The actual existence of a penny arcade may seem like pure fantasy, but the arrival of a game from the cult creators of beloved webcomic Penny Arcade seems nearly as fantastical. And yet their debut game has nonetheless hit Xbox Live (and PCs and Macs, too, via their self-owned Greenhouse digi-delivery system) with the mouthful title Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Epidode One

Penny Arcade began as a satirical web comic by writer Jerry Holkins and artist Mike Krahulik, better known by their respective illustrated alter egos, Tycho and Gabe. Their online strip was so replete with gamer lingo, references, concerns and in-jokes as to be quite impenetrable to the average North American. This, quite naturally, made them heroes to game geeks worldwide, who coalesced into a vibrant online community on the PA message boards. It became so popular that they claim two million daily pageviews, not counting the forums.

The pair leveraged this enthusiasm to launch PAX, an annual indie-minded expo that attracts 40,000 by celebrating gaming culture without the corporate overshill of the old E3 and the invite-only exclusivity of the new E3. As they say on their site, “it's a big party we throw for the gaming community in general and PA readers in particular.”

There are tournaments, culminating in the ridiculous weekend-long “Omegathon,” speaker panels, nerdcore concerts and this year’s fifth PAX will feature keynote speaker Ken Levine, the man behind game-of-the-year BioShock.

They also started Child’s Play, a charitable organization that gives millions worth of games and toys to sick kids hospitals.

Now Precipice is their gift to their fervent followers. Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and based on the comic in artistic style, snarky tone and game design (levels are even split into panels) the 1920s-set game includes the quip-happy creators as non-playable characters who accompany you on a quest to discover why a giant robot—known to fans as Fruit **** Prime—squashed your house. You will fight small fruit fuckers, battle hobos, slaughter mimes and wind up in a level called The Shithole.

The game’s first episode (out of four) is a fairly standard RPG in form with a compromised combat system—it splits the difference between old-school turn-based and new-school button-mashing— but is worth a (slightly overpriced) $20 download thanks to its impressive style and clever-yet-foul-mouthed humour, both of which are sorely lacking in the games industry.

Also, because you get to kill mimes!