penguinfan

This is one of those extraordinary (lit.) claims that makes me want to see something from a reputable source.
 
Fully willing to believe it. But that's a pretty big accusation that you want to be on firm ground before making.
 

No. Sorry, can't agree here. You can't just take other people's money without asking. Or, rather, you cannot take money people gave in good faith for another project, never do any real work to realise the project, and then funnel it into something else. It's dishonest and morally questionable at best. At worst, it's fraud.
 
Today, "you" get a positive result. Tomorrow, exactly the opposite.
 
Troels was complaining about big game developers warping and destroying Kickstarter. But this type of shit from shady and/or incompetent indies is far, far worse, in my opinion. At least a successful Zach Braff flick or Shenmue game gives the platform credibility. This just hurts everyone, especially if the average punter is no longer willing to use the service or purchase stuff that comes from it.

I never said we were smarter. I said we're more impatient now because current technology caters to that mindset more than it used to. We've always had the same potential we have now, it's just easier not to indulge it.

Any loyal listener to the SQH podcast has known about a lot of this for weeks, lol.
 
Which isn't to say that the SQH podcast is a replacement for the Kickstarter page, but maybe Pope should be issuing written TLDL (didn't listen) summaries of his contributions to the podcast...?

Personally I don't like Twitter. I find the converstions to be much harder to follow than even in KS page, which is shitty as well.  And I really don't follow Facebook that much either these days. I only check what my fiends and family members are up to, but anything else, I just don't can't muster that much interest anymore in FB.

Is it that obvious though? Every project, 99.9% of the time, runs into unforeseen circumstances. That's hardly a reflection of the professional caliber behind the project.

"OMG, backers think there's no money left and that it's not coming out and that
this is just like another game that also had problems, and, and..." ...and so what?
 
It's cool if backers do get to see stuff, but if there are certain backers acting like knuckleheads
and throwing their toys out of the pram and making all types of unwarranted gossipy assumptions,
and "sky is falling" predictions based on nothing, then screw em, I don't really see why they have
to be pandered to with carefully crafted updates... they don't have to see anything at all.
 
Let them worry over nothing and get an ulcer if they like, what difference does it make?
As long as a great game comes out at the end, that's all that matters.
 
Intelligent people understand what the Two Guys and their associates are trying to do. It is noted and appreciated. The dummies of this world make the most noise and say things specifically to rile people up and get a reaction - don't let them dictate the course of the conversation.

Confirmed! More info: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/tomorrows_lucasart_releases_confimed_so_far/page1
 
So far Monkey Island Special Edition, Knights of the Old Republic, Tie Fighter Special Edition, X-Wing Special Edition, Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis, and Sam & Max Hit The Road are confirmed. I'm not sure if the Tie Fighter and X-Wing special editions are just the CD Collector's Editions (of which I have both) or if they've been enhanced or updated in some way. I tend to the the former, but we'll find out tomorrow! Personally, I'm very happy that Tie Fighter and X-Wing are coming. I already have them, but it's good that they're getting some love. They were two of the very best non-adventure LucasArts games ever made.
 
It also reached Joystiq.
 
http://www.joystiq.com/2014/10/27/lucasarts-classics-reach-gog-com-on-october-28/

For real? Jeez, I can't even begin to... Just... WHYYYY? I guess Bobby Kotick is too busy counting the billions that Cowadoody rakes in to check the Humble Store, or else he'd know that the Linuxers are always the ones who are willing to spend the most.
 
Just a short anecdote about tight leashes and Jane Jensen being awesome and such: When the Pinkerton Kickstarter was still going, I contacted them about whether the physical copies of their games would require Steam. And about five minutes later I get a reply from Jane Jensen herself that was basically two whole paragraphs. So not only did I learn that Jane Jensen can type lengthy, articulate and friendly replies at a superhuman speed, she also let me know very straightforwardly that while Moebius was going to be DRM-free, the situation was different for Mystery Game X, since a major publisher is involved.
 
Now fast forward to two years later: Not only did she keep her word about Moebius, she apparently also managed to get the higher-ups to agree to not only release GK20 on places like GOG on day 1, but also convinced them to let her produce a limited, backer-exclusive quantity of physical copies of GK20. In her final studio update she said that she and Robert "fought very very hard for some things" and I would not at all be surprised if the DRM-free GK20 releases was somewhere near the top of that list of battles.

I'm pretty sure Activision is the one who shelled out the moolah to produce all of GK20th, they were the money bags before they shut that other dev down before POS and I doubt Jane or POS shelled their own money in order to do pick up the pieces and put it together. That's why they can't release Linux version of it for an example, as Activision wouldn't allow it.

First things first: Two thumbs up for getting the GOG version!
 

Also, I'm pretty sure that the patching process will be greatly sped up once they roll out Galaxy.
 
And secondly, I've been pretty impressed with the speed Phoenix takes for fixing things. This is from personal experience, because they somehow managed to misspell my name in the Moebius backer credits (I wonder... How is that even possible? I always assumed that these backer names would be copypastad into some .txt file, but apparently some poor sap had to type a couple thousand names.) I shot them a mail and it was fixed by the time the next patch rolled out a few days later.
 
I know a lot of people were ultimately disappointed with the games that came out of this campaign, but personally, I can say nothing but good things about them.

If this interview was part of a conspiracy to get Mr Moneybags into the adventure game market, it might be a pretty widespread conspiracy. Look at all those adventure game articles by the same author listed under "IGN's Year of Adventure" on the second page, hmm...

There could be a whole host of reasons. It wouldn't be in keeping with the Two Guys' (and Chris's) style to do this to drum up capital investment and/or an impending release, but, yeah, could be that.
 
There's also nothing to suggest that it wasn't just a fan, or someone following the kickstarter story who wanted to do a very easy, very quick piece of e-mail copy and paste to get something up on the site and earn his/her $1.75 for a puff piece. There's no analysis there - it's just like one of those "interviews" the fan sites used to do back in the day.
 
What concerns me more than anything is the cynicism. Free thinking and critique requires questioning people in the public eye. It doesn't mean assuming that everyone is up to shenanigans and everyone is out to screw people over. Ask those questions about Scott and Mark. But don't assume it's the default position. Because if you think that's how they operate, then why give them any money in the first place? I prefer Hanlon's razor - Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
 
If you genuinely think all journalists, businessmen and politicians are totally corrupted and have no desire to do good, then either:
 
a) do something about it and become a good journalist, businessman or politician; or
b) find your nearest doomsday prepper colony and ask about their long-term membership programme.

Well, geez. You get all lazy and don't check the SubChan for a few1 months, and then something like this goes and happens. Now the cheeping, winged piglets nesting in the tree behind my house suddenly make more sense.
 
After reading everything posted so far, I'm personally in the 'wait and see' camp here. I approve whole-heartedly of the idea of using the Sierra publishing brand constructively in this manner; the name certainly still means something even outside of our little cabal, and leveraging it in the right ways could have some interesting results. Somewhat more worrisome is the idea of classic Sierra adventure game franchises possibly being dug out of their graves and butchered in a misguided attempt at appealing to the nostalgia market. Will this be the case, or will this new King's Quest (and possibly other games) actually be quality spiritual successors to their namesakes? Only time, and sequels, will tell.
 
I will say up front that, personally, I hope that Space Quest doesn't get that treatment. Besides Troels' comment about the 2.5 Guys from Andromeda2 needing to be involved (which I agree with), I feel that SQ already got a  tasteful (and amazing) resurgence and send-off with the latest round of fan games. Incinerations, especially, is the perfect cap-stone to the series IMHO, even if it is technically 'just' a fan game. If this new Sierra were to try and ressurect the series without the Guys, I doubt they would be able to do as good a job as our own dedicated fans have done - we'd end up with a cash-grabby, sub-par Space Quest zombie instead of a series that, though essentially dead, is at least resting peacefully in a beautiful hand-carved mahogany casket after having been lovingly laid to rest at a lavish-yet-tasteful funeral attended by everyone who ever knew and loved it dearly3 , who even now cherish its heartwarming, un-zombified memory. I love the series too much to want to see that happen to it; if it comes to that, I'd rather let SQ lie and focus instead on Space Quest: The Next Generation (aka Spaceventure).
 
 
...buuuut, as for ports of the existing Sierra games to current OSes? *Hell* yes. Port the hell out of them. Whore those bad boys out to every smart phone, tablet, and VR headset there is. B) More exposure for the classics is never a bad thing. Nintendo figured this out - they sell their own classic library on their current-day consoles, and make money hand over fist from it. You don't have to do anything fancy to 'em - just keep circulating the tapes.
 
 
 
 
1) Eight. Eight months since I last posted. I need to get off my virtual ass more often.
 
2) We love ya, Josh, really.
 
3) I'm suddenly recalling the end scenes of Full Throttle here.

They're also pretty self-explanatory... mea culpa refers to Jar Jar Binks talking about his culpa,
and pro bono refers to people who are in agreement with the bulk of what U2's frontman has to say.

I could probably work up some code/engine stuff to throw up there if that sort of stuff interests anyone. Can't speak to the lack of other content really.

When asked about "lessons learned" from Moebius, the first thing Phoenix tech lead said is that they are using mocap for animations in GK20. Early reports from backers who got a glimpse say that the GK walk animations are already looking normal.

I'd be fine with a split down the middle like Broken Age or Broken Sword (talk about broken games. :P).

Right on, this is going to be a great year for adventure fans thanks to kickstarter. Go AGRM!

You had to pick one of the nastiest projects to be your representative sample... why not pick SpaceVenture as your prototypical crowd-funding project instead? It may be running late (which doesn't make it non-representative at all) but the team is very respectful of its backer community, and has hired key supporters rather than having them volunteer (and then abusing them)
 
If you think of SpaceVenture as a flagship crowdfunded project, then crowdfunding as a whole won't be ruined for you, and someday you may hear of another project that will inspire you to join in.
 
P.S. I don't store credit card info on kickstarter; they let you enter it separately each time if you want

It looks like Double-Fine has rescinded the review embargo stating that it is obviously "very exciting" for people and controlling that would be difficult. They've graciously allowed all reviews and let's play videos of the game asking only to keep yourself from spoiling the ending (which is GOOD, definitely keeps you wanting more). I highly recommend pre-ordering on Steam for those who haven't backed or bought it yet. For those interested, here's my review of the game I put on Steam:
 
 
 
As a backer of the Kickstarter for this game, I was given early access to Act I. So I won't spoil any of the story, but I will say that this is a very good adventure game experience, on par with the classics of the Golden Era (80s & 90s). I've been waiting for these games to come back and what better way to re-usher them in than with a brand new game from Tim Schafer himself, an adventure star who designed the likes of Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, and Day of the Tentacle. He also had a hand in designing the first two Monkey Island games by Ron Gilbert. These are adventure gaming classics. I've only played half the game so far, but the other half is coming in a few months as of this writing. That said here are my thoughts:

The Good
Story: Very intriguing. I was very invested in both the girl and boy's characters and was quite interested to see where their stories would take them and how they'd eventually intertwine. The experience was not unrewarding and definitely wasn't a disappointment! Writing: Tim's humour is expectedly very present in the game. His trademark sarcasm and wit are strewn throughout the dialogue and even into some of the look of the locations. It's a very bizarre and funny world Tim has created, but not too bizarre. Just recognizable enough to not seem too far out and unrelatable. Art style: The 2D painted artwork style is fantastic. I was initially skeptical in the beginning of Bagel's art style, once I'd seen some of his work in one of the hidden backer forum threads on the Double Fine forums. But I have to say that my skepticism was misplaced. This game has a lovely quality and very pleasing aesthetic. The artwork truly does resemble a beautiful painting come to life. And despite this it is absolutely brimming with detail in every scene. It's beautiful to just sit and watch, but it also works very well for the gaming experience and story. Some of the girl's locations actually reminded me of Curse of Monkey Island, even though the styles are wildly different. While the boy's space ship is unlike anything I've ever seen for a space ship. It's all very unique and with just a dash of familiarity in it as well. Animation: Truly charming and natural. Everything seemed so alive. Not like puppets on strings, but real characters that were moving on their own. Special care was given to these animations. Every one showed amazing attention to detail and added a great deal of character to everything that moved. Every character in the game had their own unique persona that spoke volumes about their motivations and intentions. One of my favourite aspects of the design of the game! Voice acting: Top notch. Every voice puts a life and an identity into their characters in a way that binds them to their personas where I could not justify turning voices off and just reading subtitles. The voices are truly special and unique and are really part of the experience in a huge way. So don't mute them. Soundtrack: Peter McConnell did a fantastic job with the soundtrack. The themes are very fitting and atmospheric, yet the themes for the boy and girl and their locales are separate and distinct from eachother, as should be expected. Peter doesn't disappoint. As a backer, I also received the soundtrack to the game which I immediately put straight on my player for my long drives to work. And it's played by a live orchestra. Can't beat that. Truly effective work. Bravo, Peter.
The "Wish-It-Was-Better":
Puzzles: The heart of the adventure game experience (combined with story). There are some great puzzles in this game, but as a veteran adventure gamer I was expecting a bit more of a challenge. Especially in the beginning, the puzzles were fairly simple. I assume to ease in new or rusty players. Luckily these simple "tutorial" puzzles didn't last long at all end began to become more complex soon enough, to my relief. As long as I was thorough, however, I never missed anything. Years of adventure gaming has taught me to leave no stone unturned and to keep a mental map image in my head of where certain characters, objects, and puzzles were located. This made it easier to deduce when and where I'd be needing certain objects or what objects I might need in certain areas. I ended up acquiring all of the objects I needed ahead of time before I needed to use them, which sped up the gameplay a bit. But that's due to my obsessive style of exploration. Other gamers might not share this and thus wouldn't run into the same problem, which would probably extend the experience for them. There was no so-called "moon logic" in this game, which many classic adventure games were infamous for. Personally, I never had a problem with extremely hard puzzles and enjoyed them, but many others (especially nowadays) don't share this feeling. Luckily, they won't be disappointed with this game as a result. Length: Keeping in mind that I have only played Act I, I still have to say it was somewhat shorter than I expected. If Act I is truly an exact halfway point in the game, then I can only hope that the puzzles in Act II are much more difficult. I wish it was longer. I'll have to put it away for a year or two after completing Act II and come back to it to see just how long the game actually is with a fresh perspective from beginning to end.
Overall
 
The world of Broken Age is an immensely pleasing and fun one to live in and explore. The story is gripping and mysterious. By the end of Act I you are left wondering just WHAT in the world is going on! It left me wanting more, but in a good way. Luckily we will be getting more! I encountered no bugs whatsoever. The game played extremely smoothly and there were no unexpected quirks. I was finding myself missing the skip dialogue function from the older LucasArts SCUMM engine games by pressing '.'. Instead it only lets you skip entire "cutscenes" of dialogue. Not a huge issue, as there never really was anything that I needed to skip specifically to get at something new from a repeated conversation. I would like a "retro" filter shortcut for the game to make it seem all pixelated and 90s looking if only for the novelty. ;)

I highly recommend this game to those who enjoy a good story in gaming and those who appreciate a work of art. Newcomers to the adventure genre who are mildly curious but fearful of ominously difficult puzzles needn't worry as everything is intuitive and logical, but still challenging enough I feel to give you a great experience without seeming too easy or too short. Adventure veterans may find the challenge a little lackluster, but what little it may lack in puzzle challenge it makes up for in pretty much everything else. It won't be the next puzzle masterpiece adventure game, but it is surely a very good start to the great Adventure Resurgence! It appeals to old and new fans alike and, I feel, is the perfect bridge to link the two together. Take us onward, Double-Fine! Here's hoping for more adventures after Broken Age!

erm, isn't dialog bubble for a red-suited space villain the ONLY legal usage for Comic Sans??

It is impressive, and I don't think you need to apologize for pointing it out ;)

Apologies if this has already been posted here, but I thought this was awesome:
 

 
The Two Guys are sent on a rescue mission to save Roger from the clutches of Activision.
 
 
Edit:
 
Oops, Just found out this was already posted (by the creator) here:
 
http://www.spacequest.net/index.php/topic/564-free-wilco/
 
Sorry!

A good interview with the dev for that Sword 'N' Board action-adventure
http://www.kickstartadventure.com/home/interview-with-robert-busey-creator-of-sword-n-board/

Do you remember the days when you’d hear the line “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this”? While there have been a couple action-adventure games covered in a “Currently Kickstarting” article, none have captured the charm of the early days of the likes of the original Legend of Zelda games. Sword ‘N’ Board looks to be one more game that will tickle your nostalgic bone. Instead of a point-and-click romp through a Sierra or LucasArts style game, you’re hacking and slashing your way through dungeons.