Gabe and Tycho have an identity in the comics that is basically based on them being gamers and talking about games, but in Penny Arcade Adventures they clearly have a different role. How are their characters going to be different from the comics?

RG: Their personalities are actually very much the same as they are in the comics. Clearly the game takes place in the 1920s so they're not really going to be playing video games or talking about them but their personalities are the same. They interact with and play off of each other in the same way.

JdY: And they argue a lot.

RG: Yes, they are clearly the same two guys. They're not playing two other characters. And then there's just a lot of satire of video games through the little things in the game itself. Like how some of the combat happens and some of the story happens.

What is the story like, actually? I've seen the trailers but I don't yet have a clue about what's going to happen in this game.

JdY: You're a regular guy and you're standing in front of your house raking your leaves, and a giant robot comes to smash your house.

Okay.

JdY: And you see Gabe and Tycho run by and you chase after them and they agree to help you find a place to live. But they are these investigators who run a detective agency specializing in the occult and bizarre phenomena. They're trying to solve the mystery of why the giant robot is in town and you're trying to find a place to live, so that's kind of running through the story. But as it progresses and even into the future episodes it just gets really, really weird. (laughs)

We don't say too much about what happens in the story because it's episodic and we don't want to give any spoilers, but it's from the mind of Jerry, so... it's going to be pretty bizarre.

Let's talk about DeathSpank for a moment. Ron, you've been thinking about this game a long time haven't you?

RG: Yeah.

How did you end up working with Hothead on this game?

RG: The game came about several years ago. It kind of sprung from those little Flash comics that Clayton [Kauzlaric] and I did. We created this character called DeathSpank who was supposed to be a satire of video game characters. It's just over the top and about the stupidity of it all. Clayton and I thought he really should be in a game, because we kept thinking of all these great things that we could do. We started working that into a kind of game format.

Of course I love adventure games, so I really wanted to have a very strong adventure game element to it, but I also wanted it to be somewhat of an action game because he is kind of an action hero. He needs to be fighting and he needs to be wreaking destruction on everything. So that was important.

I'm a big fan of Diablo and Zelda and those types of games and I've always wanted to combine those things together because they're right. A lot of RPG games do a very mediocre job at storytelling and puzzle-type things and so I wanted to bring into them those really solid adventure game puzzles that you see in games like Monkey Island. And then kind of meld that with some good action and RPG-type fighting.

What conventions from RPGs are you going to use and which ones are you going to leave out? Are we going to see stats like dexterity or strength, and so forth?

RG: No, not a lot of stats. Again none of this is finalized, so it could be totally different by the time the game comes out. (laughs) It's not a very stat-heavy game, but it is about what you are wearing. You get all your abilities through the items that you find. So in that sense it's a lot more like Zelda. It's making sure you have the right weapons, armor, hat or boots. That's really how you progress your character as opposed to dexterity stats or all the D&D type stuff. That also fits really well with the adventure game model, because adventure games are really about acquiring items and using those items.

How would you characterize the parody elements in DeathSpank? Is this going to be “videogames: the video game”?

RG: There is a lot of parody. The whole game is really just a big satire of video games. The characters you encounter, the situations, and just the absurdity of it all.

Is DeathSpank the same game you mentioned in one of your early blog posts as pitching to various publishers, or is this something that evolved out of your comics later on?

RG: No, this is the game.

Is it the game you worked on at your desk at Double Fine, which I guess people turned into a bigger deal than you wanted?

RG: (laughs) Yes.

At what stage was the game while you were working on it there? Were you prototyping or writing design documents?

RG: When I design games I like to draw maps. Things kind of gel in my head when I draw maps. So I was mostly using mapping software to draw maps of the game world, figure out where everybody was going to be, and writing all of that out. So yeah, it was mostly design work that I was doing there.

The piece of concept art that was attached to the DeathSpank announcement – is that indicative of the final art style of the game? People on forums spent a lot of time arguing about that image.

RG: No, that is really not that indicative of the art style. We were pulling that work from the Flash comics.

Is the game going to be 2D or 3D?

RG: It's going to be 3D but ... not 3D... like you are used to seeing.

Okay. That sounds... very mysterious.

(laughs)

... Cell shading?

(silence)

No? Alright. So how big is DeathSpank going to be? Will episodes be similar in size to Penny Arcade Adventures?

RG: I haven't made a final decision on how long the episodes are. I don't know if I want to keep it down to the shorter end to have more episodes or bring them to a longer end and do them less often. The way I design the first episode... there are places where I know right where to snip it, to make it a short, or to keep it long. That's probably a decision we'll make in a couple of months.

What is the timeline from here? When can we expect to see more?

RG: Don't really know.

“When it's done”?

RG: When it's done. (laughs) We have to keep saying that.

JdY: At this very early stage it's important to let ideas simmer, right? In terms of how the game is going to look and what the final story will be.

Right. Penny Arcade Adventures' release date is more set in stone now at this point?

JdY: Yes, spring 2008. Very soon, we're beta.

I believe I'm all out of questions. Do you have anything to add?

JdY: Only that we're super psyched to work with Ron Gilbert.

RG: (laughs)

Thanks for your time.