Adventure Vet Ron Gilbert Working On Penny Arcade Title

Vancouver developer Hothead Games has announced that adventure game pioneer Ron Gilbert is contributing to the studio's forthcoming episodic comic title Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, based on the ubiquitous web-comic. Adventure game veteran Gilbert was one of the key designers behind many of LucasArts' early classic games, having co-created the Monkey Island franchise, as well as a number of others, including Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken before founding Humongous Entertainment in 1992. The first game in a planned series, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, has been announced for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and is to be followed by a version for next-generation consoles. It is currently slated for episodic digital download, with further episodes to be delivered several times a year. Hothead also recently announced that the studio is using GarageGames' Torque Engine to author the adventure games, and that any improvements or modifications it makes to the Torque engine and tools will be shared back into the main code base for other Torque users to take advantage of. "I have been a fan of Penny Arcade because I have always found their comic so funny and biting," said Gilbert in a statement. "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."