The International House of Mojo

While we're all off at the Autumn Moon site's A Vampyre Story section daily looking for new images and blog entries, we'll now have to peruse not one, but two new official sites for the game.

vampyre-story.com looks to be a product of publishers Crimson Cow and Focus, and has English plus French language options. It has a gallery with what may be a previously unseen image ("Vlad's Landing" poster) and a brand new messageboard.

avampyrestory-game.com is a one page teaser by Crimson Cow and while there's no real content yet, the teaser image does have the delicious by-line;

The Graphic Adventure isn't Dead... It's Undead!.

Source: vampyre-story

I can feel the love.

Focus Home has the honor. Read all about it here! If you speak French. But you don't need to speak French to drool over the two new pieces of background art that also appear on the page.

Gabez may have neglected to hold the Airing of Grievances yesterday, but at least there are some people who aren't all too happy to club Tiny Tim in the kneecaps with a deficiency of holiday spirit: the folks working on A Vampyre Story. In the second Autumn Moon blog entry by lead writer Dave Harris, we're treated to a delightful holiday-themed poem as well as a splendid painting of some AVS carollers which is sure to bring you good cheer. Ho. (Ho. Ho.)

The Autumn Moon and Telltale discussions were both held and are now over, so why not go and read them now if you weren't able to take part? The Autumn Moon chat's here and the Telltale one would be in this vicinity.

It's that time of year again! No, not Thanksgiving. The thing that matters. The highly anticipated second annual Adventure Developers Online Conference hosted by Adventure-Europe. If you don't remember last year's, it's an open forum chat with adventure game developers. And like last year, Autumn Moon Entertainment and Telltale Games will be there for your insightful queries. The event will be held next week, so check the time blocks of all the companies you want answers from.

And don't forget you can check out the results of the 2005 chat here.

In a new interview at Cubed?, Autumn Moon's Bill Tiller reveals some of the company's forthcoming plans.

Given the furore over the throwaway Wii comments Telltale Games made a month or two back, it will be interesting to see what kind of commotion this statement causes;

The Nintendo Wii controller interface is definitely unique and fun. I could definitely see where we could do some innovative GUI and interactivity and puzzles. I think the Wii is the next step in gaming and I'm really excited by it. Again, I can?t make any promises, but we do have plans to pursue and research the possibility of making a version of A Vampyre Story on the Wii.

Lots of info on the company, their current plans and the progress of A Vampyre Story in the full interview.

Source: Cubed?

Two new pieces of character concept art have appeared on the Autumn Moon gallery page: Monsignor Calvin and Shannon O'Dougherty: The Banshee (??). Bill also professes his love for Halloween in a lengthy writeup.

And Happy Halloween everyone!

The Autumn Moon blog has received its first update. Head writer Dave Harris reveals all about moving into new offices, conceptual art design, and oversized CMI standees. It's still so great to hear that this game is actually on track. Run, don't walk to the AME blog now.

New character concept art! Woo!

Those cool and sexy guys over at Autumn Moon has sent over a new image from their upcoming game, A Vampyre Story. This one might very well be a good desktop image. Go look.

Bill Tiller has been interviewed by Working Title and spills a lot of new info about A Vampyre Story. The team is coming together nicely;

Well right now we have five, but it move up to ten in a few months. We have two more employees to hire and then my team will be complete. But right now we are finishing up preproduction, which we have been on for last two years, just not full time... So my writer, Dave Harris and I are finalizing the game idea with input from the rest of the team. My programmer Aaron St John is starting on the game engine. Bill Eaken, one of the artists is doing initial background work as well as concept art and character designs. My character modeler will be starting this month and will work on the characters already designed, and Mark Teal, my Producer, is setting up the data base and helping me write the production schedule.

Check the interview for the rest of the information. There also looks to be a few previously unseen screenshots in amongst the bunch gracing the story.

Source: Working Title

A Vampyre Story's publisher has a name today, the Germany based Crimson Cow. While the publisher's CEO is noticeably not a self-proclaimed doctor, it does have some things going for it, such as having an actual and respected history of producing adventure games. Check out their site for a tiny bit of info. It's confirmed that Crimson Cow has the worldwide publishing rights. The speculative release for the game right now is Q4 2007. A Halloween release, perhaps? Anywho, keep your eye on both companies, as we're sure to be hearing more as production kicks into high gear.<:MORENEWS:>

Here's the press release from Crimson Cow's English language site:

Crimson Cow and Autumn Moon Entertainment sign worldwide publishing deal

The Hamburg-based publisher Crimson Cow today announced that a publishing agreement has been signed between Autumn Moon Entertainment and Crimson Cow. Through the agreement, Crimson Cow has secured the worldwide rights to the adventure "A Vampyre Story" which is currently under development by Autumn Moon Entertainment. Both companies are pleased to be able to pool their many years of experience in the creation and publication of excellent adventures.

?A Vampyre Story? has been written by Bill Tiller, the founder of Autumn Moon Entertainment. A former employee of Lucas Arts, Tiller won himself a place in the hearts of adventure fans through his work on titles such as Steven Spielberg's The Dig, the legendary The Curse of Monkey Island, and Indiana Jones. A Vampyre Story combines modern 3D animations with the qualities of classic 2D adventures and exceptional style.

The point-and-click adventure "A Vampyre Story" tells the story of the beautiful, gifted opera singer Mona De Lafitte, whose life is brought to an abrupt end by a vampire baron named Shrowdy von Kiefer. Henceforth, she is doomed to a miserable existence as the unwilling companion of the vampire in his gloomy castle. Fate smiles on her briefly when her undead captor is destroyed. Seizing the opportunity, Mona runs away from Baron von Kiefer and tries to fulfill her dream of singing at the Paris Opera. Accompanied by her mischievous bat Froderick, Mona must face a number of challenges in her odyssey and learn not only to accept her vampire nature, but also to use the abilities she has acquired to her advantage.

Karsten Otto, managing director of Crimson Cow GmbH, is looking forward to the release next year: "We are convinced that an outstanding interactive story and excellent art design are at the heart of every exceptional game. A Vampyre Story embodies both, and we are proud to be able to contribute to the worldwide revival of the unique, exciting experience of the adventure genre in 2007."

Bill Tiller, CEO and Creative Director of Autumn Moon Entertainment, is also pleased about the deal: "My long-standing experience in this industry has taught me above all: Key to the success of any production is a team that believes in the project from day one, and that can focus all of its know-how and passion. Only then does a great idea become a great game! In Crimson Cow we have found just the right partner, and together we will publish an absolutely top product.?

For more information about A Vampyre Story as well as the first images, please visit the official AVS teaser site http://www.amegames.com/vs/

About Crimson Cow:

Crimson Cow was founded in 2002 in Hamburg (Germany) and is a publisher of high quality, sophisticated interactive entertainment. Among other titles, Crimson Cow has the German licenses for the enormously successful "Runaway" (2002) and the innovative "Fenimore Fillmore: Wanted" (2004), both of which contributed significantly to the revival of the adventure genre. Since the foundation of Crimson Cow, approx. 10 titles have been published or are in preparation, including the undisputed market leader in cycling games, the "Pro Cycling Manager" series. For more information and contact details, please visit www.crimsoncowgames.com


About Autumn Moon Entertainment:

Founded in 2004, privately owned Autumn Moon Entertainment, LLC develops original entertainment products for computer, console, and other media. Autumn Moon's main focus is on creating beautifully rendered and funny linear games with complex and intriguing stories for audiences looking for an alternative to main stream games. The company's goal is to combine the traditional story telling style of Disney animated movies, with the humor and game play of Lucas Arts' early adventure games, and combined with our own unique senilities to create a fun and fulfilling entertainment experience. Autumn Moon's production team consists of experienced entertainment veterans, many of whom worked at Lucas Arts and other leading studios. The talented AME team is very passionate, intelligent, hard working, and funny, with a lot of experience in creating dramatic entertainment, including plays, games, animated movies, books, live action movies and comic books. Autumn Moon's founder, Bill Tiller, has consistently won awards and rave reviews for his work on such Lucas Arts titles as Steven Spielberg's The Dig, Rebel Assault, The Curse of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Guild Wars, and EA's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Check out this interview that Adventure Advocate held with Bill Tiller about A Vampyre Story. Although it's mostly stuff you've read before, Bill does share a few thoughts about LucasArts and the industry's general adversity to creativity. Also, it appears as though Autumn Moon's publisher may very well be German, but you knew what I meant. ?

After several years of independent pre-production on their highly anticipated adventure title, A Vampyre Story, Autumn Moon has finally signed a deal with a publisher, which is awesome! There's no details or formal press release just yet. "Soon," they say. But the point is that the game is officially picked up and will enter production in the not-too-distant future. Rejoice-worthy news indeed.

Our top secret sources inform us that the publisher probably isn't positioned in Germany.

While NDA's stop Bill Tiller form spilling the beans, it's easy enough to read between the lines in his recent Autumn Moon Forum post.

Also our tech demo was to be shown to publishers at E3, not for the public... publishers are more forgiving of the rough edges around tech demos than the public is... and though I can?t say anything due to NDAs, let?s just say I am very happy right now, after an exhausting week. But I can say no more, though trust me I want to.

Let's hope the details are finalised soon and production on the game proper can finally begin!

Source: Autumn Moon Games

According to the latest Autumn Moon news post, they have enlisted in the help of two companies, Pileated Pictures and Golden Goose Games, to work together on a technology demo to show to prospective publishers. Bill Tiller assures that "With a technology demo complete, the next stage of production will be just around the corner."

The name Pileated Pictures may sound familar to you. Mojo mentioned it as one of the three new (at the time) companies founded by ex-LucasArts employees, the other two being Telltale and Autumn Moon. Pileated is not specifically a games company so much as an all-purpose multimedia developer. Golden Goose Games I've never heard of, but they do have a web site with text, links, and pictures, so I trust them.

Let's hope their collaboration is successful and puts A Vampyre Story one step closer to being made!

I've just noticed a piece of character concept art that is at least to my knowledge new pop up at the Autumn Moon gallery page: Baroness Vasilia Von Kieer! What a knock-out.

Remember that great new background piece that was unveiled a few months ago? Well, the online magazine Mega Gaming has a screen from that scene with Mona in it. That's one hot (or at least warm) dame!

The site also has some never before seen character sketches and information that a demo of the game is being worked on to show to interested publishers, and it is expected to be ready in April. Who knows what that means, but let me be the first to assume: Something awesome.

Check out the Autumn Moon Games site before they deirishfy it.

In other news, Bill Tiller was responsible for Escape from Monkey Island being rubbish. He is also "as high as a kite" :D

If you ever wanted him to design exclusive art for your web-site, now's the time to ask.