A Hardy Developer's Journal

I have to say that past years visit to the Monkey Islandish Caribbean has turned out to be a truly epic journey filled to the brim with piratey adventures and charming concepts. And here is where we are now. Right at the end. But is it the last chapter of one big story? Or more like the end to an episodic series? And how good is it exactly? (more…)

The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood – a title that instills fear, tension and deep expectation in any loyal Monkey Island fan. When we click that big green DOWNLOAD button, we know we’re in for a real treat. And boy, we sure are! Chapter 4 is simply the most intriguing and exciting episode yet, and it can only get better with Chapter 5!

Remember that spoilers of Chapters 1 – 3 are very likely!

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Our Tales of Monkey Island Episode 3 review comes a bit late, however, this has allowed me to already get some notion of what other people thought of it. Actually, the review statistics show this has become the highest rated episode of the series so far. (more…)

Mark (in the center) at PAX with Ryan Jones and Dave Grossman on his flanks

So here we are today talking this time to a truly accomplished adventure game designer who has gone from small, but great indie productions (Nick Bounty!!!) to become one of the lead creative forces at Telltale Games. Mark Darin after leading the design on the Strong Bad games is co-creating all the big titles currently in progress, including Tales of Monkey Island and the future Sam & Max episodes. As always we started the interview with the most difficult question. Next we started to differentiate between indie games and Telltale games which may be not entirely fair as Telltale is all independent as far as I know, just maybe a bit bigger than Mark’s own company Pinhead Games. Oh, and Pinhead‘s games are freeware. (more…)

Well I was a sucker. I pre-ordered Tales of Monkey Island. I mean, how could you not when Steve Purcell himself promised us an awesome DVD cover, and one at this level of coolness! Once again I answered the call of duty from Igor to review another complete masterpiece – The Siege of Spinner Cay. A game that starts epic and ends epic will full promise of an amazing 3rd episode to come! It is highly recommended that you finish playing the first episode before reading ahead! Thar be spoilers on the Horizon!

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Right off yet another adventure of gargantuan proportions, not paying attention to the storm clouds gathering above him, Guybrush “mighty pirate” Threepwood sets once again to fight the evil zombie demon pirate LeChuck off the shores of some odd Caribbean isle. They will fight ship to ship, wit against voodoo,  over Guybrush’s lovely wife – an adventuress in her own right – Governor Elaine Marlay. Yet in truth, the only way Guybrush can get in one piece out of this confrontation is by combining several strange objects he keeps handy in his pants… OK, this time he keeps them under his coat as well. (more…)

Action games’ fans often consider adventure games’ fans as eccentric people who like to think hard during their leisure, when, as everybody else knows, it’s time to release all the primal emotions suppressed during the rest of the day. But that just shows how unaware they are about some of the main ingredients that constitute a true adventure gaming experience: instant dangers, hidden traps, fist fights, explosions, running away from angry mobs… So what if many obstacles standing in the way demand the usage of some basic wits to get past – it’s there just to spice up the adventure. (more…)