The International House of Mojo

Just to reassure us that the folks at Autumn Moon are still alive and/or hard at work, they have updated their news page with a short list of links to various hype surrounding A Vampyre Story. I've got goosebumps already!

See it here.

Adventure Europe has an exclusive new background piece from A Vampyre Story, and man oh man does it look great. The image is presented in an article that announces the game as the winner of the, uh, "Most Awaited Adventure Game of the Adventure Europe Adventure Developers Online Conference 2005" award, no doubt among the most prestigious awards you can get from Adventure Europe. The article also provides some context for the screenshot in the story, so if you're into spoilers check it out.

According to Bill Tiller's last news post there are more pictures probably coming soon(ish) on the Autumn Moon web site itself, so stay tuned.

Gabzo edit: Hee, you posted this seconds before I posted my update! Well, I basically just said the same thing, though I think it's also worth mentioning that there's this amusing but spot on article looking at Bad Brain Entertainment to read as well.

Well, sort of. Apparently a guy named Zach Quarles composed some early sample music for A Vampyre Story at some point. According to Bill Tiller, Zach may or may not be contributing music for the actual game, but that really shouldn't stop you from downloading the appealing montage that's available on this page.

Bill Tiller has recently made a news post to the Autumn Moon web site. It doesn't offer much in the way of actual news (Bill frequents the site's forum and I'd recommend those who want more frequent and up-to-date bits of info keep an eye on it), but as always there are interesting tidbits and he did post a cool new image of Mona's pal Froderick to the Gallery section, and he also says that more images are coming soon. Stay tuned next week when he may or may not update the news page again!

With the opening of the new Vampyre Story forums some details about the game have emerged or, at least, been confirmed. Here?s a low-down:

There will definitely be a PC version, and the game might also be released on PS2, Xbox PSP or DS.

The controls will be point and click on the PC but full control on any console versions that might get made.

Autumn Moon are still at the pre-production stage working on the ?characters designs, scripts, puzzles designs, rough backgrounds, colour scripts, 2D mock ups, and technology tests, etc.? as well as still looking for a decent publisher.

No release date has been given, but Bill Tiller is really hoping for the game to be finished in 2006. Fingers crossed!

The game will be 3D but ?not in the way you think?; the plan is to utilise multilane camera technology that places 2D painted backdrops on 3D planes, giving the detail of 2D but the depth of 3D. The characters will all be full 3D on top of that.

Naturally these details may yet change as Vampyre Story moves into full production, but for the moment at least we have an idea about what Autumn Moon are aiming for. Read more and keep up to date via the gothic-tastic forums.

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Hosted by Adventure Europe, the Autumn Moon Entertainment forums are now open. Read Bill Tiller's opening post that promises some Gallery updates in the near future, and be filled with mirth. Talk about A Vampyre Story already!

As noted by "Thriftweed_" in the forums, Autumn Moon has opened a Cafe Express store where you can buy all sorts of things with the AME logo on it. Spooky!

No new news on the status of A Vampyre Story, though.

Top Mojo reader Scummbuddy has noticed that Autumn Moon Entertainment now have a general news page. Actually, this is probably really old, but whatever. It's news to me and that's all that matters.

Anyway, it's worth keeping an eye on that page because it'll probably be updated more and more from now on. Actually, probably not, but it's worth checking anyway just because Bill Tiller is cool.

Update: the news page itself isn't new, but it has been recently updated so go take a look!

Aside from a bit of new concept art, we haven't heard much about Autumn Moon Entertainment or its in-development adventure A Vampyre Story since ties were broken between the developer and the, er...highly promising and well-respected German-based publisher Bad Brain Entertainment.

Well, today the web site offers a sign of life in the form of some new art in the gallery section (including a new screenshot that boasts the 3D Mona model) and a new news post:

Bill Tiller here with an AVS update. After a very good E3 we have been spending most of our time conducting business and haven?t had a chance to update our website until now.

We still don?t have a deal - yet, but the prospects are looking good and we will let you know right here the instant we have signed with a publisher. I can?t give any details yet due to the standard NDAs we have to sign, but I am feeling positive that we will have a deal signed very soon. Stay tuned.

In the meantime we are testing our new engine, creating our production schedules and budgets, and have finished our first pass at the 3D Mona model, done by the VERY talented Charles Berrnaert. Head on over to the Gallery section and take a look. Hope you like it.

Read the rest of here. Good to hear that Autumn Moon is still actively working on the title.

Over at the Vampyre Story website, there's a new short teaser video showing the 3D model of Mona, the main character, walking and doing some other stuff. It looks really really nice.

Want to hook up with some talented artists? Well, if you're in the Berkley area, you have the chance to meet Double Fine's Scott Campbell, Raz, and Nathan Stapley as well as Telltale's Graham Annable at Comic Relief.

This is, possibly not surprisingly, a Stickleback-Hickee signing, and it will take place from 7-9pm tonight at 2026 Shattuck Ave. in Berkley. Tim Schafer also promises snacks and beverages, so how can you go wrong?

Autumn Moon Entertainment have yet again updated their A Vampyre Story gallery. This time you can witness the Mortus Monster^TM who may or may not look slightly similar to Frankenstein. Worth a look-see, as always.

Update: Autumn Moon has issued a press release about the break as well. Click Read More for the details.

It looks like Bill Tiller's company Autumn Moon Entertainment and their upcoming game A Vampyre Story won't be published by adventure funding upstart Bad Brain Entertainment after all, as the two companies have decided to go their separate ways. The announcement was pretty short and to the point:<:MORENEWS:>

We are very sorry about the way things turned out to be, but we have to look forward. BBE and Bill Tiller decided to quit the deal because we couldn't come to an agreement on various topics and Bill Tiller want's to handle publishing quite different from what BBE's way would have been.

We wish Bill Tiller and his team all the best on A Vampyre Story and hope that they will soon be founding Autumn Moon Entertainment and find a more fitting publisher for their game and their way to work.

Many fans won't find this too surprising, as Bad Brain - once seen as a potential financial godsend to the adventure game community - has time and again misled or confused fans with messages on their website, most notably with claims about reviving Sam & Max Freelance Police that went nowhere, a promise of a Vampyre Story demo that was never going to exist, and insinuations that Bad Brain was going to charge fans to view concept art from their upcoming titles.

That said, it's apparently all water under the bridge now. We wish both Autumn Moon and Bad Brain the best wherever their separate paths take them.

Autumn Moon has also sent out a press release about the break. Here it is:

Autumn Moon and Bad Brain Part Ways

(Encinitas, CA) Autumn Moon Entertainment (AME) announced that the company has terminated its relationship with Bad Brain Entertainment, a new entrant in the Video Game publishing business based in Germany. AME is currently working on its launch title, A Vampyre Story. AME is composed of former Lucas Arts employees and committed to reviving the adventure genre of game for which Lucas was once known.

?While it is unfortunate and a setback that we were unable to come to terms with Bad Brain, we remain committed to bring AVS (A Vampyre Story) to market as we believe that there is a strong fan-base for this type of game world wide and we love working on this type of game? says Mike Kirchoff, Director of Business Development for Autumn Moon.

Autumn Moon?s CEO, Bill Tiller, added that ?Bad Brain?s enthusiasm and shared dedication to this genre attracted us to them and we are certain that they will grow into a great company in the future, but at this point we have elected to seek a publisher elsewhere. We are happy that our title has brought attention to Bad Brain and appreciate their efforts thus far in promoting the game, but we feel it is time to move on.?

While the ending of this relationship introduces a delay in the production of A Vampyre Story, Autumn Moon expressed they are dedicated to bringing this title to market. Autumn Moon also points to articles worldwide that have shown enthusiasm for the title and the game?s designation as the ?Most Anticipated Adventure Game? by The Inventory as evidence of the market potential both for this title and the Adventure Genre.

Mr. Kirchoff added ?this change in plans may have a hidden benefit as well, we (AME) believe that this genre a game has a huge potential in portable market, such as Sony?s Playstation Portable, where the style of gameplay and technology would appear to be an ideal match and this change allows us the potential to explore this opportunity.?

Mr. Bill Tiller has given us another exclusive character concept art, this time of Madame Strigoi, Knower of All Things Better Left Unknown (and Lottery Numbers). The Gypsy teacher for Mona, she knows all about vampires and gives Mona a vampire manual called Vampires for Dummies. Yikes!

To editorialize it seems a lot of what we see (both art and humor) from A Vampyre Story is very much in the style of Curse of Monkey Island, which might not be too surprising all things considered. I picture it being A Good Thing for a lot of old LEC fans though.

Also, despite rumors, the game will not be demoed at E3 this time around.

Bill Tiller drops The Mojo an exclusive Character Sheet from the pre-production documents of A Vampyre Story.

"It is an image of Dr. Riga Mortus, one of the many villains in the game. He captures Mona at one point because he wants to experiment on her. He wants to figure out how vampires get such spectacular powers."

Stay tuned for more "A Vampyre Story" developments in the coming week...

Source: AME

Looks like the official A Vampyre Story site has gotten a makeover, as well as some more content. Check out the gallery for some familiar looking screenshots and, more importantly, some nice looking wallpapers.

Do it!!

Members of Club Bad-Brain are now able to see three pages of storyboards from Autumn Moon Entertainment's forthcoming adventure A Vampyre Story.

Be warned: storyboards are a pretty rough and early phase in the production process (so don't expect mind-blowing full production quality), but you will be introduced to the character, "Baron Shrowdy Von Kieffer." And the storyboards make for a nice item for those crazy Adventure Game collectors out there.

Club Bad-Brain is open for free membership until the end of February, so best sign-up now before they start charging.

Source: Bad Brain

Bad Brain Entertainment has updated their A Vampyre Story page, listing some of the developers who (I assume) will work on the game. Actually, it might have been updated for a while, I just recently noticed. Anywhoo:

The team (USA):
Idea & characters: Bill Tiller
Director: Bill Tiller
Technical Director: Gary Brubaker
Lead Designer: Reed Knight
Lead Animator: TBA
Character Designer: Paul Mica
Story Boards: Anson Jew
Sound and Music: Brooks White
Concept and Background Artist: Bill Eaken
3D Artists: Dan Colon, Livia Knight

Do these names sound familiar? Most of the dudes come from the Curse of Monkey Island team, and some have worked on games like The Fate of Atlantis, Sam & Max Hit The Road, The Dig, and The Secret of Monkey Island. These are, in other words, quite some credentials.

Over at the Mojo Forums, Udvarnoky has pointed out that the Vampyre Story section of the Autumn Moon Entertainment website has been updated, showing some nice artwork by the game's designer, Bill Tiller. There's also a news blurb announcing that they have a publisher, but you all knew that already, right?

Bad Brain Entertainment, the company who is financing and publishing Autumn Moon's A Vampyre Story, has just put up their website, indicating a 2nd Quarter '06 release for "Vampyre".

Autumn Moon is made up of ex-LucasArts talent, and is run by Bill Tiller. There are also strong indicators that Bad Brain is trying to aquire LucasArts unfinished Sam & Max 2 code.

Bad Brain also have a couple of internally produced adventure games in the works, the promising & hilarious sounding The Orgastic Four and an intriguing multi-player adventure, the X-Filesesque I-JET.

To learn more, check out their site; bad-brain.com

Source: Bad Brain Entertainment