Decaffeinated Jedi

I....am going to bed. I hashed this out in the shower, and at work, probably subject to change, but here it is for now. All comments welcome.
 
 

The ballad of 218K -
Dedicated to those who never gave up, and everyone else besides.
(Think "The Times they are a Changin" by Bob Dylan, mixed with
"Scarborough Fair" - the Simon and Garfunkel version) With a dash of the Space Quest 1 theme thrown in for relief. :) 218K is pronounced two-one-eight-K)
COME! Gather around and I’ll tell you a tale
Of brave Women and Men who all Pledged to prevail
Over fantastic odds, and the trolls in their way,
As they reached the great slowdown of 218K
 
Space Pope was assembling an army to fear
Yes the Two Guys would come, but they were not yet near.
The Andromedan cavalry, riding our way
In the deafening silence of 218K
 
But the trolls did besiege our poor garrisoned mound
Well, the total went up, and the total went down
Oh they toyed with emotions and got in our way,
In that terrible struggle of 218K
 
Yes, we fought and we bickered, we knew it was bleak
Seemed we wouldn’t reach 500K in two weeks.
There would be no Space Venture, and nothing to play
If we just couldn’t win against 218K
 
But, in that darkest hour, hearts heavy with dread,
Our adventure games future, it hung by a thread..
Out of sheer desperation, with no more to say
We clawed out of the trenches of 218K
 
Now if we stood a chance, heck, we just couldn’t tell
With the cone on our side, though it wasn’t, as well?
Oh the Trends, and the Triangle fought us that day
As we clashed, worn and weary, with 218K
 
All adventurers rallied to put out the word
On the forums, and tweeted (though not like a bird)
And then, ever so slowly we pulled from the fray
And we gained some momentum through 218K
 
So! With 42 bullets and 5 guns apiece,
The Xenon Special Forces, they led our release
With the power of Polycheese, and Douglas A,
Slowly scaled the great mountain of 218K
 
*tempo slows*
As we drew near the crest, there was hope in the air
For we knew it would all be downhill beyond there -
With one final full-Nelson, pushed over the line...
…..And we gazed on green pastures of sweet 219
 
Friends! This story impassioned, is one of renown -
Tell your children to pass-down our tale to their own,
Of the Quests that we went through to be here today,
And to look back in wonder at 218K.
 
Yes we look back in triumph at 218K.
 
So. Who’s good with an acoustic guitar? :P

Just something ridiculous that struck me last night...
 

https://p.twimg.com/Au_T2EBCQAMlvvw.gif:large
 

https://p.twimg.com/AvB7yKZCIAAuGEu.gif:large
Search for Fester Blatz on Google Images and create your own!
 
Jess

One does not simply walk into Robertaland.

I admit, I was pretty tense for a while...the amount was at 489 when I had to leave the house, and when I got back 5 hours later, it was 512.
 
And we helped make this happen! Thanks a ton to everyone who went out of their way to help fund and promote this thing.
 
And now, as promised...Pledge Quest victory art!

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/06/stupidity-was-immensely-rewarding-in-space-quest-iii/

http://mygaming.co.za/news/news/39567-two-guys-from-andromeda-need-help-to-make-their-kickstarter-target.html

The redwood building in 2003:
 


With bonus "Talking Bear" interaction!
 


Jess

The redwood building in 2003:
 


With bonus "Talking Bear" interaction!
 


Jess

Who says that a lolblatz must necessarily star Fester?


https://p.twimg.com/AvCacqHCEAIhZ8-.gif:large
Jess

Who says that a lolblatz must necessarily star Fester?


https://p.twimg.com/AvCacqHCEAIhZ8-.gif:large
Jess

Who says that a lolblatz must necessarily star Fester?


https://p.twimg.com/AvCacqHCEAIhZ8-.gif:large
Jess

Just something ridiculous that struck me last night...
 

https://p.twimg.com/Au_T2EBCQAMlvvw.gif:large
 

https://p.twimg.com/AvB7yKZCIAAuGEu.gif:large
Search for Fester Blatz on Google Images and create your own!
 
Jess

Just something ridiculous that struck me last night...
 

https://p.twimg.com/Au_T2EBCQAMlvvw.gif:large
 

https://p.twimg.com/AvB7yKZCIAAuGEu.gif:large
Search for Fester Blatz on Google Images and create your own!
 
Jess

Just something ridiculous that struck me last night...
 

https://p.twimg.com/Au_T2EBCQAMlvvw.gif:large
 

https://p.twimg.com/AvB7yKZCIAAuGEu.gif:large
Search for Fester Blatz on Google Images and create your own!
 
Jess

It looks like YouTube chose to feature my feed exclusively for the first several minutes before finally starting to show everyone else. Not sure what's up with that, but my apologies!
 
Jess

Hey, gang!
 
Just a reminder that the Second Superfan Hangout is today -- Saturday, June 9th -- at 2:00 PM Eastern/11:00 AM Pacific. We'll be playing Space Quest fan games this time, with several fan game designers on hand to discuss their work. Rumor has it that we might even have a super-secret surprise guest join in on the fun.
 
As always, we're there to get the word out about the Two Guys' SpaceVenture. If we happen to have a few laughs in the process, all the better. :)
 
More details are here; we'll get a link to the live YouTube stream up as soon as it's running.
 
UPDATE: You can access the live YouTube stream below when the Hangout is underway:
 
[media=]http-~~-//youtu.be/DskFTrLwjO8[/media]
 
Jess

Thalia James of the Computer Game Maintenance Squad (see current signature) decided to go above and beyond the call of duty and embark on what could be considered the most challenging puzzle of all: getting a male teenager to cooperate with a much older adult.
 
Though her nephew's lineage is somewhat dubious (she's hypothesized that he's either a subspecies of human that has developed on another planet or a human-alien hybrid), she nonetheless felt he would be a perfect candidate to help promote one of the many adventure game projects that some of the people on the Outside are trying to get off the ground.
 

(And yes, he was adopted.)

Hey, gang!
 
Just a reminder that the Second Superfan Hangout is today -- Saturday, June 9th -- at 2:00 PM Eastern/11:00 AM Pacific. We'll be playing Space Quest fan games this time, with several fan game designers on hand to discuss their work. Rumor has it that we might even have a super-secret surprise guest join in on the fun.
 
As always, we're there to get the word out about the Two Guys' SpaceVenture. If we happen to have a few laughs in the process, all the better. :)
 
More details are here; we'll get a link to the live YouTube stream up as soon as it's running.
 
UPDATE: You can access the live YouTube stream below when the Hangout is underway:
 
[media=]http-~~-//youtu.be/DskFTrLwjO8[/media]
 
Jess

I doff my hat to you guys. I think it's amazing that anyone would go to the effort of building a game like this to help promote a project. Scott and Mark are very fortunate to have such dedicated fans.

You have my thanks too, s_d! I'm glad you're helping this game become available to as many peopls as possible. That's one of the biggest drawbacks with AGS -- the games are very Windows-centric, and I think a Mac-compliant version of the editor came out just a few years ago.
 
Just for kicks, I thought I'd post Bea's standing poses here, about 250% larger than her in-game sprite. I colored and animated her in Flash, then shrunk her down to get that classic VGA sprite look.
 

We do, but it's called 8 incarnations of Sir Patrick Stewart. 
That was a lie. I lied just then.

I'm not sure whether it was wise for Mojo to publish that article. It's fine for forum debate, but the claims are too speculative and unsubstantiated to warrant an article on the subject.
 
I find it quite hard to maintain objectivity on this issue, because of my personal dislike for Paul Trowe that has grown after watching his behaviour over the past few weeks. I backed Leisure Suit Larry, and I don't regret that, nor do I want my money back, but he's making it hard for me to remain as excited about the project as I once was. I find myself almost wanting to believe the worst about him when claims like this surface.
 
If we look at Gamespygeek the evidence is rather damning. The Myspace page had a photo of Trowe on it. The name "Jiminy Drambuie" is clearly a pseudonym. The style of writing is the same as Trowe's. He seems to have the same beef with people as Trowe does, namely the Two Guys / Chris Pope, and Wisecrack. The whole Myspace page mysteriously vanished as soon as the story broke. Now people have said "why would he publicly support the Two Guys and secretly undermine them at the same time?" Well I think it's quite plausible that he's merely being two-faced to protect his public image. He was almost forced into apologising here for his behaviour in a thread about the Two Guys, because people were turning against him. The sincerity of that apology is questionable, he could still be pissed off at them, and we know from Twitter/Facebook that he's an angry man, so the only outlet for his true feelings is via an anonymous account, and people are always at their most honest when they're anonymous. While that's going on he can publicly play the nice guy urging people to support them, and hope that no one is any the wiser. Of course, none of this evidence amounts to solid proof, it wouldn't hold up in a court and could be argued either way, so it comes down to our personal feelings to dictate which conclusion we believe. Personally I can't escape the feeling that Paul Trowe would be more than capable of this, just judging by his past actions and comments as an indicator.
 
With the issue that Irishmile raised on the Replay forums, having two people posting from the same IP address is always suspicious. The people did have a plausible excuse though, that they work together. People naturally befriend their work colleagues, discuss their interests and opinions. It's foreseeable to me that two people who formed a friendship via work would back the same project and share a similar opinion on events. I know that I told all my friends about the campaigns I was supporting, in order to get them to pledge too, and typically when I discuss how I feel about something with a friend it's because I know they will agree with me. The fact that they come from Chicago, as does Ken from Wisecrack could also be seen as a little suspect, but Chicago is a big city, so it's hard to draw much from that other than co-incidence without something more substantive. Again, it's a lot of speculation, but I feel the argument of sabotage is much more of a stretch to make here, and I'm more willing to extend the benefit of the doubt towards everyone in this instance.
 
I think it's a shame that everything got so blown out of proportion here. Wisecrack were misleading in their original approach, but had someone just politely messaged them and asked them to change the wording of their campaign then things could probably have been cleared up easily. The fact is that all the media involvement, threats of lawsuits, and mudslinging across social networks, all done by Paul Trowe, merely made Wisecrack look like the victims, and tarnished Paul's own image. Had Wisecrack refused a reasonable request, then I wouldn't be inclined to support them at this stage, but it's in fact Paul's unreasonable behaviour throughout that has really turned many people, including myself, against him, and made me more inclined to support Wisecrack. At the end of the day I want to see a positive, inclusive, adventure game community, where as many projects get funded and games get made as possible. There needs to be camaraderie and mutual support amongst small developers, and not in fighting and sabotage. In my eyes I feel that Paul Trowe is going to have to go a long way to redeem himself. Whether some of the claims about him are true or not, he's already done a lot of damage to himself without the help of anyone else.
 
 

This annoys me a little. All the campaigns seem to support the idea of "Kick it Forward", yet because they all decided to launch in such a small period of time, it means they can't take advantage of this. I can understand the eagerness to capitalise on what they see as a shimmering new opportunity, but had they waited a year then they could have received a helpful cash injection from one of their former colleagues who had already produced a successful finished product.