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Joystiq interview: Penny Arcade Adventures
It's fair to say that quite a lot is expected from Vancouver-based developer, Hothead Games. The group not only has to deliver a series of downloadable and episodic adventure RPGs in regular intervals, but also appease a fanbase so large and rabid that it can click your website to death -- accidentally, if you're lucky. On top of all that, the poor developers are occasionally dragged into a tiny room for the sole purpose of being poked by a plethora of questions regarding their upcoming games.Penny Arcade Adventures producer, Joel DeYoung, and Hothead creative director, Ron Gilbert, had to endure just such a prodding during GDC, the results of which can be viewed after the break. Appropriately enough, our interview's almost as long as the title of the series: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness.%Gallery-1545%
GDC08: Penny Arcade dev aims for episode every 4 months
As the folks at Telltale Games are sure to tell you, one of the tricks to successful episodic gaming is releasing content on a regular basis. Vancouver-based Hothead Games appears to be in agreement, with Penny Arcade Adventures producer, Joel DeYoung, telling us of the developer's tentative goal to release a new episode every four months. "Yeah, definitely there's a fixed release schedule. It's tentative right now, but we're talking about one every four months," DeYoung explained in a GDC interview. "[It's tentative] because, you know, this is a new model for us, and it is quite tricky with all the project management scheduling and making sure we're officially overlapping the work on all the episodes." With some work on Episode Three already underway, we can expect to be tumbling down the precipice of darkness for at least eight months. Look for the full interview to be published on Joystiq later this week.
New Penny Arcade Adventures gameplay footage features hobo warfare
The font of information about Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness has slowed to a light trickle since last year's Penny Arcade Expo, where it was announced the game would be released on Xbox Live Arcade as well as Mac and PC. That's why we were so pleased to see this new gameplay footage, which gives us a taste of the game's eccentric turn-based combat system, and an idea of exactly how the duo's comedic style will translate into an interactive format.The new footage also reveals that the game might overtake Condemned: Criminal Origins as the premier hobo murder simulator for the Xbox 360, a distinction that Gabe and Tycho would no doubt be extremely proud of.
Hothead Games to publish Ron Gilbert's 'DeathSpank'
Described as -- and you'll want to sit down for this -- "the perfect melding of a Monkey Island style adventure game with the wicked RPG game play of Diablo," Ron Gilbert's latest creation has been revealed to be an episodic title dubbed "DeathSpank: Episode 1: Orphans of Justice." The adventure legend has joined Vancouver-based Hothead Games as Creative Director, noting that he's spent over four years searching for "the right publisher for this strange little game." He went on to quip, "Now that I've done it, you just know that somewhere four horsemen are saddling up." Followers of Gilbert's grumpy ramblings may remember DeathSpank as a satirical game character mentioned in a series of Flash comics, created with the aid of Clayton Kauzlaric and offered on Gilbert's personal blog. They'll also recall that Gilbert is currently providing his expertise and surly demeanor to Penny Arcade's episodic endeavor, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. Expect to hear more on both titles... soonish.
PAX 07: Penny Arcade adventures to XBLA
We're a little late in getting to it, but we would be remiss in our fanboy duties if we didn't report that Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is officially heading to Xbox Live Arcade. As Rain-Slick is an episodic affair, its arrival on XBLA is a fairly momentous occasion. Episodic gaming is a term that has been bandied around for a while now, so we're hopeful that the game will deliver on the promise of cheap, easily digestible gaming. Penny Arcade Adventures is scheduled to debut on XBLA in early 2008 alongside the PC, OS X, and Linux versions. More information about Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness can be found on the official site.[Via Joystiq]
PAX 07: The licensed games panel
There's nothing more indicative of gamer culture than the fact that a bunch of us got together at a fan event, with games to be played right over in the exhibition hall, to talk about business. We can't help it! We love sales numbers and such.Vlad Ceraldi and Steve Bocska from Hothead, Steve Bowler from Midway, and David Freeman from Sabertooth Games held a panel to talk about licensed games yesterday at PAX. All of these individuals have unique qualifications to talk about the subject: the two Hothead representatives, in addition to working on Penny Arcade Adventures now, previously worked on last generation's Simpsons games. Bowler worked on NBA Ballers and is now on John Woo Presents Stranglehold, and Freeman juggles licenses in his work with Sabertooth's Universal Fighting System card game.
PAX 07: Our very own Penny Arcade Adventures trailer
It's Interactive Day for Joystiq's PAX coverage! First we got to assist in the creation of a Sam & Max scene, and now we made a dude in the Penny Arcade game trailer bald! The Hothead booth at PAX had a demo of the character creation system in On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. After we finished our character editing, the demo presented a video from the game with our character in the lead role. It then offered to email us the video, which means we get to share it with all of you! Enjoy the video, starring a guy who looks not that much like any of us!
PAX 07: Penny Arcade Adventures coming to XBLA
At the Penny Arcade game panel today at PAX, they've just confirmed that Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness – the first installment of their episodic series – will "debut" on Xbox Live Arcade in 2008. That's in addition to the already announced PC, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms. It's unclear if the game is console exclusive to the XBLA platform or if other console ports are in the works. This is the first digitally distributed episodic title to be announced for a home console download service. Telltale is working on Xbox 360 and Wii ports of Sam & Max, but it's unclear if the title will be distributed as a full season retail product or as individual releases through Xbox Live Arcade and Wii Ware respectively. You can check out the game's recently launched site here. %Gallery-1545%
PAX 07: Penny Arcade Adventures developers panel
We went to the Press only Hothead Games Q&A for their upcoming PC (Windows, Mac and Linux) game for Penny Arcade, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One. It opened up with a new trailer that built upon the previous one, that has taken huge steps in capturing the Penny Arcade look, in both the 2D and 3D realm. As they start showing the same demo on the show floor today, the trailer and gameplay footage will more than likely be hitting the intertubes soon so you can form your own opinions in the the progress of the art direction. After the trailer played the fired up their build of the game and started a new campaign. Full details on the demo and information from after the Q&A session can be found after the break.
Rumor: XBLA could get Penny Arcade game
According to Gaming Target, EGM is reporting that Penny Arcade's first game could soon join their innumerable picture packs and themes on Xbox Live. The mag brings the news in their September issue that Penny Arcade Adventures Episode One: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness will appear on the Xbox Live Arcade in the fall.Developer Hothead Games isn't confirming the news at the moment, but with PAX a scant three weeks away, they could just be trying to keep the tabby in the satchel so Gabe and Tycho can reveal the news at the show. For our part, we'd love to launch PA's game from our Cardboard Tube Samurai-themed Dashboard, the theme we shall continue to rock until something better comes along, in other words: Forever.[Via X3F]
New Penny Arcade Adventures trailer available for your inspection
We know how much you guys enjoy examining every scrap of new Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode One: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness footage that's released and then proclaiming it to be totally awesome/totally crappy. As we don't think ourselves fit to deny you that joy, we present the new Comic-Con trailer for the game. In our infinite wisdom, we refuse to join either side of this debate. It looks like the game is heavy on the solid writing and the beautiful art direction, so we guess that puts us in the underrepresented "totally what we expected" camp. Though we're attempting to stay somewhat neutral, we'd be lying if we didn't admit we were looking forward to seeing what the PA guys have cooked up. Now, let the ongoing debate commence once more!
Penny Arcade Adventures new screens and old trailer
Those of you with aspirations to be a rake-wielding hobo vigilante may still have years of hard living and railroad hitching ahead of you before you become overtaken with the impulse to don a stovepipe hat and wield a (no doubt sharpened) lawn and garden instrument. If video games are good for anything, it's for helping people achieve those sorts of dreams (except for you Manhunt 2 fans), so we were quite pleased to see these latest screenshots of the "Create a Player" feature from Penny Arcade Adventures: OtRSPoD.Not interested? Perhaps spaceboots are more your thing? No ... how about maternal insults? Thought there's obviously no pleasing you, we're quite pleased to see they've cranked the cel-shading engine up to 11, as evidenced in last month's trailer from PC Gamer (helpfully included after the break).%Gallery-1545%
Penny Arcade dev Hothead wins Canadian New Media Award
Hothead Games, who are currently conjuring code for Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One (or PAA: OtRSPoD: E1) have won the Canadian New Media Award for Most Promising Company of the Year. The honor earns them, bragging rights notwithstanding, the prestigious Pixel award.The award was given in recognition of the three projects Hothead is currently developing. In addition to the anticipated Penny Arcade Adventures, being developed in conjunction with legendary grumpy gamer Ron Gilbert, the developer is also working on Swarm, an "environmentally-themed comedy adventure game" with "machine learning" AI, and a joint venture with Cambrian House on Gwabs, a desktop-to-desktop combat title.
Penny Arcade Adventures game gets new trailer
The guys from Penny Arcade are truly testing the bounds of the term "meta" by featuring 3D representations of the 2D counterparts of their very 3D selves in their forthcoming game. They've also broken Joystiq's Acronymizer 3000 with its title: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One. The brand-new trailer for the game (offered first to PC Gamer readers) appears above.We get some nice looks at the game's combat and character creation system, as well as at some of the slick 2D animation (the meta thickens!). We know that this is their first crack at a game of their own, but we're definitely laying down what they're picking up, as the kids say. Want more? You can find some PC Gamer covers featuring characters from the game on the PA site today.
Ron Gilbert (ie: our hero) working on Penny Arcade Adventures
We try to avoid overtly sycophantic groveling here at Joystiq -- it's unbecoming and we drool enough already -- but when we discovered that legendary adventure game designer Ron Gilbert (Monkey freakin' Island, folks) was working on the inaugurual Penny Arcade Adventures installment, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, we sorta couldn't help it. That headline was propelled out of our nervously clacking fingers.Like at the end of a hackneyed thriller, we began to piece it all together. Of course! It all makes sense now! When we called Gilbert's next project "Diablo Lite with a funny adventure-game story and goofy adventure-game puzzles" we never even realized we could have just as easily been describing Penny Arcade Adventures, which PA's Robert Khoo described as "an RPG in short" with elements of adventure games befitting its "comic adventure" moniker. We're still no closer to learning when this super-band is going on tour, but we'd wager PAX '07 is as good a place as any (better actually) to start talking specifics. %Gallery-1545%
First Penny Arcade game footage exposed
Though Gabe and Tycho look somewhat uncomfortable in their polygonal bodies, the first footage of Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One indicates a promising video game debut for the webcomic duo. Not much regarding the nature of the gameplay can be extracted at this point, but it's fair to say that punching, shooting and the heinous violation of fruit will almost certainly come into play. Our feelings are, in a word, prurient. (We had to look that one up.)The full trailer is embedded after the break. %Gallery-1545%
New Penny Arcade Adventures promo shot drops hints
The boys from Penny Arcade aren't ready to talk about their eponymous episodic adventure just yet but they did just send out an additional promotional shot that dropped a few hints. First, the large red eyes spotted in the first piece of promotional art certainly looked like the eyes of our fruit fornicating friend (as seen here), but what about those sprocket shoulders? And he's big, but those don't look like Prime's shoulders ...And what about that gun? Even with self-funded independent projects like this -- "an RPG in short" -- is it possible to get away from guntacular gameplay? I'll leave the rest up to you dear readers. The game is due out for the Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms "when it's done" with console releases expected thereafter.%Gallery-1545%
Joystiq interviews Penny Arcade Adventures' Hothead Games
While at PAX, we also got to speak with Joel DeYoung and Steve Bocska of Hothead Games, the ex-Radical development team tasked with bringing Penny Arcade's dark vision to life, episodically, as Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. We asked them about their team, the degree of cooperation with Penny Arcade, the growing episodic gaming space, and whether or not they'll use any of those fancy cartoonish graphics employed in Radical's Simpsons Road Rage title ... we hope they do.You can download the full interview here (.mov), or watch the video embedded after the break.
First Art of new Penny Arcade game: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness
We're sitting here in the "big theater" at Meydenbauer as the clock strikes 7 PM, signalling the end of an embargo on the teaser image shown here. Now, normally we're not ones to post teaser junk, but we'll cut the Penny Arcade boys some slack given that they're new to this whole game thing and we tend to always root for the underdog. One thing we won't let slide is that tagline. Is this like a new Leisure Suit Larry game or summat?
Penny Arcade presents Penny Arcade Game starring Penny Arcade
The news is out, PA Panel and embargoes be damned! Penny Arcade are making a game! We know what your first reaction is:"Knowing Tycho's concupiscent relationship with italicized words of Brobdingnagian proportions, we can only assume it will be an impossibly difficult Scrabble variant tailored, like the finest Italian suit, for lexiconnoisseurs."You might be correct in such an assumption ... but you're not. "It must be a 'poke the doll' game where we play as our favorite erotic fruit juicing device and sweet, succulent fruit takes on the role of the pliable porn starlet."Wrong again. It will be, in fact, an episodic "comic adventure" known simply -- or, rather, not so simply -- as Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. The installments will initially be available on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms, "followed by a version for next-generation consoles." Robert Khoo, Director of Business Development for Penny Arcade, assured us these would be episodic as well, as opposed to a compilation of episodes. Khoo told us "it's an RPG in short" but will contain elements of adventure games befitting its "comic adventure" moniker. Knowing that adventure games, episodic content, and creative control are a publisher's kiss of death, Penny Arcade, like Telltale before them, will be distributing their game directly, bypassing retailers and online platforms like Steam and GameTap (for now). The game is being developed by Hothead Games, comprised of former employees of Radical Entertainment, makers of Simpson: Road Rage, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (read: two licensed games that don't totally suck). Khoo was quick to dash any notion that this would, in fact, be a licensed game exactly. Both Tycho and Gabe have been hands-on every day with the developers working on everything from art and story to design. Khoo explained just how much hot and heavy greasy hand to game contact there's been: "We're doing everything we can to make sure it has our fingerprints all over it." Yeah, now that's hands-on.So when can you virtually copulate with big, long words, PA style? They're taking the Duke Nukem Forever "when it's done" route. We'll be sure to ask about the possibility of fruit copulation and Scrabble minigames. Shiny new press release embedded after the break.
