Today is a big day, as the creators of the internet’s biggest webcomic — which just so happens to be about videogames — are releasing their own game based in the world of Penny Arcade.



Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One (longest title ever!) is now available to download via Greenhouse for Windows, Mac, and Linux users, and via Xbox Live Arcade for 360 gamers, for US$19.95 or 1600 Microsoft points.



Set in a Victorian, steam-punk version of the PA universe, in a town called New Arcadia, OTRSPOD (longest acronym ever!) lets players create there own character and play alongside Gabe and Tycho as they solve mysteries through their Startling Developments detective agency. The game is a mash-up of different genres, blending traditional turn-based role-playing game elements (think Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest), with classic point-and-click adventure games (think the Sam & Max and Monkey Island series’).



The best part of the game — of course, aside from the amazing art of Mike Krahulik and ingenius writing of Jerry Holkins — is the Episode One at the end of the title. This is just the first in a series of episodic games that will be released periodically throughout the year, each continuing the story of the Startling Developments detective agency. What traditional games are to films, these games are to television.



If you want to get a primer as to what Penny Arcade Adventures is like, check out the Greenhouse site, which features a four-page comic set in the universe as well as a trailer for the game. Meanwhile, I’m going to get back to unraveling the mystery of the terrifying Fruit Fucker.

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