Penny Arcade opens online game store

Webcomic Penny Arcade hasn't been just a webcomic in years. What started as a thrice-weekly running commentary on gamer culture has become a nerdy cottage industry, spawning an international children's charity, the largest consumer-gaming convention in North America, and its very own episodic adventure game (developed with Hothead Games).

Now that Penny Arcade creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins are already making their own games, the pair today announced the next natural progression in the expansion of their empire: They're going to start selling games. Teaming up with Hothead Games once again, Penny Arcade today announced the formation of Greenhouse Interactive, a digital-distribution game store "dedicated to supporting independent game development worldwide."

The site was developed initially to give Hothead and Penny Arcade a place to sell their games, but according to Krahulik's latest post, "Once it was done we realized that it could actually be super useful to other independent developers." To begin with, Greenhouse will sell only Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One for the PC, Mac, and Linux ($19.95 each).

Currently, Greenhouse has only a single downloadable offering--an uncompressed Penny Arcade podcast about the game--meant to test the store's ability to dole out game-sized files to users. The first episode of Penny Arcade Adventures is set for simultaneous release on the PC, Mac, Linux, and Xbox 360 sometime this spring.