The International House of Mojo

Poor Tasha. So young, and already on her way to becoming a crazy cat lady.

Poor, poor Tasha. Oh but we love her so (seriously her comics are rad once you get the feel for them). So to make Tasha feel love by humans and/or bots, you should probably vote for her game to win the Best of Casual Gameplay award at Jay is Games. The game is called Tasha's Game, and it involves the Double Fine Action Staff, tentacles (yeah!) and cats.

Vote vote vote! Get off your ass and vote*.

*(Preferrably sung to the tune of "Ole Ole Ole".)

Source: Jay is Games

If you are like me and tend to fall asleep when someone says "Conference" (Zzz), then you probably don't give a waking moment (ho ho) to hear them out.

But this year might be different.

This year might be finally the year when you countdown to the Game Developer's Conference, when you start panic-attacking as it approaches, when you finally slit your wrists in anticipation.

This is finally the year Brutal Legend graces those unworthy with its mighty presence.

Feel that metal.

Update: MTV confirms and adds that Double Fine will be hosting a panel on the art of the game. It also highlights this little word: Multiplayer.

Source: Developmag

Surfing across the internet yesterday I came upon un trésor: An interview with le Schafer en français. (For those of you who don't know, this is French and not a monkey typing on a keyboard, although it may seem that way to vulgar animals such as le English.)

So I decided to start translating it using my mad translating skillz but I stopped halway through when I realised how inadequate my English is. Mock my attempt:

"jeuxvideo.com > Tim Schafer, you worked on some of the references of the plays d' adventures (Monkey Island 1 & 2, Day off the Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango) before leaving LucasArts to create your own company DoubleFine Productions with which you left Psychonauts. This last n' was not a play d' venture strictly speaking but a title d' action/platforms s' supporting on an excellent scenario and a direction of l' twisted enough humour. Precisely, by looking at your course, it is obvious that l' humour occupies a very important place in each one of your plays. Do you consider l' humour like l' one of the keys to success in a play? Would you be therefore to work on a project known as " sérieux" who wouldn't contain any joke, nor element of comedy?"

You may weep openly for this interview you will never read.

Unless...Well, if anyone here is awesome enough to translate this interview from French to English (that foul, vulgar language), then you will have the thanks of Mojo and the maniacal fans of Tim Schafer. I would do it myself mon ami, but my English is a little faible.

Update: Everyone, I want you to say, "Thank you GuybrushtheDwarf for translating the interview, and doing it so well." Thank you GuybrushtheDwarf, for translating the interview, and doing it so well! Thank you so very, very, very much! All I can say is that if I were a hot girl, I'd be totally attracted to you right now and think you were sexy. That's right.

To everyone else: to read the interview, just continue reading below.
<:MORENEWS:>

Once again, Mojo did not conduct this interview. It was done by these nice folks and translated by the awesome Guybrushthedwarf. Read on!:

Tim Schafer hasn't made a lot of games in the last decade. In fact, he's only made a single one: Psychonauts, in 2006. His name has however going around since the Vivendi-Activision merger. His forthcoming game Brütal Legend was included in the batch of games that were left on the side of the road by Sierra after the transaction and whose future remained uncertain. Today, Schafer and his team can relax, as Electronic Arts saved Brütal Legend from its fate and the game is now announced for Fall 09 on PS3 and Xbox360. Reassured, Tim Schafer let us in on the game development during a phone call.

jeuxvideo.com > Tim Schafer, you worked on a lot of seminal adventure games (Monkey Island 1 & 2, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle et Grim Fandango) before leaving LucasArts to found your own company DoubleFine Production, with whom you released Psychonauts. This title wasn't an adventure game per-say but more of an action platformer rooted in an excellent scenario and a twisted sense of humour. By the way, looking back at your career, humour obviously plays an important part in your games. Would you say humour is the key to the success of a game? Would you be get involved in a so-called 'serious' game which would contain neither jokes, nor comedic elements?

It is not something I plan ahead of time. I like comedy, and so do the people I work with. We like to have fun when we create our games and inserting things in our titles that make us laugh at work comes naturally. In fact, we try to entertain ourselves first thus most of these things end up in our games. Even if we tried to craft something serious, we'd end up turning it into comedy. Brütal Legend is the perfect example of that. Like Full Throttle, in fact. The characters of these games aren't comedy characters. They remain serious through the whole story. But sometimes this is where the comedy comes from.

jeuxvideo.com > How would you define Double Fine Productions's games?

We focus on innovation and creativity. My main goal and my team's is to create brand new and amazing universes that players have never roamed before. Universes with their own rules and protagonists they can relate to as soon as they start playing.

jeuxvideo.com > You said times and times again that it would be fun to develop sequels to your old games from the 90's but that it would be impossible since you don't own the rights to these [they belong to LucasArts]. So why haven't you built a sequel on Psychonauts instead of a creating a brand new world for Brütal Legend? That would have been much simpler, even more so for an independent game studio like Double Fine.

It's always simpler to do the same thing over and and over again. But that goes against our creative nature, which is constantly pushes us toward producing something new. I think it's fun and enjoyable to offer players something new. As a matter of fact, that's even beneficial for the whole game industry. I'm not against sequels. If a worthy opportunity should arise, I would do a sequel. I'm always having these ideas for sequels, but at the same time, I've always had new ideas that I decided to explore first. Maybe one day we'll manage to produce two games at a time at DoubleFine, then we'll see...

jeuxvideo.com > What's the greatest challenge you're facing as an independent studio?

Our greatest challenge is linked to our will to remain a small structure bound by a quasi family spirit yet able to create great games. We wish to create games that stand the comparison with the best titles of the market while limiting our team-size in order to not lose our identity. We thus need to be careful and be smart when we develop our games so that they look like they've been made by a team of a thousand people when we did it with half a hundred.

jeuxvideo.com > Where did the idea for Brütal legend come from?

For years, I've been gathering ideas that ended up in this game. During my career, there always was something else to do first and this was never the right time to “implement” these. However, I knew that one day I would make a game in a extreme fantasy world such as Brütal Legend's. I wondered how this game would be called and I found the title Brütal Legend more than 10 years ago. Since then, I've always wanted to make a game called Brütal legend. I love this title! I've been following the elements that would make this game for a while: heavy metal, hot rods...I've scratched my head about all that for years and then, at the end of Psychonauts' production, it seemed to me that the technology was finally there and that I had the experience to create the title.

jeuxvideo.com > Hoagie from Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle and now Brütal Legend; you do have an obsession toward heavy metal...

That's true. Even back in the Day of the Tentacle days, I met a guy who was a roadie for a heavy metal band. He had so many unbelievable stories to tell that I immediately thought he'd make an awesome character with his peculiar vantage point on the rock scene that fascinates so many of us. A roadie gets the opportunity to see the glamour of a rock star but also gets the dirty work done. He's the one carrying the amplifiers or cleaning spilled beers. In fact, it's thanks to him that the magic is happening. I always wanted to make something out of this kind of character. My first attempt was Hoagie from Day of the Tentacle. It's true it was more of a comedy-oriented character that appealed to the player because he was pretending to tear the head of hamsters, but the core idea was already there. Long before Brütal Legend, [the roadie] already was a backstage guy, hidden behind the rock star. The one who gets the job done, who gains nothing from it, but who's the true hero.

jeuxvideo.com > It seems music doesn't only serve the story of Brütal Legend but also the core gameplay. The official site tells us that it would possible to trigger guitar solos to defeat ennemies. Can you tell us more about this?

You'll have to wait a while before this particular point is revealed. All I can say is that music really is part of the core gameplay and that our hero Eddie Riggs always wear an axe and a guitar on his back.

jeuxvideo.com > Jack Black plays Eddie Riggs, the main character of Brütal Legend. Were you thinking of him when you began writing the game?

Yes, working with Jack Black really inspired us on the game a lot. His movie, Tenacious D [& The Pick of Destiny] was very rock 'n roll and really funny. Same goes for School of Rock. Those things inspired us a lot. It never occurred to me that we could actually have him but we were hoping that, at least, he would like our game since we got all these things from him. And then, we ended up meeting him and he turned out to like what we did. So, from first inspiration he went on to be a full-blown collaborator.

jeuxvideo.com > After being dropped consequently by the Vivendi/Activision merger, how did you get the moral and motivation of your team up and continue development?

We only work on games that are dear to our hearts and in which we get totally involved and that we love. I've got a team of very passionate people that really make the project their own.
It is their game. During this troubled period, the team never felt the game was done for. On the contrary, they got got even more involved in order to make Brütal Legend as good as possible. This goes to show the deep engagement of our team toward the project. So we kept on working and we got the chance to show the game to EA. The good news is that they liked it just the way it was. They were really receptive to the characters, to the fantasy setting and to all that we showed them, in the end. The fact that our work please to these people and that EA Partners already housed others studio that one can only rave about , gave us the guarantee that we found the perfect partner for this game.

jeuxvideo.com > Will having EA beside you influence the development in any way?

I think it will make the development even better and allow more people to hear about our game. I love Brütal Legend and I'm looking forward to showing the game to a greater number of people thanks to EA.

jeuxvideo.com> Thanks, M. Schafer.

And you, Guybrushthedwarf!

Source: Jeuxvideo

I want to thank my new cat, dubbed Popcorn (name picked by a two-year old cousin). In the three days I've had her I've already had one toilet back up, a leaking pipe with a tendency to shower my bed with brown water every time the guys upstairs flush the toilet, and a heater that decided to snuff it when the temperature hit the -20°C. But what's relevant to Mojo is that Popcorn also managed to kill my internet, and because I am the Only Active Mojoer no-one bothered to tell you about the various awesome art shows the Double Fine Action Artists are having!

But freak out not! You can visit these shows if you 1. live in San Francisco/can get to San Francisco in time, and 2. are cool enough (which you are, since you read Mojo).

But let's say you neither live in San Francisco, nor read Mojo. Now that probably makes you a loser, and because you're a loser (or not Christian) you probably had no Christmas presents under your tree this year. (I can see your tears.) But you can fix that! Without turning Christian, if you don't want to! (Really!) All ya gotta do is just click here and totally take the Free Stuff Double Fine is giving away, for free (plus 13% taxes).

And last but not least: Scott C got interviewed by Kwanzoo about art-ing it up, how he met Tim Schafer and how love at first sight led to his gig at Double Fine. Also: some of the art-influences for the game. Also: you should read it before I put in more spoilers for the interview. Also, read this: "The game is going to rule, so you should probably get excited." Scott C says so. And he's awesome enough for me to believe. I believe!

Except in my black cat Popcorn. Goddam cat.

Over at the Psychopedia (contribute to its girth of knowledge today!) you can find a few Psychonauts-related videos you may have never known about. Mostly, I'm talking about these three promos that Double Fine put together around the time of the game's release (I so remember those!) as well as four short videos Double Fine submitted to "MTV Sharts" (I so don't remember those!), whatever that is.

The Psychopedia!

Feast your eyes and read this short interview, conducted more professionally than the LA Times.

Now there's only thing left to ask: where's that Spike TV gameplay footage?


Update: It's here, care of GameSpot.

The SpikeTV 2008 Video Game Awards have concluded, and if you were neither watching it on your American TV nor taking advantage of the live stream on your PC. you might be wondering about the Brutal Legend presence during the broadcast. As advertised, an exclusive gameplay trailer for the game was showcased by Jack Black and "the ark of the convenant of video game wizardry" Tim Schafer. Following an amusing introduction which featured Rob Halford of Judas Priest and a slightly unsuccessful human sacrifice of Schafer, the trailer premiered.

Well, obviously, it was awesome, and if it can't be viewed by seeking through the video of the awards on the streaming page (a fact I can't verify because I fibbed a bit and the show still has a few minutes to go), you'll surely be able to view and download high resolution versions from the game's official splash page soon.

The LA Times sat down with Tim Schafer and Jack Black for a brief interview about Brütal Legend. It can't be proven that reading it won't prevent a tragedy.

As if this week wasn't awesome enough, Tim Schafer is now part of the truly bizarre cast of presenters at this year's Spike TV VGAs (where Brutal Legend is going to be shown, Sunday). He joins the likes of Peter Moore, Mike Tyson and Kiefer Sutherland in the single most effing surreal/important moment in the history of television tomorrow, on your screen*.

* Only if you live in North America or the Internet.

Source: Double Fine Action News

Or EA Partners as it is, but that's splitting hairs. Looks like Schafer's latest creation will be released next fall and we can all breathe easily again.

Now go feel silly.

Update by Kroms: Sweet smell of success! Eurogamer celebrates by interviewing Mr. Schafer about the game, although not much is revealed. But yet, what you feel by the end...is love.

Update by Jason: Rather than push the EA news down, I'll just post this here - Mojo reader MarioColbert has noticed that the Psychonauts banner on the Double Fine products page that has caused so much speculation in the past now leads to an official Psychonauts wiki. This "Psychopedia," while in its infancy, is truly awesome, amazing, and incredibly detailed, and I have to recommend checking it out this very moment. Take, for example, the fact that they have the complete hour long Icons special that G4 aired around the time the game came out which looks at the history of Schafer and details Double Fine's final week of development on the game. Additionally, the Double Fine store is now offering a new shirt.

Man, I always knew the secret to getting laid didn't involve being good-looking, funny or super-awesome, or else I'd have been laid years and years ago (back when it was illegal for me to get laid, even!). Turns out that all you gotta do is go vote for Brütal Legend as your most anticipated game of the year. Also, also? That anticipation would mean that Brütal Legend gets a bigger audience. Imagine that. Tim Schafer's words falling upon the ears of the mass gaming public.

It's just, woah. A smart gaming public! And it's all by you! All you gotta do is submit a message saying, "Man, I always thought Brütal Legend was awesome, but I always had it backwards! Awesome is Brütal Legend. I. Am. Pumped," or something like that.

Oh, yeah, by the way: the Double Fine threat level just got updated. It is now an International Ochre, which means "News This Week". I dunno, but Mr. Schafer did throw the word "publisher" in there. That's twice the sex. With Tim Schafer.

Source: Double Fine

Even though we have no new announcements regarding the publisher status of Brütal Legend, it seems that Double Fine is still hard at work on the game's development, much like they were on Psychonauts during the six months between Microsoft's abandonment and signing on with Majesco. (Since Schafer claims to have invested his life savings in the company during that period, one wonders how the employees are getting paid.)

At least, I don't know how else to explain CNN's report that Jack Black will be hosting the Spike TV Video Game Awards, which will feature a demonstration of Brütal Legend with Tim Schafer. All of this goes down, by the way, on December 14th.

Read the whole story at BRUTAL! and hope that this rather epic advertisement (did Black pull some strings?) gets the attention of some publishers.

Update: It seems that BRUTAL! may have been off in stating that Schafer himself will be presenting the game at the awards show. But enjoy this USA Today report of the event, where Jack Black states that Psychonauts "is my favorite video game in the world."

If you are like me and tend to visit the Double Fine Action News page several times a day in the hopes that there's something new to read - and hopefully that something new to read is about Brütal Legend - then you know that, well, we don't always get stuff about Brütal Legend. Sometimes we get stuff about rats and weevils (man, did I ever stop eating Kashi after that weevil), and there's nothing wrong with that, except that Weevils are to Brütal Legend what making love to your hand is to sex with a model. We occasionally need the Legend.

So that's why there's the new, awesome Threat Level, or "Man, you are this close to doing it." Right now, the possibility of you doing it is a Toasted Salmon.

Source: Double Fine Action News

Well that's what I think now, and I hope you will too after this post.

Speaking with investors, Activision Blizzard head Bobby "I hate games" Kotick explained why so many of Sierra's games (such as Brutal Legend) got dropped by the company.

Eurogamer has done a good job of summing this speech up, but we only really need the truth straight from the talking horse's mouth:

"With respect to the franchises that don't have the potential to be exploited every year across every platform with clear sequel potential that can meet our objectives of over time becoming USD 100 million plus franchises, that's a strategy that has worked very well for us."

Still doesn't explain why you're now holding up Brutal Legend from getting picked up by other publishers, though.

And now back to the more cheery GF celebrations.

Source: Eurogamer

A rather interesting article in Variety yesterday suggests that the delay in Brütal Legend getting a new publisher may be the result of intentional tomfoolery on the part of Activision:

While doing my reporting on "Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena" and "Ghostbusters" (info here), I checked in on everyone's favorite heavy metal action game starring Jack Black and, well, the news isn't great.

Sources close to the process confirmed that "Brutal Legend" hasn't been set up at a new publisher since, as I reported back in August, negotiations with MTV fell through.

Whatever the exact reasons, it seems that tensions are running high between Double Fine and Activision Blizzard as they try to make a deal with a new publisher.

I spoke to some sources on the Double Fine side and they said the problem isn't that other publishers aren't interested. They say it's that Activision Blizzard has been "an impediment" and that they're "blocking the process."

What the hell? It'd be nice of Double Fine and "good news" could be synonymous with each other some day. Read the rest here.

Creative risk!

Source: Double Fine

I was going to let this one slip by, and leave it on Behind Mojo.

Gamasutra recently had the chance to ask John Riccitello - who some of you might know as EA's silver-haired chief executive - about whether or not EA would take a risk with Brütal Legend - and you all know what that is. His reply?

"I have seen it. I am well aware of what the game is. It’s a very significant creative risk. Sometimes significant creative risks end up being some of the world’s best products. Spore was also a significant creative risk. So was The Sims. Portal, BioShock. But so was Grim Fandango.”

This leaves things as ambiguous as ever. But does anyone get the feeling that he just insulted Tim Schafer?

Source: Brutal!

The most metal fansite in the history of metal fansites reports that Tim Schafer has been interviewed by the nice folks over at GamersWithJobs. The interview spans everything from Monkey Island to some details on Brütal Legend. But it looks like what Jason has been saying for a while now: the Legend will not arrive this year. And I say good. Inject it with more awesome, Double Fine.

Source: Brutal! The Legendary Fansite

The wait for more info about Brutal Legend suddenly became a little bit more bearable, as Double Fine have released a new minigame!

Tasha's Game features the platform adventures of comic strip sourpuss Tasha and her pet Snoopy, and is easily better than Braid.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Step right up, step right up, and witness the second greatest fansite you'll see in years! It's enormous! It's magnificent! It's spectacular, and it has the critics go wild! Ladies and gentlemen, you've endured the delays and waited with patience, and so, withour further ado, it is my pleasure to bring to you...Brutal! The Legendary Fansite!. (Admission free for a limited time only.)

Large applause to Thrik, ladies and gentlemen!