GDC 2009: Double Fine offers free Tim Schafer sim

A nod to Schafer's earlier work on LucasArts adventure games like Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango, Host Master and The Conquest of Humor puts players in the developer's tux mere minutes before the awards show. With absolutely no material prepared to keep the laugh-hungry crowd sated, Schafer is entirely reliant on players to poke and prod the environment in search of 22 different jokes using an array of 12 familiar graphic adventure game commands.

Although the graphic adventure genre has fallen into a rather small niche, Schafer and developer Klint Honeychurch clearly remember how to do the format justice. The game picks up right where the classic LucasArts adventures left off, from simple wordplay (try using the "pick up" command on Tim) to poking fun at the particular nature of the genre (you must use the "open" command on a folded piece of paper before you "look at" the words written on it). There are even a number of somewhat obscure references, including one to a joke of Schafer's that bombed the last time he hosted the awards show.

Unlike most of its predecessors, The Conquest of Humor can end at any time if players simply walk out of the dressing room door. Depending on how many jokes they discovered before players take the stage of the GDC Awards, they'll see one of several different endings ranging from the triumphant to the tragic.

For more on the GDC Awards (as well as the rest of the Game Developers Conference), check out GameSpot's continuing coverage of GDC 2009.