Battlemouth

Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw is the creator of the incredible animated video review series “Zero Punctuation” over at www.escapistmagazine.com If you haven’t seen it…you need to. My introduction to Yahtzee was via a link someone tweeted to one of his original videos on YouTube. I have been hooked ever since! Each Wednesday Croshaw puts up a new video game review for one of the hottest games at the time…His specialty is in the break down and (usually) subsequent destruction of said video game. You will laugh until you hurt. In addition to “Zero Punctuation” Croshaw also pens “Extra Punctuation”, a column on escapist that usually helps to balance out his video massacres. It was announced earlier today via @DarkHorse on twitter that Mr. Yahtzee’s debut novel “Mogworld” will be released with Dark Horse Books and looks to be absolutely fantastic! Harkening back to Brook’s Landover series mixed with a bit of Piers Anthony’s “On a Pale Horse” books; “Mogworld” sounds like it will be a story not to be missed! Here is the official release as well as the super slick cover art!

OCTOBER 23, MILWAUKIE, OR — Coming soon from Dark Horse Books: Critical sensation Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw (The Escapist’s Zero Punctuation Reviews) brings his signature acerbic wit to his debut novel, Mogworld.

Mogworld, a comedic fantasy novel with a twist, is the story of Jim, who, sixty years after dying in a magic-school mishap, is wrenched back to life by a renegade necromancer. All Jim wants is to die properly, once and for all – no easy task for a minor character in a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game).

Croshaw’s animated Zero Punctuation reviews, which package prescient criticism with frenetic animation, off-color humor, and rapid-fire delivery, have made him a household name in the gaming community. Although Croshaw has covered a lot of creative and critical ground in his short career-before Zero Punctuation, he gained a reputation as an independent game designer and blogger, and he recently produced the pilot for a TV series, Game Damage – Mogworld is his first foray into published fiction.

“I love Zero Punctuation, and I had asked Yahtzee to pitch us a book about video games,” explains Mogworld editor Rachel Edidin. “The last thing I expected was a novel draft! And the next thing I knew, I was taking the manuscript home with me-less to finish it than because I had to see what happened next.”

Says Croshaw, “I’ve been trying to write novels ever since I first read Hitchhiker’s Guide at the age of eight, so this is a pretty big deal for me, and I’m very happy to be working with Dark Horse on this. Mogworld is an idea I’ve been kicking around ever since those dark, unproductive three months I spent playing World of Warcraft. It’s a bit of a cynical take on MMOs and the standard Tolkienesque ‘fantasy’ setting.”

Mogworld is announced in conjunction with Croshaw’s first stateside appearance at this weekend’s GameX show in Philadelphia. Mogworld is set to arrive on shelves in August 2010.