Armikrog: A new stopmotion game from The Neverhood team

[S_Airport]

Time is quickly running out for the Kickstarter funding period, so if you're interested in seeing this game get made then please donate soon!​

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http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1949537745/armikrog​

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=151640574​

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Doug TenNapel, creator of Earthworm Jim™ (Interplay) and The Neverhood™ (Electronic Arts) has partnered with Pencil Test Studios, to create what some have called The Neverhood's "spiritual successor" -- a clay and puppet animated adventure game called ARMIKROG.

The founders of Pencil Test Studios, Mike Dietz and Ed Schofield (also from Earthworm Jim and The Neverhood), have assembled much of the original Neverhood development team to create a brand new game that blurs the lines between art and technology, using stop-motion animation and sculpture to bring this project to life.

The Neverhood was conceived and created from the ground up over a 12 month period. Armikrog will be developed using the Unity engine for PC, MAC and LINUX in order to secure the goal of completing the project within one year. We'll also be using many of the same animation, modelling, sculpting, set building and clay & puppet fabrication methods we've used before—keeping the overall game design scalable so that we can create a fun and exciting experience within our targeted funding goal, but still have the flexibility to expand, should the opportunity present itself.

Featuring an original soundtrack by Terry S. Taylor and the voice talents of:

Michael J. Nelson --
Creator/star of Rifftrax and star of Mystery Science Theater 3000

Veronic Belmont --
Co-host of Revision3's Tekzilla

Jon Heder --
Star of Napoleon Dynamite, Surf's Up and Blades of Glory

Rob Paulsen --
The voice of Pinky (Pinky and The Brain), Yakko (Animaniacs), Rafael (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and many more!

Scott Kurtz --
Creator of the PVP (Player vs. Player) webcomic

 

[Shem]

Neverhood of this before. That guy looks weird.

 

[Vegeta897]

What is a stop motion game? Is it a platformer or what?

 

[S_Airport]

Here's an example of the gameplay from the original 1996 PC game:

If you're interested in more examples and don't mind running into a few spoilers, here is another video:

 

[Vegeta897]

Looks like a game I would be very nostalgic about if I had played it as a child.

 

[Bad^Hat]

http://gameological.com/2013/06/foc-tennapel-armikrog/

Just figured some of you might like to know. I'm still not entirely sure how to react when something like this comes out, whether someone's personal views should have anything to do with their creative output, but it sure as hell makes me think twice about supporting them.

 

[Unfocused]

I remember playing Neverhood. There was a burping scene in it which made me and my friend almost choke to death from laughter

 

[S_Airport]

http://gameological.com/2013/06/foc-tennapel-armikrog/

Just figured some of you might like to know. I'm still not entirely sure how to react when something like this comes out, whether someone's personal views should have anything to do with their creative output, but it sure as hell makes me think twice about supporting them.

I hear where you're coming from, and no, I don't agree with Doug's unfortunate views on gay rights and marriage equality. I donated because the whole team has made great games in the past and I've been waiting for years to see more of their output. I've never seen anything in their work that promotes or even references either viewpoint. It's up to you to decide the way you want to personally help the cause of human rights, and I thank you for considering this dilemma and how it specifically involves funding the production of this game.

 

[Krynn72]

http://gameological.com/2013/06/foc-tennapel-armikrog/

Just figured some of you might like to know. I'm still not entirely sure how to react when something like this comes out, whether someone's personal views should have anything to do with their creative output, but it sure as hell makes me think twice about supporting them.

I'm not going to donate since I don't really care about the game (having, like Vegeta, never played his other game before, and I even probably only played 5 mins of Earthworm Jim in my life). But, I probably wouldn't stop myself from supporting the game based on that, unless I found out that he would, like Chik-Fil-A, use my money in campaign contributions or donations to anti-gay movements.


Or maybe I would, since I couldn't be sure he wouldn't...

 

[Bad^Hat]

I hear where you're coming from, and no, I don't agree with Doug's unfortunate views on gay rights and marriage equality. I donated because the whole team has made great games in the past and I've been waiting for years to see more of their output. I've never seen anything in their work that promotes or even references either viewpoint. It's up to you to decide the way you want to personally help the cause of human rights, and I thank you for considering this dilemma and how it specifically involves funding the production of this game.

Yeah, it's harder to dismiss a creative work produced by a team of people on the basis of one person's unfortunate reputation. On the other hand, I don't necessarily agree with the view that you should only take their personal/political views into account if they intend on supporting a cause you disagree with using the profits of their creative work. Now that just about every developer/journalist/blogger/noisy person is active on twitter or whatever, people have an unprecedented level of access to these people's often unfiltered views on just about everything. If you can fit your horrible, debasing opinion into 140 characters or less (or whatever it is now), then you can fire that shit off in-between sandwich bites and not even think about it until the whole internet is exploding over it 2 hours later. There's certainly a debate to be had over whether this is a positive thing or not, but that's the world we live in, and that's how shit like this happens (to cite another recent example): http://thefullbrightcompany.com/2013/06/21/why-we-are-not-showing-gone-home-at-pax/

Ultimately, yeah, it's impractical to try and be a social justice warrior in 100% of cases, as you're never going to know everything about a person whose works you admire or support, but what it comes down to for me is that there's a difference between holding a view and vocalizing it. When you publicly condemn a subset of people for ignorant or prejudiced reasons, I believe there should be consequences for that, not for any vindictive reasons but because these statements help engender an environment where it becomes easier to marginalize people who already have to cope with a lot of shit just for being the way they are. Like I said I'm still a little ambivalent about how closely this relates to those people's creative work, but it's definitely something I take into consideration if I'm aware of it, if only to satisfy my own conscience.

 

[Wanted Bob]

I'm not going to donate since I don't really care about the game (having, like Vegeta, never played his other game before, and I even probably only played 5 mins of Earthworm Jim in my life). But, I probably wouldn't stop myself from supporting the game based on that, unless I found out that he would, like Chik-Fil-A, use my money in campaign contributions or donations to anti-gay movements.

This is my view on it as well. Come to think of it, Orson Scott Card is one of my favourite authors, and I continue to support him despite his controversial beliefs.