On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Awesome

Runefox wrote to point out that the boys at Penny Arcade have passed around the first trailer for their upcoming episodic PC game. Kotaku is link/hosting a flash version of the trailer, and a high quality one is on GameTrailers. As Runefox says: "While almost all can agree that the graphics, as they are now, will give small children nightmares, so, too, can most everyone agree that the Fruit F***ker is simply awesome." Earlier this week Gabe put up a post with more information on the game, and owns up to maybe having put out the trailer 'too soon'. "We were worried though that people might think this was going to be a 2D game if that's all they saw. So we decided at the last minute to attach some of the 3D work we've got. It's extremely early and it's missing some effects like cell shading and a few others.In retrospect we probably should have held of showing it but we were excited and we jumped the gun a bit. We still have a lot of work to do in order to really define the look of the game." The best tidbit: You'll be able to make your own PA-style character to fight alongside the boys. Good form.

Comments

What platforms?

[Lectoid]

I have known about this game as soon as it was announced, but I still have no idea what platforms it will be available on. Based purely on that lack of info, I would guess that it's only playable on a PC.

Re:What platforms?

[Neon Spiral Injector]

They've said it will be initailly launched for PC, Mac, and Linux. With consoles to possibly follow.

Just how awesome?

[Anonymous Coward]

can most everyone agree that the Fruit F***ker is simply awesome.

So awesome, the editors have to add an extra *. And leave out the question mark.

Re:Just how awesome?

[MeanMF]

Maybe he's talking about the Fruit Fracker from Battlestar Galactica.

Re:Just how awesome?

[Captain Splendid]

Maybe he's talking about the Fruit Fracker from Battlestar Galactica.

SPOILER: The fruit fracker is one of the remaining 5 Cylons. You heard it here first, folks!

Re:Just how awesome?

[sammy baby]

My kingdom for a mod point.

Re:Just how awesome?

[SuiteSisterMary]

Tigh (giving a briefing to the Viper pilots): Gentlemen, we have indications that a Cylon Ace is operating in this area. You all probably know him as the Fruit Fracker.
Random Pilot: Why is he called Fruit Fracker?
Tigh: Well, lets just say that sometimes you pop the toaster, and sometimes the toaster pops you.

Re:Looks like another "meh" game

[Neon Spiral Injector]

As a disclaimer I am a PA fanboy. But how you got that there is nothing worth buying from that trailer, I have no idea. It was just a few clips of character animations, no gameplay at all.

Gabe has stated the game will be adventure/RPGish. You'll be playing the role of an original character that you create at the start of the game. During the adventure you'll be joined by the various cast of PA.

For the $20 they'll be asking, I'll check it out.

Artistic style

[phorm]

Actually, I rather like the artistic style of the game. The environment seems a mix of Sam'n'Max crossed with Zelda. Cartoony, but well drawn and believable while not trying to push the "realism" button too much (like many games do nowadays).

Of course that says nothing of the gameplay or plot, but I'll keep an eye on this one to see what the reviews say about that.

PA now on the other side of the fence

[jchenx]

It's very interesting to see Penny Arcade on the "other side of the fence", so to speak ... on the side of being a game developer, rather than just talking about them. You can definitely see this influencing some of their comments and blogs, for example their recent article on the controversial Denis Dyack / Too Human podcast. Dyack was on the EGM show lambasting one of the writers for calling last year's E3 demo "terrible". While he sounded quite insane and childish at times ("I'm telling you my game is awesome, you just have to believe me!"), he did make some interesting points regarding the state of media/press in the industry, especially when it comes to the notion of previewing really early builds of games.

At first, I was surprised to PA have such a calm response to Dyack's outburst. Other bloggers have said rather unpolite words to Dyack. But it makes sense, particularly because PA was probably in the middle of trying to make a similar decision. Should we show this early trailer of the game, or not? When it's "your baby", it does become quite personal if someone does criticize it really harshly.

Re:PA now on the other side of the fence

[cowscows]

It can be especially difficult with something containing a lot of creativity, because so much of those design processes can be iterative, meaning that the first half of the work you do is done only to figure out what you need to do for the second half of the project. Basically, if you don't throw out most of your original ideas, you're either some sort of super genius, or you're making a crappy product.

Good ideas often turn out to bad ideas, or lead to better and different ideas. The only way you can flush all that out is by trying those ideas and seeing where they go. Showing off that work-in-progress is tough, because there's a good chance that the final product will be very different. And forget about those last few layers of polish that really make your end result good. You don't want to waste time on that until you're really happy with the underlying product.

It's too bad that the hype based advertising system that the games industry has embraced doesn't take into account the way design really works. Instead it forces developers to waste time making little demos of projects that are nowhere near from ready, and can force the design process into corners from which they can't escape, resulting in mediocre games.

Re:PA now on the other side of the fence

[Applekid]

At the risk of sounding inflamitory, considering how vocal the PA guys are about games that suck, this had better be one of the best adventure games of all time.

After all, you can't have such vocal critics of bad games actually be RESPONSIBLE for a bad game, right?

I don't hold loyalties to any developer or publisher... but I have a feeling finding an unbiased review, positive or negative, of this one when it comes out is going to be next to impossible.

Re:Looks like another "meh" game

[Seumas]

Yeah, nothing sounds more exciting than playing a couple of gamer dorks who live together in their 30s in an RPG. The only thing I can imagine coming even close would be a Pogo sidescroller or a Calvin & Hobbes RTS.

Re:Looks like another "meh" game

[XenoRyet]

There won't be any. They're going with speech bubbles, not voice overs.

It must be done.

[Rob T Firefly]

The best tidbit: You'll be able to make your own PA-style character to fight alongside the boys. Good form.

Cel-shaded Jack Thompson in 3... 2...

Re:It must be done.

[Sneakernets]

Hey, we could make that a game.

We could call it "The Ambulance Chaser".

Do you expect Ebert to make awesome movies?

[jchenx]

At the risk of sounding inflamitory, considering how vocal the PA guys are about games that suck, this had better be one of the best adventure games of all time.

After all, you can't have such vocal critics of bad games actually be RESPONSIBLE for a bad game, right?

It's unfortunate that you, and many others, have similar expectations, because I don't think it's correct. Do you expert Ebert, the famed movie critic, to be able to make great movies? I hope not. Critiquing and creating are two very different activities, requiring different skillsets. Is it possible to be good at both? Of course, but it's certainly not a given.

You could argue that PA should be able to tell if they do make a bad game, and then decide not to ship it ... but I think that's being rather short-sighted. It's one thing to realize that your product may not be so great, and another to actually pull the plug on it (and all the business ramifications thereof). Also, the mere act of being involved in the game's creation makes it impossible to be an objective critic. So PA won't be able to play the role as an unbiased critic, perhaps seeing things with rose-colored glasses when it comes to "their baby".

That said, I give them enormous kudos for going on this venture and wish them the best. But I'm not going to hold them up to the same high standards you guys seem to be. Do I want a game that I have fun with? Sure! But "best adventure game of all time" is a lot to ask for ...

Re:Do you expect Ebert to make awesome movies?

[demi]

I think this is a worthwhile question to consider, not so much in the expectation that critics would make great pieces of work, but in evaluating how much such criticism is actually worth. It's not that unusual for critics to "cross the fence" (Ebert himself wrote Beyond the Valley of the Dolls ) and enjoy no particular acclaim for it.

I think the response "Can you do better?" is a valid one, since so much of (useful) criticism is explaining how it can be done better. Saying "the pacing is bad" and "a third of the movie should be cut" is useless blather without some understanding of how differently to pace it or which third should be cut. To be honest, most criticism is probably not that useful, and we read it more because the writers put things in an entertaining way. It's worth examining and realizing that, and also realizing that because Gabe and Tycho say a game sucks does not actually mean it sucks, or that you won't enjoy it.

While it's not fair, probably, to expect "the greatest ... game of all time" from Gabe and Tycho, it's probably fair to expect not to number among its shortcomings things they've criticized before about other games.

Re:Looks like another "meh" game

[AlwaysHappy]

PA does get overly self indulgent at times (Cardboard Tube Samurai), and that title does not inspire confidence that the game will feature the quick wit of most comics rather than the self-importance of the news posts. The title of the game is "On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness", I don't see what's so self important about that.

Megatokyo no, Girlfriends yes

[DreadSpoon]

Megatokyo is for people who don't get laid.

Re:Penny Arcade no, Megatokyo yes

[drinkypoo]

I'm sorry, I get it, I just think it's stupid. You're just going to have to accept that people have different tastes. P.S. If you're using your slashbot account to advertise a product, perhaps you should consider being more politic.

That's not the best tidbit! Mac Compat!

[Tragek]

Best tidbit? I disagree: Mac compatibility is the best tidbit.
Finally, an awesome mac game. That's not WOW.

PA merely 'involved' with other side of said fence

[Crasty]

It's important to keep in mind that Gabe and Tycho (Mike and Jerry) are not actually writing a single line of code for the game. They are helping guide the creation of the game, but they really aren't development studio, and as such, they aren't really developing the title.

They are obviously going to have a good deal of input during the process, but to say "let's see how good a game they can make" is a bit silly.

It would be like saying that J.K. Rowling makes crappy movies if you don't like the Harry Potter series. While she very well may make crappy movies, she really didn't make the Harry Potter movies.

PA

[Borg453b]

I've been a PA reader and a PVPonline reader for a couple of years now. Kurtz dropped his game references long ago, except for his occasional mentioning of WOW. His characters run a gaming mag - yet they never mention games anymore..(?).

Tycho and Gabe still do a lot of game references - but recently, its been console only.. and I was saddened to se no mentioning of the one most acclaimed PC games of recent time ( winning PC game of the year 2006 at Gamespot and doing exceptionally well in most reviews): Company of Heroes. That game has changed the RTS genre.. and should be reason enough for people to get back in front of their monitors and realize that gaming is not all Zelda, Tekken and Final fantasy.

I felt more intune with the PA crew, back in their Tribes days - but i still admire and respect them. I just wish they're metion some pc games, now and again (other than WOW).

Their gametrailer looks sweet.