The International House of Mojo

TheForce.net has posted a rumor about the upcoming release date for the PS2 and Gamecube action title, Star Wars Bounty Hunter. According to their spy, Bounty Hunter will be turned over to Sony for approval on October 18th and should be in stores on November 12th, the same day of the Episode II DVD release. This confirms what producer Rachel Hardwick told us at Editor's Day '02, although she mentioned that the Gamecube version may come out two weeks later.

Haden Blackman, LucasArts producer on Star Wars Galaxies, has posted a message on the official Galaxies posting board. The post, which is a journal entry of sorts, chronicals his experience with the beta version of the game. Here's a small quote:

Another highlight was having one of the testers stand right in front of me and roll his eyes. We have an emote ? right now, it?s ?/roll? ? that allows your character to roll his or her eyes in a slightly exasperated manner. I?m constantly amazed at the little details that permeate this game.

Be sure to read the entire message for quite a few bits of interesting info.

TheForce.net has printed a list of The Top 600 Game Sales in North America for consoles. LucasArts has eleven Star Wars games in the list with Rogue Leader selling the most. Unfortunately, Escape From Monkey Island was no where to be found. Check out the Star Wars rankings or the full list.

LucasArts.com has updated its screenshot of the week. This time, the screenshot is from Gladius featuring a cameo from Blue Man Group. Oh, the fun! Gladius will be released for the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube this spring.

In additional to the recent announcement concerning Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, it's possible that other upcoming titles may be delayed as well. HomeLAN is reporting that Indiana Jones and the Emporer's Tomb may have had its release date moved from Fall 2002 back into January 2003. The site also mentions that Galaxies may appear in February 2003, which we recently reported here. LucasArts hasn't commented on this yet, so we'll just have to wait and see. Thanks to Marek for the tip!

A friend pointed me to this article on music4games.net, which talks about a recording session recently held by LucasArts with the Northwest Sinfonia orchestra in Seattle, Washington.

They recorded hours of all-original (with some familiar themes) score for the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, scored by ex-LucasArts in-house composer Clint Bajakian and his small team at CB Studios. Here's a snip from the story:

Clint Bajakian from The Sound Department (Outlaws, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Escape from Monkey Island), who composed the score, explained why they went with a live orchestra:

"LucasArts recognized that it was time to bring the magic that only a live orchestra can produce, into something as important as an Indiana Jones game. We recognized that the Indiana Jones film scores were great, not only due to the brilliant writing of John Williams, but on the dazzling quality of 80 world-class musicians playing their hearts out in an orchestral ensemble."

We're trying to scrape together our own report on this LucasArts first. But right now you should read theirs!

Update: Also, I've put up a smaller version of the picture music4games.net ran with their story (see, our version can actually fit on a screen) at the bottom of this post.

On the official Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic forums, producer Mike Gallo has posted a message with a new release date for the upcoming Xbox and PC RPG. Prepare yourself for his quote:

[Reviewing the schedules and task lists] has been a pretty lengthy process, but we're confident in our new release schedule of Spring '03 for the Xbox, and Summer '03 for the PC. This is a huge game with an epic story, and we want to be able to bring that entire experience to all of the fans that have been waiting so patiently for it. In the end, taking the extra time to deliver on that promise is what's most important, and both LucasArts and BioWare are committed to that promise.

Nice to see that fan speculations of a rushed schedule imposed by Microsoft and a compromise of quality may be untrue. Be sure to read the full message and the reply written by project director/producer Casey Hudson.

According to this story on IGNCube, the next Indiana Jones game, Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, could be headed to the Nintendo Gamecube. The title was originally announced only for XBox, PS2 and PC.

Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb is an action/adventure which takes place immediately before Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is being developed by LucasArts by game studio The Collective set for a Fall 2002 release. You can read our preview of Emperor's Tomb here.

Are you as desperate for news as we are? Then check out LucasArts.com for some new concept art from the upcoming PS2 and Gamecube title, Bounty Hunter. Granted this isn't the least bit exciting, but the concept art does look pretty good.

Update: Tomas points out that the 20th Anniversary Site has also been updated with some Day of the Tentacle character sketches! Very cool.

Haden "Shug_Ninx" Blackman, producer on the upcoming Star Wars Galaxies, has written a message on the official forums discussing the game's progress and the tentative release dates. Here's part of what he said:

The past few weeks, we've been evaluating the current design against the current schedule and we're pretty confident that we can launch in a December-February timeframe. The window is a result of the unpredictability of the beta process. The beta process will help us determine both the stability and quality of the game, which will give us a better idea about our actual, concrete ship date. If beta runs smoothly and we encounter minor bumps, then we can ship much earlier. But until we evaluate the data collected during beta, it's impossible for us to guarantee a specific launch date.

Be sure to read the full message.

LucasArts.com has been updated with some new goodies. First, there is a trailer for RTX Red Rock, showing off some of the cinematics and in-game footage. Second, check out this sweet new Indy screen, which shows Dr. Jones just before he smacks the sense into some guy. And finally, if you're really looking for something to do, you can check out this concept art on the 20th Anniversary site for Star Wars Starfighter. It's pretty boring, though.

Update: QueZTone points out that in the company store, you can now find this t-shirt featuring the "Heroes for a Next Generation." Here's your one and only chance to wear a shirt with both Indiana Jones and Ben from Full Throttle on it. Of course, those of you living outside the US may be out of luck on this one.

Tim Schafer updated the Double Fine News for the second time in one day! In this bonus post, Tim informs us that his new game Psychonauts is on the cover of the Official Xbox Magazine (well, sorta), updates us on the rat situation, casually drops his new catch phrase, and more. Give it a look-see.

As Adventure Gamers is reporting and as many sources have been telling us for the past few months, it seems that Infinite Machine is dead. The company, founded by Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight designer Justin Chin, faced many problems with the publication of their Xbox game entitled New Legends. It seems likely that these issues combined with the less-than-wonderful sales of this title caused the company to dissolve.

The real tragedy here is that Infinite Machine was in production of a new Sam and Max action adventure. This will certainly cause fans to wonder if that project is also dead, or whether a company like LucasArts will develop the game on their own. Only time will tell.

Here is some news that many of you may find interesting. In our recent visit to San Francisco, Tim Schafer informed us that a few of his fellow employees work on an independent comic in their spare time entitled Hickee.

Among the people who work on this comic are Joe White, Graham Anable, Dave Bogan, and Razmig Mavillian (whose name "Raz" is being used for the main character in Psychonauts). All of these guys worked at LucasArts on such classics as The Curse of Monkey Island, Outlaws, and Grim Fandango. But that's not all! Two fellows named Nathan Stapley and Scott Campbell also work on the comic and are currently employed at Double Fine Productions.

If you're a big fan of comics and witty writing, you might want to check this out. You can find out more information on Hickee at this website, which also houses Graham's own comic called Grickle. Or, you can read an interview with these guy and view pictures here.

LucasArts.com has been updated, featuring this new screenshot from the upcoming RTX Red Rock. The screen shows our hero EZ Wheeler encountring some unlucky skeleton. I wonder if his name is Bob.

Our good friend Marek over at Adventure Gamers has published a great interview with Hal Barwood, director of the upcoming action/adventure console title from LucasArts entitled RTX Red Rock. In the interview, Hal discusses that project as well as his previous games like Fate of Atlantis and Infernal Machine. Here's a quote from Hal about RTX:

I felt an urge to do some science fiction. I'm a Mars nut. I believe in heroes...and villains. As much contrast as possible. I like the idea of sending the player up against a group of strange and daunting space aliens that have their own purposes, and also their own weaknesses. I like the idea of getting into the game with a vague notion of the victory conditions (reconquer our colony on Mars), and also discovering, little by little, the deeper currents that run through the story.

Be sure to read the full interview, or else you will be killed by a lava monster.

LucasArts.com has posted the final box art for the massive multiplayer game, Star Wars Galaxies. You can view the box art under the Galaxies product spotlight or directly here. The box art design is pretty simple, yet effective. And let's face it, it's more likely that people are going to pick this game up in a shop because of the massive press and word of mouth rather than the pretty box.

I forgot to mention that in Friday's amazing 20th Anniversary update, LucasArts.com has also posted a new Gladius screenshot. This new screen features a really cool skull-like rock formation. Gaze in awe.

In the usual LucasArts.com Friday updates, long time fans of the company can sure find a lot to get excited about. It seems that LucasArts is finally getting around to celebrating its 20th anniversary properly. First, in the LucasArts Theatre, you can view QuickTime clips of cutscenes from the original Full Throttle. Not bad, although they do seem to suffer from some interlace problems.

Next, in the History Section, you can read about the early years of the company between 1982 and 1989. The feature is not unlike our own Wilmunder Memoirs, and will continue to be updated to cover the 1990-1994 years.

Don't miss the 20th Anniversary Art Gallery, where you can find some never-before-seen treasures. First, there is this amazing high-res scan of the Monkey Island 2 map, a piece of concept art from Grim Fandango, and another Peter Chan concept scan from Full Throttle!

After that, you can read an interview with Jon Knoles, who served as game designer for many Star Wars games and is currently directing Bounty Hunter. The interviews continue next month with a profile of Fate of Atlantis and RTX Red Rock designer Hal Barwood.

And finally *phew*, check out the Flashback section with a few favorite memories of some LucasArts employees. The stories include finding bugs in such classics as Grim Fandango and Fate of Atlantis. These are really interesting and remind us of the many late nights these guys have to put up with.

So there you have it. It's great to see LucasArts opening up again and taking a look at its previous products and their employees. It reminds me of the old days of The Adventurer, and I hope they keep this up.

GameSpot recently got the opportunity to see the latest progress of Psychonauts. Here are two unrelated paragraphs that appear to deal with Psychonauts:

The game's structure seems to be a slightly twisted hub system. As you explore the campgrounds and surrounding areas, you'll encounter people whose minds you'll enter. Each mind is basically an entire new level to explore. Schafer cited the Zelda series as an influence on the game's development, noting that you could view each mind as a "dungeon." In addition, you'll find that there are quite a few hidden areas to discover in the real world.

Graphically, the game was quite impressive, despite being so far off from release (Psychonauts is currently slated to ship in spring 2003). The character models featured a generous number of polygons and a great deal of detail. The real and psychic environments that we saw were richly detailed, and they even featured some small bits of ambient touches such as pollen floating through the air.

If you have paid for a GameSpot subscription, you can continue reading an actual interview with Tim Schafer (Hey Tim, I finally got grimfandango.net!) For those of us who don't have the luxury of paying to read random interviews, check out yesterday's Double Fine update. Popeye is dead! Down with all plague-carrying mice! Err... what am I even doing here.