Blackthorne

So... yeah, that was kind of anti-climactic, eh? Even though I liked the game, it was a bit under-whelming, ultimately, eh? Bt

I liked it, I really did - but it absolutely felt like a King's Quest in Monkey Island Clothing. Doesn't mean it's a bad game, in fact - it's quite good. But it feels weird as a KQ game to me. That, however, doesn't matter to the modern gaming public, so I'll just go drink my ensure, eat my prunes and pray for a bowel movement, like usual. Bt

Ryan's a bum-paddle. Good lord, I've had to read lengthy PMs and emails from him that are pretty intense. But he's mostly harmless, like Earth. Sierra Gamers is an odd group, for sure. But I know who my friends are in the community - I can't believe people were dismissive of you, Collector, or that they deleted your posts. Just about everyday I wanna send you a gift basket. But I digress. Of course a new SQ isn't going to be VGA P&C. I never expected that. I just wish Activision would have given Mark and Scott the fucking millions they provided TOG with to make an SQ game or to Space Venture. Space Venture looks great to me so far, and imagine what it would be if it had a multi-million dollar budget. Sigh. Anyway, you're all a bunch of assmunches and I'm glad you're my friends. Bt

Seriously, give this game a spin. It's like mind candy for your drugs. Or something. I loved it enough to endorse it without being paid anything, and I'm a giant corporate shill, so this should tell you something. Bt

Yeah, like I said - cool art. But not right for Space Quest. Maybe for "The Fantastic Adventures of Troels Pleimert, The Space Dane".... Bt

See, I understood what they were going for in the SQ1VGA remake - it was an homage to EC comics style art - Weird Science (The Comic), Tales from the Crypt, Haunt of Fear. It was pretty well done, but in the end I don't think it was thematically the best choice for "Space Quest". I'd play the hell out of another Sci-Fi game like that. Bt

I grew up watching re-runs of Laugh-In, where he was the announcer, and Space Ghost... that voice just filled my ears as a kid. And then when he was the narrator on Space Quest IV? That was mind blowing at the time. The world has lost an amazing performer and voice. How many voice casters send out notices liked "WANTED: GARY OWEN'S STYLE VOICE OVER". He's his own damn catagory in voice-actring. I will miss him in SpaceVenture, but I know we'll all honor his memory. Let's do a hangout sometime and watch his highlights, heh, eh guys?? Bt

Haha - yeah. While we're at it, let's gte Activision to give us a budget to clean it up and get Gary Owens to record the narrator! Bt

And a look in the source shows no spent pod. Heh. I never knew this. Bt

I don't know if this is in the remake off the top of my head. Honestly, I don't even have the source code on my main computer here. I'm grabbing it off an old external hard-drive here and I'll take a look. Bt

This is the internet. Sadly, people are going to debate you on their terms, which usually come from beyond the seventh level of hell - unlimited virtual depravity and doom are fun to touch because there's no "real" consequence to them. People can be a shitchuggingdicklord on the internet, then sign off and still run down to the store and buy a Coke and whistle "Tubthumping" like nothing ever happened because, hey, it's the internet! Which, of course, is a shitty way to behave. Bt

Hahah Troels - I must record more Steve-Bot material. For a potato fueled robot, he sure is chatty. I think your argument for the "lull" in the middle the game is a good one - except, you know, some people kind of LIKE the lull in the middle of the game. I suppose that comes, for me, from the days where playing a game could stretch over weeks and months, not days and hours. Different world. I think the best thing said about Episodic Gaming is that if you're going to do it - start out designing the game that way. Make sure each episode wraps up it's own story, but IS a part of the larger one. Bt

I am not a fan of episodic gaming at all. As a designer, I would rather cut out large chunks of my design and release a complete game, rather than break it into "episodes". You really test your mettle and creativity by crafting a whole and complete game within (unforseen) boundaries, and any material you cut, well, you can adapt it to the sequel if you're good! Bt

Absolutely you can criticize all you want; you can also expect criticism of you criticism from time to time. There are certainly people with good and helpful criticism out there and some with advice that rivals "duck and cover" from the 50s. Anyone should feel free to say what they feel; just know that there is the absolute possibility that your opinion, critisicm and suggestions may be absolutely, entirely and unequivocally wrong. Bt

Hehe, I say mea culpa a LOT. That's because I mess up a lot - this is what my parents and my wife tell me, hahah. Personally, I liked the swipe functions; I saw it as a new twist in the old adventure game controls - it wasn't done perfectly in the demo, but I liked the idea and concept behind it. I think they've had the time to work with it more, and because they had a LOT (I'm putting it mildly, I think some people acted as if these swipes were actually punches to the face) of feedback, I bet you they've had time to refine the mechanic. I stil think SpaceVenture looks awesome, and - well, I dunno, maybe as a developer myself I can appreciate the development process and time length - but I feel like this game is going to be pretty cool. Making an adventure game certainly isn't as easy as it seems, I can tell you that from experience. Anyway, yeah, my mantra is still SpaceVenture looks Space Quest-y as fuck. Besides, even my beloved Space Quest III has those STUPID FUCKING ROUND HALLWAYS GODDAMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bt

Space Venture looks Space Quest-y as fuck!! They know what the hell they're doing; it's funny how everyone's turned into armchair game-designers over the years. I mean, I thought my armchair quarterback Uncle was bad, shouting at the players on the television when they mangle their latest sports games, but people these days in the video gaming world have taken it to an art form. They know what they're doing; Space Venture looks cool as hell to me. I know, since it's not out, all people can do is speculate - but it's going to be funny to look back on times like these when it's done and out, isn't it? On my end, I think things are looking good - and if they're finishing in 9 months, that is awesome. It can happen, really - sometimes you have all the stuff; it's just putting it together in the engine. And the development of the "stuff" takes longer than the programming in the engine, generally. Bt

I liked LSL1,2 & 3 because, at the time, they were kind of silly fun. The graphics were fun and colorful, but they didn't really have the cartoon style that was established later... and things kind of changed then. Seriously. LSL2 has an item named an Onklunk. That is awesomely silly. Bt

WHERE NEW PODCAST? Bt

Well, who knows - maybe in the future we COULD get a license to make and sell it. If we were able to sell it for $5-$10 and make it so we could pay the team a decent wage, I'd love to do it. We just don't have the time to do free remakes anymore. When we started IA 10 years ago, most of us were young, single - no families, students or working stiffs (or disabled!) and we had tons of free time and a hell of a lot less bills! Now, most of us are married with children (multiple children) and the extra time to do stuff without pay just isn't there. Bt

Heh - WHY did we make it? One reason, really. Just because we loved it. To be honest, it was as simple as that. Bt

Sure - we actually have a LOT of content, whoa. We actually programmed almost all of the garbage scow area - I have demos of that. Like MI said, it was SUPPOSED to be the secret hidden full point ending for SQ2. To be able to play that first area of SQ3. SQ3 is one of my favorite games of all time, let alone one of my favorite ADVENTURE games. We planned on doing some great stuff, but always staying faithful to the original game, which is perfect, really. This was a test/concept background for the Garbage Freighter - we never got around to doing it. Most of our original work were paintovers of the original artwork, which I have SUCH an attachement to. We were experimenting with this style when we decided to cancel the project. Bt

Absolutely I'd talk about this. I'm busy right now, but I'll totally dish on this. Got art and everything. MI's right - he totally wanted alternate camera angles, and the few tests done with ideas like that turned out cool. Bt

My hope is to next year buy my artists Cintiqs for use on projects. I actually got turned on to a very reasonably priced similar product - a friend of mine runs an animation studio, and he pointed these out to me. http://frenden.com/post/38693256477/yiynovamsp19u So, if we can afford it next year, I wanna pick some up. Bt

So, I really dug the animation preview and music track from Ken Allen on the Space Venture update. Anyone else? Bueller? Bueller? Bt

I can totally relate to not feeling like you have enough to share, or stuff interesting enough to share! In the past few months, the sheer amount of code I've personally written for Quest For Infamy has delighted me personally, but I'm not going to take a picture of it! It's boring, plus this is the internet and some jackwagon would come along and tell me how my code sucks, and how because of that he wishes death upon me and my loved ones... or something! I enjoyed this update, and I really liked the animation and music bit. Bt