Double Fine
Via one of my co-workers, who in his “free” time runs the gaming website GamingTrend, I found two new (to me) projects by one of gaming’s funniest developers, Tim Shafer. Tim Shafer is responsible for such awesome video games as Day of the Tentacle, The Secret of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Psychonauts, and others.
Over at the GamingTrend forums I found the short flash game Host Master and the Conquest of Humor, in which you play Tim Shafer himself in a SCUMM-like adventure game. The objective of the game is to find all the jokes for Tim’s speech at the Game Developers Choice Awards, which are hidden in the room. It’s a fun little diversion that captures the feel and frustration of the old adventure games fairly well.
The other, bigger, project is Brütal Legend. From the press that I have read about the game, it looks like a cross between Metal culture and Grim Fandango (another Shafer game). To quote a press release:
Brütal Legend tells the tale of Eddie Riggs, played by Jack Black, who is drawn back through time to a mythical world dripped in Rock and Roll folklore; where great Metal titans once ruled and power chords rang from the countryside for all to hear. When an oppressed people request Eddie’s knowledge of modern warfare, he pulls from his own experience in the only occupation he’s ever had, a roadie for a Heavy Metal band. From this springs the most hellacious army man has ever seen, and thus brings this ancient world into the Age of Metal.
I’m not really a big fan of Jack Black, but his involvement in the project isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I don’t know what it is about him, there’s just something about Black that makes it difficult for me to take him seriously, even as a comedian. Regardless, in addition to Black, several genuine rock legends have signed on to voice the game. Not only does the trailer feature music by Judas Priest (The Hellion/Electic Eye), but Rob Halford voices the main villain. Also on board are Lita Ford of The Runaways and Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead.
Supposedly the game will be released in the fall of this year, and it now joins StarCraft 2 and Bioshock 2 on my “games to buy” list for this year.