Ron Gilbert - DeathSpank

[Lucas]

Spotted on RPG Watch, if anyone cares:

http://www.rpgwatch.com/?rwsiteid=1#7691

Posted by Dhruin

So, Ron Gilbert is a famous creator of adventures like Monkey Island, right?  What is he doing here?  Well, what if he created an adventure/RPG described as "Monkey Island meet Diablo"?  Beats the hell out of me what that would be like but it sounds worth discussing.  Here's the official announcement of DeathSpank:
----------
The Great White North, January 9, 2008 – In a move that may upset the balance of the universe (or at least that around the 49th parallel), Hothead Games announced plans to publish Ron Gilbert's long-awaited RPG-Adventure game, DeathSpank. Described as "Monkey Island meets Diablo", the game will be released in episodic format and feature Gilbert's unique style of humor and storytelling. In a related move, Ron Gilbert will be joining the company’s Vancouver-based studio as Creative Director, effective immediately.

Speaking from his secret game design cave, Ron Gilbert said, "I've spent over four years trying to find the right publisher for this strange little game. Now that I’ve done it, you just know that somewhere four horsemen are saddling up."

The episodic game follows the thong-tastic adventures of a misguided hero named DeathSpank, a character that first appeared on Gilbert's Grumpy Gamer website in a series of animated comics he penned with long-time creative collaborator, Clayton Kauzlaric.

Hothead prepared for Gilbert's arrival by ordering the finest morsels of jellied moose meat and lager brewed with water from the nearest available glacier. "We're all huge fans of Monkey Island and we love Ron's unique vision and sense of humor," said Joel DeYoung, COO of Hothead Games. "Ron shares Hothead’s goal of bringing much-needed humor and innovation into games, so having him here in Vancouver as our Creative Director is an excellent fit."

"I'm really excited to be working with Hothead Games not only on DeathSpank, but as their new Creative Director," said Gilbert. "I got to know everyone at Hothead while I was helping with On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. They really understand humor and being creative like very few publishers do."

As Creative Director, Gilbert will work in the Vancouver-based studio on all of Hothead’s games. He is also expected to improve his hockey skills substantially during his stay.
----

Uh...?

[schild]

GOTY.

[Strazos]

Never had a chance to play the Monkey Island games back in the day. 

However, back then, I sucked balls at point and click adventures, such as the King's Quest games. I probably wouldn't be very good at them now, either.

I've always sort of despised hunting for plot triggers in any sort of game.

[Yegolev]

I've always thought LeChuck should drop loot.

[Xuri]

Oh, but he did... (<--- since I couldn't find a screenshot, please imagine a link behind those words pointing to an image of Guybrush pulling a wedgie on LeChuck in MI2 and getting to keep the soggy underpants)

[Morat20]

Never had a chance to play the Monkey Island games back in the day. 

However, back then, I sucked balls at point and click adventures, such as the King's Quest games. I probably wouldn't be very good at them now, either.

I've always sort of despised hunting for plot triggers in any sort of game.

Monkey Island wasn't NEARLY so bad (I loathed the King's Quest stuff myself, although I loved Space Quest).

IIRC, there was only one way to die in Monkey Island. (There was a way to apparently die, but you didn't). You were stuck underwater, and your character stated he could hold his breath for "20 minutes". Turns out he could only hold it for 19:59 seconds. Although the solution to that puzzle (you were tied to an anchor, and all around you -- right out of reach -- were swords, scissors, cutlasses, daggers, etc stuck in the seabottom) was funny. :)

[Lucas]

Super necro because Deathspank has been kinda unveiled at PAX '09 through the 1UP.com website:

http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3175824

As you can see on the mini portal, after yesterday's preview, today we should get an interview with the man himself, and on friday a gameplay video should also appear.

[schild]

It looks like a lower budget torchlight

[Lucas]

But if the chicken minions you send on a rampage have a pulley in the middle (or maybe that will be an upgrade?  ) , I'll buy it no matter what.

[Amarr HM]

Never had a chance to play the Monkey Island games back in the day. 

However, back then, I sucked balls at point and click adventures, such as the King's Quest games. I probably wouldn't be very good at them now, either.

I've always sort of despised hunting for plot triggers in any sort of game.

Monkey Island wasn't NEARLY so bad (I loathed the King's Quest stuff myself, although I loved Space Quest).

The hardest point n' click I ever played was Legends of Kyrandia, I hated when the puzzles didn't make sense even after you solved them.

[AcidCat]

Arise Thread!

Giant Bomb has a quick look up on the game, which is coming out the middle of next month.

http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-ex-deathspank/17-2838/


Looks like ridiculous fun. I particularly like the drop-in/drop-out couch co-op, because I know when I start playing my kids are gonna want to jump in.

[Hawkbit]

I was hoping for more info by now about skills or trees, but nothing.  They did have a video about the coop Sparkles that looks fun.  I'll be buying this right when it's released... looks fun.

[Lucas]

New, updated website!

http://www.deathspank.com/

Quite humorous, especially the "about" and the FAQ :). From the videos I watched, the interface looks quite solid and colourful. The PC version is still under wraps, guess they are changing the UI around for that (I don't own a console, so I'll wait for the PC).

They make it sound like there is quite a lot o loot (err); initially I thought it wouldn't be the case being a game that seems much more about the story rather than creating lots of alternate characters with different talent trees (Torchlight), but hey, happy to be wrong about that :). I'm particularly intrigued by the mighty rifle that shoots rabid chickens swarming at enemies, and also by the "design golf courses quests!". Yeah.

[Musashi]

This is relevant to my interests.

[Lucas]

Sneak peek on inventory items!

http://www.deathspank.com/archives/916

An introduction to some of the characters you'll meet!

http://www.deathspank.com/archives/782

[Lucas]

Game should be out today :)

"Epic Weapons" trailer!
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/epic-weapons-deathspank/701592

[Musashi]

Official website says the game will be out tomorrow, contrary to what that video led me to believe.

[Segoris]

Official website says the game will be out tomorrow, contrary to what that video led me to believe.

Only for Xbox. PSN is out today

From the FAQs on Deathspank's site:

So you need a release date do you? Well how about July 13th for PlayStation Network and July 14th for Xbox LIVE Arcade!

Edit: I didn't watch the video, just keeping it clear that PSN is today since I'm looking forward to my night of Deathspank

[Musashi]

STRONG BUY.

15$

[Hawkbit]

Yes, the force is strong with this one.  Screen tears a bit more than I like, but that's to be said for all PS3 games.  That's about my only complaint so far. 

Actually pretty light hearted and funny, while still being fun.  It's gorgeous in artwork.

[Quinton]

For fuck's sake, PSN store is the stupidest shit ever.

How the hell do I add a credit card?  I try to buy the game but I need to add funds.  Okay I can add funds from an existing credit card (that expired two years ago) or a PSN card.  What if I want to add a new credit card?  

Goddamn morons.  Who designs this shit?  Do they want to make it hard for me to give them money?

EDIT: Oh I just need to log in to their shitty website.  WTF, Sony. WTF.

[Hawkbit]

? 

Once I sign in to PSN with my login and password "Sign in" is replaced with "Account Management", which allows me to edit whatever cc I have on file.  It's fairly straightforward on my system... I love the fact that PSN doesn't require me buying $20 worth of points when I only want to spend $15.99.

[Quinton]

The issue I had was I hadn't used it in years.  I clicked on the store and tried to buy something.  I couldn't because my credit card had expired.  There was absolutely no way from within the store UI to fix this.  Not even a "oh you need to go somewhere else to fix this".  It was really obnoxious.   It was not clear to me that there was some other UI outside of the store for this, and searching around on the interwebs lead me to us.playstation.com where I ended up resetting my password, logging in, editing my billing details, then having to figure out how to logout and back in on the ps3, then go back to the store, then finally buy the damn game.

[schild]

Is it... good?

[Quinton]

I'm enjoying it!  It has quests, loot, and monster-bashing, along with amusing dialogue.  Can't complain.

[Hawkbit]

Yep, I'm about an hour in and digging it. 

Reviews seem to focus complaints about the inventory mish-mash, which I understand but between TQ, Diablo and the plethora of MMOs I've played, I'm not seeing a problem.  Screen tears a bit on my system. 

Otherwise, it's fun.  reviews have it around 8 hours to beat.  It's a bit fedex questy, but it's fun enough that I'm not bothered by it yet. 

[Segoris]

After only playing a little bit, it feels like a mix of Diablo-ish loot, WoW questing, with a little bit of Fat Princess combat (there's a few more combat options and a slightly slower pace), and a medieval version of The Tick as a main character. It is definitely worth picking up, imo.


The humor so far has been good too.

[Trippy]

There's a demo available.

Edit: PSN's billing system seems fucked up at the moment. It won't take my money.

[Xuri]

Going to grab this for xbox later today.

Speaking of Ron Gilbert - somehow I managed to completely miss the release of the special edition of MI2! Well, until now, anyway. Beautiful remake. Art is good, voice-overs are good, music is good, humor is still top-notch, and there's an awesome commentary "track" where you can hear Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman comment on various parts of the game (by pressing 'A' when a big "press A to hear commentary" button appears).

[AcidCat]

Yeah this game seems like it's going to be a fun little diversion. Nothing revolutionary of course, but so far the art style and humor are really pleasing. I've only played an hour or so but I've already seen quite a bit of loot, looks like they didn't skimp on the goodies. My son jumped in as Sparkles the Wizard and while he was a bit disappointed that he didn't get to equip any loot, we had fun just running some basic quests and tearing up hordes of stoopid chickens. Surprising amount of voice work in the game so far too. Really a good deal for 15 bucks.

[Mrbloodworth]

Downloaded the demo, was going to check it out at some point. I enjoy the over the top humor of the stuff I have seen so far, and I love the art style.

[ffc]

There's a demo available.

Edit: PSN's billing system seems fucked up at the moment. It won't take my money.

I had this problem a week ago.  Somehow I was able to add funds through the website after failing multiple times on both the website and PS3 despite using the very same credit card to make previous PSN purchases.  Sony was of no help ("Sir, is your credit card billing address correct?"  "Yes, I have used it on PSN before."  "But the billing address has to be exact."  "...could it be anything else?"  "Sir, as a professional, I can tell you it's your billing address."  )  The best thread I could find indicated the PSN funding problem might be Slim related after the last update.

As for the game itself, I tried the demo after laughing out loud at some dialog in a gameplay clip.  Fun game, really cool how the world is actually round, but there are bad screen tearing issues on the PS3.

[jakonovski]

Bought it on PSN. Totally didn't realize it would be 1080p. Off to play it now.

[Lucas]

The first 15 minutes of Deathspank (video posted by Eurogamer):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjH2VUTMxBM

Hehe, nice colourful environments, cool and funny dialogue :). Can't wait to dispense some justice on the PC (well, sooner or later) 

[Musashi]

I've sunk probably six or eight hours into this.  Easily worth fifteen bucks.  I've spent fifty to sixty dollars on worse games on several occasions.  It's fun.  It's not too easy.  It's not too hard.  It's got the type of humor you'd expect.  Buy this game, or you're the enemy.