The Monkey Island & N. Bounty Pack – INTERVIEW with Mark Darin

Mark (in the center) at PAX with Ryan Jones and Dave Grossman on his flanks

So here we are today talking this time to a truly accomplished adventure game designer who has gone from small, but great indie productions (Nick Bounty!!!) to become one of the lead creative forces at Telltale Games. Mark Darin after leading the design on the Strong Bad games is co-creating all the big titles currently in progress, including Tales of Monkey Island and the future Sam & Max episodes. As always we started the interview with the most difficult question. Next we started to differentiate between indie games and Telltale games which may be not entirely fair as Telltale is all independent as far as I know, just maybe a bit bigger than Mark’s own company Pinhead Games. Oh, and Pinhead‘s games are freeware.

 

Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay – REVIEW

Well I was a sucker. I pre-ordered Tales of Monkey Island. I mean, how could you not when Steve Purcell himself promised us an awesome DVD cover, and one at this level of coolness! Once again I answered the call of duty from Igor to review another complete masterpiece – The Siege of Spinner Cay. A game that starts epic and ends epic will full promise of an amazing 3rd episode to come! It is highly recommended that you finish playing the first episode before reading ahead! Thar be spoilers on the Horizon!

 

DEV INTRO #1: Oded Sharon (Corbomite Games)

We proudly present our new series of “mini” interviews called Dev Intro. The goal is to give some (yet) unknown indie development studios the opportunity to talk about their premiere adventure game titles and their approach to game design in general. After more interviews in the series are published it will be possible to compare different ideas on starting out with a first promising title, as well as thoughts on the struggles connected to being indie.

Our guest for this interview is Oded Sharon of Corbomite Games who have just released the first episode in five of Pizza Morgana – an adaptation of a comic book under the same title. It is about the adventures of a young girl while delivering pizza for a company that also happens to hire monsters, vampires, faeries, and daemons. A demo version is to be found here.

 

Tales of Monkey Island Episode 1: Launch of The Screaming Narwhal – REVIEW

Right off yet another adventure of gargantuan proportions, not paying attention to the storm clouds gathering above him, Guybrush “mighty pirate” Threepwood sets once again to fight the evil zombie demon pirate LeChuck off the shores of some odd Caribbean isle. They will fight ship to ship, wit against voodoo,  over Guybrush’s lovely wife – an adventuress in her own right – Governor Elaine Marlay. Yet in truth, the only way Guybrush can get in one piece out of this confrontation is by combining several strange objects he keeps handy in his pants… OK, this time he keeps them under his coat as well.

 

Sam & Max: Season One – REVIEW

After the gruesome events of 03-03-04, Sam doesn't have much more to do than try to shoot apples on his little buddy's head.

Igor asked me to write a review of the second best Adventure Game I’ve ever played – Sam & Max: Season One (recently renamed to Sam & Max Save the World). And that’s just what I’ll do.

I initially discovered Sam & Max after being curious about all the references made in Monkey Island, I saw them mentioned on Easter Egg lists and things but I never really knew just what the hell it was. So when I came across a copy of Sam and Max: Hit the Road I took it and ran home with it. What immediately got me was the two protagonists’ unique personalities – especially that of Max.

 

Strong Bad Episode 4 Dangeresque 3 – REVIEW

aka Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People (SBCG4AP) – Episode 4: Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective – REVIEW

One thing is certain – cheap, gritty, home-made creations by groups of enthusiastic friends (or one-person teams) are slowly taking over the world.