Choice quotes from the keynote:

-"I remember when 16 colors were more than enough and I remember when 16 colors were not nearly enough."

-"Monkey Island's budget was $135,000, and that was a AAA game back then."

-"I have the job our parents tell us does not exist."

-"We should always live in a state of discomfort of fear about what we are creating. It means you are making something different and special. It means you are making something unique."

-"This is what excites me about [today's] indie games: they have the freedom to fail... they have the freedom to be better."

-"People ask me to prove that games are art. I ask them to prove me them they're not."

When he mentions that he created SCUMM a thousand gamers in attendance cheer. That's PAX.

The trademark filing was extremely (extremely) expansive, ranging from goods like "read-along children's books" to services like "providing news programming in the field of entertainment relating to science fiction over an electronic network." Relevant to our interests, the new mark also references "computer game software and video game software."

Does that mean that LucasFilm or LucasArts plans on revisiting the franchise? Not necessarily. The previous Maniac Mansion trademark had expired, with another still somewhat alive but not applied to much beyond "video games" and manuals. Lucas may just be covering its ass.

At the least, let's hope for a Wii Virtual Console release, with hamster microwaving intact. At best, let's pray for Lucas & Co. to dip into its older IP for something that isn't another Star Wars game.

Maniac Mansion [USPTO]

I think that it will [shift into a Hollywood-type model]. And I think that, ultimately, it has to. And I think we will shift to that model, but I think that there are a couple of things that have to happen before we really shift to that. One is that I think technology has to settle down a little bit. I think technology is moving forward really rapidly, and part of what a lot of teams do is exploring new technology, and I think that's kind of hard to do with an ad hoc thing.

I think the other thing that's going to have to happen - and this is a really big one - is we're going to have to become unionized. Because I don't think that you're going to be able to grab all of these freelance people when you need them if there isn't some kind of a union structure that's over the top of them. You can't really have a bunch of animators just floating around from job to job with nothing in between.

So I think there's going to have to be a lot more structure, and I think that's going to have to come in the form of unions - which, you know, I don't know that I really agree with that; I think unions bring a lot of bad things to gaming, but I think they're going to be necessary for us to move into that Hollywood model.

Interesting interview with a lot of content; worth plowing through if you're in the mood for some interesting reading.

Spanking Death: Ron Gilbert Goes Episodic... And Loves It [Gamasutra]

Speaking from his secret game design cave, Ron Gilbert said, "I've spent over four years trying to find the right publisher for this strange little game. Now that I've done it, you just know that somewhere four horsemen are saddling up."

HOTHEAD GAMES TO PUBLISH NEW RON GILBERT GAME DEATHSPANK

Gilbert joins the Vancouver crew as Creative Director

The Great White North, January 9, 2008 - In a move that may upset the balance of the universe (or at least that around the 49th parallel), Hothead Games announced plans to publish Ron Gilbert's long-awaited RPG-Adventure game, DeathSpank. Described as "Monkey Island meets Diablo", the game will be released in episodic format and feature Gilbert's unique style of humor and storytelling. In a related move, Ron Gilbert will be joining the company's Vancouver-based studio as Creative Director, effective immediately.

Speaking from his secret game design cave, Ron Gilbert said, "I've spent over four years trying to find the right publisher for this strange little game. Now that I've done it, you just know that somewhere four horsemen are saddling up."

The episodic game follows the thong-tastic adventures of a misguided hero named DeathSpank, a character that first appeared on Gilbert's Grumpy Gamer website in a series of animated comics he penned with long-time creative collaborator, Clayton Kauzlaric.

Hothead prepared for Gilbert's arrival by ordering the finest morsels of jellied moose meat and lager brewed with water from the nearest available glacier. "We're all huge fans of Monkey Island and we love Ron's unique vision and sense of humor," said Joel DeYoung, COO of Hothead Games. "Ron shares Hothead's goal of bringing much-needed humor and innovation into games, so having him here in Vancouver as our Creative Director is an excellent fit."

"I'm really excited to be working with Hothead Games not only on DeathSpank, but as their new Creative Director," said Gilbert. "I got to know everyone at Hothead while I was helping with On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. They really understand humor and being creative like very few publishers do."

As Creative Director, Gilbert will work in the Vancouver-based studio on all of Hothead's games. He is also expected to improve his hockey skills substantially during his stay.

U.K. games website, PocketGamer, has posted a great list of games that they would like to see come to the Nintendo DS. I have to say the list is pretty dead on, especially in picking games that would take advantage of the DS's touch screen and control scheme. A few standouts on the list include Mario Paint, Okami, Marble Madness and a collection of Lucas Arts Games.

Okami might be a bit of a stretch, but a Lucas Arts collection with Monkey Island and especially Maniac Mansion would be sweet. I won't ruin the whole list for you, but instead point you to PocketGamer's site so you can check it out for yourself. If you have any genius ideas on old games that would make perfect ports to the DS, tell us about em in the comments. Come on, you know you want to. Flynn De Marco

DS Most Wanted: 10 games we demand NOW! [PocketGamer]

Ah, Maniac Mansion. You will always hold a special place in my heart and now you can hold a special place on my desktop.

This fan made Maniac Mansion website has a ton of info on what is arguably Lucas Arts' most famous game. There are game details, breakdowns of the characters and items, sound bytes, a walkthrough, scans of the manuals and poster and the pi ce de r sistance, two desktop pics and thirty five icons from the NES version of the game.

Drop by the site for your Maniac Mansion fix, just don't let Nurse Edna catch you. Remember, trespassers will be horribly mutilated! Flynn De Marco

Maniac Mansion Desktop Stuff [Maniac Mansion Shrine]
[via: GayGamer]

While dressing as a gigantic tentacle at a cosplay convention will very certainly get you laid in Japan, where the culture is more open to the cuddling of cuttlefish, over in America, it will only get you incredulous looks and the scorn of your peers.

But as long as you are exiling yourself to cosplay misanthropy anyway, why not go the whole hog? Not only design a couple of Maniac Mansion Green & Purple Tentacle costumes... but then design Link and Zelda outfits to wear over those costumes. Florian Eckhardt

A great cosplay costume turns horribly wrong... [B&B&P&S]

From the implausible speed run department, this tool-assisted speed run of the LucasArts adventure Maniac Mansion, completed in well under 8 minutes. What will those wacky speed freaks speed run next?

Grumpy Gamer, aka Ron Gilbert, aka the creator of the Lucas Arts Maniac Mansion script language, is singing the praises of the SCUMMVM group. The SCUMMVM project has been deligently porting the old adventure games from Lucas Arts so that they work on current operating systems, PDAs and even the DS.

As the person that created SCUMM and along with Aric Wilmunder coded the original system, my hat is off the SCUMMVM team and contributers for this undertaking.

I am in awe.

Especially since I could never get anything to run from one version of the system to the next...

Ron Gilbert Supports Illegitimate Ports [I m a Human Inbox]