Costumes Quest Gets Cold as Ice

Double Fine Productions has announced that it is creating a new downloadable chapter to Costume Quest, its trick-or-treating adventure released last month.

The chapter, entitled Costume Quest: Grubbins on Ice, is an additional area that takes place following the main game's storyline. The adventure begins when Lucy and Everett, the two additional team members added over the course of the original game, explore around town to find evidence of the Grubbins. Lucy ends up sucked into Repugia, where Grubbins of all sorts live, and she is captured by Araxia, the current leader in the currently turbulent world. Filled with dread and panic, Everett gathers the twins Wren and Reynold to help save her (and the oppressed Grubbins) from the clutches of evil!

Rather than collect candy for the sake of trick-or-treating, the player collects candy from Grubbins in order to gain support from the oppressed and defeat the incumbent political rivals. The battle sequences are the same in style, but there are also plenty of new costumes to create in Repugia, including a Pirate and an Eyeball costume. Furthermore, the game is said to be larger than a normal area of the original game, spanning around five hours to complete.

Grubbins on Ice does more than just add a new game segment; it fixes aspects of the main game as well! Performance improvements in frame rate should be noticeable, and players will be able to pause during cutscenes. Perhaps a bigger addition is the ability to save at any time at specific phone posts (in the original release, a player needed to complete a mission in order to save).

Costume Quest is a trick-or-treating adventure released on PSN and XBLA last month. In it, players assume the role of either Wren or Reynold in an attempt to save the other from the clutches of candy-stealing Grubbins. The children can transform themselves into massive beings based on their costumes in order to battle, and besides that, there are plenty of small missions to complete in the simple-but-delightful role-playing game.

Grubbins on Ice should see release next month for XBLA and PSN. No price has been released.

SOURCE: GameSpot

Double Fine Goes on a Costume Quest

A few weeks ago 3RM reported that Double Fine, the development company which created Psychonauts and Brutal Legend, was working on four projects at the same time. [HERE]

Today, at his Develop 2010 keynote, Double Fine CEO guy Tim Schafer announced the first of those four titles:

Costume Quest comes from the creative mind of Tasha Harris, the lead animator for Brutal Legend. This comes as the first project from Double Fine that is not run directly by Schafer himself, but he has stated that he will be having supervisory roles in all projects he does not direct, so that should calm down certain worried fans.

The game takes place on Halloween night, during which players take the role of a young boy Trick or Treating with his younger sister (genders can be switched for the main character, for inquiring minds). Unfortunately for him, the sister is captured by a monster who seems to be mistaking who or what she is. Thankfully, the boy has the ability to pull monsters from his imagination and use them to fight off monsters in order to help save his sister and make it back home before his parents freak! He will have to take on more than just monsters, though; other children will come into play as both friends and foes.

The player moves around the suburban neighborhood, hoping to find his sister. Quests appear as porch lights at specific houses, and at each house, particular adventures await. One example provided was a special "theme party," in which players have to collect stuff in order to make an impromptu costume to fit the theme of a particular party. Once each mission is achieved, players get candy and information on where to go next.

There are other types of missions, as well, including battles with monsters, in which the children transform into realistic versions of the beings they portray. Sounds like something we all wish we could do as little ones.

Costume Party is set for release through THQ onto PSN and XBLA this Halloween. Another DLC title is slated for early 2011. Cavities are forming in my teeth already.

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