The first thing you’ll notice is that the column isn’t called Cardboard Children anymore. From here on in, it’ll be called Cardboard Diaries. And after the jump, you’ll understand why.
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• Why Devs Owe You Nothing, by Marsh Davies. “HL2 isn’t a service. Fans aren’t asked for repeat payment, and they are under no obligation to support Valve in any way. When they complain it has somehow been exhausting to be a fan, it is baffling. It is extremely easy to be a fan; you don’t even need to get out of your chair. And yet, that sense of entitlement remains, fed by flattery from social media, by the ongoing confusion over digital rights, by the increasing collaboration of developers and communities.”

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Looks like Obsidian headbrain Chris Avellone’s earlier talk about getting ‘Kickstarter fever’ based upon Double Fine’s happy day (they’ve now passed $1.3 million in funding by the way – which, as Tim Schafer notes, is more than the budget for Day of the Tentacle and almost that of Full Throttle) wasn’t idle chatter. Obsidian have just posted a forum thread asking for community suggestions as to what they should make, were they to start a Kickstarter-funded game. Obviously this is purely theoretical right now and there are absolutely zero guarantees, but as they’re clearly feeling out the ground here, you should go and make sure that the ground they feel is green, pleasant and potentially profitable. And, ideally, old-school RPG-shaped.
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God forbid we’d post yet another Mass Effect 3 trailer, but… well, here’s another Mass Effect 3 trailer. It stars, at long, long last, the female version of Shepard, finally getting just a tiny fraction of the official marketing acknowledgment she deserves. You will, I trust, understand.
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Next in our never-ending series talking to (almost) all the finalists at this year’s Independent Games Festival, it’s Derek Yu of the splendid randomly-generated cave exploring game Spelunky, which is up for the Technical Excellence, Excellence in Design and Seamus McNally Grand Prize gongs. Here, Derek chats about his origins, TIGSource, Aquaria, how he abandoned and then rejoined game development, the odds on whether we’ll see a PC version of the XBLA Spelunky remake, and his answer to the most important question of all.
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The servers were shut off yesterday after a year online.
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I can’t wait for Mass Effect 3. I’m replaying ME2 to make sure I get the perfect starting point. I’m planning to buy the new Mass Effect: Deception novel and go through it making corrections in ANGRY RED PEN. I’m even pitching the official musical version of the story, featuring amazing lyrics like “Spectres don’t fear the Reapers. Nor do Garrus, Tali or Thane…”

What I’m not doing is watching any of the trailers or reading any previews. I want to dive in knowing as little as possible about the new plot, characters, locations, even guns. If you crave a pre-release hit though, good news! Bioware has released five brand new trailers, which I’ve embedded below while keeping my eyes shut. From the odd unavoidable glimpse, it does look as if they mostly feature some boring guy wearing Shepard’s armour, but fret not – there’s another coming where the real heroine of the series will finally get her spotlight…

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We don’t usually allow RPS headlines to run onto a second line, but this is a very special case indeed. During idle Twitter discussions about the whys and wherefores of a possible Mojang-funded Psychonauts sequel, I heard that the first game had cost $15 million to develop and that Tim Schafer was estimating a $20m cost for a sequel.

Clearly, these eyewatering figures cast some doubt on Mojang being able to successfully (or at least wholly) fund the game. So much so that VG247 editor, friend of RPS and entertainingly relentless cynic Pat Garratt has pledged to me – and now to the public – that he will eat his own trousers, on camera, in the event that a Mojang-funded Psychonauts 2 comes to pass.
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