THE CAVE – by Ron Gilbert, Double Fine & Sega

UPDATE!  BEHOLD, A TRAILER!  …MEET “THE CAVE” – COMING TO XBLA “EARLY 2013″

http://thecavegame.com/

A PUZZLE WRAPPED IN A PUZZLE SURROUNDED BY A PUZZLE…

“RON GILBERT & DOUBLE FINE”

Ron Gilbert has been teasing us with his upcoming game through the cunning use of puzzles. And we’re not skimping on a bit of it! First, there was quite literally, the puzzle, a PR teaser, sent in pieces, to games industry media (35-pieces assembled, to form the image ABOVE.) Then, via his blog, Ron “Grumpy Gamer” Gilbert began to post, what at first seemed random, but turned out to be no more or less than SEVEN single daily doses of a series, each of the playable characters, beginning with “The Monk“!

Set in interesting shapes, like pieces of a…

THE MONK

THE HILLBILLY

Followed by the “Time-Traveler” and the caption: “Three playable characters in three days! When will the madness end!”  Until this post, it wasn’t quite clear that these were, in fact, the playable characters… (Naturally, much hand-rubbing, salivating and pins and needles resulted.)

THE TIME-TRAVELER

THE ADVENTURER

THE SCIENTIST 

THE KNIGHT

Last but not least, completing the cast, he gives us…

THE TWINS (they count as one character, how very Double Fine)

Did you say “Red Rum?”

WHERE SEGA FITS IN

The players are assembled, and they are a curious bunch, diverse and distinctive, loaded with personality… but wait, there’s more!   There is an additional bit of insight gathered by Game Informer that fans will be happy to hear:  

“Outside of these few character concept designs, we really know nothing about Gilbert’s game, other than him saying, “This is an idea that has been in my head for a long long long time. It predates Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island. It’s a game that needed to be made.”" (via Game Informer and Grumpy Gamer)

He has not provided much in terms of explicit description apart from the entries in his blog, including this one. Despite the deliberate vagueness and mystery, Ron Gilbert has nonetheless released a lot of information in a short amount of time. Furthermore, on the same day that he posted the last in the series of characters on his blog, Sega posted the following teaser image (BELOW) via Twitter! And someone at Sega Bits filled in the blank:

“We simply grabbed the image from SEGA’s flicker, and dropped in all the character art from Gilbert’s blog onto the image. Just like a puzzle, an image came together and you can see the completed image*…” (via Sega Bits) (*TOP)

Despite the teases and puzzles, it’s safe to say, Sega is now on board to publish the game. According to Games Radar, Sega has more to say, officially, on Thursday. Additionally, Double Fine plans to announce more at their press event at next month’s E3, (as mentioned again today by Game Informer.)

Plenty of questions and details remain:  There’s still that big guy with the little hat between the Knight and “See” in the original puzzle, for example, (possibly a character that didn’t make the final cut).  And what’s the game called? Where is it set? When will it come out? Why is this diverse bunch camping? How are a UFO and skeletal 2HB (the Double Fine logo babies) in this mysterious cave? Is that the robot from Mechanarium embedded in the rock, too? Is there a turkey sandwich in that buried fridge? Who killed 2HB? And the T-Rex? Will it be a platformer/action-adventure or will it be an RPG or hybrid?

If you’re still feeling puzzled, rest assured there’s more solid information to come very soon!

In the meantime, what do you make of this motley cast, the scene, and the puzzle(s)?  

E3 UPDATE – INTERVIEW WITH RON GILBERT

The Cave (Coming Early 2013)

(Source Machinima (YouTube)

Round-Up:

Sega Bits http://segabits.com/blog/2012/05/22/sega-publishing-new-game-by-double-fine-productions/

Games Radar http://www.gamesradar.com/double-fine-working-sega-upcoming-adventure-game/

VG247 http://www.vg247.com/2012/05/23/tease-suggests-sega-will-publish-new-double-fine-game/

GI http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/05/22/looks-like-sega-is-publishing-double-fine-39-s-ron-gilbert-game.aspx

UPDATE:  Sega posted the complete picture!  https://twitter.com/SEGA/status/205402638198640640

(And there was much rejoicing…)

UPDATED “THE CAVE” ROUND-UP:

POLYGON:  http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/5/24/3040452/double-fine-and-ron-gilbert-blend-maniac-mansion-and-the-lost-vikings

XBLA FANS: http://www.xblafans.com/double-fines-ron-gilbert-and-sega-bringing-the-cave-to-xbla-48711.html

KOTAKU: http://kotaku.com/5912907/ron-gilberts-new-game-mixes-maniac-mansion-with-a-little-metroidvania?utm_campaign=socialflow_kotaku_twitter&utm_source=kotaku_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

DESTRUCTOID: http://www.destructoid.com/preview-double-fine-ventures-into-the-cave-227966.phtml

JOYSTIQ: http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/24/the-cave-opens-up-to-adventurers-in-2013-care-of-ron-gilbert-an/

RPS: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/05/24/mindcraft-double-fine-debuts-the-cave/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RockPaperShotgun+%28Rock%2C+Paper%2C+Shotgun%29

AT: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/05/ron-gilbert-goes-exploring-in-the-cave/

VG247: http://www.vg247.com/2012/05/24/the-cave-gilberts-double-fine-game-comes-out-of-the-dark/

THE CAVE - by Ron Gilbert, Double Fine & Sega, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating