Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Well this is quite the thing. While we’re all in the middle of crossing our fingers, legs and internal organs in the hope that Mojang and Double Fine will find a way to fund a sequel to Psychonauts, Schafer’s company have surprised us by announcing they’re seeking funding for another dream project – a new “old school” graphic adventure game from Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert. You know – two guys of the three guys who wrote Monkey Island. The team that led to some of the greatest adventures ever made. Please squee now. And now they’re trying out a Kickstarter to make it happen.

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Update: Minecraft-master Markus ‘Notch’ Persson has been publicly trying to get Tim Schafer’s attention today, saying “Let’s make Psychonauts 2 happen” and confirming to us that he’s serious. Who knows what, if anything, will come of this – but how exciting, eh?

Ah, the fine art of reporting on non-events: not news as such, but they make us go all misty-eyed and slightly sad. In this case, it’s Double Fine’s Tim Schafer revealing that he would gladly make another Psychonauts game, but no-one will give the studio the money they need for it. Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!
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When Costume Quest arrived on PC, I hoped it meant Doublefine loved us again. Now, in a characteristically jolly announcement during the X-Play Best of 2011 awards, it has been revealed that the beautifully characterised and wonderfully inventive Stacking is on its way too. All that remains is to sulk until Trenched Iron Brigade stomps onto PC as well. Stacking, for those who do not know, is a game wherein the player controls “Charlie Blackmore, the world’s tiniest Russian stacking doll” and “jumps into more than 100 unique dolls”. It’s set within one of the finest worlds I’ve played around in for some time. The news happens in the video below. Skip to 1.02 to get straight to it.

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Obviously we’ve known that Ron Gilbert has been working with/at Tim Schafer’s Double Fine for over a year now, but ON WHAT we’d regularly scream at the sky. Then Double Fine revealed they were basically ignoring the PC for all their games, and we crossed them out of our Christmas lists and spank banks, and got on with our lives. Then they threw us all by releasing Costume Quest on PC, raising hopes that further projects will also reach our shores. So it is that I hold hope in my belly that this Gilbert/Schafer project will be adorned by my PC. Because apparently it’s an idea that predates even Maniac Mansion.

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Gentlethings, prepare to perform your happy dance. Unexpectedly and suddenly, Psychonauts-makers Double Fine have ended their silly sabbatical from PC games, and announced that they’ll be releasing their Halloween-themed RPG Costume Quest on Steam. When? Why, it’s there right now.

Happy, happy days. And hopefully CQ is but the first of many of the Tim Schafer-headed studio’s titles due to return to the motherland. In fact, they imply as much below.
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Which isn’t much of a story, until Kotaku reveal that the staffmember is in fact Ron “Monkey Island” Gilbert, being hired by Tim “Monkey Island” Schafer. The interview is really worth reading for the gags alone, but basically Gilbert was working in the Double Fine office (As he hates working from Home) and Schafer offered him the gig to make what they were talking about. This fits neatly into Doublefine’s current many-small-games biz plan. RPS will look forward to the announcement of the game, doing several posts until the fact it’s a console exclusive is revealed and then rolling our eyes and wondering why we bother writing about Double Fine when they bit our pretty red heart in two, Daddy, Daddy, You Bastard, etc.

It’s the season of GDC award ceremonies. RPS isn’t going to be there. We don’t like other people and, more relevantly, other people don’t like us so we don’t get invites. Or, at least, invites which don’t read “DIE SCUM” in what we believe is blood. So Double Fine’s new online mini adventure Host Master And The Conquest Of Humour is the closest we’re going to get to hanging back stage with Tim Schafer. It’s a one room affair – or at least, it is for me – with you playing Tim, trying to collect enough jokes to make through his presentation. And, suffice to say, Jokes are found along the way. I got 11 of them, and apparently there’s 22. Where’s the rest? I don’t know. I’ve got three items left and nowhere left unturned. Gahk! I’m going to stop and play the Path. That’ll show you, Doublefine. That’ll show you.

Er… you have a try here.

Here’s some news that probably shouldn’t be here. But it’s such good news that we’ll extend our optimism that Schafer’s just playing hard to get for a moment longer. Brütal Legend has a publisher. A publisher that had bloody well better tell him to release the game on PC.

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Interesting news regarding Brütal Legend. Which is a splendid thing to be able to say. After Atari picked up Ghostbusters, it’s hard not to despair that Schafer’s new project is still without a publisher, following the Activision/Blizzard high speed collision. So how come Jack Black’s going to be showing a “premiere” of the game at next week’s Spike TV’s 2008 Video Game Awards? And for goodness sakes, will it be on PC?

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Pyschonauts developers, Double Fine, have released a new range of free, web-based minigames to play. And by “range”, I of course mean, “one of them”. But as the site says under its grand banner, “When there’s only one candidate, there’s only one choice!”

The game is Epic Saga, a beat-em-up that quite literally matches the glory of Rise of the Robots. Looking an awful lot like the wonderful Videlectrix old-skool game spoofs by the Homestar Runner people, it’s hardcore retro something something. (Is this the “delirious rambling” GSW were on about?)

It’s interesting to see that often missed gaming technique of creating games that are hard to not win. Also, it’s really very funny, with comments such as, “Oh my the gods, what have I done?” after a win. Sadly it’s the same end sequence whichever character you play, but if you’ve had enough of Virtua Kombat XVIII constantly beating you because you haven’t practised at it since you were seven months old, this is all quite a relief. (Thanks to Richard Cobbett for the link).