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A 'Costume Quest' animated series is coming to Amazon Video
One of Amazon's upcoming original kids series should be very familiar to fans of a certain Double Fine title. The online retailer announced today that a Costume Quest animated children's series based on the popular video games will debut in 2018. Will McRobb of The Adventures of Pete and Pete fame will serve as executive producer while Frederator Studios (Adventure Time, The Fairly Odd Parents) will produce the show.
Pilot a disembodied head on July 26th with 'Headlander'
Headlander, the Adult Swim game with a '70s science fiction vibe, comes to the PS4 on July 26th. First announced last December at the PlayStation Experience, it puts you in the head of the "last organic life left in the known universe," according to the PlayStation blog post. Even though you're just a disembodied head, you do have a spacesuit helmet and rocket booster. That lets you dock your dome on any object with a "universal docking ring," including humanoid shepherds, robot dogs and even vacuum cleaners.
Yes, 'Beyond Good and Evil 2' is still happening
Beyond Good and Evil 2 isn't dead yet, according to its mastermind Michel Ancel. If you aren't familiar, the sequel is something of an enigma in the gaming world. Merely mentioning its name elicits complex emotions and dreams of publisher Ubisoft showing the game at its next year's E3 media briefing. The first game was a critical hit but didn't sell well. Consumers in the Aughts weren't down with a game about a plucky photojournalist and her anthropomorphic porcine companion; who'd have thought?
The original 'Psychonauts' comes to PS4 this spring
Slowly but surely, Double Fine Productions is re-releasing its greatest hits on the PlayStation 4. In addition to Grim Fandango, Full Throttle and Day of the Tentacle, the developer has announced plans to bring Psychonauts to Sony's latest system. Unlike Double Fine's point-and-click adventure games though, it won't be getting the full remaster treatment -- instead, it'll just be a straight port of the PC, Xbox and PS2 classic. The original wasn't a massive success, but its mixture of solid platforming and timeless Tim Schafer humour won it plenty of praise from the press in 2005.
'Psychonauts 2' is really, actually, totally happening
You made Psychonauts 2 happen. The $3.3 million Fig campaign's been fully funded and now perhaps the hardest work for developer Double Fine Productions is ahead of it: finishing the game. In the video below, studio founder Tim Schafer says that the campaign will run through next Tuesday, though. "Every [additional] dollar we make goes into making the game better, giving us more time to polish and making the game great," he says. "We don't just want to make Psychonauts 2, we want to make an amazing Psychonauts 2."
This is why 'Prince of Persia' has the legacy it does
Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time defined how the company looks at its properties. But before the publisher began pumping out annual sequels with a startling cadence at rapidly diminishing returns, there was just the Prince and his snazzy ability to rewind time while jumping, wall-running and shimmying from stone column to stone column. And it's the latest episode of DoubleFine Productions' "Devs Play" series that focuses on that seminal game and finds its director, Patrice Desilets, explaining what went into development.
'Castlevania' designer explains what made 'Symphony' so special
There's plenty I could say about Castlevania: Symphony of the Night but in the interest of time I'll keep it short and sweet: it's one of the most influential games ever made. Don't believe me? Eighteen years later, its core design conceit (read: explore a gigantic environment at will, uncovering hidden-in-plain-sight secrets in previously traversed areas thanks to a cascading set of power-ups that grant new abilities) is still being used today. So with that in mind, watching co-designer Koji "IGA' Igarashi offer commentary while Double Fine Productions' senior gameplay programmer Anna Kipnis plays through over two hours of the game in the latest Devs Play episode is an incredible treat. Oh, and there's blood-red wine involved because of course there is.
Daily iPad App: Costume Quest lets you be a kid again
We may have to wait until early next year for the highly anticipated (an robustly funded) new title from Double Fine Productions, but to help hold us over, the company has released one of its most charming previous games for iOS devices. Costume Quest lets you play as one of a pair of young twins on Halloween night. You soon discover that the neighborhood isn't just filled with spookily dressed kids, but monsters as well. A kidnapping occurs, hilarity ensues and the story marches on at a fairly brisk pace. It's a relentlessly nostalgic experience as you trot the dimly lit streets with fellow trick-or-treaters, but the game takes a dramatic turn during battle segments where you must dispatch the demons that are terrorizing your town. As soon as you enter a battle, your character and their costume transform from cardboard and tin foil to full-sized robots, knights and other heroic figures. Being an RPG at heart, combat in Costume Quest is turn-based, and on the iPad's touchscreen you can tap specific icons during attack or defense to boost your performance. The game may appear a bit cartoonish -- and to be fair, the visual style and overall theme seem very casual -- but this is no walk in the park. Battles will test both the reflexes of your finger and the strength of your character, and you may find that you need to gain an experience level or snag some Battle Stamps before you can best certain foes. The game fits well on the iPad, and moving your character around the screen is done by either dragging your finger to new areas or tapping on the spots you'd like to travel. I played the game on the third-generation iPad, and while it was buttery smooth most of the time, I did notice a few instances of stuttering, though nothing that affected my overall enjoyment. Costume Quest is a bargain at US$4.99, and with its lengthy story and plethora of bonus objectives, it'll take you a while to beat it. It's a perfect game for the Halloween season, and if you've not yet given it a whirl on other platforms, you should do yourself a favor and pick it up on iOS.
OUYA working with Psychonauts and Words with Friends creators, The Cave also enroute
OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman took to the stage at DICE 2013 today to reveal two new partnerships, one with Psychonauts creator Tim Schafer's studio Double Fine Productions, and the other with Words with Friends creator Paul Bettner. So far, that means both Double Fine's Reds and The Cave are headed to OUYA, while Bettner's Verse studio only announced it was working on two unannounced titles. "I believe we're about to see another disruption even bigger than this last," Bettner said, referring to his previous work in the mobile game space. "Gamers want the App Store in their living room. OUYA will be the first to deliver it," he said. The OUYA arrives in March for Kickstarter backers, and in April for the rest of the world (even later for retail). It's unclear exactly when Schafer and Bettner's games will arrive on the Android-powered console, but we'd expect The Cave to be there sooner than later (it's already available on other platforms). Update: This post originally stated that Tim Schafer created the Monkey Island series, when in fact it was created by Ron Gilbert. While Tim Schafer worked on the Monkey Island series, he is not its creator. Sorry about that, readers (and Ron Gilbert)!
