Our Sister Site Gamasutra, along with Game Developer Magazine, has had Hothead COO Joel DeYoung write a post mortem of their first Xbox Live Arcade title Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 1. It discusses what worked, what didn't, and what they're doing to better their first effort in upcoming episodes.

"Since virtually no one at Hothead had worked on adventure games before, it was like the blind leading the blind with no one having intuition about how the current story translated into game length. This was one of the factors that led us to work with LucasArts adventure game veteran Ron Gilbert.

"A final issue was managing who was in charge of certain decisions. As we progressed, it became clear that the dividing line between their responsibilities and Hothead's was blurry.

"For example, the nonlinear dialogue trees in the game are all script: Jerry wrote every word. But finding your way through the dialogue is gameplay, and the type of information that gets revealed, reiterated, or emphasized during each dialogue encounter is key to making a solid adventure game and to ensuring that the player is always aware of what she or he needs to be doing."

Read the entire article at the link below.

Source: Gamasutra - Exclusive: Behind The Scenes of Penny Arcade Adventures