Source: Kotaku
This is really only relevant in a roundabout way, but since we covered the European re-release, we'll acknowledge this one: Back to the Future is returning to the silver screen in AMC brand theaters across the US on October 23rd and October 25th (ya get it?) to celebrate the film's 25th anniversary. Free posters will be distributed and much film classicness will be remitted to time travelers nationwide, even the ones in Houma, Louisiana! (See the full list of participating locations here.) Make like a tree, and order your dang ticket.
Would it be conspiratorial to wonder if Telltale might be hoping to attach a trailer or some sort of game-pimping promo during this event?
Source: AMC Theaters
A while ago Tim Schafer posted some photos on Facebook of the LucasArts team celebrating Ron Gilbert Day, and helping to ship The Secret of Monkey Island by assembling the boxes in the warehouse.
Some people have seen these already, but in case you haven't, Gamecola have published them on their site.
Why is this news now? Because Tim Schafer has given permission for them to be released, meaning we can share them without feeling like horrific e-stalkers.
Now everyone can observe the protoplasmic Schafer (played here by a 12 year old boy), together with Ron 'stripy shirt' Gilbert, Dave Grossman, and what appears (in one photo) to be Mr T.
Move over, Lindsay Lohan: British tabloid gaming website Eurogamer.net are reporting that Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has responded to Tim Schafer's insult to him from earlier this year; this, in turn, made Schafer comment back.
Rumours that the story would appear on tomorrow's edition of The Sun are yet to be confirmed.
This all comes a few hours after it was announced that Ron "Monkey Island slash Deathspank creator" Gilbert would be joining Double Fine to work on a yet unannounced game.
Source: Eurogamer
Source: The Apple Store
You might recall us mentioning something about that Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures MMORPG that the Lucas house and Sony Online (but really only Sony Online) jointly produced. Now Gamasutra informs us that the "family-friendly virtual world" has hit an impressive milestone - its first million registered users. And what's more,
To celebrate this milestone, SOE and LucasArts will reward all current Clone Wars Adventures users with a limited edition Golden Mouse Droid pet. The MMO will also host a virtual party at 3PM PDT, the first in a series of weekly live events, where players can gather to chat, duel, and show off their gear.
Surely with this sort of success, LucasArts can, maybe, spare a few farthings of the licensing fee to up the amount of classic adventures they have on Steam to greater than four? I know I'm asking a lot here.
Source: Gamasutra
Gamasutra reports that Double Fine "project lead" (presumably of one of their three unannounced games) Nathan Martz will be keynoting at the upcoming Game Connect Asia Pacific conference in Australia. They say:
Nathan Martz, project lead at Brutal Legend and Psychonauts developer Double Fine will present a keynote titled "The Culture, Creativity and Awesome of Double Fine," in which he'll explain how the nine-year-old independent studio has managed to navigate through the financial, creative and market-related challenges of the modern video game industry.
Sounds like a scream! The conference takes place from October 14-15, and surely there will be a write-up of Martz' speech worth reading around then.
Source: Gamasutra
Just a quick reminder: DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue, the follow-up/sequel/second part of DeathSpank has been out for a few days now on XBLA and PSN. So, yeah. You should probably go buy.
Look forward to a timely Mojo review sometime within the next few years.
Committed to spreading the Good News, GameFAQs drew up a list of top video game religions, and The First Church of LeChuck, Orthodox from Escape from Monkey Island is revered at #6. It would be no venial sin to neglect reading the piece, so do so for the sake of your soul. And if for some reason you're oblivious to the teachings of the Church of LeChuck, receive the sacrament of reconciliation that you don't deserve and read more about the faith on the Monkey Island Wiki.
Source: GameFAQs
Christopher Lloyd has just completed his first voice recording session for Telltale Games' Back to the Future series.
You can see more shots and get the lowdown from the Telltale Blog.
Update: From James Arnold Taylor's facebook page: "I had a fantastic session for the Back to the Future game today. Can't say anymore than that, but it will be a great game! The story is awesome!".
I guess that's Marty sewn up (and a perfect choice to sub for Fox in my opinion), though I'm still hoping for a small MJF cameo.
Source: Telltale Games
Whoa. I forgot we put a Hank Plank joke in the cemetery. That's what I wanted to call Guybrush!
Wait, the Voodoo Lady ships LeChuck voodoo supplies in a crate? Which he presumedly uses to make a voodoo doll of ME? She is my enemy!!!
And now that I think of it, where is the original opening? Most of the SE was awesome, but those are some strange things to cut!
Here is a round-up of some of the news that has been sent in to us:
Alternative Magazine Online have interviewed Dominic Armato, voice of Guybrush Threepwood: he tells them how often he plays Monkey Island, and what thoughts at reviving the character (thanks Martin Mulrooney).
Steve Purcell has posted another nice pirate piacture on his blog, though this one seems unrelated to any old film projects (thanks Hayden censored).
Today is Talk like a Pirate Day (yarrrrr), and this year you can fight viruses at the same time as shivering yer timbers (thanks Rubber John).
Lastly, Snakes of Avalon has been released: a free amateur adventure game made by people in the community and with lots of LucasArts references thrown in. Avast!
With the immortal Talk Like a Pirate Day making port this Sunday, a few pirate themed games that you may or may not be obsessed with are being subjected to some righteous discounts. Exhibit A is digital vendor GamersGate, which is including Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island and Tales of Monkey Island in its week-long sale in honor of the holiday, marking down the games to $9.99 and $13.98 respectively.
When it comes to a Telltale season though, you're really better off going straight to the source, and wouldn't you know it, the seafaring wastrels have seen fit to get in on the action by hawking Tales for a truly irresponsible $4.99 from now until September 20th. Elsewhere in the orbit of Things You Can Have Telltale Charge Your Credit Card For, they will be unlocking Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space (formerly known as Sam & Max: Season 2) as part of that Great Adventure Bundle offer.
I'd like to abstain from indulging too much in piratey patter until Sunday, but it's sufficient to observe that these deals be a bounty worthy of Blackbeard himself, or would be if you didn't already own of all these games ten times over. You do, right?
Coming soon: Mojo news posts that aren't easily interpreted as thinly disguised marketing jabber for video game distribution corporations.
Well, there you have it: The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition and its Holocaust-inspired symphony of darkness of a sequel, LeChuck's Revenge: Special Edition are now on a Steam-sale. Grab Secret or Revenge for $4.99 each, or get a pack with both for $7.49. Spit on your monocle and remove the seaweed shoved up your barnacle, it's time to monkey. So much for Star Wars Week.
Source: Steam
The SOE / LucasArts casual MMO 'Star Wars: Clone Wars' for PC has launched.
From the Press release:
In Clone Wars Adventures, players become the next great hero of the Republic as they take their place alongside their favorite characters from Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated TV series including Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Ahsoka Tano. Gamers can play exciting minigames, engage in dynamic activities, attend lively social events, and access thousands of customization options for their very own personalized avatars. They will speed through space in a Starfighter, take out waves of battle droids in Tower Defense, and test their brains with challenging Droid™ Programming puzzles. Players can also purchase legendary Star Wars outfits, items and accessories through micro-transactions using Station Cash™, SOE's virtual currency.
I guess I'll be "jp-30", Jaepes Dawnglimmer (?) look me up before my kids take over...
Source: Lucasarts
September 12th to September 19th, it's Star Wars Week over at Steam. Star Wars games are on sale. That means the entire Steam Star Wars catalogue goes for $49.99, and, as of the the time of writing, The Force Unleashed goes for $7.50. Might as well check-out pirate adventure game Jolly Rover while you're there, since it's now on sale and going at $4.99.
So, do or don't, there is no try, yada yada yoda. It's not every week that it's Star Wars week, unless you're this guy, where it's Star Wars week every minute, especially in the shower.
Source: Steam
Resident expert on the female anatomy, our own SyntheticGerbil, could not help but discern that Captain Jane Starling's depiction on the US cover of Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island seemed somehow less eye-catching than it did on the European packaging.
Compare the swashbuckling rogue how she appears on the left side of this image to how she appears in this'un. Thank goodness there is someone out there with the courage to keep that smut out of our children's graphic adventure games. Infamous satyr Bill Tiller was unavailable for comment as of press time.
Source: Lucasforums
You love Psychonauts. You probably love Inception, unless its popularity has made it unhip for you to love. Either way, you will love this.
Now who feels the sudden urge to replay Psychonauts?
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
He remarks:
Done! Favorite things: insult/pep talk sword fight, talking crabs and dead seagull. (Was that the final end of the Seagull from Loom?)
Source: Tim's Twitter
Did you know that A Vampyre Story has its own Facebook page? It's apparently a favorite of Mojo's Facebook page, the existence of which I often have to remind myself of.
Well, don't feel bad if you've never heard of it, because I hadn't either. If I had, you can be reasonably certain that I would have been on top of the AVS2 updates, apparently by Bill Tiller, that have been laying dormant there for months. Take this update from May 21:
AVS2 looks like it is on track for Late 2011 now. I was hoping early 2011, but the financing is a bit slower to come than we hoped. Sorry about the delay. Our goal is Halloween 2011, which would be a very cool day to come out.
We are looking into doing a iPhone/ iPad Prequel of AVS. We have to do some research and make sure we can do ti first. But if we can i think will be a cool game because the iPad seems like a really good venue for adventure games. So this will be an experiment. Wish us luck.
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's easy to make the Heavy just say, 'I will murder!' at every turn, and for Tycho to freak out," explains Vanaman.
Rodkin continues, "Right, but then we have Tycho threaten to mail-order in the Heavy's sister as his wife."
"It was important to build those dynamics to make them feel natural," notes Vanaman. "Strong Bad and Tycho, for instance, hate each other -- I don't think they ever agree -- but Tycho and Max get along really well, where the Heavy is wary of Tycho, loves Max, and thinks Strongbad is a tiny Heavy."
Telltale hopes to make such dynamics believable and entertaining, but also authentic: Strong Bad, the Heavy, and Max will all be voiced by their original actors, with Tycho's debut speaking role coming courtesy of Bay Area beatboxer, vocalist, and Telltale VA vet Andrew "Kid Beyond" Chaikin.
"We want to develop this place, The Inventory, as just a cool hang-out spot for video game characters to go," says Vanaman . "We're hoping that 'At the Inventory' will start to mean something if the space is cool and the game is good."
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:
Back to the Future Telltale Games
Telltale Games's Back To The Future episodic series is expected to start in November.
Screenwriter Bob Gale, who worked on the Back To The Future movies, has detailed his involvement in the Telltale Games project.
"I've been having story meetings and exchanging emails and phone calls with the folks at Telltale to make sure that what they develop feels like Back To The Future," he told DS.
"My understanding is that the first instalment - this is a computer game not a console game - they'll be coming out in instalments with the levels released apart, I don't know what the exact schedule is.
"I think they're looking towards the end of October, beginning of November to release the first level."
Gale teased that the story could feature an alternate timeline: "Is it canon? Not exactly, it's a game so they're not the same," he said.
"On the other hand you can say that the Back To The Future series has postulated how you could have almost infinite timelines. Who's to say that the timelines we create in the game couldn't be alternate timelines?"
He added that it will be more "consistent" than previous tie-ins with the franchise, recalling that a NES version was "just dreadful" and "one of the worst games ever made".
It was recently revealed that Christopher Lloyd will reprise his role as Doc Brown for the games.
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.
The $5 game comes to Steam this fall for the PC and Mac and is being released as part of Telltale Games’ Pilot Program — an effort to give new, risky game concepts a chance to shine. According to Connors, the game will have to sell between 100,000 to 200,000 units to be worth reviving as a franchise.
“If this version with these game characters work, we will likely follow it up with new game characters or maybe other celebrities, rock stars and the like.”
Source: Wire
After the release of DeathSpank, Kroms went on a quest to find Ron Gilbert and ask him some important questions. The day he waved goodbye was the last time he was ever seen by a mortal soul.
Though Kroms disappeared, it seems he was successful as the following interview appeared in Mojo's mail box on a tattered piece of paper.
Source: USA Today
Telltale have released more details of their 'crossover game', by adding the title to their store for pre-order.
Poker Night at the Inventory
Prepare for a different kind of poker night in a very different kind of club. In Poker Night at the Inventory, you'll deal with Penny Arcade's clever, cunning Tycho, Team Fortress 2's hulking Heavy, Homestar Runner's self-proclaimed "awesome icon" Strong Bad and the hyperkinetic "rabbity-thing" from Sam & Max. These characters come together in ways some never thought possible, in a setting few would have predicted. You'll experience a new style of poker, particularly when hands don't go the way of the other fiery competitors at the table.
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
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
Or in plainspeak, LucasArts canned 30% of its staff to "better address the needs of the internal studio". Which means they want to spend less money to make money.
UPDATE by Tingler: Kotaku have some words from some of these ex-employees. They call it a "massacre" (they don't actually kill their ex-employees do they? Mind you, we haven't seen Sean Clark in a while) while reporting that at least 85 people have been shown the door. Around 60 of those came from internal development.
A statement from the company reads:
"LucasArts is reorganizing its teams to better address the needs of the internal studio. Unfortunately, this means adjusting staffing. LucasArts continues to be committed to creating a first-class internal studio – and to fostering relationships with trusted external partners – in order to deliver quality games that amaze and inspire fans."
Still, this is horrible news. Again.
Source: NetworkWorld
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.
It turned out she was playing the scene more like a find-the-hidden-object-in-the-picture game, although I had also seen her try some drawers and other non-yellow objects that might be used as containers. Further questioning revealed that it simply had not occurred to her that there might be more to the game than what was on the screen. She wasn't thinking of it as a world; she was thinking of it as a picture.
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:
This intriguing concept potentially offers all the advantages of rendering a console game at 30FPS, along with the visual smoothness and potentially even the crisper response of 60FPS gaming.
30 Mojo Cookie Pirate points to whoever can come-up with the best acronym (SCUMM, iMuse, INSANE, etc) for this thing.
Source: Eurogamer
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
