Hands on Deathspank

[syntheticgerbil]

EDIT 2: Holy crap, I didn't know that Shelley Day was sentenced to prison. No wonder Hulabee Entertainment kind of disappeared from the map. I think they had only one game that I actually considered buying years ago. That was also a kids adventure game.

Yeah, that's part of the seedy side of the whole Humongous/Hulabee deal.

It's unfortunate that Ron sold the company, because when I was trying to find out more about Shelley Day after that happened, I remember instead finding a few artists pages where they spoke of how great it was to initially work at Humongous but the last year or so after it was bought by Atari they had major problems with overtime and their paychecks bouncing. I think someone even said it was months before he even got paid at all.

Makes me sort of think of what happened with Sierra, but of course that was way worse.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Yeah, I think it's a bit simplistic to imagine Ron just sitting on a huge pile of cash. He business partner went to prison for taking out loans based on forged documents saying Disney were going to buy their company (as I understand it, apologies if I'm getting that wrong).

I think he went there specifically to make DeathSpank; now that DeathSpank is done, he's leaving.

He joined as Creative Director of Hothead games... in order to make DeathSpank? Are all people who make games at Hothead made Creative Directors of the whole company?

Also, I thought DS was episodic... has he finished all the episodes? Sorry, but there's definitely more to him leaving Hothead. Even if it's not exciting, there's definitely more to it. You don't just quit a job in this climate, especially before the reception of your first game for a company... What if it's a huge success? Will he return as Creative Director again? It's all a bit odd.

[Thyroid]

Also, I thought DS was episodic... has he finished all the episodes? Sorry, but there's definitely more to him leaving Hothead. Even if it's not exciting, there's definitely more to it. You don't just quit a job in this climate, especially before the reception of your first game for a company... What if it's a huge success? Will he return as Creative Director again? It's all a bit odd.

Deathspank hasn't been episodic for at least a year. And Gilbert only left Vancouver a few days ago. The game itself is finished, and is now just going through certification. Aka, if it got leaked, you get the whole thing.

I think Gilbert joined Hothead specifically to make Deathspank, but joined on as 'creative director' for all the other projects they were making (Penny Arcade and, I think, Swarm). There's no doubt that there's been some shake-ups at that company (Deirdra Kiai seems to have lost her job, and the guy who was CEO at the time PAA got released is now in PR or something), but Gilbert's departure doesn't seem directly related to that.

[brkl]

Oh man, I remember Deirdra Kiai from way back when I was 14 or so and hoping to make an adventure game with a vaporware toolset called SCRAMM.

[elmuerte]

Sounds a lot like my vaporware middleware called SCAMM

[thorn]

My impression was that Gilbert was initially hired as a consultant on the Penny Arcade games and only after that did he pitch Deathspank. Becoming Creative Director was probably part of that deal; giving him control over the game, and Hothead probably thought he'd stay on and produce more work with them in the future.

ThunderPeel2001, why does there need to be a conspiracy? People leave jobs all the time. He probably wanted to move back to California or something.

[SiN]

Also worth considering: Gilbert has always been a big supporter of episodic games. Maybe when Hothead decided to move away from the episodic model Gilbert was less interested in staying on.

The important part though, is that the "game" part of Deathspank is done. Only certification is left, and that's the really technical and long-winded part that doesn't really require Gilbert's immediate input.

I also found the timing of his departure odd. But I think it's better to get it out of the way now rather than wait until we approach the release date... it's probably better for sales this way.

Or maybe Gilbert has another project lined up, and wants to get to that asap? Hey, I can dream right?

Mo

[Kolzig]

Also even though he has left Hothead, he is still promoting the game now before it will be released. So it's not like he has abandoned the project now that it's practically finished and ready.

I really wish he has some new project in his mind already, also I hope that publishers will be more open to his ideas.

[Erkki]

Oh man, I remember Deirdra Kiai from way back when I was 14 or so and hoping to make an adventure game with a vaporware toolset called SCRAMM.

same here