Hands on Deathspank

[thorn]

http://www.gamepro.com/article/previews/215037/deathspank-hands-on/

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/30/deathspank-preview/

http://au.xboxlive.ign.com/articles/108/1087222p1.html

I've only read the gamerpro one so far; a few minor details, nothing overwhelmingly new other than the fact that it's due out in the Northern Hemisphere summer on Xbox Live, PSN and PC.

EDIT: Maybe not PC, see below.

Edited May 3, 2010 by thorn

[Thyroid]

I read those this morning. It's all looking very promising so far. I like how environments range from teddy bear, fluffy land pink to Diablo-level dark. The gameplay is supposedly loads of fun too. I just want to pre-order and get it over with because motherfucker I am *stoked*.

[Xeneth]

I know little to nothing about this intriguing game at the moment, but I just had to drop in to say that "Hands on Deathspank" is my new favorite thread title. WORST!

[Forbin]

At this point all I want to know about this game is it's release date. I was sold at Ron Gilbert.

[Thyroid]

WORST!

Oh my fuck. I was wondering where I'd picked up that expression. "The best!" and "The worst!"

Ugh, I should go kick my past self in the butt.

[Jake]

You probably definitely picked up "the best!" "the worst!" from Idle Thumbs

Chris also played DeathSpank, and was pretty positive about it. It was embargoed, so we cut that little bit of conversation out of the cast (no bargo bustin for DeathSpank), but then I guess someone broke the 'bargo who wasn't us, so other people posted their shit, but then it was too late, so its not in there. Hopefully next time we record we'll bring it up again.

[enterthewumpus]

How long has this game been in development for? I feel like once a year or so I hear something awesome about it and then it disappears in to the mists again.

Happily, it looks like we're actually for real almost about to play it.

[Forbin]

You probably definitely picked up "the best!" "the worst!" from Idle Thumbs

Chris also played DeathSpank, and was pretty positive about it. It was embargoed, so we cut that little bit of conversation out of the cast (no bargo bustin for DeathSpank), but then I guess someone broke the 'bargo who wasn't us, so other people posted their shit, but then it was too late, so its not in there. Hopefully next time we record we'll bring it up again.

You should just blast what's already recorded.

[Hermie]

You probably definitely picked up "the best!" "the worst!" from Idle Thumbs

I've started using it too! It's a very nice replacement for the incredibly over-saturated "awesome" and "epic".

As for Deathspank, I have heard enough about it that has made me really really want to play it (including the Thumbs' interview/random discussion with Ron Gilbert), so I'm not even bothering reading more coverage of it, I wanna go in fresh. ^^

[Thyroid]

How long has this game been in development for? I feel like once a year or so I hear something awesome about it and then it disappears in to the mists again.

2-2.5 years.

Also yeah, Jake, it'd be nice if you could put up that snippet.

[elmuerte]

I'm confused, is it coming on the PC? yes or no?

[Thyroid]

I'm confused, is it coming on the PC? yes or no?

I'd say "eventually".

[ThunderPeel2001]

Anyone know why Ron Gilbert left Hothead before the game was evening finished...? Also, stepping down as Creative Director at the same time. Seemed like a really odd thing to do.

[Thyroid]

Anyone know why Ron Gilbert left Hothead before the game was evening finished...? Also, stepping down as Creative Director at the same time. Seemed like a really odd thing to do.

The game is actually finished. It now just needs to be certified.

[thorn]

I'm confused, is it coming on the PC? yes or no?

Hmmm... I just noticed that only the Gamerpro article claims that it's going to be for the PC; the other two just say XBLA and PSN. I'm taking that as an indication that they pretty much just made it up.

[juv3nal]

Hmmm... I just noticed that only the Gamerpro article claims that it's going to be for the PC; the other two just say XBLA and PSN. I'm taking that as an indication that they pretty much just made it up.

Ron Gilbert himself has been somewhat cagey on the matter:

As DeathSpank ends the creative and production phases and start down that long and winding road of certification and testing of the XBox and PS3 and [REDACTED] versions, it's looking quite amazing and is damn funny.

Probably due to contractual reasons. But if you look at what [REDACTED] could be, PC is probably at the head of the list in terms of being most likely.

[Kolzig]

Ron has been joking all the time about the PC release. I think it will come to it, but propably not at the same time as the others.

I'll buy it for PC. Great to see Ron's next awaited project ready for gamers to enjoy soon.

[Erkki]

Anyone know why Ron Gilbert left Hothead before the game was evening finished...? Also, stepping down as Creative Director at the same time. Seemed like a really odd thing to do.

He left? He should team up with Tim Schafer and make Monkey Island 3.

kidding

[ThunderPeel2001]

The game is actually finished. It now just needs to be certified.

Yeah, I guess so. It seems odd that's he's leaving, but whatever.

[Chris]

Yeah, I guess so. It seems odd that's he's leaving, but whatever.

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

[thorn]

Wasn't he also working on On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness? Given that it has been cancelled, that's even less reason to stay.

[MrHoatzin]

What does he do for a living? Since he resurfaced in the public eye with Grumpy Gamer he seems to have spent a couple of years squatting at a spare desk at Double Fine, then being the spiritual leader for Hothead on the Penny Arcade games for fifteen minutes, then he moved to Canada to actually work on Deathspank for a few hours, and now he is back home... back to whatever he does or does not do for a living...

The new screenshots remind me of what little we saw of the Good & Evil game that Gilbert started at Cavedog. I can't seem to find any screenshots on the internets, but I am pretty sure I may have saved them on some cd-rom back in the day when saving local copies of all kind of internet junk was a novel pastime and when hard drives were still small enough that they needed to be backed up every now and again. If anyone cares to see them, I could dig through stacks of ancient discs and retrieve them... ? ? ?

[Jake]

I think for a living he ... lives off the money (millions?) made when Humongous Entertainment was sold to Atari.

[Thyroid]

Dude does game design counseling. He also codes stuff, apparently. And sold a plane in the last few years.

[Kolzig]

Yes, I would bet so. I'm pretty sure he made a lot of money when Humongous was sold.

They had some nice games coming up there at the sub company Cavedog Entertainment. Too bad that almost none of them came to be finalized. Most of the kids adventure games did at Humongous and those were nice, I did play Spy Fox.

They had some sweet fps game that was blowing my mind with just the premise and screenshots, I don't remember anything about it anymore. Also Ron's Good & Evil looked really cool in the 2-3 screenshots that I saw of it in some old PC Gamer.

Thankfully at least Chris Taylor's Total Annihilation came out. That game ate up all my free time back in the day. I still need to play TA:Kingdoms, even though it's not even nearly as good game.

I have this feeling that he doesn't really work at all, except recently with the Penny arcade advisor role and project leading Deathspank.

EDIT: Heh, I was searching the net to try to find the pics Kingz is talking about and I found this guy Doug Williams' webpage where he lists as having worked 1998-2001 on Ron Gilbert's Good & Evil at Cavedog Entertainment. :-)

Even more interestingly, this Doug worked later at Beep Industries that was founded by Clayton Kauzlaric, who is actually the co-creator of Deathspank! Kauzlaric also worked at Cavedog.

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.

Edited May 4, 2010 by Kolzig