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Armikrog stop-motions you toward a Kickstarter from Neverhood vets
Pencil Test Studios, a company manned by one of the designers and two of the artists responsible for 1996's classic The Neverhood, is seeking $900,000 in crowdsourced funding via Kickstarter in order to fuel the creation of its new claymation point-and-click adventure project, Armikrog. While story details are sparse, the game's overall premise is pretty straightforward: Tommynaut, a space explorer, and Beak-Beak, his blind, talking alien dog, crash land onto a "weird planet" and are somehow imprisoned in a fortress called "Armikrog." Assuming it's fully funded, the game will be available in both Steam and DRM-free flavors for PC, OSX and Linux. In addition to being helmed by Neverhood alumni Doug TenNapel, Mike Dietz and Ed Schofield, Armikrog will also feature a soundtrack scored by Neverhood/Skullmonkeys composer Terry S. Taylor, in addition to voice work by Mystery Science Theater 3000/RiffTrax's Michael J. Nelson, Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder, Rob Paulsen of every cartoon from your childhood, Tekzilla's Veronica Belmont and PvPOnline's Scott Kurtz.
Flipnotes from the PAX 2009 show floor
During PAX last year, Nintendo asked any professional artists who happened to be there to create an animation in the DSiWare program Flipnote Studio. Now, the flipnotes from comic artists like Eric Jones and Christina Strain, webcomics artist Scott Kurtz, and 5TH Cell art director Edison Yan, have finally been posted in a gallery on the Flipnote Hatena site. Showing what can be done in a few minutes by a talented artist, and building on the excitement of a popular convention, makes this initiative a great promotional tool for the free app (and for the DSi in general), which is why Nintendo waited until six months after the event to release these!
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.
Guest author missions launch in City of Heroes
Today's October 13, and that means it's time for a mission full of awesome! Do you have what it takes to aid the great Captain Dynamic? Can you handle working along side the LOLBAT, the superhero with the power of internet memes? Or, would you prefer working to help a civilian find some super powers?It's your choice as of today, when three guest author missions are unleashed into the Architect Entertainment systems. Stories by Rooster Teeth Productions (continuing their Captain Dynamic character), Scott Kurtz from the webcomic PvP (the writer behind LOLBAT), and Bill Willingham (the writer behind Irena Faust and her quest for magic) are all available for your consideration and play time.If you spend some time in Architect Entertainment today, be sure to drop your opinions on the three new missions down below in our comment box. Inquiring minds want to know how the missions are!
City of Heroes announces Guest Author Program for Mission Architect
No doubt it's Champions Online that seems to be getting the superhero MMO headlines of late in the gaming press, both for the new title's release and for some of the issues they've had in relation to that launch. But competition is generally a good thing from a gamer's perspective, and City of Heroes is also stepping up their game, particularly in regards to the Mission Architect. When the devs introduced the Mission Architect to City of Heroes, it was their first step towards embracing player-generated content and adding new dimensions to the game experience. They've announced that the next step with Mission Architect is to have a Guest Author Program where "comic book notables try their hand at mission design." NCsoft says the program will "invite influential writers and aspiring game or story designers" to collaborate with the City of Heroes devs and bring these missions into the game.
Sunday Morning Funnies: Mind your Elders
As I'm sure you all have heard by now, one of our favorite comics, Flintlocke vs the Horde, is slated to be set aside. Its creator, Dave "Fargo" Kosak, landed a shiny new job at Blizzard helping to give the game we all love some extra oomph. Fortunately, the storyline won't just be dropped, and you can expect it to wind up sometime in April. In response to reader Keyra's thoughts on last week's Ding! comic, I would like to offer my own. I would have to bet that almost every single person who has played WoW for any length of time at all does ponder why none of their farmers seem to have skulls, or why you can't get enough blood out of a giant monster to fill even one vial. We've all joked about it too. I mean gee, if only I could learn to rip off Troll ears without dismembering them into tiny chunks, I'd be in business. The lame jokes crop up on almost every quest with a poor drop rate, and I don't personally feel that the comic took it any further than I ever have, or any of my uninspired friends (no offense guys). It isn't that there isn't a humorous element to it, but that it's been done better in-game while roaming around by ourselves. I'm thrilled that you liked it, I just wanted to explain why so many of us are bucking it, other than that we miss the old stuff. Enough rambling, here are the comics: Cru the Dwarf: Deserous had better watch out, because someone intends to exact revenge. I don't blame him either, what Deserous did was mean. /sniffles. Speaking of sad stories, maybe you ungrateful masses should start treating your Elders better. Dark Legacy Comics knows how they feel. Experience Points knows what some of you really pray about (please don't send me hatemail, because I don't know what you pray about. It was all a gimmick to work this comic into a sentence when I haven't had my coffee yet). They also know that not all dogs make good anti-burlar hunter pets. Flintlocke and his overzealous ladyfriend are suddenly in a hurry to flee the scene. GU Comics: Lucky Red Envelopes. Now this orc isn't as respectful of his elders. Think of the poor elders! Shakes and Fidget learn that Two is Better than One (or well, maybe not). Check out the latest from LFG. Manic Graffiti: Noobcow and Monster Anatomy 101. NoObz: Laaag. Coincidentally, if you scroll down to the blurb beneath the comic, there's yet another confirmation that no one listens to their elders. I was afraid to look. This week's Ding! is definitely an improvement of sorts. The story is funnier, although not really in the comic format. Maybe if it had been told by a talented comedic writer, or as entertainment on a Podcast? I'd even take it as a guildie tale over Vent in between pulls. Still, I suppose I like pictures of people with their mouths open to show that they are indeed talking. Teh Gladiators: The Ten Storms. I love the artwork in this one! By saying this, I will totally ruin any of the funny in the note from the author beneath the comic strip, but I totally choked on my water when I read the first part of the second paragraph. In all seriousness though, I'm one of this comic's biggest fans, so you totally have a following. The Adventures of Disgraph T. Dwarf: Lunar LoLs. There is less beaver in the latest artwork from World of Warcraft, eh? than there was the comic before, but it is definitely the sexy we were all promised. Go girl power and however you say that nowadays.
Ding! webcomic is looking for your stories
Webcomic artist Scott Kurtz, the guy behind PvP and (more importantly) Ding! has recently posted that he'll be changing the format of his World of Warcraft themed comic. Currently, Ding! follows the comical exploits of his fictional guild, Panda Attack, but as of now that's all going to be changing.Instead, Scott is looking to make his comic highlight the community, and be something of a community effort. He's looking for you, the players, to submit true stories about you and your guild. Has something hilarious or awesome (or hilariously awesome) happened to your crew recently? Submit it to Kurtz, and it just might be immortalized in Ding! If your story is featured in the comic, you'll be rewarded with an 11x17 print of the comic itself, which is pretty cool. It's always nice to have little memories of your guild in physical form like that. Typically you'd need to pay a decent amount of money for comissions from an artist as well known on the net as Kurtz, so that's a sweet little bonus beyond just having your story featured.The full details on how to submit your story can be found on the PvPonline website, and I definitely recommend sending something in! If you or your guild gets featured, you should let us know, too! We'd love to hear about it, and it would probably be shown off on our site as well. That's two times the cool!
Comic Watch: Ding! meets the collective
Scott Kurtz may be a name familiar to some of you -- he writes and draws the webcomic PvP. Until recently, it was his only comic, until he was convinced by a friend to resurrect an old series he used to do centered around World of Warcraft, called Ding! The fruits of his labor you see before you.In this strip, chosen at random by me, two of the players wonder how it is that a third player can possibly be playing WoW all the time, and one of them comes up with an intriguing hypothesis. Incidentally, I'm pretty sure the time frame in the last panel of dialogue should read 'Eight A.M. to four P.M.', instead of 'four A.M.'. That's okay, the joke still comes across.If you'd like to see an MMO-related strip of your favorite webcomic appear here, send it along to our tip line, and make sure you include the absolute URL -- for example, rather than webcomic dot com/latest_strip.html, it should point to a strip's unique identifier. That way, when the site updates with a newer strip, our link will still point to the comic in question. Thanks, and we look forward to your submissions!
WoW ogre gets 15 minutes of fame
The sullen ogre in Shattrath City had his fifteen minutes of fame in Scott Kurtz' popular webcomic PvP Online. Well, more like five minutes. In the new storyline, an ogre by the name of Grok Shrok comes to harass Skull the troll and his trouble-making cousin Shecky. Kurtz, who recently blogged about playing World of Warcraft again after the writer's strike in Hollywood ended all his favorite TV shows prematurely, inadvertently revealed his inspiration for Shrok when he wrote Grok's name in one panel. The comic has since been corrected, but it's nice to know that even lumpy, zoloft-deprived ogres can have their time in the spotlight. Have you guys seen any WoW characters cameo -- even briefly -- in your favorite comics or shows?
Name change fun from PvP Online...
PvP Online by Scott Kurtz, who is a World of Warcraft player -- he plays a troll Shaman named after his comic's resident troll -- and GM of the progressive Panda Attack guild on Dark Iron, had this interesting strip last Saturday (Those slippery strips got past us! Arr!). In it, Brent takes advantage of the recently introduced paid name change feature in WoW to, uh, fiddle with Francis' characters.The paid name changes have been available for all realms for some time now, and although we haven't heard of anything really bad happening, PvP Online puts a different spin on the matter. Have you ever seen any player with a name you'd like to change? What if you had the power (or, *cough*, account access) to change a player's name, what would you do? Would it make for a great practical joke? Or better yet, would justice be served? I can think of a few names that could, um... benefit... from the service. The legions of Legolas (or Legolaas, Leggolas, etc.) Night Elf Hunters or all the Blood Elves named Sephiroth (or Sefiroth, Sephirot... you get the idea), for starters. Seems like a nice Winter Veil present, actually.
