First Penny Arcade game footage exposed

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Mar 16th 2007 4:39PM

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.

Penny Arcade Adventures

Tags: episodic, Hothead, Mac, PC, pennyarcade, PennyArcadeAdventures, trailer

Reader Comments (52)

Fucking Sweet

I guess they won't be changing that stupid name, then?

Transitioning from 2D to 3D is always tough, looks like they lost a lot of their style and appeal in the process. A 2D point and click like the begining of the video would be much more suitable.

This just in:

This game as already won next weeks' weekly comic round up.

Those character models are HORRIBLE (and yes, I could do better). Hopefully they are very early works-in-progress.

Love the name, love the feel, not too impressed with the actual gameplay graphics. Who knows, though. Maybe it's fun despite the graphics.

I agree with the_insider, a 2D point and click would better suit their graphical style.

The intro 2d part was great! Then some terrible 3d junk happend.

Drat.

oh my lord, yes! YES YES YES!

The 3D was terrible, but you have to give it up to the Fruit F*ckers. They're going to make this game hilarious.

I'm "cautiously optimistic".

Goddamn, when I saw the first part of the intro, I nearly shat myself. "A hand-drawn 2D adventure game?! Fucking TITS!"

Then I saw the ass ugly transition to 3D polygonal bastardizations of my PA heroes, effectivly crushing my dreams. I haven't lost all hope though, and I'm still sure this is going to be a pretty awesome game.

Looks like generic crap. Hope they don't plan on selling it new for more than $20.

I'm sure it will sell all of 10 copies when it's released, and end up in the discount bins at a record rate.

Is it just me, or did they look like muppets when rendered in 3D?

Yay for the 2D part!!!
Bleargh for the 3D part. Looks horrible

Everyone, these are early models of the game. They're going through tweaking and the outcome will probably look very different. (Know this for a fact. :D)

@ Steve: "I'm sure it will sell all of 10 copies when it's released, and end up in the discount bins at a record rate."

It's going to be released online ala Steam. So no discount bins. ;)

It'll be interesting to see what the critical reaction will be, given the fact that PA has parodied/mocked pretty much every major news outlet and game company over the last few years! :)

2D good 3D bad. Steal from Super Paper Mario and have both mechanics! 3D beat-em-up meets point and click adventure!

Wow I am laughing out loud, and it's not with them.

Being sold through Steam I see a "free weekend play" coming soon. Too bad, I would rather mock it at the game stores value priced bin. Maybe it would have been one of those you buy two get one free deals.

And the graphics, specifically the 3D graphics suck horridly. Fucking Sneak King looks better.

I think this is like 10 bucks? less? i know that when you buy it you just download it off the internet. and since it comes in 3 parts, it wont be expensive? i have no idea.

but really, the fruit fucker will make it even better. was he really doing what i tihnk he was doing at the end? hahaha

Shouldn't the "Startling Developments Detective Agency" logo on the door glass be inverted?

NO! The 3D looks horrible! And why 3D? We don't need yet another 3D sandbox world. A 2D game would have been prettier and far more unique.

I never saw Penny Arcade's appeal.

2D : best looking game I have seen in a really long time
3D : not the worst I have seen, but for the love of all that is sacred please someone make them keep it 2D! why did the 2d adventure or side scroller have to die? that 2D bit was awesome!

So, if any game needed to be cell shaded, this would be it.
looks kinda last gen if you ask me.

Looks like Lupin the 3rd:
http://www.famitsu.com/game/coming/2006/09/08/104,1157682115,59725,0,0.html

Well, look on the bright side, they didn't give voices to Gabe and Tyco yet.....

Guys, guys...the 3D part just looks bad because you're seeing it directly compared to the 2D part. 3D ALWAYS looks like fucking shit compared to its 2D art, in any game. 3D just sucks like that.

When you look at the 3D by itself for a while, you'll get used to it, like with any other game.

Yeah Yeah... The 3D part of it looks awful, but I also thought that the 2D animation looked fairly lifeless as well. Most noticably with Gabe and the punching bag. I don't know what it was, but everything just seemed so stiff. Or maybe I have high standards by comparing everythign to Preston Blair's book.

I agree with #24. Why no cell shading?

So apparently no one bothered reading Wednesday's comic...

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/03/14

Why is there a door in their office that leads to the "Startling Developments" Detective Agency?

Or, alternately, why is their door lettered on the interior? Do they frequently forget where they work and glance at the door to be reminded?

Nitpickingly yours--

*cough*
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showpost.php?p=1108362&postcount=73

Cartoons always look better when they are cell shaded as opposed to full 3d textures.

Why why why make this in 3D??? This game would be absolutely PERFECT in 2D a la Sam&Max or DoTT. I want to play this game for the humor and writing - I do not want to run around "exploring" in yet another bland 3D world.

I didn't mind Tyco as much as Gabe. Gabe's mouth looks kinda like it was hastily thrown on because someone forgot people had mouthes.

In all, meh, I didn't think it was BAD, I didn't expect it to be next gen or anything, but like Gabe said, they know they can do better and they will.

I hope Gabe and Tyco do the respective voices for their characters, that would add some serious browny points to that game.

Also, 2D animation was awesome, way better than some of the online shows other webcomic artists are doing, but I guess Penny Arcade won't be partaking in that. Pity.

PS- Anyone else notice the sword from the Magic Sword Kings cover on book 2 was on their wall? That made me smile.

@24 & 28:
If you go frame by frame through the part where they flash through the still scenes quickly, you'll see that there is one scene that is cel shaded. It's easier to do that with the downloaded hi-def version that you can get here:
http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=4564

#29: Seems pretty ironic huh?

#32, #34: No voices. One of Penny Arcade guys were on Gamespot last week, saying folks who read comics like PA basically come up with their own voices in their heads, and it can ruin the experience to have that replaced with some other voice that just doesn't 'fit' to them.

#35: Agreed, I understand completely that the 3D parts of that trailer weren't really ready for prime time yet, but that aside, a game based on a comic like PA seems like it should just stay pure 2D.

I thought it would be a Castle Crasher or Alien Hominid type of game. Oh well.

This is a Pink Panther-like situation to me. I have never heard the actual voices of the guys behind PA so I already have preconceived notions of how they sound ... so naturally any voice talent is going to be "wrong" ...

On the one hand, I admire the Penny Arcade guys for building a veritable gaming empire (okay, more like small soveriegn state, but I digress) from scratch like they did, but bad 3D models, pseudo-kickassness and a masturbating robot do not a good video game make.

HAHAHAHAHAH What the FUCK is that shit???! My sides! My sides!

Man they should have done away with that little 2D intro, because it gave me hope.

I'm so lost with everyone saying the 2D was awesome... it's one cycle drawn on the hands, in Flash. All the pieces, Head/Arms move separate from the body losing all flow, and any sense that his body is dictating an sense of movement. It's just bad... really really bad.

And the 3D... I know it's early, but example, look at the early stuff of God of War, or Halo, or Lost Planet (looks wise) you can tell early if a game is gonna kick ass, this looks like a couple of kids in their basement are putting it together.

Terrible

I think it is meant as "the 2D looks the better approach in comparison to the 3D seen here"

What they need to do, is make this game cel-shaded and put a heavy emphasis on the comic-style shading and thick border lines.

But it's too late. I've seen it all...I've seen everything. And then I rode away..

...on the grass.

To #43... just because 3D is more technically proficient and requires more work, more horsepower, etc., does not mean that games should always be in 3D. This happens to be a case for a game that would work perfectly in 2D - i.e. a direct translation of comic strip characters. The 2D represented in the movie is comic - it's not meant to look realistic - there is an art to that and many of us appreciate, neigh, *enjoy* it.

2D games peaked with the SNES - and damn if those weren't some of the greatest games of all time. I *wish* those kind of resources went into 2D games nowadays - can you imagine what Nintendo or Square could do with a 100% 2D/sprite based game? drool...

Please - before it is too late - forget the 3D portion of this game was ever created - just give us a Sam&Max style adventure with Penny Arcade's humor and Tycho's writing and I will happily pay for it.

Sorry, but the 3D part was very well done. I liked the 2D, too but the mind boggles at the negative reaction to this very sophisticated and AAA 3D style.

At 43: I didn't think the 2D part that that good at all. I agree that the animation looked too stiff. Also, I don't think that 2D is dead yet, It just needs to evolve a bit.

Games like the Paper Mario series and Alien Hominid are where 2D needs to go. Where the characters are interactive animation cells. Even in feature animation there is definitely a market for 2D animated films, which is why Disney is going back to 2D for "The Frog Princess." So yeah, I would LOVE to see this game be a 2-Dimensional game, since that would be where Gabe's art style would work the best. Especially if they got Stephen Silver to turn the characters from static comic characters to animation. But animation part of the 2D artwork would need to be a lot better first.

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First Penny Arcade game footage exposed

Penny Arcade Adventures

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