When we started developing The Baconing we didn’t want gamers to feel like they HAD to play through the previous DeathSpank games before taking on The Baconing. We decided to make this game accessible for anyone to jump straight into, ensuring that new players and returning fans alike can both equally enjoy this game. Those familiar with DeathSpank will certainly experience just as much familiar fun plus a bucket-load of improvements too.

This is, by far, the funniest DeathSpank to date. We had an absolute blast making it, and it was an unwritten rule that we needed to laugh every day while working on the game. We added our comedic touch which was brought to life brilliantly by some incredible voice acting.

The world and characters we have created for this game are, let’s say….colorful to say the least! Mix this with some of our favorite, familiar sci-fi themes and references — from Tron to Mad Max to The Jetsons — and you’ve got a porky recipe for hilarity.

It just wouldn’t be a DeathSpank game without a new co-op sidekick for a friend, co-worker, lover, spouse, stranger-on-your-couch, or all of the above to help vanquish the hordes of evil. And have we got a guy for you: Meet Bob from Marketing! He’s a hammerhead shark in a business suit with an ferocious appetite for justice and leveraging a target market!

Bob wields a swordfish to poke holes in bad guys, shoots lasers from his eyes, devours enemies for health (he doesn’t care if they’re dead or alive), and can stealthily swim underground to take enemies by surprise. All in all, an incredibly deadly sidekick.

And one of the best things about Bob is that he was a suggestion from one of our fans. What better way to show we listen, than to create something in the game they suggested. We love our fans!
The Baconing is a game Hothead is incredibly proud of, because we created the entire adventure ourselves. Every mechanic was reviewed, and nothing was off limits when we looked at revamping many of the game systems. If it didn’t fit properly, we cut it. If it worked already, we improved it. If it was frustrating, we streamlined it. If it was edible, we ate it. You get the picture. And we’re certain everyone will be pleased with the results.

So before you rush of and download it, enjoy our sizzling launch trailer for The Baconing above.

Best Video Game Title Ever!

I have been lucky enough to work in the industry for over 11 years now but never did I imagine working on a game with an epic title like The Baconing! I mean, everyone loves bacon and now the fan favorite food has made its way into gaming.

The Baconing is an action RPG which stars everyone’s favorite Vanquisher of Evil, DeathSpank. The story revolves around DeathSpank wearing all six Thongs of Virtue which unfortunately summons an evil version of himself in the AntiSpank. Now our hero must seek out the Fires of Bacon and burn five of the Thongs, which will allow him to weaken and defeat the evil giant, bringing peace back to Spanktopia.

The one thing I really enjoyed about working on The Baconing is that the game does not take itself too seriously. We had a ton of laughs creating characters, quests and in the studios during the voice recordings.

Freaks & Oddities

Today I wanted to introduce you all to some of the eye-catching areas and characters in The Baconing. The game features over 100 quests, with seven sci-fi inspired environments and tons of crazy characters to meet along the way. Two of my favorite characters in the game are The Leprechaun Mob Boss and Z.I.M.O.N.

The Mob Boss heads up a group called the McMafia who reside in Rainbow’s End, which is a Leprechaun Las Vegas. If you complete all of the side quests like rigging the odds on the slots, and taking out anti-gambling activists, DeathSpank becomes a made-man and part of the family. The reward is a DeathSpank inspired tribute to the Godfather film, a must-see moment.

Z.I.M.O.N. is an ancient supercomputer that regulates the climate and atmosphere in the Forbidden Zone. Equipped with obsolete technology like a 1200 baud modem and several bytes of memory, Z.I.M.O.N. has sustained barely-livable conditions since the late 70′s when he was created. When you meet Z.I.M.O.N., you will quickly notice a connection to retro portable gaming, and while it’s retro you would be surprised how a game of memory can quickly ramp up.

Whether you are an existing fan or someone brand new to the DeathSpank world, you will have a blast with The Baconing. We have made tons of improvements and maintained the laugh inducing conversations that people come to love from the quest seeking hero. We created this video for you so that you get smoky, crispy taste of our mega Thongolith Myth. Enjoy!

And some cool info to pass along, if you pre-order now through August 25th you get an exclusive The Baconing PS3 Static Theme. Also when The Baconing releases you will get your hands on an additional sidekick character with Roesha – One Bad Mutha. PlayStation Plus members get a sweet 20% discount on their purchase during PSN PLAY.

For more information check out www.TheBaconing.com or follow us @deathspank and @HotheadGames.

In the end we did very well in that contest, placing in the final four, winning the people’s choice vote, and garnering $300,000 in winnings. Every time we wore a Swarm t-shirt in public, invariably someone would ask us about the character. People really seemed to like it. So we knew we were onto something. We just had one problem: what we created wasn’t really a game.

The prototype was cool. 50 pudgy, blue swarmites milled around and waited for you to act. You took control of a single swarmite and the rest watched attentively. You’d take some action, like picking up a rock, and the rest of them would frantically run around, trying to find rocks. There were never enough rocks to go around, and so the swarmites would absentmindedly pick up other items or even their fellow swarmites. Then you’d throw the rocks at a target and they would all follow. Every time you did something, they learned, and as you progressed through the level they used all their learning to move you forward. So the tech was very cool and the way the swarmites behaved was funny, but because you were teaching them, the further you progressed through the level, the more time you spent simply watching and the less time you spent playing.

Our response to this was to park the uber-smart Dr. Mike in a corner and let him play for three years or so. “Turn it into a game!” was our direction. He kept at it, finally hitting a big turning point when he started playing with the idea of directly controlling 50 swarmites at once. Suddenly Swarm started looking like an action game and a platformer. And there were cool examples of emergence that he kind of stumbled on. For example, if you huddle the swarm together and then jump repeatedly, they stack on each other’s heads and form a tall totem. That wasn’t planned in any design document, it just happened by accident in one of Mike’s prototypes.

Armed with some cool new control schemes, we put the game into production and set out to make the coolest PSN game ever. Then we hit our next obstacle. Turns out if you move 50 characters at once and put them in a ridiculously dangerous world with explosives, fans and other things that tend to blow them all over the place, it can get a tad confusing for the player just what is going on and where their swarm is when all hell is breaking loose. So to address this, we did what we always do: lots and lots of playtests. We’d bring in four or five fresh players that have never seen the game before, put a controller in their hand and let them give it a go. Certainly it can be a humbling experience when you watch players get frustrated with your game, but we persisted at iterating and improving it a little each week. It wasn’t long before we had something that users reported was intuitive and fun to play… no small feat for a brand new type of gameplay mechanic!

With our deadline quickly approaching, we turned our attention to replayability. What would give players a reason to want to go back and replay levels they’ve already completed? The epiphany here turned out to be our scoring system. Swarm has multipliers, multipliers on multipliers, checkpoint bonuses, time bonuses and lots and lots of shiny pickups. The upshot of all of it is that whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned player, you can always work to make your score better. There is no natural maximum score on any level. And the great benefit of that is it makes the leaderboards in the game naturally quite competitive. We put your results right in your face as frequently as we can so you always see how you’re measuring up against your friends on each level. We even have the game automatically facilitate a bit of smack talk.

We’re proud of what we’ve made in Swarm: it was wrought from our indie blood, sweat and tears. We’re confident you’ll like what you see when you play it.

DeathSpank: Thongs Of Virtue is our wonderful, full-figured sequel to DeathSpank but with more and better everything. Of course you and everyone you associate with will know that DeathSpank is our hilarious, exciting, highly rated action-RPG mixed with adventure gameplay. Some describe the series as “Diablo meets Monkey Island” but I’d rather describe it as “DeathSpank-Like”.

No doubt by now you’ve played through your multiple copies of the original DeathSpank game (thanks for buying those by the way) and wonder how we can possibly top the tooth and nail action? We wondered too but luckily we had a brainstorm. We took DeathSpank’s patented sword fighting action and added….guns! Guns in a video game? It’s crazy I know, but in the course of his new adventure entirely too many grenades, guns and bombs will be used in the search for Justice. Statistically speaking at least some of them will even be used correctly.

Oh and speaking of adventure, DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue has even more adventure gameplay woven in with the slashing, bullet-shooting exciting combat. Many brains will be teased, fortune cookies opened and possibly internet FAQs consulted by our players in the name of a puzzling good time. DeathSpank: TOV was made at the same time as DeathSpank so we were able to take lessons learned on DeathSpank and craft an even better game with deeper adventure gameplay.

Naturally his enemies are pretty well armed themselves with heavy machine guns, airstrikes and the latest in monocle technology to keep things nice and perky. The enemies are far more varied themselves and the bosses (if I may be so bold) are just excellent. We now have many times the number of big bosses that must die at your hand.

This sequel also gave us a nice chance to go all Michael Bay on things. Everything is bigger and more explody. You get a far larger world to adventure in and incredible environments and holiday-themed terrors that need to be filled with holes. There’s more quests that need to be done and more varied quests as well I should add. Oh and what’s this? A pirate ship? Yes DeathSpank gets to go a-plundering thanks to his ally Captain Taint, scourge of various seas.

Naturally DeathSpank’s not the sort of guy to adventure alone, friends of yours (or mine, I won’t judge) can jump in and jump out of co-op action using classic Sparkles or the all new Steve! Steve Von Prong was raised by multi-level marketing ninjas in the deadly ways of the unicorn. If you figure out what that means, please let us know as we’re quite curious.

Gamers who purchase DeathSpank: T.O.V. in its first week will also receive two pieces of free downloadable content: the Snowy Mountain Dungeon, a terrifying, ice-covered dungeon frozen in the North Pole where evil enemies of ice, flesh and terror dwell and a new playable co-op character, Sidekick Tankko. Half-man, half-spider and all awesome, Sidekick Tankko is a deadly warrior who spews mighty clouds of poison and entraps enemies with his inescapable web attacks.

That’s all I’ve got for now but I await questions! Let me have it internet and you will have answers in return. They may not be good answers but you get what you pay for around here.

In case you don’t know already, DeathSpank is an action-RPG mixed with adventure gameplay. A lot of people are saying it is like Diablo meets Monkey Island which is appropriate because Ron Gilbert, the co-creator of Monkey Island, was the Creative Director for the game. The quick summary is that the game has a ton of action, a ton of loot and is as funny as hell.

An early design goal for combat was that it needed to be approachable but with surprising depth. Gamers had to be able to pick up the game and figure it out immediately but make little discoveries as they continued to play.

The first thing players use are mortal weapons. This large collection of blunt objects and sharp things do physical damage to enemies. They’re an effective and satisfying way to smash enemies or put holes in them.

Next up are what we call elemental weapons. These are imbued with mystic energies that are more effective on the right enemy, or far less on the wrong one. For example, you can use fire weapons on ice monsters, nature weapons on ghosts, you get the idea. It’s a simple thing but results in the player constantly making small tactical choices.

After that are Weapons Of Justice, crazy-powerful items that are most effective when DeathSpank’s Justice meter is full. How do you fill that meter you ask? Good question. Well the slow way is to button mash. The fast and totally more fun way is to create your own combos by using a variety of weapons, filling the meter quickly while doing bonus damage. Weapons of Justice can fling lightning, stun enemies or drive them into the ground!

And then there’s Runestones. These are looted from extremely hard to kill creatures but give DeathSpank some of his coolest abilities. To use a Runestone, DeathSpank uses a Weapon of Justice in one hand and an elemental weapon in the other in a two-handed strike for devastating results. Enemies are flung into the sky by geysers, have souls pulled out of them or are filled with dozens of flaming swords.

We’ll stop there but mention things like tactically divine airstrikes, poison-coated crossbow bolts, and portable black holes (no really). On top of all that there’s a whole defensive side to DeathSpank, with dozens of potions and over a hundred pieces of unique armour for the min-maxers out there.

Ok this is usually the part in the post where the developers mention something they ‘heard in the hallway’. We’ll let you in on an industry secret, those are totally contrived, they didn’t hear anything, there probably wasn’t even a hallway. Have fun storming the castle!

When Braid first came out, we were really blown away by its combination of unique art style and clever puzzle gameplay, but there was just one problem – it was only on one platform! At Hothead, we really believe strongly in being platform-agnostic (we even ship our games on Linux!), so we thought it only right for PS3 players to have access to Braid too. We got in touch with Jon and suggested working together on realizing his vision on additional platforms.

As we collaborated on the project, there were two big things that we always kept in mind – the first was preserving that original impactful moment when the player begins the game, and carrying that sense of artistic wonderment, emotional engagement and unique gameplay all the way to the end, when the player puts down the controller. That was Jon’s vision and is the Braid experience – our task was to preserve that vision and that experience, leveraging the unique features of the PS3 to further enhance it with the amazing 1080p resolution and HD audio, and PSN features like Trophies.

In fact, it was one of the highlights of the project to see the art style come alive on the platform – the PS3 is particularly well-suited to showing off the intense colors and distinctive world of Braid. We took full advantage of the PS3’s hardware to make sure this version of the game never deviates from a smooth 60 FPS.

The second big thing that was top of mind for the Hothead team was getting this remarkable game to you as swiftly as possible so that you, too, could enjoy Braid on your platform of choice. We didn’t want to make PS3 owners wait a moment longer than necessary (and Jon agreed) – especially when you’ve already been so patient and so supportive of Braid and indie development!

So, what you’re about to download is a result of that amazing collaborative effort and commitment to Braid’s original immersive experience. We’re pleased and excited to see Braid on PSN and to be able to share it with you.

Don’t trust me? I connected with Joel DeYoung (you heard from him last week) from Hothead Games via PlayStation Eye, and he takes us through the ins and outs of Braid for PSN. And yes, there’s plenty of in-game HD footage to give you an idea of what you’ll get on Thursday.

Joel DeYoung from Hothead Games here. At long last, we’re thrilled to be able to tell the PlayStation community that Braid will officially be making its way to the PlayStation Network on November 12 for $14.99. The gang here at Hothead has been working hard to bring this amazing game to you as soon as possible.

Along with today’s announcement, we thought you’d enjoy taking a peek at the Braid trailer and a few screens of the gameplay experience. Check ‘em out below:

Stay tuned next week to catch an in-depth look at bringing Braid to PSN – It’s been a real pleasure working with Jonathan Blow and Sony on this project and I’m looking forward to sharing more details of that effort with everyone here. See you soon.

We promised to release this highly-anticipated episode of the series before the end of the year, so we’re happy PS3 fans get a chance to sink their teeth into Episode Two this week. Plus, as I mentioned in previous entries on this blog, with every episode we’re getting better and better at cutting down the time between the PSN and other version launches. I think less time waiting and more time playing is good news in anyone’s book!

We have been listening to feedback from everyone that played Episode One, and have incorporated a bunch of it into this new installment. Episode Two features difficulty settings so that you can tackle the game at your own level. And for the truly hardcore, finish the game to unlock Insane Mode which will both test your mettle and reveal several exclusive unlockables. Oh, and don’t forget trophies or all of the other PSN-specific features you’ve come to expect. ;)

And last (but certainly not least), the game features a story and characters whose ridiculousness surpasses even the last one. If you thought those little robots with proclivities for small orbs of fruit were weird, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Download Episode Two on Thursday for $14.99 on the PlayStation Network. Enjoy!

In case you missed some of the earlier descriptions, the game is set in an alternate 1920s universe inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, where Gabe and Tycho operate the Startling Developments Detective Agency, taking cases that are far from routine. After a giant robot stomps your house to rubble, you join the duo as they follow the malevolent machine and attempt to solve the mystery (and find you a new place to live). Every aspect of Episode One was crafted by the team here at Hothead to feel authentically Penny Arcade, with Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins themselves directly involved in the game’s creation. Check out the trailer to see a little bit of this first installment of the RPG-Adventure series in action.

The first episode features 6-10 hours of gameplay and will be available for download at $14.99. We integrated the game with a number of PSN-specific features, including the oft-requested trophies. You create a customized character that you see not only in 3D but also in the game’s comic-strip style 2D cutscenes. And if you play future episodes in the series, you’ll be able to carry your character’s look and stats over from one episode to the next on the same platform. New episodes will follow every few months, with Episode Two becoming available on PSN before the end of this year.

At Hothead, we’re really proud of the game and hope you enjoy it. We are excited about our debut on PlayStation 3 and think this will be just the beginning of what we have in store for the platform. And we’re always happy to hear what you think: come on over to our forums and give us your feedback.

One last thing. I would be remiss not to mention the rumors you may have heard: this game shows robots doing things to fruit that not only skirt the edge of decency, but that may be illegal in some states. All of these rumors are true. Go check it out tomorrow on the PlayStation Network!