tomimt

http://guysfromandromeda.tumblr.com/post/97978675743/nice-bit-of-fan-art-of-the-monolith-burger-clerk
 
:)

Here's a little something I just finished and you guys might recognize.

 

This is also an issue for me, especially after I got Netflix from where I have the bad habit of watchin multiple episodes in a row.

Here's a little something I just finished and you guys might recognize.

 

Here's a little something I just finished and you guys might recognize.

 

Here's a little something I just finished and you guys might recognize.

 

I actually do consider it to be more important for the success of SpaceVenture for the big sites to even cover anything related to Two Guys rather than just being 100% accurate on their developement history. And besides, if they'd wanted to, I'm sure Scott and Mark could have corrected the interviewer.

I actually do consider it to be more important for the success of SpaceVenture for the big sites to even cover anything related to Two Guys rather than just being 100% accurate on their developement history. And besides, if they'd wanted to, I'm sure Scott and Mark could have corrected the interviewer.

I'd argue, that Roberta, Al and Scott were good designers, as they were working in an era where there was no real, clear methods for developing games. Had they been bad developers they would have taken the first model they made and churn out all of their games within that model. Instead of doing that  they at least seemingly learned from their mistakes and managed to make the gameplay better during their carereers.
 
Roberta learning from her mistakes lead into the high points of King's Quest series as well as Al learning from his mistakes lead into the high points of Larry series. I think most Sierra titles do show the gradual rising awarness on how games could be designed to be better, rather than sticking stubbornly on a couple design ideas meant for different kinds of games.  In one interview Al Lowe stated, that after they had shipped Larry 5 he realized, that the old method he used to design it was more fitting on a parser based game, hence it became his easiest title, so for the next title he had to think his methods all over in order to produce a game more suitable to a point and click interface. The things he learned from those games lead into IMO the best Larry title, Love For Sail.

I have to say I agree with Frogacuda in that if SpaceVenture would be split, there would be a big propability that the second part of the story would be left unfinished, especially if the split would be done in order to get more developement funds. I just don't see half of SpaceVenture to have that kind of pull. As far I can tell i.e. Broken Sword 5's sales numbers picked up signifigantly after the second half of the game was published, as that was the point where people felt it was a safe purchase. Telltale can do well on episodic publishing, as people already know they are very likely to push out all the episodes because of their long history, but for new devs it might not be that simple. I suspect that Double Fine suffered from the episodic decision as well and that the sales after the completion of the game might be substentially bigger.

As far as adapting a series for newer audiences, what's so wrong with that? Just because it doesn't appease the diehard fans doesn't mean it's terrible. You can please some of the people all of the time, but you can't please all the people all the time, and all that. If they made a game that was geared exclusively towards the hardcore Sierra fan, it'd be an utter failure, and that's assuming that developers could even settle on a design that would be appealing to the fans of old. Bemoan the state of gaming all you want, but the fact is that the Grande Olde Sierra Titles™ are no longer the apotheosis of computer gaming. And if anything's been made clear in this thread it's that no one seems to agree on just what parts of the Sierra legacy are so great. Exactly why I think there's potential in this new venture: we don't know what's in store, and it could very well be an enjoyable adventure game.
 
As for the storytelling medium discussion, that is a good point, though I think it's more apropos in regard to Space Quest, and less so when applied to another series like King's Quest or Quest for Glory. Yes, there's a fair degree of humor and occasionally the absurd in both, but they also manage to tell some good stories. I would say that it's pretty clear that those technological advances allowed for better stories to be told, however. King's Quest went from simply rehashing fairy tales to stories like those found in King's Quest 5 and 6, which, while still referencing and using various bits of fairy tales and mythology, felt less like a mashup of Mother Goose and the Brothers Grimm. The same thing is true of Space Quest, though it definitely has always been more interested in the comical than telling a compelling story.

Sierra was pretty innovative. They did not only strive to use best tech possible, they also tried to advance the way stories were told in games. They also were among the first game companies to utilize the use of things like CD audio, full voice acting, sound cards. It might not look like much in today's POV, but back then those were humongous strides.

I don't like the idea that some indie developers ought to have been "consulted" first before the announcement. As for Blackthorne and Infamous Quests, I respect their passion and contributions, but they are far from top tier in terms of quality, even just among lower budget indie teams. There are far better, more appropriate teams for ActiVision to work with. I stress again that I respect Infamous Quests and am sure they will continue to improve.
 
Sometimes the adventure gaming community can feel small or cliquish if we visit only certain forums visited by a regular, relatively small group of people, but there are so many more adventure game fans/designers out there whom we don't hear from as much in these places. If we start suggesting that some people should, in part because they familiar from these forums, have "first dibs" or be given special info access, then it starts feeling a little like a form of cronyism. And that wouldn't be thinking of what's best for the games.
 
As for this news, I think it's great!! Finally the door has opened to creating new, official games using the Sierra IP. This is something I, as a longtime Sierra fan, had been waiting for. This could lead to great things. And, yes, it feels good to see that classic logo come alive again.

Everyone needs to stop throwing a hissy fit and see what comes from all of this. Just because it might not use the same interface as the classic titles doesn't automatically invalidate it. I think too many people around here are stuck wearing rose-tinted glasses, or else just can't enjoy anything that's not a Sierra adventure game. I love the classic titles as much as the next person, but what, exactly, is so wrong with the torch being passed? Just because it's not the original developers working on it? Get a grip and wait for some actualy screenshots or gameplay videos! At this rate the project will get shitcanned before the end of the year thanks to "lack of interest".

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.

Personally I find most modern low res games to have pretty terrible artistic aesthetics. Old low res games tend to look much better because the artists who worked on them knew how to work in those resolutions in order to bring out the most from the limited tech they had to work with. Sierra AGI games for an example often balance wery nicely with the technical limitations and stylis end result. Not all of them, but there's some surprisingly stylish looking stuff there.
 
Many modern low resolution games on the other hand look like they are done by people who try to imitatet the style but they don't necessarily have thr required know how on how to make the low resolution art look actually good. Of course there is good looking stuff there as well, but in many cases the art just looks like the developers were trying to hide the already poor quality of art by lowering the resolution instead of really working with the limitations of resolution. 

This is why I have continuing love/hate affair with the adventure community. Because going from text adventure, to parser, to point 'n click was somehow fine. But that's also it. "I only want to play point 'n click games from now on. And I can deal with graphics that have a resolution higher than 640x480, but I am probably still going to mention that I long for 'the good old days'." If Sierra On-Line had to deal with that shitty attitude whenever they started using a new engine, they'd have folded in the early 90's.
 
What makes a game an "adventure" is the focus on exploration and storytelling over action.  Every single time someone can't get that through his/her thick skull, a legendary adventure game designer has to pee a shard of glass. Screw the mouse and the parser. Just use whatever you need to make the game world and the story come alive. Give me something I want to explore every inch of and fawn over. Supposedly, only the 1990's wield that power. If you want to make a tradiotional game, cool with me. If you want to take the genre to new places, you're only really doing what's been done since it was first invented, up until the early 2000's.
 
If The Odd Gentlemen can make a different approach work, I say we let 'em. Technologically, we're in a different place than we were back when GK3 and KQ8 were forced to become low-polygon horrors. Cut them some slack.

Many people already guessed it, it will be a new King's Quest game, developed by the Odd Gentlemen (never heard of them). Also new Geometry Wars (never played it)
http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/12/die-triangles-sierra-is-back-with-new-kings-quest-and-geometry-wars/

You know what would be amazing? If this was legit and their KS campaign actually succeeds purely because of people who pledged $1 only to tell Activision how much they suck in the comment section. :D

New KQ title would be logical starting point though. It always was a showcase series for Sierra, so why not a showcase for new start as well.

That small knife episode never did bother me on Moebius and I do find it a bit funny that so many people did seem to snort a pea in their nostril because of it. Me disliking the game stems from entirely different things. Hell, I didn't even find it particulary sexist, just stupid where people did cry sexism (like the librararian deduction bit).

I'm a fan of his videos as well. And his site is not just about Rolfe's AVGN character anymore, he does other kinds of videos as well. His horror movie videos are always fun to watch, as he knows quite a bit about the stuff.

Standalone updated on the first post. Donwload, unzip and preferably run in windowed mode.

This is something little I've been tinkering on. I'm aiming at re-creating the whole mansion as well as the the island surrounding in 3D. The 3rd floor and the roof  is still missing from the mansion itself, but there's already some place holder stuff outside.

This is actually something I've been wanting to do for a good while now. Colonel's Bequest is propably my favourite Roberta Williams game and among my favourite Sierra games in general.
 
Let's hope DropBox let's you stream it. Use WASD and mouse to move. Space jumps.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/25945454/cb_mansion/CB_mansion.html
 
Here's a standalone version for Windows. I recommend using a windowed mode, as otherwise you'll need to alt tab out from the app. The web version is upadted to this as well. Now you can walk all the way upstairs with out need to jump on the stairs. You can also go to the attick and Fifi's room. Downstairs you can see the places for secrets doors.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/25945454/cb_mansion/bequest.zip

Standalone updated on the first post. Donwload, unzip and preferably run in windowed mode.