Dishonored Developer, Joe Houston, Talks About His New Kickstarter, Unwritten: That Which Happened

Friday, 1st February 2013

Unwritten: That Which Happened is a new turn based strategy game from Joe Houston and the team at Roxlou Games. Houston worked as a Senior Software Engineer on the hugely successful Dishonored and has now taken his new project to Kickstarter seeking $75,000. Check out the alpha gameplay footage and exclusive interview with Joe Houston below.

Unwritten features exciting turn based mechanics along with a strong focus on permanent decision making. Bringing some of the ideologies that made Dishonored such an incredible experience, Houston and the team at Roxlou have created Unwritten to be a dynamic and personal experience that reacts to player choice.

In Unwritten players will guide a nomadic clan to meet its God “on a one-way journey across a dangerous wilderness”. Along the way “decisions (and death) are permanent,” and will ultimately affect the fate of the clan. The game features randomly generated maps, units, abilities, and enemies which makes for great re-playability.

While making “decisions that become a part of your personal ‘story’, affecting your ability to barter and ally with rival clans” players will make “the trek to ‘God Mountain’, a place of final judgement and potential glory.”

photo-full A clan is made up of ‘hunter gatherer’ or combat-style units (among others) that are affected by stats like Hunger, Health, Strength, Movement and Vision. Each clan in Unwritten begins the game with the following, “at least one hunter and gatherer unit, some quantity of roxlous (a llama like animal that acts as currency in the game), some quantity of food” and “at least one story fragment representing the preexisting history of the people.”

Players then progress “through a series of zones, laid out on a grid of hexagonal tiles. In each zone the goal is to guide all your units from the starting point to the map exit. At this point you will be presented with a map of your current route, and will be given the choice of which way to go next.” To check out the full break down of the gameplay details head over to the official Kickstarter Updates page.

We recently caught up with Joe Houston from Roxlou Games to talk to him about how his experience with Dishonored inspired some of the mechanics in Unwritten as well as to get a more in depth look at how the game plays. Houston also answers a few questions about permadeath, shadow puppets, meeting your maker and more.

JHS: What is “Unwritten: That Which Happened” for those that don’t already know and what sets it apart from other games in the genre?

Joe Houston: Unwritten is a randomly generated, turn-based strategy game where you guide a nomadic clan to meet its god. It’s a game that combines permanent consequences (and death), infinite variety, and Balinese shadow puppets to create something altogether unique. It’s a sort of mash-up of tough “rogue-like” games like FTL or The Binding of Isaac, and deep strategy games like Civilization. It that sense it creates a new experience that is both familiar feeling and unlike anything else I’ve ever played.

JHS: You were the Senior Software Engineer on Dishonored, winner of The Jace Hall Show: Game of The Year Award 2012. What motivated you to create an indie game like Unwritten?

Houston: Dishonored was an important project for not only my career, but also my development as a person. One big moment came about a month before we shipped. I was sitting there playing the game, trying to get a sense if what we made was any good. I know that sounds funny now that the game has garnered as much praise as it has, but when you’re that close to the product you really have no objectivity anymore.

But even at that point what I could see was that the game was going to be particularly special to a certain kind of fan, the kind that wanted something different and hadn’t quite been getting it for the last several years. Right then I was really proud to have been a part of Dishonored, but I also knew that moving forward I wanted to go and talk to fans like that all the time. I wanted to hear what they had the say, and I wanted to make games just for them.

And so here we are.

JHS: What’s it like going from a big budget AAA project to an indie crowd funded one?

Houston: It’s awesome and it’s terrifying. There’s really nothing between you and the wolf at the door (scary when you have a wife and a baby like I do), but at the same time you are constantly coming into contact with all these wonderful, fascinating people. Your successes are sky-high, but your mistakes are very dangerous.

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Of course meeting our funding goal would dial back the intensity on the situation a whole lot. I take the trust of our fans very seriously, but we also need just a bit of room to breathe we can keep being creative for them.

JHS: What are some of the more important things you take from your experience at Arkane Studios into this new project?

In some ways the whole idea of Unwritten came from my experience on Dishonored. One of the big challenges when making a game with meaningful player choice (like in Dishonored) is that you have to do two things: you have to make the player’s choices change the world, but you also have to tell the player whenever the world is different. For example, player’s nowadays just expect the world to be linear and “scripted”, so they won’t assume that a rat is sitting there as a direct result of them poisoning the distillery (or whatever). You end up needing to tell them “there are more rats around, because some guy poisoned the distillery”, and even then they don’t always realize that they could have done it differently, that the result wasn’t predetermined.

I was thinking about this while I was brainstorming our new game. I thought to myself, what if the decisions in the game literally turned into items that the player then used? The player doesn’t need to be told that they’re making a difference on the world: they’re using it to play the game itself.

That was the seed concept that became Unwritten, and working on a game with flexible player choice like Dishonored made it possible.

JHS: What games do you and the team at Roxlou games use as inspiration for Unwritten: That Which Happened?

Houston: Our pet name for the project on the team is “Civilization meets Oregon Trail, if it was hardcore”. So deep turn based strategy games like Civ are big ones. We’re also heavily influenced by the recent rogue-like games, or rogue-like-like as I call them since they’re getting farther and farther from that old formula. These are the games that have permanent consequences and randomly generated content: games like Spelunky, FTL, and The Binding of Isaac.

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JHS: The gameplay in Unwritten has a strong emphasis on player choice. What are these permanent, critical decisions and how do they affect the destiny of the player?

Houston: There is no quick saving and loading in Unwritten, so in that sense every decision is permanent and critical. If you die, you’re dead. However, on top of that we have these “story events” that bring up tableaus that talk about what happened to the clan on that day. These lead to a crucial decision, which affects your ability to form relationships with others on the tundra.

For example, you may meet an old man and his son, alone and hungry. Maybe you decide to leave them to starve. Maybe you trade them the life of one of your livestock, but only in exchange for the son… as a slave. Maybe you take them with you, but at the risk of other clans in the area thinking that you’re foolish and weak.

JHS: “The People begin walking. They will call out as they walk. They will tell their stories to those they meet along the way. They will do many things. They will gather more stories.” The story events/shadow puppet world sound very interesting and unique for the genre, can you elaborate a little more on them and how they affect the overall experience?

Houston: “Story-telling” is a central theme in Unwritten. It affects the way we design the characters, and it’s the reason we decided to choose our shadow puppet style. There is this interplay between the real world and the story-telling world, where the game takes place in some version of “reality”, but major events are retold over and over by the leader of the clan.

This is a core part of the gameplay, thanks to our “story fragment” system. As mentioned before, you encounter “story events” that bring up the shadow puppet segments. Say you find the old man and his son: if decide to take them with you to safety that decision turns into a token called a story fragment. You then use those fragments for various things, but their most important use is in “story bouts”, diplomacy mini-games where your clan leader tells the history of all your past deeds to gain the friendship of another clan. Winning story bouts is vital to getting precious resources, which is the only way to survive and make it to “God Mountain”. In this way every decision you make has consequences that you get to experience directly.

JHS: In the Kickstarter campaign video we see some pre-alpha gameplay” footage. Can you talk a little about the art in the game and how the final product will compare to the pre-alpha footage?

Houston: In some cases things will just feel more physical. For example in the shadow puppet segments you see blood represented by ribbons on sticks that are hand animated. However, in the final game we’re using physics to make the ribbons move dynamically, making the puppetry feel more “real”, and therefore more strange and exotic.

In other cases, like in the game screen you mention, the art you see now is just placeholder. We’re currently working with Amanda Williams (environment artist for the great indie games Waking Mars and Spider) to create the “real world” of Unwritten. We’ll be showing the result of that collaboration on the Kickstarter page in the next couple of days, but we’re looking to make it more grounded without losing the weirdness that we love about the game. So far the results are really promising.

JHS: On Kickstarter you mention that “each area map feels a bit like a dungeon in the classic role playing game Rogue.” Can you talk a little bit about that?

Houston: In dungeon crawlers you tend to have this progression where each slice of gameplay is divided up into something smaller. Usually that’s a single floor of a dungeon, meaning you get to feel the accomplishment of fully exploring the space, but you also have someplace to go when you’ve finished that (down the steps to the next floor).

Unwritten plays similarly in that you have an overarching goal (your clan is going to “God Mountain”), but each leg of your journey is a small to medium sized turn-based map. You have a goal to reach on each of these small maps (the exit), and you also have “treasure” to find and nooks and crannies to explore. So there is plenty to do, and always someplace new to go with another challenge to tackle.

JHS: The journey across the Tundra is both randomly generated and fraught with danger. How does Unwritten handle combat and abilities?

Houston: A big part of Unwritten is “variety”. Randomly generated content is a big part of that, so when you play the game you’re going to control a lot of different units as old ones die off and new ones get acquired. But beyond that, no two units you control will be the same and each unit will have unique special abilities. Unwritten is kind of like a collectible card game like Magic the Gathering in that sense. You’ll spend some time getting acquainted with each new unit, trying to figure out how best to use it, rather than just building up 100 “warriors” and throwing them at a problem. For example a unit might have an ability that causes it to die, but gives a hefty bonus to all your other units for a few turns, which then allows you to execute a grand strategy

map_resized

JHS: How does the randomly generated content affect the various enemies in the game?

Houston: Enemies themselves are randomly generated, in that they’re made up of various pieces that are joined together. They also have randomly generated stats and randomly generated abilities, much like the player units. This doesn’t mean that they’re totally random, since we still craft each enemy and unit, but we do so abstractly. We may create a “big_bad_guy” enemy, but there we just put down guidelines about how it should be created, e.g. it must have strength in this range, it has at least one random “strong” ability, etc.

JHS: Players will guide their people to “God Mountain,” the “place of final judgement and potential glory.” How will the player’s decisions throughout the game affect their final judgement?

Houston: Since player choices are a physical part of the gameplay thanks to the “story fragments”, players are going to be making decisions that will help them impress other clans in order to survive. However, a twist is that the whole point of the game is to make it to the god in the mountain in order to tell your story. At first the player doesn’t know how he or she will be judged once they make it to the end, creating a tension when making a decision solely to survive. However, as they proceed they have the opportunity to search out hints about the god’s moral code, and they may find that they need to balance their strategy against that final judgement.

Ultimately the game will end with one last “story bout” between you and your god, which is a test of both how well you understand its hidden agenda, and how well you were able to follow it without getting yourself killed.

JHS: Can you talk briefly about the development/mod tools the game will drop with on day one?

Houston: I’ve been modding or making games ever since I was in high-school, so I have fond memories of the community made tools for DOOM and Quake. In many ways those tools (and the engine source code graciously released by John Carmack) were responsible for me getting my “foot in the door” as they say. Nowadays that level of involvement has kind of fallen off, mostly because games involve so many complicated licenses and processes that make releasing and using the tools a mess. But as a small indie team that owns all their own technology, we have the luxury to pay that experience forward, so that’s what we’re doing.

These are going to be the exact same tools that we’re using to develop the game, without any restrictions. The game is randomly generated, but it still requires an author to figure out how the different elements should be put together in order to make sure they’re fun. Our goal is to allow people to make their own units, unit abilities, special map types, and even entire story campaigns. Pretty much everything we can make, you can make.

JHS: Where in the development process are you guys? When can we expect to see some new footage/screens of Unwritten: That Which Happened?

Houston: We just finished our “pre-production” period, which means we’ve proved out most of our design ideas in prototypes, we’ve figured out our technology, and we’ve nailed down much of the visual style. Unfortunately running a Kickstarter campaign is a draining, near full-time endeavor, so we haven’t been able to make much progress on the game itself this month. However, we have a good strong base. Should we meet our funding goal we should be seeing some nice-looking stuff in a month or two.

That said, we absolutely need support to continue working on this game. If you find the game interesting, come back us on Kickstarter and join in on the conversation

Check out the campaign video below and be sure to back Unwritten: That Which Happened on Kickstarter.

Post written by

Craig Hunter – who has written 1159 posts on The Jace Hall Show.
Craig Hunter is a main contributor for the Jace Hall Show and has been an avid gamer for over 15 years. He also freelances for a number of websites and magazines covering mobile products and emerging technologies.

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Friday, 1st February 2013
Posted in Gaming Personality
Tags: Dishonored, exclusive, game, games, Houston, jhs, Joe, like, make, story, unwritten
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The Smoking Jacket guy a.k.a. Gary Graham slips further into absolute hell, as his personal videos get even more personal. Meanwhile, The Guild creator, Felicia Day continues the battle over the Baby Jesus Doll with Jace in one of the most famous duels in Jace Hall Show history.

“Jane Badler’s (Special) Snack Time and Stan Lee Sounds Off”

Jane Badler from the Original “V” series wants to talk to Jace, Executive Producer on the new “V” on ABC, about being on the show. Badler re-enacts one of the show’s most famous scenes without special effects to prove why she is the original V Queen. Don’t eat before watching this.

“Too Hot For Words and Special Odditions”

Gary Graham’s unreleased song about the Jace Hall Show is revealed to the world while Marina Orlova from Hot For Words deals with Gary’s old smoking Jacket. Meanwhile, Jace and Todd continue auditioning hot girls for their new assistant role – someone has to do it.

“Joe Flanigan, Laura Vandervoort and a Family Guy”

Jace and Todd run into an old friend in Stargate’s Joe Flanigan, who is still wearing Jace’s priceless original “V” costume while he’s getting coffee in Burbank. Jace once again goes inside an actual design meeting at Blizzard Entertainment, one of the biggest gaming companies in the world.

“Laura Vandervoort Does Pranks, Bob Sapp Goes Postal and Starcraft II”

Actress Laura Vandervoort goes inside Jace’s recording studio to mess with her “V” co-star Logan Huffman. The tables are turned on Jace, when professional fighter Bob Sapp threatens to go postal on Jace for not “supporting” one of his main ideas.

“World of Warcraft and Sex, Money, Guns with Ice-T and Coco”

Logan Huffman wants to know who is posting comments about him online and asks Jace for help. Meanwhile Joe Flanigan is caught again flirting in the V costume. Jace heads to the set of Law and Order: SVU to catch up with Ice – T and Coco and the Starcraft II team gets “rushed” by World of Warcraft Lead Designer, Jeff Kaplan.

“Logan Huffman Gets Hot and Coco is Even Hotter”

“V” Star Logan Huffman is still trying to get to the bottom of the videos being posted online, meanwhile Hotforwords.com’s, Marina Orlova tries to describe the word “1337″. Plus, ICE-T makes an appearance and gives us an intimate, behind the scenes look at his gaming life.

“J!NX, You Owe Me an ICE-T”

Jace visits Sean Gailey at J!NX, the exclusive clothing partner of the Jace Hall Show, to check out the operations and find out where his royalty check is. Then go back to visit ICE-T, where they flip through some of his wife Coco’s most vivid bikini shots.

“College Humor Laughs It Up and Hot Girl Auditions”

The hunt for the new assistant winds down as the perfect candidate seems to have shown her face, as opposed to other body parts. Jace sits down and talks shop with some of the writers at College Humor and gets an earful from the executives at J!NX.

“Unreal Engine Faces Off With Digital Extremes”

Jace is caught off guard trying to work when Randy Jackson’s “Americass Best Dance Crew” show moves in down stairs and disrupts the office and begins to take action. Meanwhile, the guys at J!NX still want let Jace off the hook on The Jace Hall Show.

“Randy Jackson’s Dance Crew”

Jace tracks down “America’s Best Dance Crew” show creator and American Idol Judge, Randy Jackson to ask him to turn the music in the show down. Meanwhile, Jace gets on the horn to talk some interesting items with game designer Cliff Bleszinksi.

“Dawg: Randy Jackson Goes Off and More Hotness For Words”

Marina Orlova gives Jace and Todd one last chance to get rid of the smoking jacket before she will read one more word. All the while, Randy Jackson continues his tirade against Jace and refuses to move his show America’s Best Dance Crew to a new location.

“Jace pisses off Randy Jackson”

Jace tries to convince Todd that he actually handled the noise problem with Randy Jackson well, which new assistant Ashley seems to confirm for the time being. Meanwhile, Jace and Todd return to the office, where something horrible has gone wrong.

Outtakes: Gary Graham Goes Off!

What happens when The Smoking Jacket Guy gets mad? Gary Graham can barely keep it together as he goes off on Todd and Jace about his new role. Warning: this video isn’t for small children sensitive to language and/or aspiring cameramen. We could barely keep it together with this one.

Outtakes: “Diablo 3 Agreements”

This outtake gives an unusual look at the design process behind the popular video game franchise Diablo. Jace and Todd were given exclusive access inside Blizzard Entertainment headquarters, and found some interesting things, namely, making a video game is a lot like playing darts.

Outtakes “Stan Lee Coffee”

An outtake of what has become one of the most iconic scenes in the history of The Jace Hall Show. Comic book legend Stan Lee can’t keep it together as he and Jace do their best to clean hot coffee off one of the most valuable comic books of all-time.

Outtakes “Creed vs Drago”

In what has to be the most anticipated staged rematch of the past century, Carl Weathers and Dolph Lundgren prepare for their epic rematch, in front of a live-studio audience at HDFILMS. This is the lead-up to proceeding episodes featuring the two film stars.

Outtakes: The College Humor Buzzkill

Everyone is a critic…even the writers at College Humor, who give Jace a hard time about The Jace Hall Show in this short, outtakes clip. Is the Jace Hall Show funny? Don’t ask these guys, they’ll give an answer that’s less than favorable.

The Jace Hall Show Season 4

“Stan Lee Forever & The Old Spice Guy”

Season 4 premieres with EXCLUSIVE in-game footage from the highly anticipated sequels of Duke Nukem: Forever and F.E.A.R. 3. Plus, The Old Spice Guy stops by wearing a towel and the legend himself, Stan Lee asks Jace for a huge favor – which wasn’t exactly what Jace was hoping for.

“Fallout: New Vegas, Audrina Patridge and more with Stan Lee!”

Jace scores an exclusive look at Fallout New Vegas with the designers themselves, and learns one of his arch nemesis is in the game. Jace’s visit with Stan Lee continues to take a turn for the worse, and pop celebrity Audrina Partridge stops by the office…and steps on a few feet.

“The Fallout and RAGE of Audrina Patridge and Felicia Day. UFC Star Cung Le”

Audrina Patridge (Dancing with the Stars) offers to teach Jace and Todd how to dance at the new offices, but the music seems to have thrown Todd off his rhythm causing a painful accident. Meanwhile Jace talks smack with UFC and MMA superstar Cung Le, as things start to get violent.

“Dead Rising and Scrubbin’ It with Donald Faison & Stan Lee”

EA Sports MMA Star Cung Le decides to show Jace his moves in Cung’s Dojo since they don’t have a copy of the game, naturally Director Todd takes the worst of it. Tensions flare up between Jace and Stan Lee as the worst thing imaginable finally blows up before them.

“The Kaboom Challenge! Clone Wars Struts It Stuff”

Team Unicorn’s very own hottie Milynn Sarley challenges Jace to a game of Kaboom, while he and MMA fighter Cung Le ride on horses into the sunset. Also, The Jace Hall Show is given secret access at Sony Online Entertainment to get a peak at Star Wars Clone Wars.

“Clone Wars and The Original Batmobile!”

Jace visits some of the top game reviewers at IGN, and finds out the hard way how they review some of the industry’s most popular video games. Jace is treated to a surprise when his car alarm goes off…apparently there is someone else in the neighborhood with a cooler car.

“Hot Video Game Girls and Being a TV Star”

Jace takes a break from hosting and gets the chance to be interviewed on NGAME.TV – where things quickly take a sour turn for the worst. And are video games too violent? Jace talks the politics of video games with Ted Price, the CEO of insomniac games.

“Marvel vs Capcom, Logan Huffman and Talking Tomb Raider”

Jace gets invited to the “Lost Planet 2″ party and runs into “V” Star, Logan Huffman who is still upset that Jace hasn’t gotten a video of him pulled from Youtube.com yet. Jace then goes to Crystal Dynamics to talk Tomb Raider with brand director Carl Steward.

“The Stars of ‘V’ and President Barack Obama”

Jace manages to piss off two of the most important people in the country, Barack Obama and Jessica Chobot. The former is upset at Jace’s TV show, while Chobot doesn’t appreciate Jace crashing his set. Plus, Jace sits down and talks V with the legendary actress Jane Badler.

“Exclusive Bioware Access and More ‘V’ Stars”

Jace Hall visits BioWare to check out Star Wars: the Old Republic and sees a secret Tomb Raider project. Tempers finally flare on set of Jace’s interview with NGAME TV, not before Jace has a sit down and talks with cast members of ABC’s “V.”

“Star Wars Exclusives and A Stargate Set Visit”

Jace catches up with Stargate Executive Producer, Brad Wright on location in Vancouver to get even more insider info on what has kept the Stargate franchise popular with the fans and networks for so many amazing years. Also, more Star Wars: Old Republic exclusives pop up at Bioware.

“The Stargate Universe and Being Jane Badler”

The “EPIC” Cliffy B. himself has taken up the KABOOM! open challenge on the office Atari to test if he really did put the FUN in fundamentals. Plus, Jace relives one of his lifetime dreams of doing the happy dance on the set of Stargate…much to producer Brad Wright’s dismay.

“Sony Fan Faire and The Impulsive Froglok”

Jace witnesses nerd mating rituals at Sony Online Entertainments fanfare and visits the DC Universe Online studios, where he is met with quite a challenge. Jace also has another intimate chat with President Obama, as the latter continues to express his dismay.

“Watching A Froglok Gets Married and Looking at DC Universe Online”

Jace has decided to take advantage of his co-hosting duties at the Sony Online Entertainment Fan Faire celebration, by showing his new music video to the thousands of EverQuest players in attendance, much to the dismay of the crowd. That didn’t stop one enthusiastic guest from doing something radical.

“Friction with Donald Faison and All The RAGE (Footage)”

Jace finally meets his match, getting destroyed in a game of DC Universe Online. That doesn’t stop him from rocking Vegas with Randy Pitchford from Gearbox, and venturing to Gaikai, where he learns about cloud gaming with company President Dave Perry.

“Duke Nukem Forever…No, Really”

Donald Faison and Jace discuss the best biblical ally to have in a fight, while Donald tries to pitch his newest show idea, he only needs a few bucks. Jace then goes to Vegas to talk Doom, Quake and some of the greatest first person shooters of all time with the guys at id Software.

“Sandeep Shows off and a First Look: RAGE Exclusive”

The team at id Software reveals Exclusive RAGE footage, direct gameplay that only The Jace Hall Show can bring! Plus, Jace puts Sandeep Parikh, one of the stars of The Guild on the spot about his series, and just what exactly he and Todd Roy are trying to pull behind his back.

“Pwning Blimpz; Kelly Hu Is Not a Gamer”

The Jace Hall Show debuts more Exclusive RAGE footage with the id Software team, but Jace isn’t satisfied with just “looking”, he wants to play and has decided to pull a runner! Then Jace and Todd decided to pwn the Goodyear blimp, getting a limited access view of Los Angeles from up above.

“Finale Part 1 of 2 – On a Cliff With Gears of War’s Cliffy B’”

The Season Finale is so 1337 it just couldn’t fit into a single episode. In part 1, we take a special trip to the home of Gears of War and Cliffy B himself in North Carolina, EPIC GAMES where Jace is looking to cash in on the “favor for a favor” that Cliffy promised him.

“Finale Part 2 of 2 – A Talking Fallout Toaster and Mortal Kombat Epicness’”

The Jace Hall Show closes it’s 4th season with an Epic sized finale (is there any other way?) Showcased is Exclusive footage from the new Mortal Kombat game in all of its gory goodness, as well as perfectly inappropriate Duke Nukem: Forever footage in all of its “Glory”.

The Jace Hall Show Season 5

“A Milli Vanilli Reunion, Diablo 3 and Napoleon Dynamite”

The Season 5 debut features Jon Heder a.k.a. Napoleon Dynamite losing a video game battle to Jace, forcing Jace to debut his “Blame It On The Game” music video (starring Fab Morvan and John Davis) that made history. Plus, we sneak into Blizzard headquarters for Diablo 3 EXCLUSIVES.

“Felicia Day Returns & I Play WoW Redux”

Geek Goddess Felicia Day stops by to settle an old score and try to steal something back from Todd and Jace – somehow her underwear drawer gets in the way. Plus, the I Play WoW video that grossed over 13 million views is back in the new I Play WoW redux ENTIRELY using machinima.

“Diablo 3 Voiceover, Felicia Day’s Pissed, and the ATARI Car”

The fight with Felicia Day continues, as Jace gets the opportunity of a lifetime to record an ACTUAL character in Diablo 3 – it didn’t go as well as everyone had planned. Plus, Jace receives an ATARI automobile that you have to see to believe (something Todd can barely put up with).

“An Exclusive Look at PlanetSide 2 and Tay Zonday”

Jace continues to struggle in his Diablo 3 voice session, causing lead designer Jay Wilson to ask for more BLOOD. The SOE team behind PlanetSide 2 offers Director Todd Roy the chance of a lifetime. Jace’s Kaboom skills are put to the test against a team of ambitious gamers.

“Stan Lee Shreds Comics and Vernon Davis Wants the T-Rex”

49ers Tight End Vernon Davis visits the office to buy Jace’s T-Rex, offering a huge price! Matt Higby show Jace more from PlanetSide 2, while YTCracker and MC Lars try to get Jace to show some nerdcore skills by rapping live as Jace debuts his latest music video, “My Game Ain’t Done”.

“Vernon Davis’ Million Dollar Offer & PlanetSide 2 Exclusives”

Comic book legend Stan Lee returns and promptly destroys his ACTION COMICS #1. Meanwhile, Vernon Davis offers a HUGE offer for Jace’s T-Rex, only to have everything fall through in the end. Plus, Jace continues putting up ridiculous scores, pwning little kids in Kaboom.

“PlanetSide 2 Trailer, Jace’s Builds An Epic Arcade”

Jace begins building what is undoubtedly the greatest ARCADE Machine in the history of space and time, while the much balleyhooed PlanetSide 2 trailer Todd was hired to direct debuts…to much jaw dropping. Plus, the fight continues as Thousand Pound fighter Amy Johnson kicks ass.

“Boris Kodjoe, Hot Karate Woman, and The Ultimate Arcade Machine”

The Ultimate Arcade Machine is finally revealed, with pretty much every video game ever made! Get a look at Jace’s new toy and its insane features! Plus, Todd auditions a film and TV star to take Jace’s place as host of The Jace Hall Show, without Jace even knowing it.

“Defiance Gameplay Footage and Rick Fox vs Jace Hall”

Exclusive gameplay and all access behind the scenes look into Defiance, one of this year’s most anticipated shooters. NBA champion and celebrity actor Rick Fox makes his move to replace Jace as host, while Producer Todd makes moves on Rick’s hot sister.

“Rick Fox Takes Over SimCity! Gears of War Designer Married”

Actor and NBA champion Rick Fox scores an exclusive look at the top secret Sims City game at EA. Jace then crashes Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski’s celebrity packed wedding – the only problem is that none of Alison Haislip, Isaiah Mustafa or Randy Pitchford will let him in.

“Exclusive SimCity Preview, Jamie Lee Curtis Shows Off”

Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest are caught committing a MAJOR gamercode violation, while NBA star Rick Fox previews a never before seen SimCity demo. Plus, if you thought the annoying orange was annoying, wait until you see what Apple’s biggest competitor has cooked up.

“Atari vs. Intellivision AND Jace Hall vs. Eliza Dushku!”

ATARI founder Nolan Bushnell faces off against INTELLIVISION’s Keith Robinson in the final battle of which gaming platform is better. Then actress Eliza Dushku confronts Jace, proving why he shouldn’t question a girl’s game cred, in one of the most epic rap music videos ever.

“Kevin Pereira Flips Out and Debbie Gibson Reloads Electric Youth”

The Jace Hall Show gets an exclusive look at the hidden scandal behind why Kevin Pereira left Attack of the Show. Meanwhile, Debbie Gibson and Jace fight over Afterglow Headphones then think about making a music video together. Has Electric Youth been reloaded?