The "concert" portion of the event was also the first chance I had to talk about the game with Wideload's Senior Producer Jon Krusell. He was kind enough to yell over the din in order to discuss the thought process that led naturally into a party combat game about animal presidential elections, his theories about the lack of comedy in games, and his revolutionary Robot Jox-based political platform.
Joystiq interviews Hail to the Chimp producer Jon Krusell
The "concert" portion of the event was also the first chance I had to talk about the game with Wideload's Senior Producer Jon Krusell. He was kind enough to yell over the din in order to discuss the thought process that led naturally into a party combat game about animal presidential elections, his theories about the lack of comedy in games, and his revolutionary Robot Jox-based political platform.
Continue reading Joystiq interviews Hail to the Chimp producer Jon Krusell
EIEIO 08: Dungeon Hero inverts the dungeon genre
Continue reading EIEIO 08: Dungeon Hero inverts the dungeon genre
EIEIO 08: Hands-on with Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball
Surprisingly, Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball has very little in common with Technos' masterpiece. Aside from the fact that pudgy characters throw balls at each other, the two games play almost totally differently. They might as well represent two totally different sports.
Continue reading EIEIO 08: Hands-on with Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball
EIEIO 08: Hail to the Chimp impressions
Hail to the Chimp's menu interface is the GRR News Network, with pompous anchor Woodchuck Chumley (seen above enjoying some... hot coffee ... with Bean the Sloth) onscreen authoritatively intoning ridiculous stories, while the menu options take the place of all the ubiquitous TV news infoboxes and text clutter. Wrapping the game inside this TV-station premise allows Hail to the Chimp to have something resembling a storyline, and also provides the opportunity for the funniest aspect of the game, which I'll get to shortly.
EIEIO 08: Velvet Assassin actually dressed in leather
Why the hospital gown? The events of Velvet Assassin are framed as flashbacks remembered by a dying Summers, who is lying in a hospital bed as the game starts. She recounts her former missions behind enemy lines. This method of storytelling actually ties into the gameplay in a rather bizarre way.
Continue reading EIEIO 08: Velvet Assassin actually dressed in leather
EIEIO 08: Section 8 details fall from the sky
The game's name comes from the nickname given to the future 8th Armored Infantry, of which your character is a member. This group consists of soldiers who have volunteered to wear a super-powerful armored suit (awesome!) and be launched into combat from space. The joke is that you would have to be crazy to volunteer for that, so the squad is informally called "Section 8" after the military code for a psychologically-motivated discharge.
Continue reading EIEIO 08: Section 8 details fall from the sky
EIEIO 08: Hands-on with Legendary
Legendary puts the player in the middle not only of a war between the White Council and the Black Order, but also an invasion of fantasy creatures triggered by the player character's own inadvertent opening of Pandora's Box. The only weapon against these monsters: the signet that once locked the box, now merged into protagonist Charles Deckard's hand. Oh, and also a bunch of guns and stuff.
EIEIO 2008: One day of concentrated Gamecock weirdness

The morning started off with a breakfast at Jaime's Spanish Village across the street. After that, we were rounded up and sent over to Stubb's, where we broke into groups and rotated through presentations and demos. Descriptions and impressions of actual game content are coming later (Wednesday, to be specific, when I am allowed to post those), but here's what I saw: the downloadable meme-off Pirates Vs. Ninjas Dodgeball, the PC/DS action-adventure game Insecticide, the sentient-mushroom tale Mushroom Men (Wii and DS), the newly-christened WWII stealth game Velvet Assassin, the RTS expansion Stronghold Crusader Extreme, the hacking, slashing Dungeon Hero, the fantasy-monster FPS Legendary, the sci-fi FPS Section 8, and the animal-based political-satire party fighting game Hail to the Chimp. They were in various stages of playability, from "not even pre-alpha" to "shipping." Be sure to visit our gallery and enjoy some of the strangeness of the scene for yourself!
Continue reading EIEIO 2008: One day of concentrated Gamecock weirdness
Gamecock details E.I.E.I.O. 2008 expo
The all-day event will lead into South by Southwest's (SXSW) Interactive Festival and culminate in a concert which hopes to feature "bands with members of the gaming press in them." Umm, does Rock Band count?
Gamecock's E3 funeral mourns an old friend

This courtyard was filled with some five-to-ten percent of the Business and Media Summit's total attendees – and these were the people most worth talking to. As a hundred conversations flowed, and beers were handed out, a man on stilts walked by. Later followed by a woman, also on stilts. That didn't seem to bother the crowd, which included the director of the Game Developers Conference, top print and broadcast journalists, dozens of bloggers, plenty of PR people, game journalists, and game makers both elite and rank-and-file.
A booth babe, barely dressed in black, and wearing zombie make-up, made her way through the crowd. A number of the attendees are holding black umbrellas with the Gamecock logo on it. Others have black handkerchiefs embroidered with a red logo.
Today's most horrifyingly dual-screen video: Dementium trailer
Dementium: The Ward will be on-hand on Gamecock's EIEIO party during Min-E3. Video, care of Gametrailers, embedded after the break.
Continue reading Today's most horrifyingly dual-screen video: Dementium trailer
Gamecock details EIEIO party
In case you missed the information in our interview with co-founder Mike Wilson, the GameCock EIEIO party will be held at Hotel California, coinciding with Min-E3, at the following times:- Wednesday, 11 July: noon until 6 p.m.
- Thursday, 12 July: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Friday, 13 July: noon until 4 p.m.
[Update: corrected the months]
Joystiq interviews Gamecock about EIEIO and E3 funeral

Yesterday we spoke with independent game publisher Gamecock's Mike Wilson about their alterna-plans for E3. See, a few months back the ESA dropped the hammer on the smaller publishers and Gamecock decided to do their own thing close to Min-E3 Although Wilson says Gamecock didn't have the time to fulfill their vision of making Kentia Hall reborn, they will be living it up with EIEIO (Expo for Interactive Entertainment: Independent and Original) in the Hotel California (such a lovely place) and holding a funeral for E3 on the beach where everyone (not just journalists) will be invited.
OK, so let's do the basics, EIEIO. For those who haven't been following this little saga, what is it and then give us a brief who, what, where, when, why, and sometimes how, of the event?
EIEIO was the funny little name we gave to the event we were planning for E3, basicially as soon as the time and city were announced for E3 late last year. Early this year we locked up a space to do an alternative event, similar what we used to do for E3, just for ourselves and our developers. And then when the ESA announced they were actually only inviting about thirty companies, and almost all of them were public companies, we were inspired to do something a little bit bigger to give a home to these uninvited companies.
But, unfortunately, this year we were unable to secure enough space. And with the ambiguous way E3 is going to be this year, it seems like it's going to be a bunch of rented out boardrooms and conference rooms at various hotels. I'm not sure our efforts are best used to try and set up an alternative event until we actually see what [E3] is going to be like. So basicially, we're going to be using the time to showcase our games to the press. We're going to be at the Hotel California [for the three days of E3], which is a great hotel on the beach in Santa Monica, sort of in the middle of all these bigger hotels all the other guys are at. We're going to bring out all our developers, we'll announce eight projects by then and we're just going to use the time to set up and talk about our games.
Continue reading Joystiq interviews Gamecock about EIEIO and E3 funeral



























