Minecraft mastermind Markus "Notch" Persson has
officially announced his company's next project:
a hybrid online board game/trading card system called
Scrolls. Spearheaded by Mojang co-founder Jakob Porser (
interview) and with backstory penned by Penny Arcade wordsmith Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, the game will consist of turn-based battles between collectible "scrolls,"
illustrated character cards strategically deployed on an abstract gaming grid. In an interesting inversion of the
Minecraft model, the game itself will be free, while updates in the form of additional scroll packs will cost a nominal fee -- a business model gaming analyst Sean Maelstrom decries as
"snake oil." Mojang, for their part, is unafraid and even eager to target an untested slice of the gaming market, and is angling to get their playable prototype of
Scrolls ready for a possible Alpha release this summer.
posted by Rhaomi
on Mar 2, 2011 -
128 comments
The stereotype of people who play a lot of videogames is that they're mostly guys who can't get a good-looking woman to talk to them unless they're paid to do so.
GameCrush is not assisting in the refutation of that stereotype.
[more inside]
posted by Halloween Jack
on Mar 31, 2010 -
60 comments
"We need to make a comic so I can eat lunch." You're in your office sitting at your desk. There's a hot mic in the room. It's 45 minutes 'till lunch, your tummy's grumbling and you still have to write a comic. Fortunately your best friend -- who is also the co-founder of your decade-old business empire -- is sitting at his desk a few feet away. You are "Gabe" or "Tycho" of Penny Arcade, and the next 45 minutes will be captured on tape and published for all the world to hear as a podcast. But only if it's good. "
Downloadable Content, The Penny Arcade Podcast" is practically a documentary on collaboratively authoring webcomics. The most recent episode is a particularly good example of that.
[more inside]
posted by sdodd
on Mar 11, 2008 -
23 comments
Jack Thompson, well-known anti-videogame violence crusader, recently submitted a
modest proposal to the game industry: Make an ultraviolet game of his creation featuring, but not limited to, urinating on the brain stems of slain fictional game industry members, and he will donate $10,000 dollars to charity. Of course people
leapt at the chance, and of course,
Thompson backed out. So then Gabe and Tycho of
Penny Arcade donated the $10,000 dollars to
charity themselves in Thompson's name. Thompson's response?
Call the cops! No wonder the National Institute on Media and the Family
distanced themselves from him.
posted by robocop is bleeding
on Oct 18, 2005 -
78 comments
Penny Arcade, everyone's favorite gamegeek comic strip(well, not
everyone's, but mine) is facing legal action over a recent strip they did, parodying Strawberry Shortcake. It seems
American Greetings owner of such 80s icons as Popples and the aforementioned Shortcake, don't take too kindly to folks using their precious nostalgia.
Here's the offending cartoon.
posted by hughbot
on Apr 23, 2003 -
30 comments
