Ron Gilbert gets all Grumpy in the Penny Arcade

Truth is, this blog, humble and saintly as it is, couldn't be considered a regular news outlet, as it usually doesn't get any exclusive information, neither does it (the blog, that is, this cyber entity from pr0n hell) mindlessly reproduce any bit of Joystiq-esque info making the rounds of the eager to ..uh.. reproduce stuff blogosphere. This time though, it's different. This time it's about Ron Gilbert actively reentering the sufficiently dull gaming world and attempting to teach the uninspired and unfunny a ludology lesson or two.

But let's start at the beginning. The excellent Bits Bytes Pixels and Sprites blog was where I first learned of the very official and undeniable fact that Ron Gilbert, the creator of Monkey Island himself (albeit in his mortal guise), is working on the forthcoming Penny Arcade game, soon to be released in episodic format under the most impressive title of On The Rail-Slick Precipice of Darkness. Obviously, Penny Arcade confirmed the news and added some pretty juicy if not personal details:

We had our first meeting with Ron pretty early in the design process. Tycho and I [Gabe] were getting the story fleshed out and we had some ideas about the design and over all pace of the game. We laid it all out for Ron and then he picked up a whiteboard marker and started teaching class. I’m not sure how many people can say they got a game design 101 course taught by Ron Gilbert, but that’s exactly what Tycho and I got that day. His insights into the way you move the player through an interactive story so that they get to explore the world but don’t loose the narrative were incredible. He was drawing diagrams and helping us really visualize the game in a way that had never even occurred to us. We’re ridiculously lucky to have him on board and helping us with On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One.

As for Ron Gilbert, well he might not have blogged about his new game over at the appropriately grumpy and funny Grumpy Gamer, but the PC Zone team heard the man admit stuff along the lines of:

I have been a fan of Penny Arcade because I have always found their comic so funny and biting. When I first heard they were making a game and that they had chosen to weave adventure game elements into it, I knew immediately I wanted to be involved. Working with the Penny Arcade guys and the team at Hothead has been an absolute riot.

The first episode of the Penny Arcade Adventures, the only game ever to feature three creative minds with a proper sense of humor, currently under development by Hothead Games, will be hitting Windows, Mac OS X (!) and Linux platforms and has all ready gotten its very own press release. Oh, yes, and a trailer.

Related @ Gnome's Lair: Adventure Radio, 2006 AGS Awards, Warhammer webcomics, Resident Evil 4 PC