Peter Molydeux's "MolyJam 2012" kicks off at the end of March

Black and White

Peter Molyneux OBE is the veteran designer behind games like Populous and Black and White who recently left Lionhead and Microsoft to work on secret projects with a new company, 22 Cans. Peter MolyDEUX is a twitter personality who describes himself "a twisted parody based on the legendary British Game Designer." He regularly tweets comedy game ideas, like one for a game "in which you control a waterfall and must travel the world hiding outdoor passages from adventurers."

Another one casts you as "a small girl flying a talking kite. The kite seems to know about a upcoming major terrorist attack and floats towards clues." Occasionally, the tweets are feature ideas. "What if every bullet you fired hits the floor & spends 10 minutes evolving into a fast paced creature that will chase you down for revenge?" asks one.

Some of the ideas, while funny, are actually pretty interesting, or at least bizarre enough to spark new ideas. Joystiq spotted a tweet from Double Fine's Anna Kipnis calling for a game jam based on Molydeux's tweets. The idea has quickly taken off.

The " MolyJam " is scheduled to take place on March 31 and April 1 in Brighton and San Francisco. You can get involved online if you can't make it to the events. Molydeux says the jam is open to everyone. "Join the movement, the time has come," he says. The sign-up sheet already lists dozens of devs from around the world. The real Peter Molyneux is also listed as a participant.

Vox Games have a "a source close to the matter " that suggests the real Peter Molyneux could turn up at the Brighton meet to lend his support to the jam. His Twitter parody self won't be attending, though.

Molyneux has responded to a few of Molyduex's ideas on Twitter recently. "My first mobile game will be free but if you pay a little then the NPC's will be extra nice and complement you more while playing," tweeted Molydeux.

"That's not a bad idea actually" Molyneux replied.

We keenly await the mad collection of surreal, experimental games that'll surely emerge in the aftermath of the MolyJam on April Fools' Day.

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.