Gamasutra has posted a new interview with Hothead Games' Darren Evenson, lead designer of Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. The Q&A covers a variety of topics related to the new game based on the popular comic features Gabe and Tycho.

You've got a point-and-click interface with RPG-type battles. What was the inspiration for that? Why did that come about, from a design standpoint?
Last summer, we had actually conducted a survey on the Penny Arcade site, scanning the PA fans for what some of their favorite games were. RPGs, especially. A lot of them mentioned some of the old-school RPGs from the early to mid-90s, so that's what we based our RPG elements off of. As far as the adventure gameplay, that's a great way to tell a story, and we're fortunate enough to have Ron Gilbert involved with the adventure-making of our game. He's been involved since last summer. We've been very fortunate to have his help.

The transition from adventure to RPG seems pretty seamless. It's not a big mental stretch. Did you have to work on that, to integrate the gameplay systems?
It really came together quite nicely, especially for the storytelling aspect of it. It really seemed to meld together quite well. It's neither a hardcore RPG with a thousand stats and customizations - so it's approachable to everyone, and the adventure gameplay is not a hardcore point-and-click pixel-hunter adventure game, either. It's just a great blending of the two that lets Mike and Jerry tell their story.

Gamasutra: Penny Arcade Adventures Interview

Penny Arcade Adventures (add to watch list)

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