism IGN.

According to the company, the "minor" layoff will not affect any future or current projects. You may take that promise with as much salt as you desire. I don't blame you.

Tingler Updates: Kotaku have a response from a LucasArts rep, and they confirm some layoffs.

Hmm. I believe they also said that after the previous round of layoffs, right before the rep confirmed that the next-gen Indiana Jones was still coming and "looked amazing".

Kroms updates: Thanks to Jeff from the comments for pointing out this Gamasutra story, which indicates the layoff may include up to 50 people. Duke Nukem co-creator George Broussard claims the laid-off employees were working on an unannounced project.

Source: IGN

That's right, STFU2 (aka Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2) will have DLC which has Starkiller going to the forest moon of Endor... and killing Ewoks.

Now let's see some screenshots of Guybrush killing Ewoks! That's really the only thing I thought of when I saw this...

Source: IGN (via Kotaku)

A few days back, the Tales of MI.net blog made the commendable effort to compile a fairly complete list of all Monkey Island fangames, past and present, legally suppressed and otherwise, download links included!

Most of these I've never heard of before, but I will say that I'm looking forward to playing Fate of Monkey Island 1 and 2 again. Relive some memories and remind yourself of why the reputation of the Monkey Island fanbase as being the best around is well-deserved.

Source: Tales of MI.net

Word on the street is that the aforementioned Back to the Future Facebook game includes concept art for George McFly, Biff, and a character named Kid Tannen in the high score segment of the tutorial.

"But wait!" you cry. "I'm just like Jason and have no interest in loading a Facebook application just to see some small glimpses of concept art!" And that's where the the good old boys at the Telltale forums once again deliver: check it out.

Of course, actually playing Blitz Through Time is the only way you're going to hear the lines of recorded line that are allegedly scattered within. Also, Telltale's Alan Johnson reveals that some new BTTF assets will be released on the pre-order forum come tomorrow. Good thing you pre-ordered!

Source: Telltale Forums

If you've attempted to recover a lost password using the "Password?" button, you may not have received an e-mail. The cause of this has now been fixed so if you're still waiting, fill out the lost password form again to get a new password.

Now, back to our regular programme.

Steve Purcell continues digging up canceled Sam & Max game concept art to our grateful delight. Today we get another piece from Plunge Through Space:

Delicious.

Source: The Official Sam & Max Blog

If you're on that "Facebook" thing, you can now try Back to the Future: Blitz Through Time, a promo game for the forthcoming Back to the Future. The game is pretty much Bejeweled clone which I'm sure was a clone of something else before that, but now we're splitting hairs.

Anyway.

Play, damn it.

So it turns out that the main thing responsible for some of our most-loved LucasArts adventures is - uh, geography. As Dave Grossman explains:

It's an intriguing glimpse into a different world. There's also mention of a PS2-era Indiana Jones Trilogy game which was held-up in the development process, but which would potentially have been great.

Weird stuff.

Source: 1up

One of the mainstays of MOMOMOROGAPAs has been to hack away at resource nodes to gather materials. For The Old Republic, Bioware has changed this to let your crew do all the dirty work while you gallivant around the galaxy.

Your crew can specialize in gathering, crafting, and mission skills in order to open up a host of options to get better items and more credits.

Clicky here for the new crew skills page revealing some of the things your crew can get up to as well as a video.

Source: swtor.com

Tim has been quoted in the latest PSM3 as saying he's ready to create a sequel to Psychonauts.



I hear LucasArts and Gabez have some free publishing slots, maybe one of them would be willing to lend a hand. Link at the end of the post.

Source: CVG

Earlier this year we brought you the astonishing news that a company had made it possible to play Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition in a web browser. That company was Instant Action, who sadly are now shutting down.

In a comment to Kotaku, a spokesman said that the developer was closed because "it was operating in a highly competitive industry, and the business didn't scale profitably in the manner we had expected."

The engine Instant Action used to power Monkey Island, Torque, is now being sold off, along with the dream of playing MI2 in a browser as well. Sad news indeed.

Source: Torque Powered (via Kotaku)

Gametap has announced that they have added A Vampyre Story to their line-up. I have no idea what the service looks like these days, but at any rate it's yet another avenue for you to buy the game, making it available from every single digital outlet except the most appropriate (or at least the one The Tingler insists on): Steam.

In other AVS news, Year One is clearly underway, and if you thought getting a sneak at the game's creation was a gas, wait until I tell you that you get the same privilege for the game's web site, an early form of which Bill Tiller has uploaded a voyeuristic snapshot of here.

Bill has also updated the Autumn Moon blog with an entry where he responds to some fabricated fan mail. Does it address any niggling concerns you had about Autumn Moon's upcoming series? If not, you can always take Bill's suggestion and send in your own letter to billt@amegames.com. You might just get your reply immortalized, or at least put on the blog.

Source: The Pumpkin Post

We've always been suspicious that LEC's actual involvement with the bigger-than-something-big MMORPG Stars Wars: The Old Republic was minor, but it turns out it's actually less:

So what exactly is LEC doing right now besides publishing LEGO Star Wars III? Well, it seems that they're working on a Star Wars Kinect title that will be available for the 360 Christmas 2011. "I've seen a bunch of the game and it's super compelling," declares a source.

Source: Gamasutra

There's a new video at GameTrailers for Poker Night at the Inventory wherein Sean Vanaman explains exactly what The Inventory is. Also, he says "The Wizard."

Source: GameTrailers

Want to play Brütal Legend, but you've been too cheap to pick it up? AxelMusic is selling the Xbox 360 version for only $7.15 today!

(Now where's my cut?)

Source: AxelMusic.com

Having already refreshed us from the well of Freelance Police concept art, Steve Purcell now offers us a new scrap from the table of the equally canceled Sam & Max Plunge Through Space. The piece shared is an incredibly cool design of the Desoto converted for space travel. He writes:

PC version? I guess it wasn't going to be Xbox-exclusive after all. Oh, well, no use crying about it now. Not that we'll stop you.

Source: Spudvision

Through the magic of Twitter, Bill Tiller is once again inviting us to be party to the creation of one of his game backgrounds. Witness the "collapsed hall" from A Vampyre Story: Year One in its original drawing form and then the beginnings of its color script. Check them out before I collapse you.

Source: Bill Tiller's Twitter

Double Fine's most notable members with the names Tim Schafer and Tasha Harris were guests on yesterday's episode of the "Mobcast." If you've heard of it, that would narrow you down to being: not me. Anyway, while on the show they did this:

Sounds awesome to me. I'm fixing to find out for sure, and I like to think the example I set is worth following.

Source: Bitmob

The second released screenshot for the first episode of A Vampyre Story: Year One, "When Mona Met Froderick," can be seen over at Adventure Gamers. My but Mona is a looker in that red dress.

Source: Adventure Gamers

Hello world!

Before starting my official duties as Mojo Vice President of Humongous Entertainment Games, here's a video showing off some of Anson Jew's animation work at LucasArts. The more interesting parts should be of Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix and an early version of The Dig. I don't recall this being on Mojo before, but none of you can double check as the old news archives aren't online! Muhaha!

You should also check out Anson's blog.

Source: A Goy Named Jew

On the official Sam & Max blog, Steve Purcell has shared some unseen concept art of Gytgo, an imported organic Gameboy-type thing that would have found its way into Sam's inventory in Freelance Police and been used to replay unlocked minigames. (You can see his in-game representation here.)

As an added bonus, Purcell has pasted some dialog from the game which includes a song that Gytgo would have sang, and revealing Sam and Max's differing opinions regarding the device's need to be summarily destroyed.

Source: Spudvsion

The announcement of A Vampyre Story: Year One was short on details, so The Pumpkin Post decided to get some answers. Specifically, the answers to these questions they had in mind for Bill Tiller, who threw in a logo and a piece of character concept art for good measure.

The extremely informative interview discusses specifics about the episodic Year One including how/why it came about, the intended number of episodes, and the recasting of Mona. You will also read about plans for the AVS saga as a whole (which may involve non-game spinoffs in addition to the planned sequels), and some hopes Bill has for Ghost Pirates and new IP. Avoid getting assigned an F minus in my gradebook and read all about Autumn Moon.

Source: The Pumpkin Post

Guybrush Sheepgood Creepwood Fancypants...someone who is an early prototype of Guybrush Threepwood has graced the pencil sketch of a once-potential cover for The Secret of Monkey Island, drawn by the always-brilliant Steve Purcell.

Obligatory second link may or may have nothing to do with the Secret of Monkey Island. The only way to find out is by clicking it.

Source: Spudvision

Source: YouTube

You've pre-ordered it, and now you have the opportunity to learn a thing or two about it. Yes, IGN has the official, full length trailer for Poker Night at the Inventory to complement their new preview. Telltale's proper web site will be launching soon, as will the game itself - in November (you know, the month we're currently in), to be somewhat exact!

All of the above is summarized in, and stolen from, a Telltale forum thread thread by Jake, so feel free to read about it there, too.

Source: IGN

You love Steve Purcell, you love Sam & Max, so what's not to love about a Sam & Max blog from Steve Purcell?

There's not a whole lot to see there yet, but we can only assume that will change soon.

Go read!

If you just had subscribed to our podcast in iTunes you would already know that we have a new episode out.

In it, Jason and The Tingler speculate about future games, and The Tingler answers the phone. Don't tell me you don't want to listen to that!

Go download the file if you're too hip to use iTunes.