The International House of Mojo

I suspect the minority of us managed to actually attend the Game Developers Conference, and therefore most or all of us didn't get to attend Tim Schafer's presentation on character design. Fortunately, GameSpy was there, and summarized the talk:

So, exactly what helps define a great videogame character? "People want to be a hero." Schafer argues that the main character should be "the coolest." S/he should have all the best lines, the most active role, and "have other [NPCs] respond to their awesomeness." If ultra-famous, superstar, Hollywood actors wouldn't kill to play the role, then more work is necessary.

Hopefully in the next couple of days we'll be running some photos taken by Marek of Adventure Gamers, who was fortunate enough to attend. For now check out the report over at GameSpy

It has been pointed out that all we seem to do around here these days is whine and ask you to vote for things, and, seeing as I have no problem with that really, here's something to vote for:

XBox Nation magazine has a poll up asking you what your most anticipated XBox game is. Psychonauts appears in the list. Vote for it. You know you totally want to.

I may update with some complaint or another about something later in the day, so stay tuned.

The Double Fine Action News has just pointed out that we can still resurrect Grim Fandango by voting for it in the Extra Life 6 competition over at Gamespy. Counter-Strike is winning right now, but that can be fixed, I'm sure. Go forth and Vote Now!

You're probably aware that Grim Fandango was defeated by both Chrono Trigger and Knights of the Old Republic in the title fight thing over at GameSpy. In retrospect, it's a bit of an odd matchup to say the least, but hey, GF managed to get slightly more than a quarter of the votes. However, congratulations are in order for KOTOR as it advances to the final round of the Hyrule bracket, also known as "the contest to see who loses to Zelda: OoT by a lot."

Naturally, there's a new and highly amusing update at Double Fine Action News in response to these results. In addition, you ought to check out the new ACTION comic, because you love doing that.

PS: Someone stole my car. God damn.

Proving he can come through in a pinch, Tim Schafer has gone and updated Double Fine Action News with a single solution to the three problems of how to cope with Sam & Max 2 being cancelled, showing your love for Double Fine Action Comics, and supporting Grim Fandango in the GameSpy Grudge Title Fight:

Buy this Hickee comic.

The comic, created by Graham Annable the lead animator on Sam & Max 2 also features comics by Sam & Max 2's lead artist Derek Sakai and Joe White, another animator on the game, as well as comics by Double Fine's Nathan Stapley, Razmig Mavlian, and Scott Campbell, creator of the two-headed baby and the Double Fine Action Comics, and comics by Grim Fandango animators Dave Bogan and Vamberto Maduro. How can you pass this up? You can't.

Also, yes, we might have written about Hickee a while ago, but nobody noticed. For a funnier version of this same information, visit Double Fine Action News as soon as posible. More of this stuff at www.grickle.net.

The Double Fine action news encourages you to go vote for Grim Fandango in that GameSpy game face-off title fight thing. Currently, Grim is pretty much destroying its competition, Gabriel Knight 2. The Tim Schafer, creator of Grim, has this to say about the fight:

The Gabriel Knight lady is really nice, I have heard. But tell me, has she ever given you any... FREE COMICS? Hmmm? Double Fine has given you THREE FREE COMICS so far. How many have you gotten from the makers of Gabriel Knight? Probably less than that. Or fewer than that. Whichever is correct. Okay, maybe some comics came free with the game, but I'm asking you what has the Gabriel Knight lady done for you LATELY?

In other news, "Double Fine action comics" is now up to their third comic, so you'd better go read them.

Double Fine brings us something a little different in its most recent update. What, you may ask? Well, it?s issue #1 of Double Fine Action Comics!, drawn by Art Director Scott Campbell. You may call it Pokey-esque. We call it delicious!

Thanks to Cabel for pointing out that there was a massive, fatty update to the Double Fine products page, featuring the long promised (both by 2002's self aware news page and Tim Schafer himself) beefy collection of Psychonauts screenshots! The usual list of press quotes about how the excellent game Psychonauts will destroy you have also changed.

In the words of reader Remixor, "I'm so glad I don't have to worry about this game. I don't at all feel like I'm setting myself up for a fall." The Double Fine action news page was also updated, of course, with bonus jokes for you to enjoy, mostly concerning the word "manky."

Update: Beefy screenshot collection to de-beefify come dawn! The action news page has been updated to let us know that the currently gigantic screenshots will be scaled down to far less awesome sizes sometime tomorrow. So, if you're looking for an awesome Psychonauts wallpaper, you'd better hurry and get it now (or just ask on our forums, where surely everyone and their mother has downloaded all screenshots ever for safekeeping).

It?s time again for the Game Developers Conference. Like the previous years, several current and former LucasArts employees will be speaking. The conference isn?t open to the general public (boo), but if you?re willing to spend the money, you can order audio and video cassettes of the various lectures. Among those speaking are:<:MORENEWS:>

Former LucasArts Employees:
Clint Bajakian, composer and sound designer
Hal Barwood, writer and designer (currently unemployed?)
Julian Kwasneski, sound designer
Michael Land, composer
Tim Schafer, The Man

Current LucasArts Employees:
Chuck McFadden, senior QA lead
Nick Porcino, senior systems Engineer

Well there you have it. The Game Developers Conference will be held in San Jose, California from March 22 through 26. Anyone who manages to sneak in and write an investigative Mojo report will receive a free pack of Skittles.

Its 2004, and Double Fine Action News has been updated. Now that you're all gone to read the update, I'll summarize it! Basically Tim Schafer is telling us that Christmas and Thanksgiving will be obliterated by the government to make way for all new Psychonauts celebrations, come "Holiday 2004" when the game ships. Furthermore, there are new Psychonauts screenshots in this months issue of Official XBox Magazine (on newsstands now). Also he tells us he may be appearing naked in the magazine but is not sure.

What would the holiday season be without a two headed thingy? I ask myself this question every day, but thanks to this year?s Double Fine festive graphic, we can rest assured that we?ll all have a happy holiday.

Yes... the two headed baby is making a list, but he only has to check it once? you know? because he?s got two pairs of eyes and two brains. It?s just more efficient.

Whilst we've been away there have been no sites on the Internet (except maybe this one) to point at the blatherings of Mr. Schafer over at Double Fine Action News. This week: Tim gets naked whilst ranting about serif fonts and shows us his dancing liver!

That's what it was like. I would say that everybody was laughing at me, except nobody said nothing, which can only mean one thing: nobody is reading the Double Fine Action News.

Prove him wrong... Wasn't he making a game of some sort at one point? RELEASE IT ALREADY!

The excellent Listen to Me website has conducted an interview with Richard Horvitz, voice of Invader Zim. However, and more importantly, he voices the character of Raz in Tim Schafer's Psychonauts. Here's a quote we stole:

"Psychonauts is something I'm very proud of. When I went to San Francisco to do SketchFest 2003 with Fred Willard, I got to met Tim Schafer and went to where he works. He's a great guy and a friend of mine, although we only met through the project"

Follow the link to read more about his work on the upcoming Xbox game.

The word on the street is that we'll be receiving our repaired hard drive with all of our files on it in the next day or so. Cross your fingers, as hopefully that means everything will just blink back into existence. Of course by "blink back" I mean "will probably take a day or two of wading through setup pages and file permissions," but that doesn't concern you.

In other news theres a party this Friday. Also this site is pretty cool (thanks Marek).

And of course, as usual, the Mixnmojo Forums are still totally operational and demanding your presence.

Anti-murder groups across the globe such as Amnesty International and the BBC cried out in outrage today at the latest update on Double Fine Action News.

The update, featuring new art by Double Fine owner, Tim Schafer, was described by the man himself as "an attempted suicide by our mascot" after being disgraced in a recent vote for it being on the back of the California state quarter. However, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld considers it to be a direct threat to the prosperity of the country and has officially raised the threat level to Red, or danger clear and imminent. A search for Tim has begun, and Rumsfeld is certain that he is "Either in the US, another country, or dead."

We'll have more as it develops.

Double Fine Action News updates with some finger-pointing and random sourness due to a misfortunate quarter design poll. Seems like double-headed babies were beaten by DNA. *weep*

(I believe this is my first news post. Hello world!)

Ready for some Norwegian humor? Don't have a clue what Norwegian humor could be? Then check out the latest Double Fine news update for some very amusing pictures and words concerning Psychonauts, naked ladies, a Norwegian store, and a tragic fire.

And on a personal note, I think that may be the first and only time I'll ever use the word "Norwegian" in three consecutive sentences. Oops, make that four. Oi!

The Double Fine Action News page has once again been updated, this time by Schafer himself, who has apparently eradicated any self-aware entities from the news page:

Oh, and also, for some reason, this news page has become self-aware, and has evolved into a omniscient, super-evil, cosmos-strangling, overlord of invisible tyranny. I think this also has something to do with Netscape. Or maybe something went wrong with the cascading style sheets. Anyway, it's all over. The evil old page has been removed and isolated here. Whoops! Don't look at it, or you'll become enslaved again. Just stay here on this page, delete your cookies, and you should be fine.

And of course, since Tim is updating the page now, and not the self aware Action News, the promised screenshots were only sort of delivered. What is there is not to miss though, you'll never see it in XBN.

(If you are looking for Psychonauts screenshots, look no further than here, here, here, here, and here)

In the March issue of GMR magazine, there is a small article written on page 19 about Tim Schafer and his new company, Double Fine Productions. The article doesn't really contain any new information other than the fact that Tim eats breakfast and wears pants. Still, it might be worth taking a look at. Thanks to Pirateking for the scan!

Yesterday, we reported on the announcement that all of the Lucas companies would merge into one single organization. Today, the San Francisco Chronicle has published an article giving us new insight into the corporate merger.

Interestingly enough, the article includes a quote by Tim Schafer concerning the recent announcment. Here's what he had to say about all that:

"We used to wish there was more cooperation between Industrial Light & Magic and games, and now maybe there will be," Schafer said. "We used to gripe in the old days that we really could use some of ILM's resources."

Hopefully this will turn out to be a good thing, although anyone familiar with corporate antics usually panics at the word "reorganization." Read the complete article for more information.