Comedy in games no laughing matter

GDC 2010: Tim Schafer, Rhianna Pratchett, and Sean Vanaman trade tips that made Brutal Legend, Overlord, and Tales of Monkey Island humorous hits.

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Comedy in games no laughing matter

Curt Schilling’s All-Star Role-Playing Game Has A Publisher And A Mystery Title [Ea]

Call it Project Mercury, and as of today, call it an EA game. The epic role-playing game that won’t — confirmed! — be called The Adventures of Curt Schilling has a home and a whole lot of mystery around it. Last week, top people involved in Project Mercury briefed Kotaku on the news being made official today that 38 Studios, the game company founded by former Boston Red Sox ace and avid gamer Curt Schilling, has signed a deal with Electronic Arts to have its mysterious, epic role-playing game published by EA’s Partners label. That’s the same EA Partners program that has brought gamers projects from other non-EA development studios, including The Orange Box from Valve, Rock Band from MTV Games and Brutal Legend from Double Fine Productions. But new details? Few were to be had. As had already been reported, Schilling has partnered with comic book guru Todd McFarlane and best-selling fantasy author R.A. Salvatore to create a universe within which 38 Studios’ Big Huge Games is creating a role-playing game. Heading the project at Big Huge Games is Ken Rolston, former lead designer of the Elder Scrolls games. Kotaku joins gamers in wishing we knew anything more about the game. Referencing Rolston’s resume, we theorized that this epic role-playing game might be similar to an Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. But 38 Studios CEO Jen MacLean said that supposing that “would do a disservice to Todd and R.A.’s involvement.” Those two men and Schilling, she said, have envisioned a novel fantasy world. We may be in the dark, but EA Partners dealmaker David DeMartini told Kotaku that two very good role-playing game experts, EA’s own leaders of its RPG powerhouse studio Bioware, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, were involved in vetting 38’s game. “I would be a fool if I didn’t tap into one of the best RPG developers in the world with Ray and Greg,” he said. “They were involved in the collaboration and discussion of the project.” Schilling and company’s game will be released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. No release timeframe was specified. The game won’t be called Project Mercury when it comes out, and, as noted above, it won’t be called The Adventures of Curt Schilling either. We threw that one out there. We asked. No chance.

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Curt Schilling’s All-Star Role-Playing Game Has A Publisher And A Mystery Title [Ea]

Things We Don’t Need To See, Such As Our Speed [Innovation]

I just finished racing a couple of laps of Disney’s Split/Second racing game. Impressions to come. But first an observation about something I couldn’t observe: the racing game’s speedometer. It had none. And I didn’t miss it. Split/Second’s designers, as we’ve noted in earlier previews, have worked to streamline the look of their racing game, cleansing the screen of needless displays of information that is irrelevant to our enjoyment of their game. Among the things we apparently don’t need to know is how fast we’re going. “Whether you’re doing 160 or 180 or whatever, it doesn’t matter,” Jay Green from development studio Black Rock told me. Also not needed, according to Green, is a map of the track. When I first heard them, I thought those were some poor design decisions, or at least odd ones. But after having raced in the game a couple of times, I’m mostly convinced they’re good ones for this game. Split/Second is a racing game that emphasizes the player’s ability to blow up everything around the track and sometimes the track itself, all with the intent of messing with the rival race cars ahead of you. The player gains the ability to cause the chaos by filling the “powerplay” meter, which Black Rock’s designers decided to render as the semi-circle trailing the car in the screenshot above. The rear bumper also shows the player’s position and the lap number. When I raced, I realized Green was right about the lack of a need for speedometer. I didn’t care how fast I was going, just whether I had enough powerplay juice to trigger some explosions around the track. I missed the map a little more, but only when I was in first place and wanted to know how far behind me the other cars were. Flicking a control stick back for a rear view took care of most of that. But Green said that a map would be confusing because the tracks in Split/Second overlap, intertwine and can be changed on the fly if you render a big enough bit of chaos (like, say, causing a huge tanker ship next to a doc to tilt 45 degrees to its side and become a new, banked lane. Late last year, EA’s Brutal Legend got some knocks for presenting players with an open-world environment without giving them the now-customary mini-map in the corner. Gears of War, famously, ditched health bars, several years ago. Split/Second will dare to give players a competitive arcade racing game without a speedometer. I discovered today that I could live without it, and now I’m wondering what else I don’t need to see. What else clutters up our screens? What else could we do without? Split/Second is slated for May release on the Xbox 360 , PS3 and PC.

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Things We Don’t Need To See, Such As Our Speed [Innovation]

Psychonauts Now Just Two Measly Bucks On Steam [Deals]

Have you somehow missed Double Fine’s lovely and under-appreciated Psychonauts? Now you have no excuse. The debut title from the makers of last year’s Brutal Legend is just $2 USD on Steam. Your 2.0 GHz Pentium IV can handle it! [ Steam ]

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Psychonauts Now Just Two Measly Bucks On Steam [Deals]

Brutal Legend’s Eddie Riggs, Now In Action Figure Form [Toys]

To cash in on the launch of Brutal Legend last year, EA had 1000 statues of the game’s star, Eddie Riggs, made up . They were nice, but then…they were too nice. Too clean. Not metal enough. Reader Hugo thus decided to take matters into his own hands, and built himself an Eddie Riggs figure that would do justice to the character. For one, Hugo’s Eddie is closer in girth to Rigg’s real-life inspiration, comedian Jack Black. It’s also an improvement for the fact it includes a cigarette, which I’d imagine was a must for any merch based off a roadie. And finally…from certain angles, he kind of looks like Matt Pike, from High on Fire. Which is also metal. And awesome. Brutal Legend Custom Figure [hugohugo @ deviantART, thanks Osama!]

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Brutal Legend’s Eddie Riggs, Now In Action Figure Form [Toys]

Games For My Break [Note]

To: Ashcraft From: Totilo Re: Look What I Caught This Weekend! My month or so of Day Notes comes to an end. I’m starting vacation really soon. Tonight, in theory, though some posts of mine will magically appear for a couple more days. Thanks, Ash and friends for writing back to me after each and every Day Note ! As I embark on my holiday vacation, I am preparing to spend time with friends and family, getting ready to go shopping for blinds, plus other stuff. But, lo, during this vacation, games will be played. My 2009 backlog is kinda small: Dragon Age, Demon’s Souls, Brutal Legend, Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines, Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, Eufloria, Ben There Dan That (2009, right?), some Fallout DLC, the Spore expansion I was curious about… not much else. Wait! That’s kind of a lot. That’s spilling into 2010. Good thing Lost Planet 2 was delayed. My 2008 backlog still lingers, though: Gotta finish World of Goo! Oh, and call me crazy, but there are a couple of games I finished but want to go back to: Assassin’s Creed II (to do all the side stuff except the feathers. The newest Ratchet & Clank (to play the real ending). So that’s what I’ll be doing. I hope you’ll be doing things that are useful to society as well. Enjoy the rest of 2009! Stories you may have missed today What The Video Game Industry Wants For Christmas Kotaku Contest Reminder: Are You The Americas’ Top Zelda Fan? The Batman-Maker Who Didn’t Know The Meaning Of GOTY This Week In Video Game Comics Style Savvy Review: Dressing Miss Michael BioShock 2 Multiplayer Lobby Preview: Yes, The Lobby Scribblenauts Creator Talks About Controls, Console Ports & More On Kotaku Podcast

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Games For My Break [Note]

I have compiled a list of the missing stories: – … [From Comments]

I have compiled a list of the missing stories: – No nipples on the batsuit in Arkham Asylum. I understand a lot of folks were cut up about that. – The Super Guide in NSMB Wii. Games being hard is SRS BSNSS! – Da Vinci wasn’t Q to Ezio’s James Bond. Get out of here, Assassin’s Creed II! – Brutal Legend has RTS. YOU LIED TO ME, SCHAFER! – Scribblenauts. No way would a pirate beat a ninja! – Tales of Monkey Island. Guybrush is too pale, goatee, looks like a junkie etc. – BAYONETTA’S HEAD IS TOO SMALL AND HER LEGS ARE VERY LONG!!!

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I have compiled a list of the missing stories: – … [From Comments]

Fear Eddie Riggs’ Mighty Facial Hair [Clips]

Here’s a look at what you’re missing if you’ve not yet picked up the Hammer of Infinite Fate DLC for Brutal Legend . As you can see, the Mountain Man skin for Eddie Riggs isn’t quite as impressive as one would have hoped, but it certainly does add a beard, wherteas the other two costumes mainly consist of white and black face paint. Friends don’t let friends be ripoffs of The Crow, so beard it is.

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Fear Eddie Riggs’ Mighty Facial Hair [Clips]

Naughty Dog, Double Fine on GDC Presentation Marquee [Gdc]

Organizers of the Game Developers Conference announced on Friday that Naughty Dog – developer of the newly minted Game of the Year at last night’s Spike Video Game Awards – and Double Fine will be giving presentations at GDC 2010 . Naughty Dog will give five different lectures related to Uncharted 2 and its production; In one, director Bruce Straley and co-lead designer Neil Druckmann will discuss story and gameplay integration. Double Fine, the studio behind Brütal Legend, will send lead programmer Peter Demoreuille and artist Drew Skillman to discuss visual design for that game. The conference will be March 9 to 13 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Naughty Dog, Double Fine to Present at GDC 2010 [CinemaBlend]

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Naughty Dog, Double Fine on GDC Presentation Marquee [Gdc]

Kotaku’s 40 Brutal Legend T-Shirt Contest Winners Announced Here [Contest]

Hundreds of you gave us a scare and contributed pictures of yourself in your most metal poses for our Brutal Legend contest . We’ve randomly selected 40 winners who will receive Brutal Legend t-shirt prizes. See if you’ve won below! But first! All winners will only receive a T-shirt if they do the following: 1) Send me a private message to my Kotaku username, stephentotilo, by the end of Friday, December 11. ( Just click this link to get there. Don’t make the message public.) 2) Include in that message your e-mail address and mailing address Kotaku’s Brutal Legend Winners Abillionninjas Andrew Minichiello barrettppage Chesu davahsa Emiliano Leonel D’Andrea Edicus eos feoinc Friedhamster George Ramsden HybridZero Ihmisraunio izilladotcom Jacob Luke Jay3000 John Eterna Justin Irizarry kburdie Kutulu Luis Garavello marbury187 Master_Zerodyme Nefaroth Niels Birger Rahbek P-Dude paulmcevoy Pixelated Punk RadicalDreamer rygar83 Saudrapsmann shinigamiDude SRS_Giraffe tommyrocket trashstar urcid WiccanLion Xanthos Samurai X-pert74 Zombienator Congratulations to all the winners! Remember, you were chosen randomly, so don’t go gloating that you’re all that metal.

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Kotaku’s 40 Brutal Legend T-Shirt Contest Winners Announced Here [Contest]

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