Dat Engineer

Seconded. These hangouts seem to keep getting better and better. 
 
(Incidentally, this is something I wish I'd brought up during that last topic.)

I made suggestion on yonder Google Plus page that the next hangout could be either about maybe the Sierra adventure game series as a whole (both music, story, and gameplay) or the Space Quest minigames/arcade sequences... though I suppose the SQ Olympics already covered that.
 
As an avid Sierra gamer, I'd quite like to do justice to Conquests Of The Longbow and Colonel's Bequest.

We might also get Pushing Up Roses (of That Guy With the Glasses fame) to join us. Interest was expressed on Twitter.

KS appoved. Launcing 1/22.

Well, I'm definitely not a morning person, but I'll still try to be there.

Scratch that Monday business. Here's a new suggestion: next Saturday!
 
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Space+Quest+Superfan+Music+Hangout&iso=20130126T21&p1=69&ah=4

Hi, guys! In light of recent developments with Ken Allen joining the SpaceVenture cast as official musician, it might be time to relive the glory days of the Superfan Hangouts. We were talking about doing a Music Hangout where we each bring our favorite piece and talk poetically about it. And Ken Allen himself is interested in joining us as a special guest, if we can nail down a time.
 
I know it's short notice, but how does people feel about this Monday, at our standard time?

I like that onset: Finish something creative. Even if it's just a particularly well-formed poo. You could be the first ass-sculptor! Wouldn't that be creative?
 
Okay, maybe I should be quiet now.
 

Chase me down? I've never heard of anyone chasing me down; it's usually the other way around. Here's a quick way: chat me up on Google Plus; it shows up on my phone. Daniel Stacey and I use that as an SMS (text message) surrogate.
 
And wow, I'm happy Steel Sky got under your skin. For a game with such a troubled development history, it's a wonder it turned out the way it did. Then again, maybe it helped the mood. ;)

That's true, but it's not about making it more funny - it's about how, in Larry's case, *not* having its trademark art style makes it *less* funny.
 
LSL is *meant* to look the way it does. The art style is perfect for the game's tone and sense of humor - it's like finding the perfect 'look' by mix-and-matching articles of clothing until you find an outfit that suits you just right. The cartoonish exaggeration of the later games is exactly what the series *should* look like - not because the style is inherently funnier than other styles, but because the style suits Larry so perfectly that using anything *else* is a waste of potential.
 
Imagine, if you will, a dapper gentleman who attends a party wearing ragged hobo clothes, or a beautiful woman who only dresses in drab, frumpy outfits. The presentation of something is as important as the substance itself - choosing the wrong way to showcase it can work against the intended effect, or even derail it entirely. Regardless of your personal taste, certain styles say certain things - realistic styles tend to say "drama and seriousness", while more exaggerated styles tend to say "funny, levetic, and whimsical". There's a reason that The Walking Dead is shot as a live-action series, while Family Guy is cartoony and stylized - doing it the other way around simply doesn't work.
 
Various styles have certain expectations in the minds of the audience - as a writer/designer/artist, you *must* play by those rules if you want your work to achieve the desired effect. You can decide not to if you really want, but the resulting work simply won't be as good as it *could* have been - and as a fan of all forms of creative media, that always makes me sad. :(
 
One last comment on the Larry series in particular - the original manual for the first Leisure Suit Larry game, way back in the late 80s, had a couple of sketches of Larry meant to demonstrate his dorky character (and lack of fashion sense). Those sketches are done in the *same art style* as the later Larry games - Larry has the same short stature, the same cartoonishly big head and nose, misproportioned limbs, etc. In other words, Larry *already* looked like that in Al Lowe's head even *before* he made the concious choice to apply that art style to the games - the only reason the early games had a 'realistic' style at all is because the lack of available colors and pixel resolution made any sort of stylization next to impossible.
 
As for Saturday Night Live and Monty Python...they, too, have styles that suit them, which is what makes them good. Monty Python is absurdist humor, which benefits from the live-action portrayal - the bizzare, nonsensical things they do for laughs are funnier *because* everything otherwise looks totally normal and realistic. SNL, meanwhile, is mostly classic sitcom-style sketch comedy, which works best with a subdued, realistic style as opposed to a more exaggerated look (which would draw attention away from the dialogue, where most of the humor comes from).
 
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to scroll up a couple of posts and look at that screenshot again. :ph34r:

Great job on the last big push, guys! Hero-U is already above $400K with 4 hours to go. This is a great year for Sierra enthusiasts.

Thanks for your reply!
 
Great to be able to talk to other Space Quest fans...
 
I know what you mean as far it not being like 100% realistic...
probably the wrong wording from me there, because yeah, it's always like a comic book style in some way...
 
What I mean more accurately then is that previous ones had fewer exaggerated features...
 
For example in something like Space Quest 4, in the main gameplay and in the cut scene parts, his body is always in proportion... he never has like a giant head compared to a small body, or like an impossibly large cartoon jaw or anything like that.
 
While I think Ace Hardway has more of those kind of exaggerated cartoon features...
Not that that's a bad thing, but I was surprised that it seemed be drawn in that direction.
 
It reminds me a bit of Monkey Island, where in the later installments he became more cartoony, while in close-ups in the first couple of games and on the box art, etc.
he was drawn as if he was more of a "real" person.
 
I guess I mean the difference between this --
 

 
...where that could be pretty much a scene from a movie, but just drawn as an illustration,
and this --
 

 
...where he seems less like a "normal" proportioned person...
 
Or during the game, this --
 

 
...where again, he looks pretty much like "normal" person, compared to --
 

 
...where he looks more like a cartoon to me...
 
Again, I don't think it's like a totally bad thing... I guess I'll have to wait until I see Ace in other environments and everything until I can get a real feel for what the overall style is like...
seeing him in a few grimy bars will probably make me more at ease with the style!

Great job on the last big push, guys! Hero-U is already above $400K with 4 hours to go. This is a great year for Sierra enthusiasts.

Though this is obviously an exception rather than the rule, some writers can be very prolific with genres. Remember that Roald Dahl, who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, also penned the screenplay for 007 film You Only Live Twice.

Thing is, though, they kept rehiring him. And I'm not sure the guy had that much stroke in the higher echelons of command.
 
Then again, it could be yet another plot inconsistency and yet another example of sloppy, amateurish writing. :angry:

This. It's exactly why I thought the mention of Syndrome from The Incredibles was a good one; Mr. Incredible was undoubtedly a hero, but he also was a little self-absorbed. Think of how differently things would have gone had he actually taken the time to put up with the annoying kid who worshipped him. (Hint: We wouldn't have a movie and he still would be boring old Bob Parr. Wait a minute...)
 
Also, a round of applause to you for catching the reference I made! ;)

What....
 
*gets out the pitchforks and torches*
 

This discussion brings back some horrible memories. Though I do agree that someone else could probably make the idea of an in-universe Wilco fan work better. It would also be a good device for comedy (like the Creevey brothers from the Harry Potter-series, for instance).

PsyckoSama put it best in a different thread:
 

We all know about Roger Wilco's story and how he got the short end of the broomstick in Space Quest 6, but those who are inside the universe - not just StarCon's tribunal, but all of StarCon period - probably were under the impression that Roger went rogue and murdered Captain Quirk without probable cause. They probably believe that Roger got let off the hook too easy by being allowed to serve as a janitor on DeepShip 86.
 
I don't think Roger has any fans at all simply because the universe he's in doesn't hold him in very high regard, save for those who know him personally.

I've written this story countless of times, but if you want my blunt take on it, Peter(the author of SQ4.5) might just have scavenged those remixes from other sources; Datadog had him do part of the music for "Incinerations," but it turned out his contributions consisted of cues taken from "BATTLE: Los Angeles" and "TRON: Legacy." Chris didn't realise till it was too late, but when he found out by chance, it made sense why Peter had explicitly refused to compose anything based on the SQ theme :P
 
Of course, when confronted with this, he began rambling about not knowing his cues had ended up in those films, about how he was going to confront his record company (?!), etc. Not very believeable. I'll admit I haven't listened to the SQ4.5 soundtrack, but knowing this guy's track record, I'm personally taking his credit for the soundtrack with a grain of salt...

Pedantry.

Will you be there in spirit, and / or on camera? Possibly in swimwear?

Sorry for the double post; on a phone, but ... Sam, it's obvious! Hang out with us for a couple hours, then go to the party! :)

This is one of the few adventure games (not counting "The Dik") that has made me laugh out loud. You guys did a brilliant job - there's just so much unadulterated fun packed into these three rooms. So my sincere congratulations - you deserve all the praise you can get :)
 
You're a great team, obviously. Any plans to do non-"Pledge Quest" games?

Me me me!

I'm up for it.
 
Edit: For those hungry for more content, even though there's no hangout this Saturday, I will be posting an adventure game related video on YouTube that day, which I will link to either on this thread or somewhere else on the forum. :)