jake rodkin

jake rodkin

@rodkin.online

Designer at Valve. Helped make Half-Life Alyx, Firewatch, The Walking Dead, Sam & Max, Tales of Monkey Island, Idle Thumbs Avatar by @michaelfirman.bsky.social

4.8K followers614 following1K posts

I talked about Monkey Island a bunch with the Quest Quest guys:

Jess Morrissette@decafjedi.com

This week on Quest Quest: @bvigeant.bsky.social and I discuss Tales of Monkey Island with Project Lead @rodkin.online! It's a fascinating peek behind the scenes of Telltale's episodic entry into the adventures of Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate. Listen here (or wherever): zencastr.com/z/Efy-LeJk

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It’s a project on which I spent most of its production in an overwhelming miasma of self doubt, fannish uncertainty that we should even be making the game, anxiety about fitting a game known for its art onto WiiWare’s 40mb cap, and not enough time to make it, but I’m really proud of how it came out.

It’s a game on which I got a lot better at my job. Thanks to the (real) project leads Mark Darin and Mike Stemmle, head of design Dave Grossman, and every lead on art, programming, cinematics teams, with whom I was suddenly interfacing with officially instead of as “pestering UI guy with opinions.”

I talked about Monkey Island a bunch with the Quest Quest guys:

Jess Morrissette@decafjedi.com

This week on Quest Quest: @bvigeant.bsky.social and I discuss Tales of Monkey Island with Project Lead @rodkin.online! It's a fascinating peek behind the scenes of Telltale's episodic entry into the adventures of Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate. Listen here (or wherever): zencastr.com/z/Efy-LeJk

Tales of Monkey Island was the second game anyone allowed me to do game design work on, which was a harrowing prospect when my childhood love of Monkey Island was why I was interested in video games as a creative medium. Fortunately I was working with a bunch of people who knew what they were doing.

It’s also the game when Telltale decided episodes needed “directors,” a sort of creative glue role between the writer-designers and the art teams (instead of the writers doing that while also writing the next episode), which meant I was shipping things with a “director” credit - crazy in hindsight.

jake rodkin reposted

It was enormously fun to serve as lead writer on Star Wars: Galactic Racer alongside Duncan. It’s a very ambitious project and Fuse did an amazing job! (Fortunately, Sebulba returned and we got to help put him in a video game)

Duncan Fyfe@duncanfyfe.net

Really pleased to finally say that Chris Remo and I were the lead writers on Star Wars: Galactic Racer. The team at Fuse are the absolute best in their field, and it really shows. It was a great project to work on and is an even better game to play. Sebulba forever

jake rodkin reposted

Really pleased to finally say that Chris Remo and I were the lead writers on Star Wars: Galactic Racer. The team at Fuse are the absolute best in their field, and it really shows. It was a great project to work on and is an even better game to play. Sebulba forever

STAR WARS: Galactic Racer™@starwarsgracer.bsky.social

"Our newest racer has arrived. Welcome to the Galactic League!" STAR WARS: Galactic Racer™ has officially fired up its engines and is now available worldwide on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. https://starwarsgalacticracer.com/

jake rodkin reposted

Watching "Citizen Kane" (1941) the way it was meant to be seen — an 80's era NTSC telecine stretched to the wrong aspect ratio played on an airplane seat back monitor.

Pretty sure I have the career and life I do now because when I first got the web 2/3 of my life ago, the first thing I typed into a search engine was “Monkey Island” and I found the SCUMM Bar website and its community.

Today in Mojo History—30 years ago today: The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar, probably the best Monkey Island page that has happened to anyone ever, launched.

jake rodkin reposted

After animating the Steam hardware buddies last year, I finally got my controller today! (After GLS Netherlands managed to lose two controllers before the third one got here but hey 🤷‍♂️)

jake rodkin reposted

I was hoping for your help with something. (Please RT for reach.) Is there a particular font that’s instantly recognizable to someone who lives where you do, and appreciated/recognized/hated there, but completely unknown elsewhere? Road signs, street names, transit, infrastructure, stuff like that?

This is as good an excuse as any to re-share the Quadrilateral Cowboy trailer I got to help make with @derek-lieu.com @chrisremo.bsky.social and @erinyvette.bsky.social a decade ago. Still proud of it! youtu.be/S_IVvhSX2tY

youtu.beQuadrilateral Cowboy release trailerYouTube video by Blendo Games
Brendon Chung@blendogames.bsky.social

Quadrilateral Cowboy & Invisible Inc are in a cyberpunk bundle together! store.steampowered.com/bundle/82990... I'm a big fan of Invisible Inc, what a joy to be bundled together🙏

Rest in peace, awesome Myst prototype

Cyan Worlds@cyan.com

Over a year ago, we built a prototype for a new Myst Universe game meant for publisher eyes only. This project is NOT in active development, but we're proud of the work the team did, and wanted to share it with you all. Presenting: Project Anglerfish. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvNGt02yZNc

I playtested this and it was good. The best Myst stuff has this lowkey undercurrent of anxiety - that you aren’t alone, that something in the world is wrong - and you know the game doesn’t have NPCs or a world clock, so the only way to make those traps spring is to press forward through the puzzles.

jake rodkin reposted

This is your LAST CHANCE to play Big Walk early! We've just opened up 4 FINAL weeks of our Big Walk Preview!! Come to the Panic office, bring some friends, and play an hour of Big Walk. It's very fun. Book now: forms.panic.com/big-walk-pre... Here's a special behind-the-scenes peek at the room:

I was tricked by a very nice person into talking about my career, and a bunch of the amazing things I’ve been able to make with my friends over the last 25 years. If you want to hear someone ramble about LucasArts fan sites, the early years of Telltale, and Firewatch, this chat with Ron is for you:

This post is unavailable.

Last summer, without any warning Adventure Gamers wiped its decades-old forum overnight and flipped to a site promoting gambling content. (kotaku.com/adventure-ga...) Fortunately the guys at Mixnmojo were sent a forum archive by the site’s prior owner and are preserving it:

kotaku.comBeloved 27-Year-Old Gaming Site Wipes Forums, Relaunches As A Gambling Affiliate Cash-Grab - KotakuWe speak to the former editors of the site to find out how it all went wrong
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Last summer, without any warning Adventure Gamers wiped its decades-old forum overnight and flipped to a site promoting gambling content. (kotaku.com/adventure-ga...) Fortunately the guys at Mixnmojo were sent a forum archive by the site’s prior owner and are preserving it:

kotaku.comBeloved 27-Year-Old Gaming Site Wipes Forums, Relaunches As A Gambling Affiliate Cash-Grab - KotakuWe speak to the former editors of the site to find out how it all went wrong
View full thread

(Everyone really should read that self-labeled tome of an article linked above. It covers the cancelation of 2003’s Sam & Max Freelance Police, and the final nail in the coffin of adventure games’ lineage in LucasArts, at a level of detail only possible by people who have cared for far too long.)

Last summer, without any warning Adventure Gamers wiped its decades-old forum overnight and flipped to a site promoting gambling content. (kotaku.com/adventure-ga...) Fortunately the guys at Mixnmojo were sent a forum archive by the site’s prior owner and are preserving it:

kotaku.comBeloved 27-Year-Old Gaming Site Wipes Forums, Relaunches As A Gambling Affiliate Cash-Grab - KotakuWe speak to the former editors of the site to find out how it all went wrong