peter-molydeux
Latest
PSA: Molyjam Deux is underway, here's where to watch
The second-annual Molyjam is in full swing, and thanks to the magic of the internet you too can see what it's like to build a ridiculous game from scratch over the course of 48 sleepless hours. The event, which is taking place at 32 locations in 15 countries, has a live Twitch hub set up to allow for easy switching between the various webcam livestreams broadcasting the event. Unlike last year's Molyjam, which took its inspiration from the Twitter work of parody account Peter Molydeux, this year's function sources quotes from the man himself.
Molyjam Deux to use real Molyneux quotes as inspiration for games
Molyjam Deux will blow your mind – but in an entirely different way than it did last year. Molyjam is a game jam spawned from the Peter Molyneux parody account, Peter Molydeux, which tweets out ridiculous game ideas that wouldn't be out of place in the real Molyneux's feed. Last year, developers used Molydeux's tweets to create exciting games with absurd premises, but this year they'll build games based on quotes from the real Molyneux, provided without context. "Molyneux is a man who needs no assistance when it comes to parody," the organizers of Molyjam Deux write. "His own words are strong enough. Who but Molyneux has the strength to say things like, 'Pull the right trigger to see The Most Interesting Thing In The World.' Or, 'It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate.'" Molyjam Deux offers 22 Molyneux quotes for developers to use – inspired by Molyneux's studio, 22Cans – including, "If you love your dog, we're gonna mess with your mind, man. You're not going to be able to go to bed," and, "I still have nightmares about holding German sausages over my head." Molyjam Deux runs from July 5 - 7 in a range of venues worldwide. Check out the regions on the Molyjam map.
Molyjam: Building a game jam for everyone
Double Fine programmer Anna Kipnis hosted a wonderful GDC panel about her time creating "What Would Molydeux," a 2012 game jam inspired by the Peter Molyneux twitter parody, Peter Molydeux. The jam was a rousing success, spanning 32 cities worldwide, with Peter Molyneux himself even showing up for the London event. Rather than trying to encapsulate the whole panel here, I suggest you watch it for yourself.After the panel, Kipnis told me that one of the most remarkable things about Molyjam was that it attracted so many kinds of people. "We really wanted people who had never worked on games to come, because there was such a wide variety of disciplines," she said. Sound composers in particular, she said, were reticent to come and were worried they wouldn't have enough to do. "People die for audio, and what ends up happening actually is that you have one audio guy working on like five different games."
We can't tell if Molydeux is doing the work for Molyneux, or it's the other way around
Peter Molyneux's first experimental title with 22 Cans is Curiosity, a potentially million-player title that has people chip away at a cube until one person hits the final piece and uncovers the ultimate secret inside. Peter Molydeux, a digital parody of Molyneux, has created a trailer for Curiosity using a few exaggerated quotes (and some not so hyperbolic)."It will make the God Particle seem smaller than an atom," Molydeux (correctly) states. Molyneux has described Curiosity as something that "is so valuable, and so life-changingly important."Molydeux's trailer posits that this discovery is "about to change life as we know it" and "it will be covered in the media for all eternity," while Molyneux has previously said "It's so amazing I think it will appear on news reports."In response to Molydeux's trailer, Molyneux has offered a few hints as to Curiosity's secret, tweeting that he thinks the parody "is truly amazing. It's not a message, it's not an advert, it's not a job. I am loath to give more clues."Curiosity will support microtransactions, with items ranging from $0.50 to $50,000. The game will be launched on August 22 for iOS, Android and PC.
How Game Design Works / Doesn't Work: A Lesson From the 'What Would Molydeux?' Gamejam
"Actually ... I don't know where I'm going with this."At a 48-hour game jam, where time is more precious than money, a brief lack of direction isn't the disaster it would be at an Activision or an EA. It might even be a good thing, allowing just enough room and respite for that one idea that makes a fragmented game come together.The participants of "What Would Molydeux?", a multi-city design event that derives game concepts from the whimsical, semi-sincere mind of Peter Molyneux's Twitter-bound doppelgänger, have the weekend to turn an inherently silly premise into something innovative and playable. And, you know, to figure out where they're going with this.
Friends 'til the End flies out of 'What Would Molydeux?' 2012
This past weekend game developers all around the globe got together and tried to create games based on the amazing tweets of the Peter Molyneux parody persona, @PeterMolydeux. One of our favorites is Friends 'til the End, a game inspired by this tweet:"You play as a small boy with a remote control helicoptor that is alive and your friend, then you discover a nuclear missle [sic] inside it."In Friends 'til the End, players must simultaneously navigate a small boy and a toy helicopter through treacherous environments. We don't want to spoil what happens when you fail in the game -- check out the video above to see for yourself.The event, dubbed "What Would Molydeux?" concluded yesterday. Friends 'til the End is designed by the folks at Tribute Games, whom you may recall from WizOrb. We really want to play it, so excuse us while we go do that right now!
What Would Molydeux? game jam expands; list of what would Molymake
"What Would Peter Molyduex, if he were here right now? We bet he'd kick an a..." and we'll let your twisted little minds fill in the rest of those lyrics. The What Would Molydeux? game jam has turned from a two-city semi-satirical proposition into a 16-city, truly international game jam, running from March 30-April 1.What Would Molydeux? has developers choose a premise from any of @petermolydeux's brilliant and/or strange game propositions, and create it in 48 hours. It is important to note that Peter Molydeux is not Peter Molyneux, creator of Fable and former Lionhead Studios mastermind, but Molydeux does do a wonderful impression.Molydeux is hopeful these proposals will see creation during the game jam, but anything from his Twitter is up for grabs. What Would Molydeux? begins at 7 p.m. local time around the world on Friday, March 30.
Peter Molydeux game jam may include real Molyneux, March 31 to April 1
Peter Molydeux may be recognized on some level as a comedic genius, satirizing Fable creator Peter Molyneux on Twitter in the form of outlandish, brilliant game proposals, such as: You control a mystical rabbit at a bus stop during Winter. You must find as many creative ways as possible to make people miss their buses. - petermolydeuxNOT (@petermolydeux) December 2, 2011It's turning out that Molydeux may just be a genius, all comedic modifiers aside. Yesterday, after the world premiere of the above trailer for Molydeux's latest parody, Pin Drop, things turned serious. Anna Kipnis of Double Fine tweeted the idea of a game jam "where each team picks an idea from @petermolydeux and goes for it," and Molydeux responded that he would give any jam based on his "world-changing designs" his "blessing and support."Today we have MolyJam2012, set to run March 31 through April 1 (April Fool's Day) in San Francisco and overseas in Brighton, but developers around the world are invited to join via a shared sign-up sheet, Molydeux tweeted.
Peter Molydeux (note: still not Peter Molyneux) returns to Twitter, challenges UK game industry
"Just stuck my fingers up @rockstar_north (aka pig factory) and walked out. Cog in a machine? Not anymore, now I'M the machine," the mysterious Peter "Molydeux" Twitter account proprietor and UK game developer exclaimed this morning on his second Twitter account, "@dougiedeux." As previous interviews have revealed, the man behind the fake -- and often hilarious -- Twitter account "@petermolydeux" is a game developer who's worked on a variety of high profile titles. It appears his latest work was with Grand Theft Auto V studio Rockstar North, based out of Edinburgh, Scotland. Is that high profile enough? Anyway, after "Molydeux" was banished from Twitter recently -- a result of an unknown user or users "reporting" his faux account to the Twitter mothership, possibly confused with the actual Peter Molyneux -- followers, friends, and media outlets voiced concern. Where would we be without his hilarious game design proposals every day? Nowhere, that's where! Thankfully, Twitter reinstated the account as of today, with two messages from its operator thanking supporters and promoting his other account, "@dougiedeux." With that account, he plans on running an ongoing dev diary of his indie project, post-Rockstar North. That project? "Save the UK Games Industry from collapse." Good luck, mystery man!
Peter Molydeux is not Peter Molyneux, and other revelations
For all its rainbow-trail-cat-in-space silliness, the internet isn't always kind to parody. Take Peter Molydeux, for example. Did you know that he is not, in fact, Peter Molyneux? Did you just read that sentence again? The amusing (and slightly tragic) video above spells it out: The silly, creative and often insufferable ideas conjured by our favorite parody tweeter are not being made at Lionhead Studios. With the account suspended, we can only lash out at the effects of careless skimming, insulating legal disclaimers and, perhaps, concepts that were a bit too close to the real deal. The most devastating news of all? CasCore, the bowling / survival-horror hybrid that had masterpiece -- or 9.5 -- written all over it, will never escape from its prototype phase. Where will we put the children's dreams, if not in bowling balls? (If you watch the video closely, you might just glimpse an answer.)
We want to play Peter Molydeux's 'CasCore' prototype
One of our favorite Twitter accounts, @petermolydeux, is a constant source of entertainment, but now he's taken it to the next level. Rather than leave it up to us to imagine his insane gaming ideas, he's gone ahead and created a video proposal for CasCore, a game that marries the casual gameplay of Wii Sports' bowling with the hardcore survival-horror genre. Give your imagination a break already and check out the prototype video above. How else will you see a child's dreams crammed into a bowling ball?
