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Ron Gilbert, MC Frontalot, RoosterTeeth, more confirmed for PAX AUS
Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion creator Ron Gilbert will give the keynote at the upcoming PAX Australia, Penny Arcade has announced. Gilbert most recently worked on The Cave for Double Fine, and will kick off the Penny Arcade Expo's Australian branch with a "storytime" session, presumably about his work in the glory days of adventure gaming, creating the SCUMM interpreter, and his most recent work on DeathSpank and at Double Fine.Other announced guests for the show include musicians The Protomen and MC Frontalot, and video makers RoosterTeeth are also set to appear – and we're sure founders Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik are headed down under, too. PAX Australia is set to take place at the Melbourne Showgrounds on July 19-21, 2013, and there are still tickets available for the first two days right now.
MechWarrior Online and Penny Arcade team up for game promotion
Geek favorite webcomic Penny Arcade and developer Piranha Games have a deal for you, but be warned: Space Ostriches might be involved. Piranha announced that players now can grab a free one-day premium time upgrade for their MechWarrior Online accounts. This premium time awards players with 50% more experience and 50% more C-bills while it lasts. The Penny Arcade team penned a two-page pilot safety manual with crucial tips for the game to go with the promotion. Comic co-creator Jerry Holkins said that he took the project partially because of his lifelong interest: "I used to play BattleTech at lunch, when I was in high school. There's a lot of meat in MechWarrior Online, a lot to know, and we wanted to see if we could cover some of the basics in a way that could help people get the most out of it." [Source: Piranha Games press release]
Child's Play shuts down fundraiser aimed at changing Mass Effect 3's ending
Recently, part of that whole "We're the Internet and we're upset about Mass Effect 3's ending" thing manifested itself in a Child's Play fundraising initiative called "Retake Mass Effect 3." The movement attempted to combine raising money for the charity with convincing BioWare to change the ending of its game.BioWare was completely unaffiliated with the fundraiser, however, and no amount of money raised would guarantee a new ending -- a fact severely misunderstood by many people that donated. "We were dealing with a lot of very confused people, more every day, and that told us we had a problem," said Penny Arcade's Jerry Holkins in an update on his site. "Apparently some of the people giving to the cause seemed to think that they were paying for a new ending to Mass Effect."Holkins also said that Child's Play project manager Jamie Dillion was "buried under mail" about the fundraiser from people wanting to know "what the goal is, and how much they need to raise in order to get the ending produced." The charity was also contacted by PayPal, on account of a "high number" of donors requesting refunds. As a result, Child's Play requested that the fundraiser come to an end.As an organisation, Child's Play has guidelines regulating how money is raised (Child's Play can't be used to sell anything, for instance). Since Retake ME3 technically fell within the boundaries of the charity's existing framework, Holkins has created a new rule to prevent future misunderstandings: "Child's Play cannot be a tool to draw attention to a cause. Child's Play must be the Cause."
Seen@PAX: Jerry Holkins just dances
Snicker all you want at this footage we captured of Penny Arcade godfather Jerry Holkins playing Just Dance 3 on stage at PAX, the fact of the matter is this: The guy's got moves. Also, is that Quail Man at his side? Trick question, we were there: It's totally Quail Man.
PvP and Penny Arcade bring you to The Trenches
Webcomics are a dime a dozen, but when doodling kingpins Scott Kurtz (of PvP fame) and Mike "Gabe" Krahulik and Jerry "Tycho" Holkins (of Penny Arcade fame) team up on a new project, you can bet we're gonna take notice. Enter: The Trenches. The Trenches is new (like, new new), so there's only one strip as of right now, and seeks to catalog "the tribulations of software testing with the precision tools of 'the office comedy.'" On top of each comic, the trio will publish stories from actual testers in the trenches -- anonymously, of course. The first story involves an individual who had to test Ken Griffey, Jr's Winning Run for the SNES. Yup, it's as bad as it sounds. The Trenches will be updated on the Penny Arcade off-days, every Tuesday and Thursday.
Child's Play 2010 site now live, accepting donations
While you read up on Black Friday deals and pour over reviews from this year's holiday game releases, might we suggest taking a time out to donate? Each year, Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity collects donations from gamers of all walks of life -- be they Desert Bus marathon runners, major game developers, or anyone in between -- in an effort to provide "donations of toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children's hospitals across North America and the world." Last year, CP raised over $1.7 million, and the charity's expansion in 2010 will certainly help to best that milestone and allow over 70 hospitals to be chosen and donated to directly. Head over to the Child's Play website for specifics on how to give, or text "GAMERS" to 50555 and donate $5. You totally just did it, didn't you? You're the best!
Penny Arcade Scholarship now accepting applications
Wondering what it feels like to be on the receiving end of the benevolence frequently exhibited by the creators of Penny Arcade? If you're a college student with starry-eyed ambitions to change the video game industry for the better, you might be able to bask in the warm light of their generosity by receiving the fourth annual Penny Arcade Scholarship, a $10,000 academic grant set aside for a special student with a GPA over 3.3 and the aforementioned revolutionary aspirations. Applications for the scholarship are currently being accepted and must be sent in by May 30, along with two letters of recommendation, an academic transcript, an essay on how you plan to change the industry and your photograph, which will only be seen publicly if you're the winner, as displayed on the scholarship's page. It's not like the Penny Arcade guys are basing their decision on prettiness or anything. [Via GamePolitics]
Time readers rank Penny Arcade co-creators as more influential than President Obama
digg_url = 'http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/04/time-readers-rank-penny-arcade-co-creators-as-more-influential-t/'; Happy final Easter everyone! Wait, what? You didn't get the memo about this being the last Easter? Yeah, apparently the recent 2010 Time 100 Poll, which ranks the most influential people on the planet, is actually a sign of the impending end of days. Yeah, that was the only explanation scholars could come up with when they saw that Lady Gaga was in the lead (with approximately 150k votes), ranking above global humanitarians and, you know, world leaders. Carving out their own little slice of notoriety are Penny Arcade co-creators Mike "Gabe" Krahulik and Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, whose 9th place position (at the time of this writing) has pinned them as more influential human beings than Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, and Oprah Winfrey. Hey, as nutty as that sounds, we've never bought a video game based solely on recommendations from the latter three. [Via Kotaku]
PAX East returns to Boston in 2011 and 2012, in bigger venue
It appears the East Coast has an annual gaming mega-convention to call its own, as the Penny Arcade Expo East officially locks into Boston for two years. The wildly successful inaugural year had an estimated 60,000 attendees (twice the number originally planned for), which has led organizers to move the show from the Hynes Convention Center to the much larger Boston Convention & Exhibition Center for 2011 and 2012. Although the extra space will be welcomed by publishers and attendees, the other convention center is inconveniently located (especially by Boston standards) down by the harbor. While the Hynes, which is located downtown by Copley, may have been a little cramped, it's surrounded by shops and restaurants for meetups. Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik told Joystiq, "We had assumed we would be in [the Hynes] for what? Three years, I think? That was our initial idea. And already this will be our only year here. We have to move it next year." It'll be interesting to see how publishers treat PAX East in 2011. With no other major show in the first half of the year except for the Game Developers Conference, which attendees have complained for years has lost its way by having a larger media presence, PAX East could be the new place to make announcements. Especially if this year-round major game release calendar we've seen in 2010 becomes permanent. Penny Arcade's Jerry Holkins spoke about PAX East's place in the industry and the recent occurrence of major releases outside the fourth quarter saying, "I think the problem is [publishers] never had a place to promote those releases, and if they're given a place to promote those releases – this is what [Penny Arcade's business guru] Robert [Khoo] has heard when he talks to the people he talks to to get the show going – they need a place that can attract you and can attract the people who play games ... enthusiasts in general, not industry observers." %Gallery-89141%
Visceral Games to stream Dead Space 2 panel live from PAX East
Can't make it to PAX East this year? We feel your pain -- while there are quite a few Joystiqeurs winging their way off to the East Coast to partake with Mike and Jerry and the gang, there are almost as many of us still stranded back at home with all of you. But fortunately, our friends at Visceral Games are doing their best to share the love -- they'll be Ustreaming their Dead Space 2 PAX East panel live this Saturday at 1:00 p.m. EST. We've included the feed on this very post, so bookmark this page right now, and then come on back Saturday afternoon. Producers Steve Papoutsis and Rich Briggs will be in attendance along with Art Director Ian Milham, and the guys will "bring players up to speed on the Dead Space universe and prepare them for what's to come in Dead Space 2." They're even showing a bonus look at "the all new Isaac suit," and they'll be answering questions live from the simultaneous Facebook chat, too. Of course, a Q&A with the Dead Space 2 producers is little consolation to missing out on eating breakfast cereal with professional hugger Justin McElroy, but those of us at home this weekend will have to take what we can get.
Penny Arcade 'hoping' for Episode 3 reveal at PAX East
While it's been some time since we last heard about the third installment in the Steampunkian Penny Arcade Adventures series, a glimmer of hope resides in the coming months with PAX East. A Penny Arcade representative confirmed to Joystiq that, "They [Penny Arcade] are hoping to have something to announce by PAX East. Unfortunately, we won't have anything before then." Presumably, we'll exclaim "oooooh" when we do finally see the game, as Mike "Gabe" Krahulik explained when we last heard from the duo about the game's absence.Jerry "Tycho" Holkins further confirmed the possibility of an appearance for PAA: Episode 3 at PAX East, telling MTV Multiplayer, "Listen very closely to the announcements at PAX!" We're certainly ready to "feel the vigor in all our limbs," as Holkins claimed we would last September, but it's been so long we're not sure we'll remember that city-saving, hobo-beating, purple pantaloon-wearing protagonist of ours ... oh ... well, maybe not.
Penny Arcade crew kicking off new book tour February 23
Between the thrice-weekly comic, the quad-monthly PATV episodes and the bi-yearly conventions, we find ourselves pretty saturated in Penny Arcade's artistic outings. Still, there are a few places in our lives where we could use some more of Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins' irreverent brand of jest -- like, for instance, our coffee table. That gap will soon be filled by the duo's new book, The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade: The 11½ Anniversary Edition -- a tome which covers the history of the comic, the Penny Arcade Expo and the annual Child's Play charity. The book is due out February 23 -- at which point its creators will kick off a national book tour. Check past the jump to see if they're making a stop in your town!
Penny Arcade to be honored by Game Developers Choice Awards
To the far, far outside observer, a comic strip which frequently features a tiny robot who commits sex crimes against citrus fruits wouldn't seem like the most altruistic venture. We know the truth, however -- that Penny Arcade's Jerry Holkins, Mike Krahulik and Robert Khoo have been putting a generous, entertaining face on the gaming industry for over a decade. For this, the three men will soon receive a special honor during the Game Developers Choice Awards -- the "Ambassador Award." Man, that sounds prestigious as hell. According to a press release announcing Penny Arcade's decoration, the award is given to folks who have "helped the game industry advance to a better place, either through facilitating a better game community from within, or by reaching outside the industry to be an advocate for video games and help further our art." Yes, Penny Arcade has done both of those things, while still finding time to make hilarious comics about sentient juicers.
15 Minutes of Fame: Making Child's Play of WoW
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about. Kristin Lindsay makes child's play of WoW. In fact, she makes child's play of gaming in general and even of her work. That's because Child's Play, the charitable organization that brings games, books and cash to sick kids in children's hospitals across North America, is her work. As project manager at Child's Play, Kristin helps the organization raise millions of dollars worth of toys and cash for children's hospitals and put a positive face on gamers and gaming. Child's Play was created by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of the online comic strip Penny Arcade. This year, the group has raised $1,302,367, shooting to surpass last year's $1.5 million total. We dove into a niche in Kristin's busy season to visit with her about her WoW habit, her work with Child's Play and how we WoW players can help Child's Play achieve a record-breaking year for hospitalized kids.
Penny Arcade creators honored by Washington State senate
Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, founders of Penny Arcade, are legendary folk heroes to much of the gaming community. For ten years, they've served as unparalleled industry commentators, strong vocabulary enthusiasts, and proponents of citrus-assaulting robots. However, these virtues recently took a backseat to their more charitable contributions to society when Penny Arcade was discussed on the floor of the Washington State senate, where legislators adopted a resolution honoring the two men for their philanthropic exploits.Senate Resoultion 8640 ennumerates the achievements of Holkins and Krahulik, such as their successful webcomic reaching its 10th anniversary, the launching of the Penny Arcade Expo, and the $4.5 million raised for improving the lives of hospitalized kids with Child's Play. While we're sure they would have preferred a law being passed in their name which mandates the death penalty for people who drop out of online games when they start losing, it's still a pretty cool gesture.[Via NeoGAF]
Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness releases
Yes, that is the title. Penny Arcade's game has been released, and is now available for sale or demo over on the Greenhouse site. What's perhaps most amazing about this game is that on Tuesday, developers Hothead Games released the thing simultaneously on as many platforms as they could, including PC, OS X, Linux, and even the Xbox Live Arcade. That in itself is almost admirable enough to pick it up on principle alone.But is it any good? Reviews have been middling, though word on the street says that if you're a fan of the webcomic, you'll probably enjoy the game. Jerry Holkins, writer of both the comic and the game, spoke with our sister site Joystiq about the grueling process of putting it together, and gameplay is basically a mix of old-school RPG, Call of Cthulu, and Sam & Max. Play, in other words, at your own risk.Or just try the demo. The game itself is only $20, but it's the first of four episodes, all priced that way, so it might be pretty costly by the end. Still, especially if you're a Penny Arcade fan, it's worth a look. And any developer that goes multi-platform including OS X on day one, complete with demos, gets a TUAW salute from us.
Tycho Brahe weighs in On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Penny_Arcade_s_Tycho_talks_about_the_Rain_Slick_Precipice'; The unique experiment of Penny Arcade Adventures has already begun in earnest. The long-term question in the making -- "Can game comic-makers make a videogame?" -- is moot. On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is now available via Xbox Live and the Greenhouse website (with demos here: Windows, Mac and Linux). The question now becomes: What do the creators think of their spawn? We sat down with Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, Penny Arcade's writer-in-residence, to get some perspective on that very issue.We had the chance to discuss a number of the game's elements -- from the origins of the Startling Developments Detective Agency to the foul creation of the evil bums. Mr. Holkins also shed a dim light on future episodes in the series as we discussed the music and writing that surround the overarching story. We also clarified that for Penny Arcade, as a creative team, there is no rest. Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins are not celebrating today, they're not patting themselves on the back. Instead, they're returning to what they do best: working.Read on to find out why these guys are driven to mine the funny for your benefit.%Gallery-1545%
Penny Arcade feels your GRAWful pain
Do you have the GRAW blues? Do your eyes burn with a crimson fire as the phrase "1200 points" etches itself into the back of your skull? There is only one answer to your existential funk: write a folk song about it! That's how they did it in the sixties, anyway. Well, the fancy lads at Penny Arcade are one step ahead of you, and Tycho has written an acoustic ballad to ease your troubles. "You'll pay twenty when it should be ten, and ten when it should be five:and you'll pay five when it shouldbe free, as sure as you're alive." The song refers to the old 8 hot dogs/10 hot dog buns dilemma: GRAW content costs $15, but you can't buy $15 worth of points. You can buy $20 worth or you can buy $10 worth, effectively making $20 the real cost of the new GRAW content. Oh, those devious microtransactions!And since we're on the topic, don't forget to vote in our GRAW poll. We'll discuss the results on Sunday.
