Not being a gamer I’m not a huge fan of Penny Arcade, but I respect the “two douches from Spokane, Washington” behind the strip. I was re-reading an old copy of Wired and found an over view of the strip, its creators and the (then) forthcoming game Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode I.

What jumped out at me about the story was that Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins had no idea what they were sitting on even after they realised they were getting a million page views a month. Now it’s around 55 million page views a month. That’s staggering.

Happily now that the guys are creating their own games they’re still working outside of the more regular model and doing things their own way. The game, which seems to have more in common with Lovecraft and robots than the strip is released on a number of formats via episodic download only. Interesting.

“This isn’t a licensed deal like you typically do with a game,” says DeYoung. “Mike, who does all the art for the comic, is doing all the concept art. He has designed the characters and their look, designed the look and feel of all the levels in the game. Jerry has done all the writing, so that includes authoring the cut scenes, writing the overarching story, and writing all the interactive dialog. It’s authentic PA humor.” (via)

Gaming for me right now is too much of a time suck, but I’ll probably download the 1st episode because I’m interested in seeing if the guys have managed to pull it off. Normally anything that’s licensed (from a movie, a TV show or a comic) is fucking awful for a number of reasons. I’m really interested in tracking how something that is pushed into the world with a little love fares better than the usual crap that is rushed out to fleece the fans.