Hothead talks Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode Two

By Jeriaska . August 30, 2008 . 1:38am

Penny Arcade Adventures has seen the appearance of such characters from the webcomic as Tycho's precocious niece "Anarchy," who shows up in 1920's New Arcadia as autodidact Anne-Claire, the Fruit Fucker 2000 juicer, given a steampunk redesign, and Charles, who will appear in Episode Two, sans iPhone.

Hothead COO Joel DeYoung contends that with the second episode of the Penny Arcade Adventure, the game is really hitting its stride. He wrote about his reservations with the quality of the first epidsode's flash minigames in this month's issue of Game Developer Magazine. However, he feels confident that the fourth flash minigame, appearing in the upcoming installment, has the tech down and is the most fun thus far. Each episode is created so that they can be enjoyed independently by having a "previously on" montage preface the story, but naturally stats are carried over from the first installment for continuing players.

Because there are more customization options available for the main character, such new clothes, hairstyle, an eyepatch and a monacle, the avatar can be modified at the start of the episode. Another addition is the appearance of an "Insane Mode," unlockable when you complete the game, which ramps up the difficulty for hardcore players. There are more involved special attack minigames, and more complex adventure puzzles, which DeYoung feels will satisfy adventure gamers more than any of the puzzles found in the first episode. The segment he showed in the demo at PAX involved the party being captured and having to escaping from an insane asylum while being hunted down by giant black spiders.

The main character has traded in his or her rake for a hoe this time around, continuing the gardening theme from the first episode. Gabe still uses his fists, though he attains all sorts of attachments to his wrists and knuckles. Tycho now has a shotgun, and one of his special attacks involves shooting the enemy twice and then throwing his hardbound reading material at them for the finishing blow. Anne-Claire's new move, called Big Bang Theory, fires a projectile from a satellite in outer space.

According to DeYoung, Hothead was seen as a natural choice for Penny Arcade Adventures from the start, having worked on comic IPs and The Simpsons Hit & Run, taking a 2D animation and rendering it in three dimensions. Another incentive to Gabe and Tycho was the invitation to be hands-on. In the Game Developers postmortem, the makers of the webcomic mentioned in the sidebar that if they had known what they were getting into, they would have thought twice about making such a tremendous commitment.

The relationship between the two creative camps stretches back farther than the game though. CEO of Hothead Vlad Ceraldi even spoke on a panel at the first PAX. Many of the developers were previously members of Radical Entertainment and there was talk back then of Gabe and Tycho having cameos in the Gamecube Simpsons title. Rain-Slick Precipice was intended as a conscious departure from casual gaming, while the episodic nature of the distribution would enable both players and the developers enough time to delve into the epic role-playing game.

The people responsible for Greenhouse, the digital distribution platform, work in the Hothead office. They are looking to offer a venue to indie gamers and take risks on unknown developers who create titles with unique gameplay mechanics and vision. The number of staff on Echelon and Strange Attractors, for instance, can be counted on one hand. "If you look at the two games we've launched at Greenhouse besides Penny Arcade, they're really indie," says Joel DeYoung. "Like, more indie than us." With the success of the first episode of Rain-Slick Precipice, along with independent titles such as Everyday Shooter and Braid, there appears every reason to assume that niche game development of the kind Hothead envisions has great potential.

Images courtesy of Hothead Games.