Capn_Ascii

This pretty much says it all, IMHO. As awesome as the SQ fangames were, the fact of the matter is that they *are* fan games. Fangames are targetted at a specific, usually niche audience, and therefore almost never achieve the widespread recognition and awareness that an original game of the same quality garners. Non-SQ adventure gamers look at the SQ fangames and say "Oh, those are for SQ fans" and immediately ignore them, whereas a title like Resonance appeals to the entire adventure gaming community, of which the SQ fandom is only a small section. You back a niche fandom, you have to expect to get ignored by the mainstream. Sucks, but that's how it is. <_< And as Datadog said, any sort of award setup is invariably stacked in *someone's* favor. Elitist awards like the Oscars have politics and reputations as a driving force, while 'people's choice' is by its nature a popularity contest. Take a look at Akril's signature. Two words: Angry Astrochickens. ...somebody who knows Flash totally needs to make this happen as a fangame.

There'd better be! You've got yourself a grade-A primo intellectual property going here. ;) I'm envisioning something that's somewhere between Sohpia from Fate of Atlantis, and Max from the Sam and Max games. He'd follow Bea from room to room, and would have various 'fidgit' animations where he'd occasionally interact with room objects (watching Bea's TV, raiding her cereal cabinet, etc). He'd have a dialogue tree with options for asking him about puzzles or room objects, with his responses used to give hints to the player if they need them. You'd also have the option to 'use' him on things if his physical assistance was required (say, holding open a door). That reminds me - I laughed out loud at Vohaul's 'disguise'. I like how apparantly all it takes to impersonate Ken Williams is the right mustache and a suitably imposing presense. ;)

Alright, so I recently (finally) got around to playing both Pledge Quest and its sequel. Having finished Deponia not long ago, and with the Spaceventure and LSL remakes looming ahead, I've found myself with a nearly insatiable appetite for MORE ADVENTURE GAMES! RAWR! ...ahem. Of course, what I mean by this is *new* games, or at least, new to me. I've been replaying some of my old Telltale games, but what I really want is something new - something that I don't already know how to beat. Right now, I've got Resonance and Akril's two Adventure games on the block, but that's it. Does anyone feel like recommending other, similar games to add to the stack?

I finally got around to playing both this game and its prequel not long ago. Excellent work :D but a couple of comments: --It feels like there was a bit of a shortcoming regarding Roger the boyfriend. When he first showed up, I was expecting the game to have some sort of "sidekick" mechanism (ala Fate of Atlantis) where Roger would tag along with Bea and offer hints and/or assist in one or two puzzle solutions. Having him show up in the intro and then just sort of get left behind seems like a bit of a missed opportunity. --Giving the game the subtitle "Noodle Shop of Horrors" is a bit misleading. I was expecting the game to take place in said noodle shop rather than Bea's apartment again. --When is that expansion pack coming out? Get to work, already. ;) --Vohaul the cat. Best. Pet name. Ever.

It's an issue with limited color pallettes. Admittedly, as a modern game, RCR doesn't technically *have* a limited color pallette - but the effect is done anyway, on purpose, since RCR is trying to emulate NES games (which all had the same issue). With only a limited number of colors and/or memory space to work with, you have to make sacrifices. Classic NES sprites, IIRC, can only have up to four or five colors apiece. Thus, certain parts of things that logically should be different colors, often aren't - in this case, both the mop handle and head are comprised of black and three different shades of yellow/orange. In the case of RCR, if I remember correctly, almost *all* weapons are that same yellowish color - even the guns. It's necessary to make them visually distinct from the player character, who in this case is mostly blacks and blues (which would drown out any dark-colored weapons). It's especially important in RCR, as you can change your character's appearance with different hairdos and outfit colors - I think he chose yellow because it stands out very well against almost anything that isn't itself yellow or green.

Ah-HAH! I *knew* the name sounded familiar, but I could never remember where I'd heard it from. Sheesh, I've been out of the adventure game community loop for too long. Yeah, there's quite a few of them. There are many Monkey Island references, particularly in one brief quest chain that involves having to pass a test (given by a pirate, natch) by fighting off a bunch of pirate-themed enemies in melee combat. One other Sierra reference I can think of off-hand is buried in one of the game's collectible items - payphones. Each payphone in the game has a (fictional) phone number written on it in graffiti, usually with a short blurb. From what I can tell, many of the numbers are references in some form or other. Here's one: The number is from Leisure Suit Larry 1 - it's the number for Ajax Liquor, a booze delivery service that Larry has to call to solve one particular puzzle. I remember this number well, because in LSL1, Larry learns it through a radio ad - an ad which, in the VGA version, features a catchy little musical jingle that is now FOREVER SEARED INTO MY BRAIN. :blink: I can't wait to hear it in LSL Reloaded. :lol: Yep. :D There's a number of random, silly melee weapons in the game, with a mop being one of them. (Just a regular one, sadly - the 'gold' is just the limited color palette trying to approximate wood.) The pic above was taken by my aforementioned friend, who no doubt thought it would be a funny addition to the SQ-themed hilarity to have that particular weapon equipped for the screenshot. :P

Well, alright then. Now that that's settled... ...I expect to see every last person on these boards voting for SQ in every single category. *Especially* for Incinerations. Nothing against SQ2 VGA, but epic new Space Quest game beats out classic game remake every time. :D Oh, and the two Pledge Quests, of course. ;) </kissing up to Jess> On a side note, I notice that Vohaul Strikes Back isn't in here anywhere - I'm assuming it wasn't eligible, for some reason. Was it not made with AGS, or something? I confess to being ignorant of the criteria for getting on the nominee list...

Really? Well, that's why I was asking. I seem to recall a time years ago, when Scott was rather...disillusioned. <_< Harboring a certain emnity towards Sierra-related stuff in general, and treating SQ as something of an old shame he wanted to move past. I guess he must have gotten over it at some point... ;)

Alright, here's one that you guys might find interesting. I've been in e-mail communication for years now with an old friend of mine from the old era of the SQ fandom. He's requested that I not mention him by name, as he prefers to play the role of shadowy lurker in today's SQ community, but like me, he's both an avid SQ fan and a rabid gamer. Recently, both he and I played a little game called Retro City Rampage. The game is basically what Grand Theft Auto would have been if it had been made back in the glory days of the original NES - gorgeous 8-bit graphics, addictive square wave tunes, the whole shebang. B) Perhaps more importantly, the game was made by a lifetime gamer like us, and is thus chock-full of video game references ranging from the old-school arcade era all the way up to modern gaming. Anywho, as I was corresponding with my aforementioned friend, he pointed out to me a rather interesting object in the city junkyard: To the left, right next to the cartoon ACME rocket. Looks familiar, doesn't it? ;) Normally, I'd be tempted to write this off as a coincidence, but given the location (a junkyard) and that RCR is chock-full of other, more overt references to adventure gaming, I think it's pretty obvious that this one is intentional. It's always a treat when an old-school fan manages to sneak stuff like this into a game. :lol:

I formally propose that Episode 7 be a gripping noir-style drama. There will be two different plotlines; the first has a depressed, aimless Luke coming to terms with his father's death and trying to find a purpose in life now that the Empire has been defeated, while the other will follow Anakin in the afterlife as he is confronted by the spirits of everyone he betrayed and killed when he turned to the dark side. The title will be "Episode VII: Life After Darth".

"Art" is somebody's brain vomiting its ideas out into the physical world, and then someone else's brain lapping up that vomit like a hungry dog and then misinterpreting it, thus completely ruining the whole point. Art, my friends, is communication. Sweet, disgusting communication. ;) This door sucks. The technical skill of the artist leaves much to be desired, the thematic symbolism is confusing and self-contradictory, and it's not blue enough. </art critic> I hate that bear. :angry: He keeps breaking into my study and drawing cartoon mustaches on all of my paintings. Even the ones that aren't portraits.

I don't normally quote my own posts (I'm not *that* narcissistic), but something I forgot to mention - in addition to the sketches, the original box arts for LSL 1-3 *also* had Larry drawn in that same exaggerated manner. The art style more or less existed from Larry's inception - the games simply couldn't convey it properly until resolutions and color depths increased sufficiently. Hear, hear. :lol: Although I try not to watch it too often...it has an odd habit of making my eyes tear up. Some kind of allergic reaction, I guess. :ph34r:

I have to admit, I feel something similar on the subject. A part of me doesn't really *want* a new official SQ game. Aside from all the license and legal issues, the fact of the matter is that Space Quest has been undead-and-gone for 16-ish years now. Do we really *want* it to be revived by a corporate team or otherwise done by someone treating it more as a commercial product than a labor of love? We all know how bad the original Sierra/made SQ7 would have been...do we really have any reason to think it would turn out any better now? Another question: do the Two Guys even really *want* to make another SQ game? Sure, they'd know what they're doing (obviously), and they'd have an established fanbase to pander to - but isn't that what Spaceventure is doing already? Spaceventure is, for all intents and purposes, a spiritual sequel to Space Quest - the same style and themes, the same sense of humor. It's everything that a good Space Quest sequel would be, except with the added benefit of being an original universe in and of itself. This gives the Guys the freedom to do whatever they want to with it, without being constrained (and possibly becoming burnt-out on) their older series - which IMHO means a better chance for fresher, higher-quality creations. Personally, I'm inclined to treat Spaceventure (and potential sequels) as 'the new Space Quest'. Think of it as Space Quest: The Next Generation - same creators, same theme (sarcastic sci-fi comedy), same style, but with new characters, places, and concepts to explore. With fangames to take up the torch of the original SQ series, I'd be perfectly happy letting the Guys focus on their new baby - and letting the fans take Spaceventure into the fold *alongside* SQ and treating them as two extensions of the same awesome family1. The more, the merrier. :D 1) Commence the endless Kirk-vs-Picard-style "Roger vs. Ace" debates.

No argument there - like a lot of multimedia technology advances, 3D was shoehorned into anything and everything because it was 'the new hotness'. Everybody felt like they *had* to have it in their game, or else it would be ignored by customers or derided by competitors as not being bleeding edge enough (probably more the latter than the former). Thus we got a lot of games that just plain didn't warrant 3D, only using it because of executive meddling. Oh, absolutely. Technological timeline or not, those were some *fugly* graphics. :D No thanks. Once was more than enough. :wacko:

Greetings, fellow Space Quest fans! It's that most wonderful time of year again, and as was something of a tradition for me back in the day, that means it's once again time to share... ...my old Space Quest holiday greeting card! :D I made this one a *long* time ago - we're talking more than a decade ago (Wow, have I really been hanging around for that long? :blink: ). The old version had some ugly sci-fi-styled lettering that I didn't care for, so I modified it to look more like the sort of thing you'd see inside a sappy Hallmark card. Other than that, though, it's the same terrible pun I've been throwing around every year. ;) If you ask him nicely, he might give you a great big box of "not getting shot by minions with laser rifles" for Christmas. :) I posted this one on my Devianart account too, along with a few other things1. The only one that'll be of any interest to any of you folks are this one (crappy drawing of Roger), and possibly this other one, because it's kinda sorta vaguely Monkey Island-related. If you squint. 1) I apologize in advance for my lack of artistic ability.

Ah. Just one guy, eh? I can relate to that. ;) Incidentally, when I say "writer" I'm mostly speaking in the 'plot and design' sense. Writing for the various message boxes/responses I usually refer to as "descing" instead. Oh, absolutely. It's obviously meant to be a Distant Finale - IIRC, the game explicitly mentions that it takes place at least several years after VSB, which itself takes place an indeterminate amount of time after SQ6. The writing clearly references the large amount of time that's passed since Roger's adventuring heyday - presumably as a nod to the amount of real-life time that's passed since the last official SQ game :D - and the game's overall tone and themes strongly suggest that it's meant to be *the* final SQ adventure, at least in the non-canon timeline it takes place in. There's plenty of timeline gaps left open for other Space Quest fangames to be slotted in without contradicting it, which would be awesome. I'm just saying that it's going to be awfully hard to top Incinerations in terms of "epic finale-ness". ;)

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:

I approve of this direction of thinking. :D And also of this one. :lol: Combining random items into workable solutions to problems was *the* fad of the 1980s. Even moreso than pastel colors, parachute pants, and buddy cop TV shows. Little known fact: Space Quest was originally pitched as a TV series, with Roger as a handsome space rogue who solved problems with MacGyver-esque ingenuity, lady-killing charm, and a dazzling smile. I have to admit, "Welcome to Dexter's LAB-rat-or-y!" doesn't sound nearly as awesome as "la-BOR-a-tor-y". Back to the subject at hand...I watch a lot of Boomerang (the classic cartoon channel), and every time Hong-Kong Phooey comes on, I can't help but grin. The titular character is a kung-fu "master" who "solves" crimes by bumbling through them with a flair matched only by Max Smart and Inspector Gadget, winning the day mostly through dumb luck. His secret identity/day job? Janitor at the police station. ;) Much like Roger, he gets actively disrespected while in his janitor guise, although in this case it's intentional - his 'lowly' role lets him eavesdrop on incoming police calls so he knows where his superhero self is needed. Another one that reminds me of SQ is the Dead Space series of games. Much like Roger, protagonist Issac Clarke is an Everyman (in this case, an engineer) who ends up trapped in a hostile, space-based situation with enemies out for his blood and no real combat experience. He also MacGyver's solutions to his problems - though in his case, this mostly means using his engineering skills to turn mining tools into weapons for shooting his way through them. B)

And, of course, the horrible, game-crippling bugs and crashes. ;) Seriously, the usual timer issues aside, the CD version was damned near unplayable. QA must have been asleep at the proverbial switch that day... Frankly, I didn't like the combat system in QfG4, either. Mostly because it was mouse-based - the earlier games let you use key presses to perform combat actions, but in SoD you had to click on specific portions of the game screen to advance, jump, block, strike, etc. A very bad idea when your combat involves quickly reacting to your opponent's actions - that sense of disconnect, that inability to control my character directly, really grates on me. Seems rather unfair, if you ask me. 3D was uncharted territory for many companies at that point in time - they did the best with what they had, but with the technological limitations of the day and without any precedents to draw from (unlike 2D art, which had been around for a long time), the results were practically guaranteed to be rocky at best. Look at any 3D game of that area and you'll see the same things across the board - the same clunky character models, the same stiff, artificial movements, the same low-res textures and lack of fine details, the same hit detection issues and draw distance problems and all that other good stuff. Yes, it's terrible by today's standards - but back then, it was the best they could do. It's like criticizing the old Sierra AGI games for having poor resolution and a limited color palette - the only reason these seem like a bad thing is because we've had nearly 30 years of technological advancement and skill since then. Not *every* aspect, at least not IMHO. One thing it did *right* was the inclusion of more side activities and the like - something that the QfG games have traditionally lacked. Things like the combat arena, the Thieves' Guild race for Chief Thief, the option of marriage, and such gave you more to do than simply train your skills and explore the map looking for plot threads to pick up on (which the other games were rather guilty of). In particular, I liked the ending variants - things like Personally, although I hate to say it, the *worst* QfG is probably QfG2. It did *almost* everything right - 99% success rate - but the *one* thing it did wrong ruins the game: the immutable time limit. The entire game runs on a strict, day-by-day event timer - not unlike the Dead Rising games, you have to be in X place at Y time to perform Z action, Or Else. A good RPG should give you the freedom to dick around all day doing side quests or just exploring and grinding, and QfG 2 simply doesn't let you have that freedom - a huge mistake, considering that QfG in general has strong world-building and lore that *encourages* you to take your time and soak in the game world. Admittedly, QfG5 also had a bit of a timed-mission thing going on, but only *after* the Rites began - until you actually paid the entry fee, you could waste all the time you wanted being unproductive. :P

Josh Mandel is one of those poor, unfortunate souls who put in a great deal of creativity and elbow grease back in the Sierra glory days, yet never seems to get the same sort of credit or recognition that people like Al Lowe or the Two Guys always did. He co-created Freddy Pharkas, for example, yet it's Al's name that always gets attached to that one - and of course, he was the man behind SQ6 until Scott got forced to complete the game at gunpoint. Oh, well. At least he'll always be the Unofficial Third Guy From Andromeda to us. :) I dunno, man...after Incinerations, I'm not sure I *want* a canonical end-cap to the SQ series. ;) Incinerations pretty much fills that role in my heart now - it took everything that was great about the classic games, tweaked them for modern audiences, then cranked up the awesomeness and epic factor to create a (admittedly non-canonical) series finale that, IMHO, beats the tar out of any alternative I can think of. The main villian's true identity, in particular, is the coup-de-grace - try as hard as you want, but not even the biggest, bad-assest, most stereotypical return of Vohaul could compare to the sheer HSQ - and genuine drama - of that one. Kudos to you, Incinerations writers, for taking such a big risk and having it pay off so amazingly. B) Speaking of SQ7, I, like a lot of fans, had my own thoughts about what would have been a suitably epic plot for a final SQ game. Here's the plot I wrote: My version of SQ7 involved data-Vohaul cloning Roger's body, inhabiting it, and using it to frame Roger for the theft of a doomsday device. Roger is forced to flee from Starcon authorities while simultaniously getting entagled with Vohaul's minions and infiltrating their secret base. On a side note, I had an idea inspired by Paper Mario, of all things. The game would have been divived up into chapters, and as a neat addition, there would be short scenes between chapters where the player controls Beatrice - using her ambassadorial access to Starcon's computer network and chain of command, she runs research on Vohaul and his plans while covertly trying to derail the hard-charging Starcon commander who's searching for Roger. Of course, this are all just my own ideas - stuff I wrote up in my spare time. It has no connection whatsoever to the actual SQ7(s) in any way, shape, or form (aside from the clone element, which is a coincidence since I didn't know any plot details of the failed original Sierra SQ7 until fairly recently). It was also written up long before VSB or Incinerations, so it obviously doesn't reflect the plots of those games. So, other SQ fans - what were *your* ideas for what you wanted SQ7 to be? ;)

Recognition for *what*? Nobody has any idea Vohaul was even *doing* anything - he's been in hiding like any good evil genius, biding his time and working from behind the scenes until he's ready to strike. His first plot involved getting the Sariens to do the dirty work for him - Roger stopped them and got the credit for it, but nobody knows Vohaul was responsible. Roger stops Vohaul's second plan in SQ2 - but since nobody was even aware there *was* a Vohaul or a Plan B, nobody has any idea that Roger saved their butts a second time. The asteroid fortress was obliterated, along with any evidence of Vohaul, his clones, or any of the rest of his evil plans. The only ones who are aware of any of it are the Pinkunz (who are obviously not a part of galactic society) and the surviving apemen as seen in Vohaul Strikes Back - who are presumably stranded on Labion, what with Roger having stolen the shuttle and their boss too busy being dead to send them another one. Even if they do have a means of leaving the planet, they're his ex-minions and former slave-masters to the Pinkunz - the last thing they want to do is mention any of this to the public. Point being, who's going to tell the galactic news net that there even *was* a plot to destroy Xenon, much less mention some guy who stopped it? All the rest of the galaxy knows is that an oversized asteroid burned up in some backwater planet's atmosphere, which is hardly newsworthy. The exact same thing happened in SQ4 - since all of the action happened in the future, nobody in the present has any idea that this Vohaul guy even exists, much less that he's destined to conquer Xenon. Heh heh. Actually, that's what I was referring to. Minus the statue, at least. ;) I really liked that little addition, especially because it mirrors the Ewok festival from Return of the Jedi and thusly drives home the obvious influences that movie had on SQ2 to begin with. Seriously, though - if you look at the original SQ2 closely, the game's chock full of RotJ stuff (just like SQ1 was full of A New Hope parallels). The jungle planet with a landing pad, the small native folks being harassed by evil minions, the orbital space fortress where the final confrontation takes place - hell, even Vohaul's chair and command center are a direct rip-off of the Emporer's throne and observation room. Side note: It was hilarious to see that damned alien hunter get his come-uppance. :D

Well, a big part of that is probably the Police Quest series. Like LSL, PQ took place in the real world instead of a fantasy/sci-fi realm. Unlike LSL, PQ was never about laughs, so the art style stayed 'Sierra-neutral' through all three of the original series (and then went to FMV for Open Season). If Larry had stayed with that same look, it not only wouldn't have been nearly as funny or outrageous, but it would have started to mush together with PQ theme-wise. Well, I also mentioned that in the Larry thread. Despite all of the exaggerated art style in the newer Larry games, the one part of the graphics that *never* gets stylized is the girls themselves. Larry games are all about the sexy wimmins, and it's hard to make a human look traditionally attractive *and* stylistically exaggerated at the same time. The most the ladies get is some fudging of body proportion to Jessica Rabbit-esque levels, and that was only really in LSL7. As a side note, I'll mention that one of the things I really liked about Magna Cum Laude is that each and every one of the girls has their own body proportion as part of their character designs. Some of the girls are overly (and deliberately) curvy/busty/etc., while others have more realistic proportions, petite builds, scrawny nerd physiques, different heights, and such. It was a nice touch to see a Larry game where they made it a point to add realistic physical diversity to the female cast, instead of focusing mostly on the hair/head/face for differentiation (as was done in the main Larry games). ......... .....uh, what were we talking about? :blink:

Not long ago, I went on a bit of a diatribe about this subject in a thread about the new Leisure Suit Larry remake. Read that post for the details, but the gist of it is that, the way I see it a game's art style should reflect the game's own style. Leisure Suit Larry games *never* take themselves seriously. From the lovable-loser protagonist who spends each game being a sleazy-yet-oddly-endearing dork to the viciously "you suck" narrator to the ridiculously over-the-top situations, these games were made first and foremost to make the player laugh. Somewhere along the line, Al realized this and changed the art style from 'neutral' (as discussed above, the early Sierra games were defined by an art style that was basically the *lack* of an art style) to the current cartoonishly-exaggerated look. In this case, the goal was to make the games feel 'fun' and lively even when nothing explicitly funny was happening on-screen at the time. The Space Quest games, while also funny, exhibit more of a sarcastic, subdued sense of humor. In SQ, the *in-character* universe is 100% serious - Roger is a normal guy facing deadly situations, and there's not a hint of 'this is funny' to any of it. The humor in SQ comes from its 'out-of-character' aspects - in particular, the snarky narrator and the many references/gags/in-jokes that are transparent to Roger and only funny to us, the players. Because of this, the relatively realistic style of graphics fits the series rather well, at least in my humble1 opinion. Even the later games, while taking on some cartoonish aspects, kept the characters realistically-proportioned and such. Personally, I like the graphical style of Spaceventure - it's more cartoonish than the later SQ games, yet still has some grounding in reality (which makes the sci-fi elements more visually impressive). Any further judgement on my part will have to wait until the game is released and I can see what kind of humor the writers are going for this time - then I'll be able to say whether this particular graphical style suits the game's atmosphere. In my experience, it's *only* used when the game is a 'funny' or highly stylized one that warrants it. Frankly, I can't recall an adventure game in recent memory where the art style struck me as contrived or out-of-place - they always felt like a natural part of the game. If a game warrants a cartoony art style, I say let the game have it - nothing wrong with that at all. Unless you *personally* don't like highly stylized art. In which case, that's your problem to get over. ;) 1) BOW BEFORE MY INFINITE WISDOM!!!

Okay, so here's something to generate a bit more Space Quest talk. What things have you seen in various video games/TV shows/movies/etc. that weren't *actual* references to Space Quest...but that nontheless *reminded* you of Space Quest? Note that I'm not talking about 'reverse references' - seeing something in, say, Star Trek that a SQ game made fun of and thusly being reminded of SQ. I'm talking about purely random things that, by coincidence, just happened to resemble something in SQ or made you think about something SQ-related. I'll start off with a good example: I've been playing the hell out of Borderlands 2 recently. The game has a large number of collectible 'skins' that redecorate your character's outfit with different color schemes. Upon receiving one of these skins, I tried it on: Familiar color scheme, no? ;) Especially the way the pattern across the sleeves works out. So, what other coincidental SQ references have you folks seen floating around out there?

Whelp, only two hours to go - time to finally get off my arse and make my pledge at the last possible minute, as usual. ;) Of course, they've already passed the mark, so at this point the pledge is mostly me pre-ordering a copy of the game. :lol: I'll agree with some of the comments earlier in this thread. The game is *not* going to be as visually or technologically impressive as the original QFG games - that's a simple, inescapable truth, the result of not having a company full of professional artists and programmers to draw on anymore. But frankly, it doesn't *need* to be. For me, the QFG games were always more about the creative design - the extensive world-building, the strong continuity, the...unique sense of humor (argh, the PUNS! :P ) and the constant undercurrent of levity that permeates the entire series, making for games that feature dramatic heroics and other seriousness without delving into 'dark and edgy' territory. In other words...I know from experience that I like the sorts of games the Coles make. Even if Hero-U doesn't live up to QFG in terms of polish, it definitely will in terms of heart1. :) 1) Cue emotional music sting and sappy 'Awww...' from studio audience.