Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster Message Board

#sesamestreet When Microsoft announced earlier this year that Double Fine would be making a Kinect-based Sesame Street game, many wondered if the developer studio behind Psychonauts and Brutal Legend were leaving their own original ideas behind for a lucrative license. But Nathan Martz, project lead on Sesame Street: Once Upon A Monster, says that it was just the opposite. The game that became Once Upon A Monster actually started internally at Double Fine as an independent project. That fact and more came to light when I e-mailed Martz some questions about the creation of the new Sesame Street game. He discusses how he and his Double Fine colleagues came to grips with creating a game that would star some of the most recognizable characters in the world and why even the worst kids' video games are triumphs of a sort. More »

This post was brought to you by the letter "D," which stands for "Double Fine," "developer," "diaries" and "delicious cookies." This post was also brought to you by the number 3, which stands for, uhm, the number 3. Look, there's a reason they didn't ask us to make the Sesame Street game, okay?

The first DLC pack for Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, Unidentified Furry Objects, is now available for download via Xbox LIVE Marketplace. The new chapter teams up players with Elmo, Cookie Monster, Grover and crew for a new storybook-based, Kinect-infused adventure...

Double Fine's Kinect-powered Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster has a new downloadable chapter available starting today, "Unidentified Furry Objects." Oddly enough, today's letter is F, as Xbox.com is currently listing the DLC as free of charge. Previously the DLC was priced at 400 MS Points.

In "Unidentified Furry Objects," the Sesame Street gang greet some extra-terrestrials who land on Earth and then help them on a special mission -- well, the gang save for Oscar. We're pretty sure he's not the best ambassador for the block, you know?

We can tell you how to get, how to get more Sesame Street. Warner Bros. has announced the first DLC for Double Fine's Once Upon a Monster: "Unidentified Furry Objects." In this chapter, the residents of Sesame Street encounter some mysterious muppets who fall from the sky in an adorable spacecraft.

What are their intentions? Do they come in peace? Do they like cookies? You'll have to download the 400 Microsoft Point chapter on November 22 to find out more about these mysterious travelers. In the meantime, you can examine the eyewitness pictures of the aliens' first encounter with human muppets, in our gallery.

Ryan and Patrick creep through Double Fine's decidedly child-oriented not-Muppet game.

Two important Xbox accessories will enhance your enjoyment of a new demo available on Xbox Live right now: a Kinect (required) and a child (optional). The demo of Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster will probably be a more magical, heartwarming experience if you experience it with an authentic youngster, but we won't look askance at you if you take a de facto adults-only trip into the storybook world.

Your Kinect may look askance at you, however, if you get too close to the TV or step outside its view.

It take long time, but Bloggy Monster finally allowed to write article for Joystiq again. Finding freelance work really brutal sometimes. Anyway, Bloggy Monster here to tell you about new video with Tim Schafer and Bloggy Monster personal idol, Cookie Monster.

Tim drop cookie in Xbox, then Cookie Monster EAT Xbox! Oh, Cookie Monster, you still got it.

I'll let you in on a little secret about me and Double Fine's next game, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster -- I played it back at E3, but unfortunately let my preview writeup fall to the wayside as the days after the big show continued. What's more shameful is that it was essentially the best game I played at E3, so I was more than happy to check out a new area at Gamescom and get a second opportunity to speak about it. A chance for redemption, if you will.

Luckily, nothing has changed, and Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster remains a magical experience two months later.

Warner Bros Interactive went gritty at Gamescom this year with new screens from Batman: Arkham City, Gotham City Impostors, Lord of the Rings: War in the North and, most gruesome of all, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster. We still can't believe they're marketing those fluffy, brightly colored puppets to children. The humanity, WB. Check out all the WB galleries from Gamescom right here -- if you dare.

Good news, Joystiq-reading parents! For once, we've got a post that you can actually show your kids without fear! There's no violence and no foul language in this new Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster trailer after the break, and we're doing our level best to stay clean in this text we're typing right now.

We were already charmed absolutely to pieces by what we've seen of the game, but this trailer includes standout moments like Cookie Monster offering some heartfelt encouragement, and a minigame in which you rub an adorable bunny-type monster's tummy. What else do you want from a video game? What else could there be?

Hey, did you guys know that Once Upon a Monster was originally intended to be a zombie game? Yup, it's true -- this behind-the-scenes footage of Tim Schafer pitching the idea to a top Warner Bros. exec proves it.

What Is Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster? A Kinect game featuring popular characters like Elmo and Cookie Monster, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster includes a variety of stories that have kids getting moving while learning...

Kinect demo of this monstrous Sesame Street title.

Join Elmo and Cookie Monster on a highly entertaining family-friendly adventure!

Classic Sesame Street characters join Double Fine's Tim Schafer on the stage to show off the Kinect functionality during Microsoft's Press Conference at E3 2011!

Sometime it hard to be Bloggy Monster. But then Bloggy Monster remember there new screens and concept art for Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster (that new game for Microsoft arm-wavy box). Then Bloggy Monster look at art in rich, web 2.0 gallery and Bloggy Monster happy again! Bloggy bloggy bloggy!

#feltup Creating a brand-new official Muppet character is a task few people in this world have the opportunity to undertake. Double Fine Productions Scott Campbell is one of those people, and this is what his effort has wrought. More »

The characters of Sesame Street embark on a journey with Xbox Kinect.

"One of the things that I'm personally really passionate about -- the reason I'm in this industry -- is that I want to see our medium be more than it is already," Double Fine's Nathan Martz, and project lead on Once Upon a Monster, confided in me at a Microsoft press event yesterday. "Our human experience is so broad and yet our industry deals with such a narrow slice of it."

Martz explained that the project was conceived with the express purpose of generating joy. "I wanted to explore emotions," Martz said of his goal going into development. "For me, the best one is joy. The early example of this is a girl I was dating at the time. She asked me if I had a 'happy' song, a song that you hear and it just makes you feel great. Everybody has a happy song, and that was originally the name of this project: 'Happy Song.'"

I'll admit it: Playing a bit of Once Upon a Monster was a happy experience, one I think would be even more so for families and kids a little younger than myself.

Double Fine's take on Elmo could be the start of something great.