Joystiq

PAX 2008: Penny Arcade Adventures producer gushes about Episode 2

Ross Miller — 2008-09-04T10:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Adventure, RPGs, Interviews

Last week during PAX 2008, we sat down with Hothead COO and Penny Arcade Adventures Producer Joel DeYoung as he guided us through Episode 2 and improvements to the engine. The gist of it is: if you liked Episode 1, you'll like Episode 2 that much more. Here's the rundown from our talks:

Highlighting points of interest has been made easier! "If you have your proximity putting you close enough to 2 or 3 things, you can slide through that with bumpers," said DeYoung.
There are now difficulty levels, including an Insane Mode (unlockable only after beating the game). Special collectibles and pickups are only available if you play Insane Mode. Comparatively, Episode 1's difficulty is "a little easier" than medium.
All the weapons have been replaced. Tycho gets a shotgun, Gabe has new fist upgrades and your player now possesses -- wait for it -- a hoe! Also changed are the special attack minigames.
You now have, among other new items, a revive potion. Healing won't be enough to bring your troops back to life. "Just adds a little bit of depth to it," said DeYoung.
The real-time reaction for defense has been made more obvious (e.g. "Block!" now appears when you need to push block), but nothing analogous for attacking has been added.

More after the break.

Gallery: Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 2

You can import your Episode 1 character, but if you don't, your new player will start at level 13. Imported characters can update their appearance at the start with new clothing. DeYoung is "pretty sure" you can get to a max level for the episode whether or not you import a player.
With Ep 1, Tycho's writing imposed a certain structure on development, and so with Ep 2, Hothead built the whole flow of story and dialogue themselves and used placeholder text so Tycho can go back and add it later. He can still change the structure of it later, though.
Due to popular demand, there is a "little extra" voice acting. Not a lot, though, given their target download size. It was a mutual decision not to have Tycho and Gabe speak.
"Hot keys" for PC gaming has been considered. There are shortcuts for dialogue, but not combat.
"Backporting" the improved Ep. 2 code onto Ep 1 is definitely something they've considered and is feasible, but no confirmation either way.
Ep 2 wont be released simultaneously on the PlayStation 3 but there will be a "tighter timeframe" than Ep 1. Explained DeYoung, Garage Games' Torque Engine wasn't as prepared for console rendering as they thought. "So we had to at that time, we were really pushing to get the game out ... so we had to make a hard decision to get it on Xbox and push off PS development for a little while. So once it came out, we resumed work on PS3."
We asked DeYoung to sum up Ep. 2 in three points (we provided the following example for Ep. 1: Mimes, Fruit Fucking, Shit Hole). After a pause, DeYoung said, "Insane Asylum. Crazier. More Fruit Fucking."

As for non-Episode 2 discussion:

For the PSN version of Ep 1, all that's left is coding for integration with Network features and platform stuff, bug fixing, and Sony's own submission process.
"We were really pleasantly surprised" how many Mac and Linux units were sold. "The Linux people have been very appreciative," he said, adding, "all channels [i.e. Greenhouse, Steam, Xbox Live, etc.] performed very well," with not one sticking out.
Hothead is a licensed Wii developer. "We thought about [PAA for Wii], certainly, but we spent a lot of time getting it down to the size it's down to now ... It's kind of an order of magnitude out for what would be required for [proper size compression] for WiiWare."
About the controversial Xbox Live pricing: "When we announced the price of Ep 1, it was the same for PC and Xbox. The PC fans were like, 'yeah that sounds like a great deal,' they were really excited. However, on the Xbox forums, people were all upset -- some people -- they said "seems like an expensive price for a live arcade game," without discussing what the content or gameplay length was." DeYoung said they were one of the first M-rated games, and the first game at $20. "Ultimately, it's a business decision on our side" about the price, he said.

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Bloody new DeathSpank trailers, details from PAX 2008

Ross Miller — 2008-09-04T08:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Action, RPGs, Video

While Hothead is busy pimping its upcoming Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode 2, let's not forget about its other, simpler-titled project DeathSpank. The company has released three new teaser trailers for the snarky title ("Fight" is shown above), built from the ground up with Joystiq's own Ludwig Kietzmann in mind as the target demographic.

During last weekend's Penny Arcade Expo, Hothead COO Joel DeYoung said he considered the game a "more Diablo-esque" episodic action RPG with ample amounts of creator Ron Gilbert's humor, "lampooning video game space and the idea of the video game hero that takes himself too seriously." The game is not using PAA's Torque engine. More information about DeathSpank should be coming "soon," he said. After the break, check out the "Item" and "Armor" trailer. (Spoiler: Two of these three videos use the phrase "Thong of Justice.")

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New, fruit-tacular Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 2 screens

Ross Miller — 2008-09-01T22:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Adventure, Galleries

With PAX 2008 bringing out oodles of Penny Arcade love, why not use this opportunity to pimp the upcoming PA Adventures Episode 2? In addition to chatting with COO Joel DeYoung (that aftermath of which will be published early this week), Hothead Games sent us more than a dozen new screenshots, including a few that are just for us (we feel touched by that, although on that note we wonder if some of them are creepy subliminal messages to us). PAA:OTRSPoD Episode 2 is due out later this year.

Gallery: Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 2

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Penny Arcade Adventures due on PSN this Winter (with Trophies!)

Ludwig Kietzmann — 2008-08-28T18:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Action, RPGs

Oh, how you yearned for their unrestrained chuckles -- their sparkling smiles -- to be transformed into naught but a cacophony of wailing and ceaseless misery. What gave them the right? Was it their fancy PCs, Macs and Xbox 360s? Did they so enjoy coasting down The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness on their technological toboggans that they couldn't even cast a single glance towards you, sitting atop a lonely and immobile PlayStation 3? Well, when the snow falls again this Winter, revenge will be yours.

Also, Trophies! Posting on the official PlayStation Blog (they let anybody on there these days), Hothead producer Joel DeYoung confirmed that the first episode of Penny Arcade Adventures would arrive on PSN before the end of the year, complete with Trophy support and 1080p resolution. "Looking back, I think it's a shame that we weren't able to release the PS3 version closer to the initial launch of the game," he said.

With the game's engine now up and running on the hardware, DeYoung expects that future episodes will arrive on Sony's platform in a more timely fashion. No more being left out in the cold, our monolithic friend.

Gallery: Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode 1 (PS3)

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Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode One is gold, due out 'later this quarter' for $20

Ross Miller — 2008-05-01T15:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, PC, Microsoft Xbox 360, Adventure

Developer Hothead Game just announced that Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One has gone gold for Windows, Mac and Linux. The press release is a good reminder that right now, somewhere in the world, someone is playing the full version of the game and you're not.

There, there, we know, it'll get better over time, promise ... okay, you're gonna need to stop making that whimpering noise, it's starting to get people's attention and it's embarrassing to both yourself and to us. PAA:OtRSPoD:E1 is due out "later this quarter" via their new Greenhouse download service for $20. The game is also coming to Xbox Live, potentially in another quarter, for 1600 MS points (US $20). In the meantime, enjoy some new wallpapers.

Gallery: Penny Arcade Adventures

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Penny Arcade announces 'Greenhouse' online game store

Scott Jon Siegel — 2008-04-02T14:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, PC, Business

Penny Arcade and Hothead Games -- the developer behind On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness -- have just announced a joint partnership to launch Greenhouse, a brand new online game store, focused on digital distribution for independent games.

Not to be mistaken for a downloadable client application (like GameTap and Steam), Greenhouse is simply a website for digital distribution, putting it in direct competition with fellow indie game portal Manifesto Games. The site, which is currently in beta, will initially be the exclusive download source for Precipice, offering the PC, Mac, and Linux versions. Later, more Hothead Games will be distributed via the service, along with other indie offerings.

While the digital distribution market is getting a bit saturated as of late, let's hope Greenhouse's platform-agnostic approach to publishing keeps the service on our radar.

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Penny Arcade Adventures priced at $20, specs released

James Ransom-Wiley — 2008-03-27T16:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, PC, Microsoft Xbox 360

Hothead Games today punched its rambling epic, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One (phew!), with a $19.95 price tag. That's just over 30 cents a letter (colons not included), assuming cost is derived, as it is for all episodic games, by the title's length. Currently, that price applies to all versions of the game, which include PC, Mac, Linux and Xbox Live Arcade editions. 1600 Microsoft Points ($20) would be new territory for digital distribution on Xbox 360, but clearly, Hothead and its two stars have made it a point to be living on the edge.

PC, Mac and Linux specs are posted after the break.

Gallery: Penny Arcade Adventures

Minimum System Requirements

Recommended Configuration

Operating System

Windows and Linux

Windows(R) 2000/XP/Vista^TM with latest updates or Linux(R) 32-bit x86
Pentium(R) III, AMD Athlon^TM 1.0 GHz or better

Mac

Mac(R) OS X 10.4/10.5 with latest updates
PowerPC(R) G4, G5 or Intel(R) based Mac 1.0 GHz or better

Windows and Linux

Pentium(R) IV, AMD Athlon^TM 1.5 GHz or better

Mac

PowerPC(R) G4, G5 or Intel(R) based Mac 1.5 GHz or better

All Platforms

ATI Radeon^TM 9500 or better, NVIDIA GeForce^TM FX 5200 or better, Intel(R) GMA 950 or better with 64 MB of video memory (shared or dedicated)*
512 MB of available system memory
OS-supported keyboard and mouse
OS-supported sound card
350 MB of available hard drive space (185 MB installed)
Available Internet connection for download and one-time authentication

ATI Radeon^TM X800 or better, NVIDIA GeForce^TM 6600 or better video card with 128 MB of video memory*
768 MB of available system memory
16-bit stereo- or surround-capable sound card with latest drivers

*All Windows- and Linux-based system video cards require latest drivers supporting OpenGL(R).

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Joystiq interviews DeathSpank's Ron Gilbert

Ludwig Kietzmann — 2008-03-03T17:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Adventure, RPGs, Interviews, GDC

Described as "the perfect melding of a Monkey Island style adventure game with the wicked RPG gameplay of Diablo," Ron Gilbert's episodic endeavor also formed part of our recent GDC interview with Hothead Games. Though the Orphans of Justice still have quite a bit of growing up to do, we quickly quizzed designer Ron about Deathspank's upcoming lampooning of adventure game heroes, as well as the series' inevitable downward spiral in quality after the, uh, 600,000th episode.

How much can you say about DeathSpank at this point?

Ask and I'll say "no comment" if I can't. [laughs]

You initially said that you had this idea for the game and went from publisher to publisher until you finally got Hothead to say, "Okay, we're gonna make it." How did that come about?

Well, I started working with them on the Penny Arcade stuff for several months or so, and I thought "You know what, I'm gonna run DeathSpank by them." They're doing the Penny Arcade game which is very funny, and the sensibilities of the Penny Arcade game I think match very well with Deathspank. I sent the design off to them and they really liked it, which was really good to me because I think they saw in the humor of the game, you know, what was going to be really interesting about it. That was the thing I was having a lot of trouble with at other publishers. Also, I really wanted to do the game from the very beginning as an episodic game. Larger publishers, EA, Activision, all these people, are just not set up to do episodic games. I was kind of being pushed by a lot of people to turn it into a very large game, which I didn't want to do, and since Hothead is really focused on episodic, I think that just worked out really well.

And from Hothead's perspective, what did you see in this game that made you want to work on it?

Joel DeYoung, producer of Penny Arcade Adventures: Well, it's hilarious. We think it's going to be a funny game and, like Ron said, we are focused on episodic and this is very well aligned with what we're already doing with Penny Arcade. We just think it's going to be a great game.

How does the gameplay compare to that found in Penny Arcade Adventures?

Ron: It's a little bit different in a couple of areas. The RPG that's in Penny Arcade is kind of a turn-based, almost Final Fantasy-like RPG. The RPG in Deathspank is much more like Diablo or Zelda. It's all action-based, and it's about collecting items and growing your character in those ways. The adventure game part of Deathspank is probably a lot more of a hardcore adventure game. People who have played Monkey Island are really going to recognize the intricate puzzle structure that goes into Deathspank.

We've spoken to a lot of adventure game developers here at GDC, and Erik Wolpaw told us that he hates adventure games because the puzzles are so obscure and ridiculous. What do you think about that?

Well, I would say what he really hates is bad adventure games, because I think in good adventure games, the puzzles aren't obscure. In good adventure games, the puzzles really make sense. They dovetail into the story properly, the kind of things where you have to figure it out, but when you do figure it out, you don't feel like the game design just screwed you over. You kinda feel like, "Oh yeah, I should have seen that." That's kind of the right feeling to have when you solve a puzzle. So, if he's hating adventure games, he's hating bad adventure games which, you know, isn't a bad thing.

How much of the quality of an adventure game do you think is entrenched in the puzzle design? Do you need good puzzles to be considered a good adventure game, or could you get away with no real puzzles like in games like Fahrenheit? Those are closer to interactive films, I suppose.

Well, you know, I'm pretty dogmatic about that. I think an adventure game is about the puzzles. I think if you take away the puzzles you don't necessarily have a bad game, but you don't have an adventure game. I think because of my history with that stuff, I have this classic definition of an adventure game and it's about puzzles. It really is.

How far ahead are you planning DeathSpank in terms of number of episodes? Have you figured it out yet?

We're gonna do a million episodes.

A million?

One million.

How many of them will be good?

[laughs] Yeah, we're gonna run out of ideas after 600,000 so...

The shark is jumped at about episode 592,000.

I don't know how many episodes, certainly I think that one of the reasons I wanted to do it episodically is that the character of Deathspank just has so many little stories that need to be told. I didn't want to do a really large game, because I'd really get to tell one story. I'm just going to keep doing those as long as people enjoy them.

When we first saw DeathSpank on Grumpy Gamer, he was part of a satire on gaming. Is the game itself going to take on the industry?

Yeah, I mean the whole character, right from his name, is a parody of adventure game heroes and how ridiculously seriously seem to take them. I definitely want to make a whole lot of fun of all those things in the game.

Any idea when we'll see more or when the game might be done? Will it be done this year?

We haven't announced any release dates yet.

Thank you so much for your time, Ron.

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Joystiq interview: Penny Arcade Adventures

Ludwig Kietzmann — 2008-03-03T11:00:00+00:00

Filed under: PC, Microsoft Xbox 360, Adventure, RPGs, Interviews, GDC

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: Penny Arcade Adventures

How far along is Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness?

Joel: It's very close to done, we're beta on Episode One right now, and because it's episodic and we're gonna release episodes every few months, a lot of the work and content on Episode Two is already done. We've already started started work on Episode Three and so the team is split in working on them in parallel.

Do you have a maximum number of episodes already planned out?

Joel: We haven't announced how many episodes we're gonna release, but we do have to plan a fixed number of episodes. Each episode has its own story, bu the story arc runs the entire length of the game series and so it definitely has a beginning, middle and end.

Ron, what have you been doing for the last few years? We've been reading your ramblings on Grumpy Gamer, but what have you done outside of that?

Ron: For most of the last couple of years I've been doing two things: I do a lot of consulting with companies, which is how I hooked up with Hothead, because I'm doing consulting on the Penny Arcade game for the adventure game aspects of it. The other thing I've been doing is just working on the design for my DeathSpank game and pitching that to different publishers which, once again, led me to Hothead since they're gonna be publishing and funding the game.

So it has nothing to do with that Monkey Island money finally running out?

Ron: [laughs] There was no Monkey Island money to run out, so no.

What exactly does your job entail at Hothead? What do you do on a day-to-day basis?

Ron: Two basic things. As creative director, I work with the other designers, just brainstorm with them and look over their designs and provide support where I can. And for the Deathspank stuff, I'm the designer for that and also leading that project. We're in pre-production right now, so I'm working very closely with the artists, getting the whole look and feel of the thing figured out.

How was the connection made between Ron and the Penny Arcade game?

Joel: Well, at PAX back in 2006 we announced we were doing the game, and Ron actually sent us an e-mail. We were a bit cagey about what style the game was -- we said it was a "comic adventure" -- and so he said, "If that means it's at all an adventure game or even close to an adventure game, then I'm really interested in working with you guys on it." So, he jumped at the opportunity for sure.

So you guys didn't just say, "Hey, we can put Ron Gilbert's name on our game!"

Joel: Well, it's great having Ron associated with Hothead and having him on as our creative director, but he's really brought a lot to the process of helping our design team. And frankly, Mike and Jerry at Penny Arcade understand how you structure a story for an adventure game.

What's it like working with Mike and Jerry? They're obviously familiar with games; they write about them, they make fun of them, but they're not really known for designing them.

Joel: Well yeah, they're not game designers and they've never made a game before. They're absolutely insane to work with, they're very creative guys. We'll sit around at their office around the whiteboard, brainstorm out the story, the structure, the way the adventure game stuff's gonna work. It's been a real eye-opening experience for them I think, seeing the process of making a game from beginning to end. They do see a lot of games, they talk a lot about games, they know a lot about games but, I think it was eye-opening for them seeing how unfinished games look throughout the process. That being said, they have definitely been involved day-to-day. Jerry has not only written all the dialogue, but every word in the game has had his hand on it. And Mike did a lot of the character design and environment design and they work on a daily basis with our people at Hothead.

Ron: They're both really great people and I think the brainstorm meetings we've had with them have been some of the best brainstorming I've been involved with. They really understand the whole brainstorming process and how you churn ideas through really really well. So, it's been wonderful to work with them.

That's an interesting way to approach game design, isn't it? Getting people who aren't already entrenched into the development scene, acting like a fresh pair of eyes.

Ron: I think there's a little bit of that. I think with Mike and Jerry, they're very very creative. And Jerry is such an incredibly good writer, and that's something that the game industry really needs more of -- really really good writers. So, it was really great to be able to work with him and yeah, he does kind of bring a fresh perspective to things and how they approach things with the comic versus games.

So, why choose episodic for this series of games?

Joel: Well, for several reasons. It's really the best way to tell a story in a lot of ways. Because, you know, we're pretty familiar with TV shows and having self-contained stories, but having a larger story arc. But it's also just getting the game into the hands of the gamers earlier and being able to hear their feedback and respond to that. I'm sure we'll get lots of feedback from the Penny Arcade fans after Episode One comes out, and we will listen to that and incorporate that into future episodes. It's also very difficult these days -- you buy a game for fifty bucks, and it's forty hours of gameplay and it's actually really hard to make it through the whole thing. And episodic, I think, is just reflective of how a lot of hardcore gamers or formally hardcore gamers now have busy lives and aren't able to actually play a game. I've picked up some big AAA games recently and they look really great, they're really polished, it's just almost a daunting feeling that I'm gonna have to work through this and finish it all. And as you know, a lot of games don't get finished. We think episodic lets people have a chance at having a self-contained experience that they can get through.

Ron: Yeah, I think the number one thing for me and why I'm interested in episodic, is I want people to see the end of my game. I think for a lot of games the endings are just not seen by most players.

Or they're just not very good.

Ron: Well, I think they're not very good because ... who puts the time into them? I think a lot of developers know that 15% of the people are actually going to see the ending, so why build an arc towards things? Why spend time and effort, technically and creatively, on the ending when 15% of the people are gonna see it?

Do you know how long it'll take between episode releases? Do you have a fixed schedule?

Joel: Yeah, definitely there's a fixed release schedule. It's tentative right now, but we're talking about one every four months. Because, you know, this is a new model for us, and it is quite tricky with all the project management scheduling, making sure we're officially overlapping the work on all the episodes.

I imagine deadlines are a huge issue when it comes to episodic games.

Joel: Absolutely. People know it's going to be coming out regularly, they're gonna expect that it comes out on time at a regular interval. I think Telltale's done a great job of saying, we're gonna release episodes of Sam & Max every month, and people that are fans of the series look forward to the release day very much.

Do you think the constant pressure of deadline after deadline -- you have to finish the game and work within your allotted amount of time -- spurs on creativity?

Joel: Well, it's always a struggle making video games. You always have deadlines, you always have these pressures, but you also don't want to release something too early. Certainly in the case of the Penny Arcade game, we know the fans are very particular about their games, and we think they'll be really critical of this game, as they should be. So, it's important to us to make sure they get an authentic Penny Arcade experience and something that's really high quality. While we certainly have our own pressures to get it out as soon as possible -- we want to get this in people's hands -- we've always said we weren't going to release this until we really felt it was ready, and frankly, until Mike and Jerry really think it's ready. One philosophy we have at Hothead is to get the game running as soon as possible and then take the time to step back, see what's good, see what's maybe not so good, and take the time to iterate. We've really done that with this first episode.

Ron: I think with episodic games, you have something else going on in that a lot of creative work is really done upfront. It's not that, you know, we're making a game a month or a game every three months. There's a whole lot of work, so I think that creativity isn't really cut short because it's episodic since a lot of work is done upfront. I think with the episodic stuff, at least for me designing the Deathspank games, is it really focuses me. It really says, "You know what, I need to put the important things in this game and not the unimportant things." I think in some ways that's a good thing creatively.

The first Penny Arcade trailer you guys released was met with a bit of a lukewarm reception. Was that too soon?

Joel: Well, possibly. Looking back on it, we definitely wanted to show people we were very excited about the 2D look and the sort of vector graphics style cutscenes that we have in the game and how you're customized player shows up in there. But we also didn't, because it was very early, we didn't want to give the wrong impression that it was a strictly 2D game, so we threw in bits of 3D. Definitely, we were at a very early stage with not only the look of the characters, but the rendering approaches we were using -- the toon shading wasn't in at all and so forth -- so I think some people might have misinterpreted what that means. It simply means that when the next trailer released, people were able to see the progression we were making along the way.

I was looking at it yesterday, and you have these really neat transitions from 2D to 3D. Did that present a notable technical challenge?

Joel: Absolutely. Even just aesthetically, trying to bring a 2D comic IP into 3D games is a challenge. It's two very different art styles, and we wanted to make sure that it was very seamless. So, there's aspects of it in the 3D world. When you run to the edge of an area, a little comic panel appears and the whole thing slides over. When you're watching the 2D cutscenes, you see them in comic panels and you can see the other panel (non-animating) that's coming next and then one panel freezes, it slides over ... We wanted to just have those themes go through the entire game to make it seem as seamless as possible.

Why did you decide to make the game into an adventure RPG? When you read the comics, they don't immediately lend themselves to any specific genre.

Joel: Yeah, it's true. I think the story, being set in an alternate universe -- it's in the 1920's, it's kinda H.P. Lovecraft style -- It's a story that Mike and Jerry have wanted to tell for a long time. In terms of the style of game, we think that people who are fans of Penny Arcade are pretty hardcore, and we believe that there are a lot of RPG fans that are also fans of Penny Arcade, so we wanted to definitely get those RPG elements in. But, the adventure stuff comes from the fact that this is a very story-focused game and it's about telling that story in the way that only the Penny Arcade guys can. You know, we've all got a soft spot in our hearts for adventure games, having played a lot of the old adventure games (it's why we're so happy to be working with Ron), but we believe that for today, to bring adventure games back if you will, we wanted to add something extra to it.

It's kind of an unusual game for XBLA in particular, since most of the games are action-based, pick-up-and-play titles. In this one, you have to immerse yourself in the story and RPG elements. Do you think it'll be tough getting the attention of Xbox Live Arcade gamers?

Joel: We think there's a lot of people that are Penny Arcade fans and that really like Xbox, so a lot of them are gonna have Xboxes. The thing about Live Arcade, certainly it has been pretty focused on arcadey-type games and this is definitely going to break new ground, but we think Live Arcade is a great service because it's focused on digital distribution. More and more people have broadband, more and more people want to be able to just be on their couches and download a game directly to either their PC, which they'll be able to with this game, or to a console. So, we're very excited about the platform and we're excited to be breaking some new ground with it as well.

Any other target platforms under consideration aside from XBLA and PC?

Joel: We've always said that we want the gamer to choose the platform they play this on and not have the game impose it on them. We don't have any extra news to announce at this time, but there's probably going to be some stuff coming up about being able to get this in other ways as well.

So, Gizmondo version?

Joel: [laughs] We'll have to see, we're doing that after the Amiga.

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GDC Quest Quiz I: Ron Gilbert

Ludwig Kietzmann — 2008-02-25T15:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Adventure, GDC

We did a terrible thing at last week's Game Developer's Conference. Aside from our usual barrage of photographs and "reporting," a select group of attendees had to endure a particularly inane and utterly pointless line of questioning -- just for laughs. This is what happens when you hunt down several adventure game connoisseurs and challenge them to solve a typically obnoxious adventure game puzzle.

The Player
Ron Gilbert, designer of The Secret of Monkey Island (amongst other LucasArts adventures), consultant on Penny Arcade Adventures and designer of Hothead's upcoming episodic series, Deathspank.

The Puzzle
You're standing in front of a cave. The goal is to get inside the cave, taking care to foil the ferocious robot bear guarding the entrance first.

The Inventory

(1) perforated parasol
(1) rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle
(1) sealed manila envelope
(1) miniature macaroni Tim Schafer statue

Find Ron Gilbert's surprisingly direct solution after the break.

The Solution
Ron: This is a really stupid adventure game puzzle.

Joystiq: It's pretty traditional, actually.

Well, I'd probably try to feed the bear the macaroni Tim Schafer. That would probably be the first thing I'd try.

But it's a robot bear. Why would it need to eat macaroni?

You got me on that one. Okay ... is there anything above the cave?

It's whatever you imagine it to be. It's a pretty non-specific adventure game.

What's in the envelope? Can I open the envelope?

You can open the envelope.

Okay, I'm gonna open the envelope.

Alright, it's open.

What's inside of it?

Whatever you want.

Well, I thought you were giving me this thing.

I just gave you a sealed envelope, I don't know what's in it.

Then it's the "Off" instructions for the robot bear. I just say them and the robot bear shuts down and I go into the cave.

What about the other items? Why do you have them?

They're just red herrings to kind of screw up the player.

And you succeeded! That was too easy. Don't you think this puzzle needs a higher difficulty level?

Maybe, I was on easy mode.

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GDC08: Penny Arcade dev aims for episode every 4 months

Ludwig Kietzmann — 2008-02-23T23:00:00+00:00

Filed under: PC, Microsoft Xbox 360, Adventure, RPGs, GDC

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.

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Hothead Games to publish Ron Gilbert's 'DeathSpank'

Ludwig Kietzmann — 2008-01-09T13:33:00+00:00

Filed under: Adventure, RPGs

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.

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PAX 07: The licensed games panel

JC Fletcher — 2007-08-27T04:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Business

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.

One major issue that kept coming up was the deadline associated with licensed games. All agreed that the major factor in the often low quality of licensed games is the drive to release the game according to a schedule other than its own. An analogy was made to a giant bucket: the game must come out when advertising for every other associated property hits, so that the advertising for the movie, the show, toys, cereal, etc., helps the game as well, and allows the game to contribute to the total earnings (the bucket) of the property.

Another issue is what Ceraldi described as "too many cooks," which involves licensors and advertisors setting restrictions on what can happen ingame-- one example being that McDonalds wouldn't allow the Golden Arches to be destroyed or used as weapons in Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. Also, the NBA did not allow the use of gold teeth as unlockable items in NBA Ballers (though they later showed up in a Tiger Woods golf game). Namco and Capcom characters could not be bundled together in the UFS card game, although Freeman said that otherwise, his company has near-total freedom with licensors.

The other major problem with licensed games is the money required to secure a license. All of the developers mentioned that the high cost of licensing a game limits the budget for the actual game.

With such investments required, then, it is easy to understand why all four developers supported the shutdown of fan games based on licensed properties. We rarely hear opinions on this from developers themselves, though we never have any problem figuring out how publishers feel about such creations. Ceraldi described a feeling of protectiveness of the license they've laid out so much for and put so much time into.

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PAX 07: Our very own Penny Arcade Adventures trailer

JC Fletcher — 2007-08-25T22:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, PC, Adventure, RPGs

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!

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PAX 07: Penny Arcade Adventures coming to XBLA

Christopher Grant — 2007-08-25T21:07:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, PC, Microsoft Xbox 360

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: Penny Arcade Adventures

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PAX 07: Penny Arcade Adventures developers panel

David Dreger — 2007-08-25T14:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, PC, Adventure, RPGs

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.

Upon starting the game, the first thing to be done is character creation. Now, you can spend as much or as little time as you want tweaking your facial features, body proportions and the like to create an amusing character or a Penny Arcade-ized avatar of yourself. The customization options are moderately robust, and fall slightly short of what's capable of the Mii Channel on the Nintendo Wii, there are plenty of options available to create a truly unique looking character. When you create your character, not only are you making the 3D model, but your avatar will also be matched in the 2D cutscenes, and given the art direction on both, they are easily identified as the same person.

Once finished with the creation, the opening cutscene plays, with your character minding his or her own business raking leaves and tending to the front yard outside your abode. Unfortunately, an "FF" Prime is on the warpath and during its tirade crushes your house. It continues down the street with Gabe and Tycho chasing after it. This sets up your player's motivation, first off there may be a twinge of vengeance for you home being crushed, and because of it, you now need to find a place to live.

Once the actual game started, it was a few steps ahead of where the opening cutscene had left off and Gabe and Tycho had already joined your party. With a point and click interface, Hothead is finding a happy medium between the RPG and Adventure genres. The short cutscene that set up the game had a slumlord that had a sack of hobos storming into a nearby apartment building, leaving a trail of stinky homeless people in his wake. Tycho suggest we follow the proverbial breadcrumbs, which can be fought for experience.

Battle initiative is proximity based, and not random, and the actual battles are turn based. Gabe's attacks focus on close range combat, using his fists, Tycho uses his tommy gun at range, and your player at this point used the rake he had at the beginning of the game, though new weapons can be acquired later on.

When a character is getting attacked, you can hit the space bar to block to reduce, where a perfect block will give you a free counter attack maneuver. Each character has their own special move, which has its own mini-game associated with it to determine the damage dealt. Tycho's mini-game has a crosshair with directions that quickly flash on screen,and you need to hit the corresponding arrow keys, and his attack is throwing a gas can into the enemy crowd and firing, causing a large explosion that actually killed the adversaries outright. Gabe's mini-game was essentially rapidly tapping the spacebar to unleash a flurry of fists on his opponents. Your characters mini-game involved tapping the spacebar in time with a needle rotating through four quadrants, and attack with the rake was very powerful, resulting in a rather gruesome death for the hobo on the receiving end, as will any kill with a special move. After every battle you get all of your HP back, as Hothead didn't like the idea of running around in the world looking for health items.

The environment looked very stylized, with a dark ominous mood, and retained a very Penny Arcade feel, like for example the camera will follow your characters to a point where you will be moving to the next "panel" from a new camera angle continued down the path. All of this is accentuated by Jerry Holkins writing of all the dialogue and story in the game, which is all text based, as giving the characters voice actors would take away from the comic strip feel set up by all the other elements. Dialogue trees when interacting with NPCs are rich and obviously very funny for those in tune with PA's style of humor.

When you reach the slumlord's hideout in the apartment building it is revealed that he is using hobos to manufacture FFs. After fighting a slew of FFs and homeless, you reach the slumlord and his cronies, and you can't target him for attacks until you take care of the other enemies. Your party members never die when they run out of HP, and are just knocked out, able to be revived using items during the battle, or automatically if you prevail without them. You have the option to flee during a fight, and the sounds of a baby crying plays should you do so. Unfortunately, the slumlord defeated the party, concluding the demo, which finished with an FF juicing the player's cranium.

During the Q&A session, Hothead said that their target gameplay length was 5 to 6 hours, and they plan to release new episodes every 3 to 4 months, and even discussed this as part of the first "season". They are using the Torque engine, which help, with the cross-platform approach. In terms of system requirements, they haven't started optimization yet, but expect those with a decent amount of RAM, and reasonable processors and graphics cards from the last four years should be able to run the game. The want it to work on laptops, and don't want consumers to have to upgrade to play it if possible.

It will be distributed digitally from a site built by Hothead, and they are in talks with distribution companies for making the game widely available. They'd love to get it on the current consoles, and are in talks with getting it on Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Store. They are official developers on the consoles and know their architecture, and we'll stay tuned for any news. Hothead's Audio Director, Adam Gejdos, stated that the sound and music for Episode One was all complete, and noted that the music composition was all done by a Vancouver, BC local, Jeff Tymoschuk, and did an excellent job of setting the atmosphere.All in all it's looking very promising and we can't wait to hear more on Episode One's development in the future.

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Rumor: XBLA could get Penny Arcade game

Justin McElroy — 2007-08-07T12:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, RPGs

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]

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Penny Arcade Adventures new screens and old trailer

Christopher Grant — 2007-06-22T10:20:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, PC, Adventure

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: Penny Arcade Adventures

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Penny Arcade dev Hothead wins Canadian New Media Award

Ross Miller — 2007-06-07T16:25:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Adventure, Business

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.

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First Penny Arcade game footage exposed

Ludwig Kietzmann — 2007-03-16T16:39:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, PC, Adventure, Online, Video

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: Penny Arcade Adventures

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