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.

Penny Arcade and Hothead Games Join Forces to Create Video Games Based on the Penny Arcade Characters and Universe

Bellevue, Washington (August 25, 2006) - The creators of online ultracomic Penny Arcade have joined forces with Hothead Games, an independent and experienced video game developer, to collaboratively create video games based on the Penny Arcade comic.

"We're really excited to be working with Hothead Games on our first electronic adventure," said writer Jerry Holkins, his clawed feet resting atop a huge slab of granite. "From the moment we laid eyes on them, it was clear they had the technical and creative chops to execute our grim vision. Now that we have pooled our strengths, our dark work may truly begin." Holkins then paused to eat a rat whole.

The first game, entitled Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, will be a comic adventure game initially available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, followed by a version for next-generation consoles. The game will be available by digital download, delivered in episodic format with new installments of the adventure coming out several times a year.

Vlad Ceraldi, President of Hothead Games, says this new venture feels very comfortable for the team Hothead has assembled for the project: "All our developers are industry veterans with years of experience translating characters from other media into video games, having been involved with such hits as The Simpsons Hit & Run and The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. So working with Penny Arcade to create their first game is a natural fit, and we're thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with them." Ceraldi added, "I've promised this with past games, and I stand by it: if the game sucks, I'll eat my shirt."

A release date for the first episode of Penny Arcade Adventures is to be announced.