@RanFujimiya tweeted: "Sie ... ist rosa." #MonkeyIsland
Telltale Games has put up their back catalog on GamersGate, with a (temporary?) 10% discount. That’s Tales of Monkey Island, Sam and Max (both seasons), Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People and Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventures. Neither Bone nor CSI, however, are available.
Posted by Kroms
Like many of you, we at Mojo have been wondering about what’s going on at Autumn Moon Entertainment, who have been rather quiet recently despite putting out their second game, Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island, in Germany this past fall, with the English release coming in only a month.
So we asked.
Join us in an epic interview with CEO Bill Tiller as we discuss Ghost Pirates, A Vampyre Story, and the studio in general. You’ll also find the first word on A Bat’s Tale’s status since the game was announced at the beginning of last year before seemingly falling off the map. Read the interview for a ship’s hold worth of quality tidbits, production tales, and almost inevitable musings on the adventure game market.
Thanks are owed, of course, to the always gracious Bill Tiller and the rest of the Autumn Moon team.
Update: Because you can never get enough Ghost Pirates coverage, a brief new preview for the game has been posted by MCV, claiming a February 19th release date for the English release, although Mamba’s site itself still purports March 26th. The preview also states that “Ghost Pirates will be marketed with ads and competitions in key gaming magazines and specialist adventure games websites.” Evidently, they’re on to something there.
Posted by Jason
Double Fine Productions CEO/Creative Director/writer Tim Schafer and Telltale writer/designer Sean Vanaman (“Muzzled!”, “Lair of the Leviathan”) will participate in a panel at this year’s GDC, entitled “Make ‘Em Laugh: Comedy in Games”. They will be joined by Rhianna Pratchett – daughter of novelist Terry Pratchett – who is known for her work on the Overlord series of games.
This isn’t the first time that Schafer has participated in a GDC keynote or panel. In 2004, he keynoted the topic “Adventures in Game Design”, focusing specifically on the creation of the cast of the game Psychonauts. You can download a recording of that keynote from here.
Here’s hoping that 1. this particular panel will be recorded, and that 2. you won’t notice the fact this news is three days old.
Posted by Kroms
The fifth and final chapter of Tales of Monkey Island, “Rise of the Pirate God”, is now available for Wiiware in North America. Europe, being Europe, has to wait.
In other news, former Telltale designer Heather Logas finally has enough funding for her game. Congratulations, and good luck to her!
Heather’s father Jerry contributed some music tracks to Telltale’s very first game, Telltale Texas Hold’em. You can buy his band’s album from the Telltale store. It’s jazzy!Update: Europeans can Wii with the Pirate God on Friday. Thanks to Metallus for the info.
Update by ATMachine: Er, apparently Nintendo was just kidding about that Friday European release thing. Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 5: Rise of the Pirate God will NOT be coming to European WiiWare today. Once again, thanks to Metallus for the info, although it’s hardly news to be thankful for...
Posted by Kroms
Double Fine CEO/Creative Director Tim Schafer, and Telltale CEO/Co-Founder Dan Connors, will participate in a special event hosted by EEDAR and moderated by G4-TV host Adam Sessler, at this year’s somewhat sucky DICE Summit. The event is comprised of three debates on the topics of casual games, innovation, and independence, though it is unclear if all participants will be part of every one. Chris Taylor – who is vaguely related to Mixnmojo, as creator of the Ron Gilbert-produced Total Annihilation – and David Jaffe – who is not related to Mixnmojo and the creator of Sony’s God of War games – will also join the debate.
If you’re looking for something more immediate to do, check out the photos on Bay Area Sound’s Facebook page. Bay Area Sound are responsible for the audio in Telltale’s games. Inside you will find everything from Mark Darin directing, Mike Stemmle correcting and Sean Vanaman being scared by a large dude (start with this and then look at the four previous photos in turn), to how different the voice actors look from their counterparts, what Jared Emerson-Johnson looks like when he’s in character as the Marquis De Singe and Dominic Armato’s death stare.
Posted by Kroms
The Tales of MI blog has managed to interview the Telltale Monkey Island writers, plus Dave Grossman. Included are bits about the design process, an explanation for some of the more vague elements of the story (including a confirmation of a lot of ATMachine’s theories), what Ron Gilbert did or did not contribute, and the possibility of a sequel.
- Mark Darin (“The Siege of Spinner Cay”, “Rise of the Pirate God”).
- Dave Grossman (head honcho, also writer/additional designer on The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge).
- Mike Stemmle (“The Launch of the Screaming Narwhal”, “The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood”).
- Sean Vanaman (“Lair of the Leviathan”).
Good stuff, but more is needed. Maybe these guys can arrange it.
Posted by Kroms
The Pumpkin Post noticed a blog update by Autumn Moon artist Jean-Louis Sirois (the same fella who’s done all those Autumn Moon holiday images over the years) that’s sure to entice you, as in it he shares some character concept art he did for Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island.
Interestingly, Sirois has yet to play the game himself because, like many of us, he’s waiting on the English release. He writes that “it’s looking like Voodoo Pirates will be out in the very near future in Canada/US,” which is the first word we’ve heard of a North American release, although an English version will be available in the UK at minimum next month.
Posted by Jason
Sean Vanaman, writer of Tales of Monkey Island chapter three “Lair of the Leviathan”, and writer/director of the third Wallace and Gromit episode “Muzzled!”, has put up an interesting and informative blogpost about the meaning behind games. Included are tidbits on how the puzzles in “Leviathan” were designed and how they are approached, as well as featuring one cut puzzle.
I can’t really do anything much of quality until I’ve figured out what something is about. Wallace and Gromit’s Muzzled! was a steaming pile before I realized that it was about Gromit’s relationship with and faith in Wallace and not about flash gadgets that turn arctic water-fowl into jewel thieves. Same goes for Monkey Island—I routinely pee’d in Joe Pinney’s cheerios, metaphorically speaking, giving him narrative garbage to work with until I put my finger on the pulse of Guybrush’s grand story and what it’s about. (Uh, monkeys, right?)It’s worth a read.
Posted by Kroms
Aside from a no longer available port of Out from Boneville by Vanbrio Entertainment, Telltale’s catalog has never been naively available for Macintosh despite a sizable amount of requests over the years. Based on this rumor, however, Mac users may not have to rely on Boot Camp for their Telltale fixes much longer:
We have it from a very reliable, confidential source that Telltale Games may be planning to release its entire lineup of games to Macintosh very soon, possibly next month (February 2010).I reckon we’ll know for certain in the coming months, but it’s sure looking like Telltale’s long running claim of wanting to expand to as many platforms as possible wasn’t just a lot of talk!
The timing is perfect to coincide with the upcoming MacWord 2010, taking place February 9 through 13, 2010, at the Moscone Center in in San Francisco, CA (USA). An official announcement likely won’t be made until then.
Posted by Jason
On Christmas day, while we were all spending time with our families and Ebenezer Scrooge was repenting, hosted site The Pumpkin Post reported that Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island will be published in France, having already conquered or is slated to conquer the Germanic and British territories of Europe.
According to the source for the news of the French release, the month will be February, and the publisher will be Micro Application. And the recipient will be your face.
Posted by Jason
Okay, the Escape from Monkey Island Secret History article has fallen way behind. But all that means is that you’ve had all kinds of extra time to submit a reader opinion on the game. Yet you still haven’t! So, really, it’s you that dropped the ball here.
But we’re giving you one last chance. The EMI article is in its final few years of production, which means that we need all second opinions received by the end of this week in order to lock them into the article before we hand it off to ImageMovers to commence all that CGI work. So send them in, ye swabs!
Also, as my way of saying thank you for not keelhauling me over the article’s slight postponement, enjoy this trailer Jake probably put together back in The Day:
Posted by Jason
As the title says, Steam’s brilliant Christmas sale is now on, and some frankly bonkers-brilliant sales are in there.
How about the LucasArts Adventure pack for £1.74? That’s Indy Fate of Atlantis, Last Crusade, Loom and The Dig for probably the cheapest price they’ve ever been individually anywhere else, let alone all together! Even if you’ve got one of them, I think it’s worth it.
Or how about the Jedi Knight/Dark Forces collection for £7.49? Secret of Monkey Island SE , Lucidity, Republic Commando or Knights of the Old Republic for £3.49?
No? How about Tales of Monkey Island for £17.74? Check out the LucasArts page for more, and I expect some present-giving you tight buggers!
Update by Kroms: You can pick up every game that Telltale has both made and self-published for $49.99. That’s Tales of Monkey Island, Sam and Max Season One (Sam and Max Save the World), Sam and Max Season Two (Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space), Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People, Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventures, Bone: Out of Boneville, Bone: The Great Cow Race and Telltale Texas Hold ‘Em.
The Tingler Updates: While it’s not part of the Steam sale (not yet anyway!), Psychonauts is $7.49 at GOG with their own sale.
Posted by The Tingler
The last MojoCast of the year is finally available. The entirety of Tales of Monkey Island is discussed as jp-30 and elTee join the cast for the first time. It also serves as the first MojoCast to use g0blin’s excellent jingle.
Posted by Zaarin
While the game’s meager 7 million + customer base awaits with anticipation the recently announced sequel, LEC has released that totally impossible PC version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition on Steam and Direct2Drive this past Tuesday in an effort to reach out to the seven remaining gamers in its audience who’ve yet to discover it. (For the unaware, this “Ultimate Sith Edition” is a recent re-release with additional content.)
Packing a $39.99 price point and some steep minimum requirements, this is no download for the faint of heart. But if you’ve never played STFU, want to, and remain unfazed by the PC port’s terrible reviews (though presumably this an improved, post-patch version), doing so has never been more convenient.
In other LucasArts news, IGN has awarded the special edition of Monkey Island “Adventure Game of the Year.” Seems a bit off, given the competition, but hey, we’ll take it.
Posted by Jason
The TMI Blog’s unstoppable jubilee of Monkey Island voice actor interviews continues with a probe of the immensely talented Jared Emerson-Johnson, who you no doubt know as a composer, sound designer, and voice director whose resume includes games made by all of the studios Mojo covers.
In addition to sound design and voice direction, Emerson-Johnson’s contributions to TMI include the voice of deranged French culturally variant scientist DeSinge, whose obsession with collecting Guybrush’s pox-ridden hand caused our hero a number of inconveniences. The factoids he shares in the interview are not to be missed by those who aren’t keen on missing something not worth missing out on.
Posted by Jason
Copyright © 1996-2010 The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar. Contact us. Return to top.
SCUMM BAR. Why? Dunno. I just like how comprehensive it is. It covers it all, and the logo is awesome! Wink, wink.
- Bill Tiller, Lead CMI artist (Asked about what his favorite Monkey Island site is)