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So Hothead Games posted on their twitter...
Teburninator
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
...about an hour ago that if we got 100k friends to buy episode 1 and 2 they'd make episode 3. I think this was retracted after cwgabriel said in response
"@HotheadGames that's actually not true."
I wonder if Hothead is prepared to make episode 3 but PA just doesn't want to. Or maybe it's just Hothead's twitter person being a tard. Anyone know the sales levels of episode one and two, just for posterity's sake?
Anywho, thanks for getting my hopes up, again, Hothead.
"@HotheadGames that's actually not true."
I wonder if Hothead is prepared to make episode 3 but PA just doesn't want to. Or maybe it's just Hothead's twitter person being a tard. Anyone know the sales levels of episode one and two, just for posterity's sake?
Anywho, thanks for getting my hopes up, again, Hothead.
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http://www.joystiq.com/2011/01/10/penny-arcade-adventures-tearing-up-mac-app-store-charts-ep-3-s/
Nice of Hothead to confirm that sales of 1 and 2 were why they jumped onto DeathSpank.
It's all about big business after all.
Some scars never heal. SOME. SCARS. NEVER. HEAL. *muffled sobbing*
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
My new novel:
Maledictions: The Offering.
Now in Paperback!
Yeah that's my problem with it too. The method of delivery just isn't nearly as engaging as the game. Tycho has never been easy to read and his style makes it difficult to follow along.
As for the story, it's interesting and fairly in-depth. Different than the game, definitely, but I'm all right with it.
Except for the last two chapters. I cannot for the life of me figure out what the crap just happened.
Sounds like the stuff that's been in the podcasts/videos. The need for one man to write an entire game in a short period does sound like a daunting task (especially when it's a fucking text adventure game), and IIRC Holkins didn't want anyone else to write it/help with it, which is understandable.
I mean, stop me if I'm wrong, but I know of plenty of games out there with 2-4 year development cycles, that had atrocious stories, as if they were an afterthought.
Deathspank, a game I presume had several different writers, did not blow me away with the quality of the writing, in fact, its writing did nothing for me whatsoever. Perhaps there's something to not allowing just anyone to piss whatever on the page for the sake of "The return on this investment is insubstantial, the script must be done tomorrow, or else."
I don't find the individual chapters difficult to follow, but they don't flow together very well - one chapter will end at a house, the next will be in the middle of a bank heist, and the non-linearity of the other chapters is equally as confusing.
I still love it. It has so many great lines, I just wish the narrative flow was a little smoother.
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
My new novel:
Maledictions: The Offering.
Now in Paperback!
That's business. Oftentimes the needs of an artist and a business are in conflict; and after reading the entirety of the Eurogamer article linked on Joystiq, my impression is that this conflict eventually resulted in Holkins opting to take his ball and go home.
While there's some new information in there, none of it is surprising. For all his talent, Mr. Holkins's contributions to the Penny Arcade webcomic are usually no more substantial than to make Mike's jokes sound better. When dealing directly with a company that equates an eight-hour work day with eight hours of working, he was unable to cope, and I can't imagine how frustrated Hothead must have been with that situation.
Not to digress or diminish your point by just quoting a part of your argument, but I would not quite agree with that one. That's only the superficial impression you can get from the reality show they've got going on, but that's not exactly how it really is, in fact, it is exactly how it is not. I'm sure we could get into a pretty rewarding discussion regarding how graphic art and simple thematic messages are important too, but without strong themes, it's generally nothing more than pissing in the wind. I would actually attribute the success of Penny Arcade more to Holkins than to Krahulik, personally, with my outside-of-the-loop observant perspective.
As far as business goes, yeah, doing the right thing isn't the same as doing the good thing.
I'm gonna go ahead and argue for the "artist" here, with all evidence of the current writing in video games (Hothead or otherwise) to support it.
Not that I have any insight into whether or not "Mr. Holkins" is a massive lazy douchebag that does 1 hour of work per day max, but I'm just saying that whatever solutions Hothead had, were probably less than optimal in the grand scheme of things, considering a text adventure game is grounded so deeply in the text that supports it, that the Final Fantasy derivative gameplay and the cel-shaded art, play the sidekick role exclusively throughout.
Yeah, I would LOVE to see what else they could come up with.
I think it was on the Telltale forums, but someone suggested a PA fighting game. I would be so down with that.
But then again, I WOULD love to beat people up as a Fruit Fucker...
I feel totally nebbish and stupid for not getting it.
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
My new novel:
Maledictions: The Offering.
Now in Paperback!
Okay, you know how in Soul Calibur, before fights the narrator/announcer is saying that nonsensical metaphysical stuff? It'd be like that, but funnier.
T_____________T
I also kind of wish they had wrapped up this story in a more visual way - like as a series of strips. It would have been really nice given how much of the personality and charm of the first 2 and of PA in general comes from the art style and character design. I realize it would have been harder for them and probably resulted in a more simplified story but I found it kind of weird reading the end to a video game based on a comic as a text...
But I'm also more interested in seeing what kind of story they could do. So, a beat 'em up + a new story = greatness.
how so? I've always wondered who would ultimately win my affection. Tycho the brain or Gabe the beast.
Oh wait that's not a brawler.
That's the Forlorn Hope fighting the future.
Most of the time, reading jippee's posts feels like he's posting from another planet or even a different solar system.
Could work. For storyline, simply do something similar to subspace emissary, but please much better. Though with Jerry writing, I really doubt we have anything to worry about unlike with king of obvious bias Sakurai.
The biggest thing in my mind that detracted from that was the fact the Kirby characters had way more attention then they should have done.
honestly i wish there was some kind of "support the third penny-arcade game" donation bin.
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Genius!
I say we all send bottles of urine to everyone involved in not getting a third one. mwuahahaha Sort of like how people sent a mass amount of packing peanuts to get Firefly back on the air.
And look how well that worked out.
Jericho, not Firefly. And they were actual peanuts.
Because fighting games are incredibly complex, deep and nuanced games that even the companies that have been making them for decades now tend to muck up a decent amount.
It's really dissapointing news, the game itself may have been a bit basic but the writing was great and it's been a long time since I played something with such a good atmosphere.
Here's hoping they change their minds somewhere down the line.
He lives on as cheezburger grease in our hearts.
Are these Episode Three chapters it, or... maybe more?