The International House of Mojo

Adventuregamers has a brand new Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island preview, and an interview with Bill Tiller.

the idea of Ghost Pirates came from an idea we bandied about at LucasArts to play three different Monkey Island characters in one game, to see the adventure through their eyes.

Go read it.

Source: Adventuregamers

As The Pumpkin Post will tell you, Ghost Pirates publisher dtp has put up a teaser site for the game. At the moment it's got nothing to offer but some pirate jokes, but hey, at least it exists.

There's also apparently some new concept art among this stash, hosted by GamersHell, most significantly a big image of the main cast. And as long as you're in a Tiller mood, you may appreciate a reminder about that AVS artbook that's for sale.

Bill Tiller at Autumn Moon has just posted a great blog detailing how he came to conceive Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island. He shares tidbits of developing Monkey Island games at LucasArts and he reacts to the Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition and Telltale's Tales of Monkey Island.

But the cool thing is the fans REALLY win here no matter how or why the MI games got made. Fans get Secret of MI with sound, voice and new take at the old graphics, they get an episodic down loadable game with real time environments from Tell Tale, and in January they’ll get a retail CD, full game, with hand painted backgrounds in the CMI style, but with a whole new story line and new characters, and you get to play ghosts and switch between three main characters. So as a huge MI fan I consider this a win, win, win! I hope other Monkey fans do too.

Yes we do, Bill, yes we do. May you springboard your own marketing plan from the publicity wave that the LucasArts & Telltale Monkey Island games will generate!

For the full blog, click, click, click...

Source: AMEblog

So, with Tales of Monkey Island announced we now have two supernatural pirate themed graphic adventure games headed by LucasArts veterans in the pipeline. That other one, Autumn Moon's Ghost Pirates of Voojo Island (which for those just joining us is has gorgeous illustrated backgrounds and is in the vein of CMI and A Vampyre Story), has some new screenshots out which you can see over at Adventure Gamers and not here since our galleries are all screwed up.

I say "new," when most if not all (I can't be bothered to check) of these screens come from the magazine scans from awhile back, but this is at least the first time they're available in any kind of reasonable resolution, so check them out!

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.

Source: Adventuregamers

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

Todesreiter on the adventure-treff forums has posted screenshots and concept art from Ghost Pirates of Voojo Island.

Thanks for the tipoff, Sven_Q45.

Reopen the MI Hosted sites is all I can say!

Update: Tiller blogs it.

So I was looking as some forums that were discussing Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island, and one thing that popped up that I wanted to address went something like this ”Aw man! not another pirate game?!!” Well I agree there are a lot out there and we did pitch a lot of different game ideas and do have a lot of original ideas for games, - don’t we all really? But the game pitch that seemed to get the most traction was Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island. I love pirates and I haven’t worked on a pirate game since 1997 so for me it’s been 12 years and I have been itching to do another one.

Source: adventure-treff

German adventure site Adventure-Treff has got some info info on the long murmured-about graphic adventure game that Autumn Moon has been working on alongside the A Vampyre Story series. The title is Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island, and the world exclusive first look is apparently in the form of a three page preview for it in the German PC Games magazine. (Scans please?)

There are some details to be found in the Adventure-Treff write-up, but the rough English translation is doing me few favors. German folk - leave comments telling us what it says!

Although it's hard not to think of Monkey Island when reading that title, the fact remains that Bill Tiller has said in interviews that he's always wanted to do his own pirate game, noting that there's plenty of room for different stories to be told in a Pirates of the Caribbean inspired universe. Stay tuned, as there's likely to be some more details emerging on this game soon!

Thanks to Igor Hardy for the tipoff

Update: The Pumpkin Post has a translated version of the news post. The game will apparently revolve around three ghostly pirate protagonists who are coping with their situation (a la Mona as a vampire) and there might be collaborative puzzles between the characters along the lines of Day of the Tentacle. The publisher is dtp entertainment of Germany. It's slated for early 2010, and interestingly will be released "at least six months" before A Bat's Tale, which puts the latter game in a mid-2010 timeframe at the latest.

Update 2: You can see the first piece of concept artwork from the game on the new PC Games cover.

After receiving the first five million apologetic e-mails, Bill Tiller has decided to hold up his end of the bargain and animate the cut FMV sequence from A Vampyre Story as a flashback in AVS2. The scene apparently details Monsignor Calvin and his sidekick getting their assignment, like any self-respecting members of a secret vampire-hunting cabal. Bill even provides concept art for the scene (as well as an old screenshot that we should have recognized as not being from the final game), so check it out.

The ever vigilant Pumpkin Post has noticed the existence of the following Youtube video:

The latest Autumn Moon news post made yesterday reveals two major things. The first is that Bill is finally ready to start talking about that secret project Autumn Moon has been developing concurrently with the AVS series. Only a code title is being revealed, it being Teal Harvest: Terror Beyond the Act or Power of Forming a Mental Image of Something Not Present to the Senses or Never Before Wholly Perceived in Reality (abbreviated TBAPFMISNPSNBWPR).

Bill says that the game is already in its final four months of production, which puts its release ahead of AVS2: A Bat's Tale. Yes, you have TWO Autumn Moon games to look forward to. The release date for the mystery game is still not yet decided by the publisher (whoever it is), but AVS2 will likely follow "4-6 months" after, which I'm guessing puts the latter in an early 2010 timeframe.

On a less uplifting note, in the wake of the recent unearthings of some unused AVS audio recordings in the game's data files, Bill has been forced to publicly confront the fact that yes, an entire FMV cutscene and a few shots from some others, were cut from AVS before it shipped. Bill was planning on animating the dropped scene for the sequel, but is apparently so agitated by the voyeurism involved in making the scandalous discovery that he is now unwilling to resurrect the scene unless demands are met:

I might change my mind if I receive 5 MILLION emails asking me to put it back in AVS2. In addition, these emails must contain a 12 page (single space) written apology, along with a solemn pledge to buy AVS2 and TH:TBAPFMISNPSNBWP when it comes out. Got that?! 5 Million!

He then goes on to list an e-mail address, billiamreallysorry@amegames.com, where you can send the apologies. Yes, you.

Well, go ahead. It's an official AME post, so rest assured that they're reading it. (Thanks to the Pumpkin Post for the tip-off.)

I'd suggest better writing, and probably better structure. The first was all set-up, no pay-off. Maybe also releasing a good demo, really, since that demo really harmed the game. There's other stuff, of course, but I'm sure you're better at pointing it out than I am.

Source: The Pumpkin Post

A sympathetically rabid fan of Autumn Moon's A Vampyre Story contacted The Pumpkin Post after some incessant sniffing around in the game's resource files. What he found were unused voice recordings that were apparently from cutscenes that got shortened/removed from the final game. The deleted story points include some additional lines in the game's opening cutscene, as well as the audio remnants of a scene where the Monsignor and his partner Balcu receive their orders to kill Shrowdy and recover the Book of Shrowds.

An overview of the missing dialog in addition to how to hear it can be found in The Pumpkin Post news entry. Just to be safe I'll shout Spoilers! here, as the reasons behind some of these edits may very well be that these story threads are intended to be revealed in the sequel.

Officially, I mean. The super sexy web site for A Bat's Tale has launched, complete with screenshots, press releases, and all the other things that you expect to accompany a game announcement. Here's the marketing department plot synopsis:

Mona, the unwilling vampire mired deep in denial, is trapped by the vindictive Dr. Riga Mortus in his secret lab in Draxsylvania. Players will guide Froderick through the macabre town of Gothford Falls, where he will encounter old enemies and make some new friends, including inept magician The Great Fauxdini, conceited local Goth artist Raven Gothguy, and seriously lame serial killer 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 by dressing as a little girl again, making his own zombie, and getting pummeled almost to death by the local hooligans, the notorious Belfry Boyz. Then play Mona as she scours through hundreds of shamelessly padded résumés looking for the perfect day-time guardian to watch over her as she returns to Paris !

The game will feature over twenty-five 3D characters, over forty 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.

You'll be wanting to poke around and check out all the cool stuff within, like the awesome concept art, so I'll leave you to it. I'll also point out that, like The Pumpkin Post, Adventure Gamers scored itself an exclusive character image, so check that out too. Oh, and did I mention Larry Ahern? Exciting stuff these days.

The Pumpkin Post has been informed that the official site for AVS2 - http://www.avampyrestory2.com/, will be launching tomorrow. The game's full title has also been revealed: A Vampyre Story 2: A Bat's Tale. And don't forget to check out the exclusive wallpaper!

You should read The Post, you know. It has been diligently following the updates made to Von Kiefer's journal, which is the home of a lot of backstory and some exclusive art. And there's another cool tie-in website for the game, by the way: a calendar, with a painting being drawn for each month. (The calendar is seen in-game, and Froderick mentions the web site when looking at it.) The Post has also noticed this Youtube dedication to Mona. Read the Pumpkin Post, is what I'm getting at.

Sick of trying to update the former Autumn Moon blog on the company's official site, Bill Tiller decided to just make a Wordpress blogspot Autumn Moon blog with the implication that it will be updated more frequently. Being brand new, it currently only has some scandalizing photos from the A Vampyre Story wrap party, but keep your eyes peeled.

In other Autumn Moon news, in-house artist Jean-Louis Sirois has once again updated his own blog with some more never-before-seen AVS concept art. One entry presents a rendering of Shrowdy von Kiefer while another offers a bunch of additional character sketches. He also unexpectedly posted a bizarre doodle of none other than Raz from Psychonauts, which is awesome.

Which is why you should be appreciative of something that The Pumpkin Post reported on a few days ago, namely that Autumn Moon artist Jean-Louis Sirois (who also is the party responsible for those regular and splendid Autumn Moon holiday cards) has updated his blog with some concept art from A Vampyre Story. In addition to some character sketches are three pieces of background art that were only visible in-game during cutscenes in compressed FMV form.

See it all, and be amazed! And maybe even get a slight tidbit about a character or two that may appear in the sequel.

Yes, A Vampyre Story 4. In rather a cool interview with IncGamers, Bill confirms that AVS is going to be more than just a trilogy.

"We won't get to meet Shrowdy's mom until A Vampyre Story 4, though she makes a brief appearance at the end of the credits in A Vampyre Story 3. And we will definitely be meeting Jack the Gimper, the creepy chap in the painting. He plays an important role in AVS2. We'll also meet Carpathia the Wolf-Woman ™, the Mortus Monster, and we will get to change Mona's costumes for the first time. And trust me, seeing the outfit she has to wear will be worth the ticket of admission. Also, in the first half of the game the player will be playing Froderick exclusively while Mona is incapacitated. But I should say no more..."

He also mentions that Autumn Moon's non-AVS game will be announced early 2009, hopefully.

We could have told you this news on December 17th, when The Pumpkin Post first reported it, but, you know, it was December 17th. We figured you were probably really, really busy that day. And then one thing led to another. And then Gabez forgot Festivus again, etc.

Anyway, the Post was able to score an exclusive look at the new Mona model Autumn Moon will be using for A Vampyre Story 2. Quoth the Post:

Mona has been updated and smoothed over to work better for the animators, and her polygon count has gone up a bit. Bill also mentions that AVS 2 is 38.5 % done, and that it should be out in the fourth quarter of 2009!

So what are you waiting for? Check out those voluptuous polygons!

About a week ago, Bill Tiller made a post on his personal blog featuring the image of some robot character, saying:

This here is a robot assassin that will be in Autumn Moons first episodic adventure game serial, IF we ever get any investors for it (big 'if'). It is a retro sci fi killer inspired by the movie Forbidden Planet. If you are an invetsor email me please!

Autumn Moon's succumbed to the allure of episodic gaming as well, eh? I'm not sure if the game series he's alluding to is this mysterious second IP that Autumn Moon is said to be working on, but I'm guessing not since Bill Tiller has mentioned there already being a publisher involved with it. But whatever this serial is, I think you can spot Bill a few million to make it a reality. I'm sure some of you must have some money burning a hole in your pocket if the success of The SCUMM Bar's donation sham is any indication.

That's not all the neato stuff one can learn from the Tiller blog, either. His most recent post was of some Mona concept art for AVS3, which will apparently take place during the day and see our vampire heroine wearing a hat. There's also some old concept art featuring Mona in similar garb. In fact, you might be interested in looking at the AVS concept art gallery, as it's clear that in the three or so years some of these seemingly innocuous images have been around, they've actually secretly been revealing details on the sequels to AVS in addition to the first installment.

And before you go, there's one more thing in the category of Things That The Internet Informed Everyone Of Before Mojo Could Be Bothered To Post About - this Gametrailers.com video which lists the Top 10 beards in all of video gamery. Five guesses as to which feared pirate captain occupies the top spot.