Fronzel Neekburm

That is so supremely fucked up! I absolutely love the idea!
 
(As a side note: I find it amazing how one of the most nightmarish scenes in any video game I've ever played is actually in a comedy game. Kudos to suejak for somehow finding a way to make that sequence even more terrifying.)

That is so supremely fucked up! I absolutely love the idea!
 
(As a side note: I find it amazing how one of the most nightmarish scenes in any video game I've ever played is actually in a comedy game. Kudos to suejak for somehow finding a way to make that sequence even more terrifying.)

Unrelated, but on the topic of the zombie: I don't know how I got this into my head, but I've always just assumed everybody knew that the zombie was actually future-Roger in the SQXII timeline. Did I just make that up? Did anybody else think that?

MIND, BLOWN.

Cheers Fronzel!

My favorite SQV-exchange would have to be:
 
“What set of happy circumstances left the Eureka Captain’s chair open for me?”
“Well, our last Captain blew himself out of the airlock...”
“That’s too bad.”
“If you say so, sir.”
 
And yes, I was referring to the time pod codes. Didn't know what the hell else to call these... things.

I kinda had a feeling that googling "Scott Murphy interview" would provide the answer. Turns out, I was right.

I dread what's going to happen when Scott Murphy hears about the results of this poll.
 

I kinda had a feeling that googling "Scott Murphy interview" would provide the answer. Turns out, I was right.

I had never heard the expression "mealy mouthed" before, so I was quite impressed with that.

VGA is in the lead again.
 

Hmm. There seems to be a bit of vitrol bubbling up in this thread. I was afraid of this; I still remember some of the same things being thrown around back in the old days. SRS BZNS and all. ;)
 
For what it's worth, I prefer SQ1 VGA. There's a few reasons for this, but by far the biggest one is this one:
Simple fact of the matter is, IMHO, Space Quest didn't really hit its stride writing-wise until SQ3. There's nothing *wrong* with SQ1EGA and SQ2, but like many of the other adventure game greats (especially Sierra's own AGI games), the writing was a bit tame compared to what they started coming up with in later games. Most of the written humor in SQ1EGA and SQ2 is either expospeak gags or dry wit; nothing bad about either of those, but it does make for less 'punchy', laugh-out-loud humor. Right around SQ3 is when the smartassery quotient (towards both the player and the sci-fi material they were mocking) really took off, which is easily the series' strong point. SQ1 VGA, being a later release, incorporated that more developed sense of humor - add Josh "Reward exploration! More random messages! MORE!" Mandel into the mix, and you get a game that gets me laughing as much as SQ4 and SQ5. :lol:
 
Another reason: The music. Good god, the music. :blink: Easily my favorite score in the entire series. The bombastic new version of the SQ theme alone won my heart, and much of the rest of the soundtrack seems to be a loving homage to Star Wars's similar style of orchestral epic-ness. I mean, heck, go back and listen to the end-credits medley, and tell me they're not ripping off A New Hope. But, that's a good thing. ;)
 
As for the art style...I'll admit, I think I like Mark's unique sci-fi designs (not just in SQ1, but in general) more than the raygun gothic look VGA went for. But like someone else said earlier in this thread, it's not unlike someone writing a cover of your favorite song. It's *different*, sure, but not necessarily worse than the original. Just...different.  ;)  I like the occasional foray into 'what if' scenarios, just for the sake of variety.
 
As for the behind-the-scenes aspects of development...I'm not going to get into that. I make it a point to judge games based on their own merit, not because of its pedigree.

Yeah, there's this flippant idea that outsourcing causes a loss of artistic legitimacy. Maybe it's hard to suss out in explicit terms from individual people, but it's obviously there.
 
I suppose I also disagree (as a separate issue) with the premises that it matters what the Two Guys wanted, that it matters what "the original team" (?) would have done with a VGA version that had far more staff than just 2, or that it matters what the "consistent style" of the series is, which again I would argue has never existed. Space Quest 4 and Space Quest 5 feel like night and day stylistically -- probably, and crucially to this discussion, due to the change in teams for each game since Space Quest stopped being a two-man show. Taking Space Quest 4 as the VGA standard of the series, you're left having to explain why everything about Space Quest 5 was a parody of Star Trek TOS, why it was so cute and bouncy, why it suddenly adopted this comic book (and cutscene-heavy) style, etc. The answer is pretty obviously: Dynamix. Interface aside, Space Quest 5's art style has a lot more in common with Willy Beamish than it does with SQ4.
 
One point that probably sets me apart from others on this forum is that I don't especially respect the artistic will of Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe. I'm really not a Guys from Andromeda fan, per se; I'm a fan of Space Quest in all its incarnations, including fan games, remakes, riffs, etc. In my opinion, some of the fan games are better than some of the canon titles.

VGA is in the lead again.
 

"Hey, Scott! A whooping  have said they prefer the VGA remake of SQ1!" :D
 
Yup, WilcoGate coming!

I dread what's going to happen when Scott Murphy hears about the results of this poll.
 

"Hey, Scott! A whooping  have said they prefer the VGA remake of SQ1!" :D
 
Yup, WilcoGate coming!

"Hey, Scott! A whooping five people have said they prefer the VGA remake of SQ1!"
 
Yeah, I can feel WilcoGate coming... ;)

I dread what's going to happen when Scott Murphy hears about the results of this poll.
 

*takes a look at the poll results*
 
I did not expect this.

Not going to happen this way. All that is going to accomplish is that you get the illusion of „progress“ while everything stays the same.
 
No, I just loathe the ignorance and self-importance of people who think that reshaping the world in their image will autimatically make it a better place. Especially if they‘re working from a position that people are thinking like idiots who need to be "educated".
 
I‘m not sure if „you" is supposed to refer to me personally, feeding into the ridiculous notion that I‘m somehow conservative or anti-equality or anti-women. Or even anti-feminism, for that matter. Frede did a good job at pointing out that there‘s both perfectly reasonable feminists and that there are raving lunatics.
 
Maybe you should consider avoiding the Hotline Miami series then. Subtlety certainly isn‘t one of its strengths. You‘ll miss out on a great game with an awesome soundtrack though, but at least you won‘t have to face the lazy tropes or stereotypes that the game is playing with.
 
Reminds me of this:
 

Point taken about the lack of LGBTQ protagonists in games though. (I can come up with two: Moebius and Phantasmagoria 2, possibly three if my theories about BioMenace‘s protagonist turn out to be true. Oh yeah, and then there‘s The Sims). Still, I think it‘s silly to assume that LGBTQ lack the capacity to relate to video game characters that aren‘t explicitly introduced as gay. In turn that would mean that if a company released a game with a LGBTQ lead, then the heterosexual players would avoid this game, because they can‘t identify with the main character. And I don‘t think that‘s the case, unless you‘re talking about homophobic shitheads, but there‘s no helping those either way.
 
I say make the game you want to make, just don‘t make any lazy, half-hearted concessions just to get on the right side of a particular crowd of people. If someone wants to make a game that deals with LGBTQ issues and characters, by all means they must make that! Because you‘re absolutely right when pointing out that there are too few about these games and that variety is the spice of life. On the other hand, what I don‘t want to see is random alterations merely for the sake appeasement. Don‘t say: „There‘s too few characters that the LGBTQ crowd can relate to in Street Fighter, so let‘s make Honda gay and Chun-Li transgender.“ The same goes for including token female characters („Let‘s replace Ken with a new character named Barbie“) or token coloured characters („Let‘s make Guile black“). It‘s lazy, hypocritical and insincere and it doesn‘t amount to anything.
 
Wrong, have a look at page 1, that was because of something PurpleTentacle said. Maybe you should be having this whole discussion with him instead. I‘m probably the last person you want to ask, since (as I wrote time and again) I‘m at least partially sympathetic to the cause. I simply get fed up with people who are convinced that their way is the right way and that everyone else must adhere to their every whims or else they‘re backwards troglodytes who need to be "educated". It‘s odd that you‘re telling me that I‘m having an angry, visceral reaction, while you seem to be the one can‘t get past the idea that there are people out there who might disagree with a PC agenda that they consider to equate to censorship. You might think otherwise, which is fine. We both don't know the real motivation behind the examples I brought up. You see benevolence (a sincere attempt to make video games, therefore the world, a better place), I see malice (instead of actually changing the world for the better, a vocal minority indulges in de facto censorship by pressuring designers into catering to their demands). You agree to disagree and move on.

I prefer 1. A nice, nasty slice of apocalyptic 1980s no future dystopia. Also a role model for how to make a great action film on a tiny budget.
 
#2 is pretty good too. That is one of the few films I can think of that uses CGI in a meaningful way (by using it for special effects that would be quite impossible to pull off with regular visual effects).

Scott Manley backs quite a lot of Kickstarters and Early Access titles, mostly to do with sci-fi. 
Anyway, one of the good points he makes here is that Double Fine spent far more and got far less productivity out of their project than comparable games. Rimworld, FTL, Maia, Kerbal Space Program. Despite having a bigger, more-established studio, they were pumping out less material than one guy in his house in Canada (Rimworld). Pretty pathetic, really.
 
I know a lot of Kickstarters - the Two Guys Included - have realised that maybe having a developer forcing you to keep deadlines isn't always a terrible thing. But they were, for the most part, 1-5 people in a virtual office. Double Fine has the infrastructure. Just needs a man with a whip...

Say what you will about Phoenix, but at the very least they get shit done. While Jane Jensen is about to push her second release since her Kickstarter out the door, Tim Schafer is trying to come up with a way to magically let the funds for the second half of his game fall from the sky.
 
Maybe their technical skillz aren't quite up to scratch, but at least they appear to have work ethos and seem to know what they're doing (instead of going for the "Let's make this shit up as we go along!" approach). Which comes in handy when working on a shoestring budget.

Welp, you‘re putting too much work into a rebuttal where none is really needed. As I said before, I consider it a non-issue. Prefer whatever you want for whatever reason.
 
Holy shit, the weekend is saved!
 
Before I bring out the popcorn, could somebody please clue me in: Is this another attempt at humor masquerading as stupidity or just plain stupidity? I‘m a fairly safe target to go after, considering I‘m the forum‘s resident contrarian. But I fail to see how antagonising Frede is supposed to accomplish anything.