Jared

Okay, this is actually my issue with SQ6... not the new characters in Starcon. They're all fine (as much as I got to interact with them anyway) The way they're handled. Yes, SQ5 brought in character interaction with the other games hadn't had - notably lacking in SQ4. But... and this is the important but.. you were properly introduced to the entire cast. The player gets introduced to Quirk, Bea, Drool, Flo, WD40 and Cliffy in ways that make perfect sense and we get to know them along with Roger.
 
In SQ6 Roger is sent to the Deep Ship and... erm. Stuff happens. Off screen. He knows who Kielbasa, Stellar, the robot dude, the doctor, the hologram, those two guards are. Wow. Great for him. I have NO IDEA. All the introduction I get is basically Roger saying "Hey, what's up?" It baffles me entirely - especially with Stellar. Josh took issue with Roger having a girlfriend character looming over the series. So he ditches her and then introduces ANOTHER girlfriend character that he's gotten involved with before the game starts?
 
That's what I meant when I called it an alienating game. I have to wonder if some sequence on the Deep Ship was meant to precede Polysorbate VX because I can't imagine anyone could have thought giving so many characters no introduction whatsoever was a good idea .

Okay, this is actually my issue with SQ6... not the new characters in Starcon. They're all fine (as much as I got to interact with them anyway) The way they're handled. Yes, SQ5 brought in character interaction with the other games hadn't had - notably lacking in SQ4. But... and this is the important but.. you were properly introduced to the entire cast. The player gets introduced to Quirk, Bea, Drool, Flo, WD40 and Cliffy in ways that make perfect sense and we get to know them along with Roger.
 
In SQ6 Roger is sent to the Deep Ship and... erm. Stuff happens. Off screen. He knows who Kielbasa, Stellar, the robot dude, the doctor, the hologram, those two guards are. Wow. Great for him. I have NO IDEA. All the introduction I get is basically Roger saying "Hey, what's up?" It baffles me entirely - especially with Stellar. Josh took issue with Roger having a girlfriend character looming over the series. So he ditches her and then introduces ANOTHER girlfriend character that he's gotten involved with before the game starts?
 
That's what I meant when I called it an alienating game. I have to wonder if some sequence on the Deep Ship was meant to precede Polysorbate VX because I can't imagine anyone could have thought giving so many characters no introduction whatsoever was a good idea .

Man I loved Commander Keen. I think that's Keen 5 in the icon, though. I'm sure 4 was The Secrets of the Oracle and 5 was Goodbye Galaxy. Also made me realise how hard games used to be because I've gone back and can't play Keen to save myself :(
 
Oh, sorry, I think I got sidetracked. :P

Both of these views are true. :) Roger is definitely an accidental hero by nature - with a downright uncanny knack for finding himself knee-deep in danger time and again - but at the same time, there have been numerous occasions when he *had* the opportunity to escape, but chose not to. To wit:
 
SQ1: Roger escapes from Kerona with the current coordinates of the Deltaur in hand. Logically, most people would probably have made straight for the nearest Starcon facility and called in the authorities. Roger, however, in an unusual burst of insight, realizes that the Sariens could move at any time and that taking the time to find help might let them get away. Instead, he goes after them himself. This instance is particularly notable in that it's A> the first time Roger ever actually takes heroic action of his own accord, and B> his lack of hero experience at this early stage makes this more or less a suicide mission.
 
SQ3: Roger confronts a bunch of dangerous software pirates to rescue a pair of software designers he's never even met, and has no real reason to care about. Possibly justified in that there doen't seem to be any authorities in the backwater corner of the galaxy he's currently puttering around in, but still, he's risking his neck for a couple of strangers.
 
SQ5: Roger enrolls in Starcon Academy with the express purpose of becoming a starship captain. This says a lot about how his disposition towards heroism has advanced over the years; he's now actively seeking out the chance to make the step up from "shmuck" to "hero" (though admittedly, he's probably doing it more for the career upgrade and the respect than a desire to get himself into danger).
 
SQ6: Roger once again sticks his neck out to save someone, this time a close personal friend. :) This one in particular really hits home with me, because it shows how far he's willing to go to help someone he genuinely cares about, as opposed to just "the galaxy" or random programmer weirdos.
 
Incinerations: I won't go into details on this one just in case some of you haven't finished the game yet (hmm, this board needs a 'spoiler' tag to black out text), but those of you who have know exactly what moment I'm talking about. The moment, near the end of the game, where after years of being something of a cowardly lion, a personal crisis and a pep talk from a friend give Roger the epiphany that finally pushes him from semi-reluctant protagonist to Big Damn Hero. Cue the single most awesome endgame chapter in adventure game history, where our hero shows us the sheer amount of ass he can kick when properly motivated. :D
 
Point being, Roger is (or was) definitely not 'into' the hero business at first - but I think the games do a good job of showing that the spark of heroism was there to begin with, and over time it evolved him into something more than just Joe Blow in the wrong place at the wrong time. ;)

Hmm, I dunno, I think he has a bit of heroism in him. Essentially, every time you get a ship you have the freedom then to NOT do the right thing but Wilco doesn't. Most obvious example being that he didn't need to rescue the Two Guys from ScummSoft.
 
Maybe that's why Vohaul is popular with fans? Because he's obsessed with killing Roger it gives the character a clear motivation to actually fight back, as in that case it's simple self-preservation to take him down.

Space Quest was not my first computer game but it was the first game I fell in love with. The last two weeks with all of the interviews and commentaries I revisited that part of my youth a little bit. I watched one of the play throughs on youtube with my 7 year old son watching over my shoulder. I was amazed at how excited he was about it considering the pretty awful graphics compared to what he is used to.
 
So I got a copy of the game and installed it on a spare XP laptop we had (installing that game on modern machines is quite an adventure in its own right, thank you whoever built those modern installers...).
 
I soon realized that this wasn't just entertainment for him but also education. The only games he has ever played only involve a Wii motion controller or maybe a PS3 or 360 gamepad where everything is more or less intuitive. Now all of a sudden all of that is stripped away. Moving the character is still fairly intuitive but now everything the character has to do requires thought, spelling and typing from him, skills he doesn't really have mastered yet. On top of that, the early part of SQ1 is timed, so he needs to learn to do those things quickly.
 
I'm so thrilled that not only do I get to share a part of my childhood with my son but that he also gets to learn valuable skills that he needs for life in the process.

I've channeled all that excess post-Kickstarter energy into revisiting adventure games I haven't played in ages (or at all, for that matter). So far, my selection has included Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkess, Sam and Max Hit the Road, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Next up is the iOS version of Broken Sword.
 
It's like methadone to replace my addiction to checking the Kickstarter numbers every three minutes for a month straight. ;)
 
Jess

Waiting for the next Living Concept Art, that is. Mark's tweeted about the cool new animations, Scott's said that they're working on it and it's coming soon.... I dunno, I was expecting it to be out by now. I'm half antsy because I want to play it (of course) but half because I think it would seriously help any PayPal donations and get us some of those sweet stretch goals.
 
At the same time I realise the last few days of the campaign were completely nuts so it makes sense for it to be late and I don't want them to rush it if it isn't what they want to release... GAH! YOU ARE TEARIN' ME APART MARK AN SCOTT!
 
Actually, I think it's the whole campaign has got me over excited. I'm so nostalgic over Space Quest. Every KS that came along I was thinking "Oh, yeah, it's okay. But wouldn't it be awesome if there was a SPACE QUEST Kickstarter?" I literally haven't been this excited over anything since Christmases when I was ten and under. It's MADNESS.
 
Anyway, I am reeeeally looking forward to LCA5. Erm, which I guess isn't a big revelation...

Waiting for the next Living Concept Art, that is. Mark's tweeted about the cool new animations, Scott's said that they're working on it and it's coming soon.... I dunno, I was expecting it to be out by now. I'm half antsy because I want to play it (of course) but half because I think it would seriously help any PayPal donations and get us some of those sweet stretch goals.
 
At the same time I realise the last few days of the campaign were completely nuts so it makes sense for it to be late and I don't want them to rush it if it isn't what they want to release... GAH! YOU ARE TEARIN' ME APART MARK AN SCOTT!
 
Actually, I think it's the whole campaign has got me over excited. I'm so nostalgic over Space Quest. Every KS that came along I was thinking "Oh, yeah, it's okay. But wouldn't it be awesome if there was a SPACE QUEST Kickstarter?" I literally haven't been this excited over anything since Christmases when I was ten and under. It's MADNESS.
 
Anyway, I am reeeeally looking forward to LCA5. Erm, which I guess isn't a big revelation...

Waiting for the next Living Concept Art, that is. Mark's tweeted about the cool new animations, Scott's said that they're working on it and it's coming soon.... I dunno, I was expecting it to be out by now. I'm half antsy because I want to play it (of course) but half because I think it would seriously help any PayPal donations and get us some of those sweet stretch goals.
 
At the same time I realise the last few days of the campaign were completely nuts so it makes sense for it to be late and I don't want them to rush it if it isn't what they want to release... GAH! YOU ARE TEARIN' ME APART MARK AN SCOTT!
 
Actually, I think it's the whole campaign has got me over excited. I'm so nostalgic over Space Quest. Every KS that came along I was thinking "Oh, yeah, it's okay. But wouldn't it be awesome if there was a SPACE QUEST Kickstarter?" I literally haven't been this excited over anything since Christmases when I was ten and under. It's MADNESS.
 
Anyway, I am reeeeally looking forward to LCA5. Erm, which I guess isn't a big revelation...

Waiting for the next Living Concept Art, that is. Mark's tweeted about the cool new animations, Scott's said that they're working on it and it's coming soon.... I dunno, I was expecting it to be out by now. I'm half antsy because I want to play it (of course) but half because I think it would seriously help any PayPal donations and get us some of those sweet stretch goals.
 
At the same time I realise the last few days of the campaign were completely nuts so it makes sense for it to be late and I don't want them to rush it if it isn't what they want to release... GAH! YOU ARE TEARIN' ME APART MARK AN SCOTT!
 
Actually, I think it's the whole campaign has got me over excited. I'm so nostalgic over Space Quest. Every KS that came along I was thinking "Oh, yeah, it's okay. But wouldn't it be awesome if there was a SPACE QUEST Kickstarter?" I literally haven't been this excited over anything since Christmases when I was ten and under. It's MADNESS.
 
Anyway, I am reeeeally looking forward to LCA5. Erm, which I guess isn't a big revelation...

Waiting for the next Living Concept Art, that is. Mark's tweeted about the cool new animations, Scott's said that they're working on it and it's coming soon.... I dunno, I was expecting it to be out by now. I'm half antsy because I want to play it (of course) but half because I think it would seriously help any PayPal donations and get us some of those sweet stretch goals.
 
At the same time I realise the last few days of the campaign were completely nuts so it makes sense for it to be late and I don't want them to rush it if it isn't what they want to release... GAH! YOU ARE TEARIN' ME APART MARK AN SCOTT!
 
Actually, I think it's the whole campaign has got me over excited. I'm so nostalgic over Space Quest. Every KS that came along I was thinking "Oh, yeah, it's okay. But wouldn't it be awesome if there was a SPACE QUEST Kickstarter?" I literally haven't been this excited over anything since Christmases when I was ten and under. It's MADNESS.
 
Anyway, I am reeeeally looking forward to LCA5. Erm, which I guess isn't a big revelation...

Scott has said they'll release a demo when they're well into development proper. He didn't go into any detail, though.
 
EDIT: Well, he said it in a context that suggested it would be a stand-alone episode similar to the SQ6 demo, rather than a chunk of the game.

Sorry for being lulzy....
 

 

 

 
I really can't help myself
 

Yeah, somehow over the last four years or so I went from having no problem with ripped graphics to disliking the laziness of them. Which is weird because I STILL rip graphics occasionally, but I use it as a point of reference for how a walkcycle works or how something has been shaded to create a look that I enjoy because I don't know much about graphic design at all.
 
I think the ripped graphics also allow something to be put together quickly and encourages laziness with other steps, like writing and puzzle design from my experience playing these kinds of games. Dedicating a lot of time to animating characters and drawing backgrounds makes you look at the purpose you're making them for and I think encourages better design.
 
They can be good when used thematically, though, like Akril did in her 'Adventure' series, though.

Well, after seeing all the cool work from my fellow team members that went into VSB, I've been totally unable to respect the idea of someone wanting to "make a game" by using a resourcer viewer to steal stuff from existing games and stitching them together again with a bunch of possibly half-assed puzzles. I must admit, I don't really mind the legal issues. I'm mainly offended by the whole concept because it is incredibly lazy, and because it's completely screwed-up to design an adventure game by going "Well, this SQ6 screen has this hot spot..." Annoyingly, some fans don't seem to mind this; a while ago, Datadog told me that a fan complained about "Incinerations" ignoring SQ4.5 canon. Canon?! What canon? All this artwork and this music were made to be used in a different context. To claim that such a game has a spot in the canon is completely ridiculous.
 
Truth be told, I've never played any of these games, and I honestly don't intend to. The above reasoning keeps me from ever wanting to try them out.

Sorry for being lulzy....
 

 

 

 
I really can't help myself
 

Maybe 'Vohaul' is like 'Smith' on Xenon? :P