Hey, not sure if you all have heard, but Double Fine is opening up its annual "Amnesia Fortnight" process to voters over at the Humble Bundle site and Brad Muir (of Trenched aka Iron Brigade fame, as well as TNT veteran over here at Giant Bomb) has a game in the running that I personally find pretty intriguing. Its based around the aesthetic and general premise of Japanese monster movies from the 60s and 70s (Godzilla and Gamera spring to mind as noteworthy examples) and its currently in sixth place, so I'd like to stir up some votes before voting closes in two days. But hey, if that one doesn't strike your fancy you can vote for other stuff too (Echelon and The Flock mayhaps?), just want to highlight this awesome thing Double Fine is doing.

Oh, as a bonus, you get a look at a prototype Brad was involved with last year called "Brazen" which takes inspiration from the special effects of Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans, It Came from Beneath the Sea), so it seems Brad really likes giant monsters.

Here is that link again. Get your vote on!

I like the his concept, but I think there are better choices based on the video pitches. Although, I didn't vote because I wouldn't be able to take part by just owning a Mac.

I also think there are some better choices based off the pitches available. However, none of them are close to winning.

The heist card game sounds awesome, but it's near last.

Critter Verse also sounds awesome, also not even close.

Bad Golf sounds hliarious, but I think it's in the bottom 3.

I have no idea how Hack and Slash is running first, it seems ok, but not anything that I would consider spectacular.

Kaiju Piledriver sounds like it could be made into an awesome Random Action RPG(or turn based related to your movement like other roguelikes) that involves Godzilla and Wrestling. I'm all for it. And it only needs 500 more votes to be in the top 4.

Edit: Also, it's only $1 to vote. The top 4 are picked, so you can choose 3 others in addition to Kaiju Piledriver (Or 4 others /and/ kaiju piledriver, actually. But throw in a Piledriver vote), if you buy in with $7.04 currently, you'll also get the Brazen prototype mentioned above. Which is fantastic.

The Flock (Greg Rice's game) sounds soooo cool. It's a shame it's way out of the running. Guess it doesn't sound exciting enough to most people.

I'm not sure they handled this whole thing too well though. It seems like the ones that directly related their games to other super popular games are pulling way ahead of the others. Hack and Slash said Zelda, Autonomous said Minecraft, Spacebase said Dwarf Fortress, White Birch said Journey. Surfacing the numbers seems like a bad idea as well - it seems at this point, people are just voting for the ones that are winning and leaving a ton of great concepts in the dust. If they had disallowed the first and took out the second, I think it would have made for a much purer spirit of competition.

Though this whole thing is actually kind of a huge bummer to me... The thing I love about Double Fine is their creativity, and now that's being filtered through the general populace. I suppose it's out of necessity in order to have a better chance in making a mass-appeal game, but I still wish they'd just go with what they feel is right instead of doing this. It's clear from those polls that people want more of the same familiar stuff instead of things that might break a mold.

I was hoping this would be about Brad Shoemaker's latest game.

I want to play the bragging and fighting game. Black Lake's art reminds me of Princess Mononoke so i'm all for that.

There was a thread on this yesterday.

What's Brazen?

@EVO: Brazen is a Prototype of one of Brad Miur's previous Amnesia Fortnight pitches that won. It's a cross between the old school Clash of the Titans movie, monster hunter, and a game with good controls(Whcih monster hunter is not).

It's awesome.

@Kraznor: thanks for the support! I'm sad that KAIJU PILEDRIVER didn't make it, but I GOTTA BELIEVE that I have more game ideas, just like Parappa the Rapper. NEXT YEAR! :D!

@Eujin: I know I'm late to this party, but I love your description of BRAZEN! That is spot on. :D!

@Eujin: Monster Hunter only had bad controls for players that are bad at Monster Hunter.

@StarvingGamer said:

@Eujin: Monster Hunter only had bad controls for players that are bad at Monster Hunter.

Even as a fan of the series, I can honestly say that everything about Monster Hunter was super clunky and the controls (at least on the PSP games) were horrendously bad. Having to use the "claw" technique to navigate menus while fighting monsters was literally finger disfiguring. Anyone claiming they could play it comfortably should seek medical advice immediately.

@WinterSnowblind said:

@StarvingGamer said:

@Eujin: Monster Hunter only had bad controls for players that are bad at Monster Hunter.

Even as a fan of the series, I can honestly say that everything about Monster Hunter was super clunky and the controls (at least on the PSP games) were horrendously bad. Having to use the "claw" technique to navigate menus while fighting monsters was literally finger disfiguring. Anyone claiming they could play it comfortably should seek medical advice immediately.

I didn't have any discomfort playing Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii.

@WinterSnowblind said:

@StarvingGamer said:

@Eujin: Monster Hunter only had bad controls for players that are bad at Monster Hunter.

Even as a fan of the series, I can honestly say that everything about Monster Hunter was super clunky and the controls (at least on the PSP games) were horrendously bad. Having to use the "claw" technique to navigate menus while fighting monsters was literally finger disfiguring. Anyone claiming they could play it comfortably should seek medical advice immediately.

I played MHF2 and MHFU for a combined total of around 1800 hours, often in 4-6 hour sessions, and experienced absolutely no issues. That aside, I feel it's important to make a distinction between "bad controls" and "bad controller." The Monster Hunter controls on the PSP were limited by the design of the system itself, but were exactly what they needed to be given what Capcom had to work with.