|
Veotax posted:It was, with the help of screenwriter Garry Whitta, but the two main guys behind the first season recently left Telltale and started their own company. So I have doubts about the continuing quality about the series. Jake Rodkin and Sean Vanaaman? What company did they form? edit: huh, interesting. Sucks they left but interested to see what they come up with. http://www.camposantogames.com/ Wow, and they have the lead designer of Mark of the Ninja and the person behind the IOS games The Incident and Blackbar. theblackw0lf fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Oct 9, 2013 |
#
?
Oct 9, 2013 17:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 10:21 |
|
|
Tunahead posted:Many people think that, which is why I keep a certain Telltale forums thread in my bookmarks. Within the thread in question, Chuck Jordan, game designer and lunatic, states that they had the Soda Poppers as villains in Season 2 as an attempt to be edgy because they thought everyone loved them, and were surprised at the fan reactions. Sadly the Telltale forums have since migrated and there's 138 pages of Sam & Max threads and a terrible search function, so this is going to take a while. Stay tuned for links. I'm like, 95% sure he was joking.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2013 23:52
|
|
|
choobs posted:I'm like, 95% sure he was joking. I hope so. Because if he's being serious that means he legitimately feels that official forums are a good source of game feedback/criticism. Which is kinda scary.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 00:36
|
|
|
Wait, Jake left Telltale? Well now I feel like a twat for asking him questions about Fables on Twitter  To his credit he actually gave me information rather than telling me he didn't work there 
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 09:35
|
|
|
Holy poo poo. All the Kyrandia games are available on GOG now. And there's a launch discount if you buy 'em all. http://www.gog.com/promo/legend_of_kyrandia_series_launch_discount_101013
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 14:35
|
|
|
cloudline posted:I just popped in here to say that LucasArts' The Dig is my favorite game of all-time. I played it as a kid, and I don't think I could have asked for anything better at that age because of the way it completely mesmerized me. The music, the characters, the style, the setting, the story, all of it was just perfect. No game has captured my heart quite like this one. It was just so imaginative! I really wish everyone could experience the game the same way I did. There's a tie between the turtle puzzle from the Dig and the rubber duck from the Longest Journey for the "most frustrating adventure game logic puzzle ever" award. But yeah the Dig is a great game and a lot of people tend to forget about it when they go through the old LucasArts catalog. Also, 4 pages and we still have a poo poo post tag!
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 14:43
|
|
|
Kreeblah posted:Holy poo poo. All the Kyrandia games are available on GOG now. And there's a launch discount if you buy 'em all. Looks like they're also offering Witcher 1 for free if you buy them. Man, they really want people to buy these. I've never played the Kyrandia series. How are they? macnbc fucked around with this message at 15:03 on Oct 10, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 14:48
|
|
|
macnbc posted:I've never played the Kyrandia series. How are they? The first is pretty bleh but the other two are great, lots of humor, good voice acting, easily on par with classics already gone through in this thread.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 16:10
|
|
|
TheMopeSquad posted:The first is pretty bleh but the other two are great, lots of humor, good voice acting, easily on par with classics already gone through in this thread. All three are full of idiotic adventure game puzzles from the days of yore. The first has one of the most insufferable protagonists in the history of adventure gaming - literally every sentence is a (terrible) quip; items drop randomly in the world King's Quest style; there's an inventory limit; things are on timers that you don't know about; you can destroy objects you'll need later; and so forth. The second one is vastly improved but also has a bunch of WTF moments and a metric poo poo-ton of run-back-and-forth padding that still only leads to like 3 hours of playing time. The third one is the first one again, except somehow worse. I quit after half an hour. And I've played every single Sierra adventure game, so I'm not one to easily cave.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 18:02
|
|
|
TheMopeSquad posted:The first is pretty bleh I believe there was a certain level of complaint about how Malcolm the Jester was retconned for 3, but it never bothered me.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 18:19
|
|
|
astr0man posted:There's a tie between the turtle puzzle from the Dig and the rubber duck from the Longest Journey for the "most frustrating adventure game logic puzzle ever" award. But yeah the Dig is a great game and a lot of people tend to forget about it when they go through the old LucasArts catalog. I remember reading the novelization of The Dig before playing the game. Given it was part of LucasFilm, I'm surprised more LucasArts games didn't get tie-in/spinoff material like that.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 20:50
|
|
|
The Legend of Kyrandia is fairly mediocre. There's lots of aimless wandering and nigh impenetrable adventure game logic. Malcolm's Revenge is a decent enough adventure game, except for two things. First, it switched from lovely 2D graphics to terrible primitive ugly 3D ones. (I shall call this the Gabriel Knight 3 syndrome.) Second, and more egregiously, it features  the Isle of Caaaaaaats!!!!!, which is an island with a jungle maze. It's not randomized or anything, but every screen of it looks basically identical, and they're not connected in any logical way, and there's like thirty screens of it. For instance, if you go left from Screen A and end up entering Screen B from the right, it may be entirely possible that going back to the right again from Screen B will result in you entering Screen C from the bottom. And then it's possible that no matter which way you exit Screen C it doesn't lead back to Screen B again. What fun. Also there are instant deaths in that jungle. So, so many instant deaths. Naturally you are forced to visit this five star shithole more than once. On top of all that, the jungle doesn't even just have one end you enter and go out the other. There's roughly half a dozen locations you have to keep traveling between back and forth. The Isle of Cats resides at the very apex of all that is absolute patience testing wank. There are venereal diseases more enjoyable than the Isle of Cats.The Hand of Fate is one of my all time favorite adventure games. It's got lovely music and sound effects and characters and graphics. Also a sensible protagonist who doesn't take unnecessarily large amounts of poo poo from anyone, but isn't an rear end in a top hat, and is perfectly capable of kicking rear end while wearing a dress. Almost like someone wrote that character thinking "what are people like" instead of "what are GURLS like", a pitfall that games still fall into today. She also changes her wardrobe according to climate instead of wearing the same dirty rags everywhere like a filthy hobo, unlike every other adventure game protagonist. Also the game stands on its own which is rather delightful, there's some references to the rest of the world as introduced in the first game, but on the whole the plot and the characters and the situations and the protagonist and all are fresh and new instead of falling to the same trap that even a classic series like Monkey Island has fallen into where every game has the same basic plot with the same protagonists, antagonists, tritagonists and conflicts. The game features a nice semi-unique interface where some of your interface parts are actually items you have to find to use, like your cauldron (for brewing potions) and your spellbook (for figuring out what goes into potions). I mostly like the puzzles in the game because the game tends to give you a fairly direct set of goals and you have to figure out how to accomplish those goals, usually by finding new pages of your lost spellbook, then figuring out which potions are useful, and then figure out what the ingredients mean. You can kind of replace ingredients in lists with other items, such as substituting a chair previously owned by a frog for "toadstool". Caution: The Hand of Fate contains a series of puzzles that aren't in any way connected, where you have to input a series of seven different colors in the right sequence. So for God's sake write that sequence down when you first see it, because you can't go back and check on it again. Other than this terrible design flaw, the game is lovely. I love The Hand of Fate. I love it so much that I have already made plans to move to Japan where it is legal for me to marry it. Tunahead fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Oct 10, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 20:51
|
|
|
astr0man posted:There's a tie between the turtle puzzle from the Dig and the rubber duck from the Longest Journey for the "most frustrating adventure game logic puzzle ever" award. But yeah the Dig is a great game and a lot of people tend to forget about it when they go through the old LucasArts catalog. The turtle puzzle rules. It's my favourite puzzle in the whole game  Chairman Capone posted:I remember reading the novelization of The Dig before playing the game. Given it was part of LucasFilm, I'm surprised more LucasArts games didn't get tie-in/spinoff material like that. The Dig probably got an extra marketing boost because it was originally supposed to have been a Spielberg-directed film. Given the state of the company these days, I think we should consider ourselves lucky with what we did get. Hakkesshu fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Oct 11, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 02:19
|
|
|
On the topic of The Dig's big-name crew, how did Orson Scott Card wind up writing dialogue for it and Secret of Monkey Island? Is there some OSC/Lucasfilm connection for some failed project or something?
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 02:42
|
|
|
Chairman Capone posted:On the topic of The Dig's big-name crew, how did Orson Scott Card wind up writing dialogue for it and Secret of Monkey Island? Is there some OSC/Lucasfilm connection for some failed project or something? He wrote some of the insults for insult sword fightings when he was touring the offices or something. It's a very minor credit. Edit: And according to wikipedia, he wrote the dialogue for The Dig. I'm unsure if that means most of it, or some of it. Maide fucked around with this message at 03:00 on Oct 11, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 02:58
|
|
|
Tunahead posted:Many people think that, which is why I keep a certain Telltale forums thread in my bookmarks. Within the thread in question, Chuck Jordan, game designer and lunatic, states that they had the Soda Poppers as villains in Season 2 as an attempt to be edgy because they thought everyone loved them, and were surprised at the fan reactions. Sadly the Telltale forums have since migrated and there's 138 pages of Sam & Max threads and a terrible search function, so this is going to take a while. Stay tuned for links. Yes, they thought everyone loved them so much that they gave them a scene where they die an explicit death by lava, eyeballs melting out and all, to drive home that you are never seeing those characters again. That's how much they thought people loved them.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 12:06
|
|
|
macnbc posted:I've never played the Kyrandia series. How are they? Only the first one is worthwhile (great music, pretty and memorable environment, a protagonist who is a bit of a doofus but a lovable one), you may safely skip the other two (poo poo music, awful attempts at humor, unnecessarily complicated plots).
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 12:13
|
|
|
I bought Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People during the mid year Steam sale, and I'm just now getting around to play them all. Episode one was alright but not great, but episodes two and three are excellent. I'm almost reluctant to play the final two, because they will probably be the last opportunity to see new Homestar Runner material.  Next I was thinking of playing Machinarium, what are peoples impressions of it?
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 13:49
|
|
|
Weird Sandwich posted:I bought Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People during the mid year Steam sale, and I'm just now getting around to play them all. Episode one was alright but not great, but episodes two and three are excellent. I'm almost reluctant to play the final two, because they will probably be the last opportunity to see new Homestar Runner material. Machinarium is great if you like that minimalist style of adventure game that's driven by puzzles rather than dialogue trees. It's charming, fun to explore and has an in built hint system so you don't HAVE to view walkthroughs if you get stuck (but you will because you need to beat a minigame to use the hint guide - every time - as a disincentive).
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 14:01
|
|
|
Weird Sandwich posted:I bought Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People during the mid year Steam sale, and I'm just now getting around to play them all. Episode one was alright but not great, but episodes two and three are excellent. I'm almost reluctant to play the final two, because they will probably be the last opportunity to see new Homestar Runner material. The last two are the best two, so you're still in for a good ride.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 15:02
|
|
|
The Kyrandia games are heavily flawed but also quite good in certain aspects. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who isn't an adventure game nut or has nostalgia for them, because each of the games has at least one sequence that embodies everything people hate about adventure games. The series also has a big fixation on random fetch quests and potion mixing in order to pad things out. The cave in the first game really isn't that bad once you realize you can drop fireberries on a screen and it stays permanently lit. If you can look past the annoying sequences, the games themselves are quite lovely and the soundtracks are great (unfortunately, GOG doesn't include them as a separate download). The series also has a fun sense of humor about itself, I'd describe it as a Sierra adventure game aesthetic but with a tongue in cheek attitude that pokes fun at the typical genre trappings. The third game is the most ambitious and fun, the first and last areas have four or five different ways to solve things and all are worth seeing. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to know what they were doing with the second and third areas, so you have to slog through a lot of crap to get to the good stuff.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 15:28
|
|
|
Waldorf Sixpence posted:Machinarium is great if you like that minimalist style of adventure game that's driven by puzzles rather than dialogue trees. It's charming, fun to explore and has an in built hint system so you don't HAVE to view walkthroughs if you get stuck (but you will because you need to beat a minigame to use the hint guide - every time - as a disincentive).
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 19:40
|
|
|
I bought Tales of Monkey Island based on some goon recommendations, and while I've only played a short while, it doesn't really seem that good. The humour seems a bit off from what the earlier MI games had and the interface is the worst I've ever seen in an adventure game, beating out EMI by a lot. Does any of that get better/change in later episodes?
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 21:51
|
|
|
Ave Azaria posted:Note that these puzzles are mostly minigame style, not typical adventure gaming. Stuff like sliding tiles and logic puzzles, etc. Still a cute game and some of the minigames are clever and unique. There are definitely a few mini-games in Machinarium, but to say that the puzzles are "mostly minigames" is not really accurate. There's the Arcade games and the unfortunate end-game one, which I didn't like and ruined the finale's pacing but wasn't so bad that it ruined the game overall. Were there others I'm forgetting? The game itself is great. I love Amanita's ability to tell surprisingly deep stories with essentially no dialogue. Hel posted:I bought Tales of Monkey Island based on some goon recommendations, and while I've only played a short while, it doesn't really seem that good. The humour seems a bit off from what the earlier MI games had and the interface is the worst I've ever seen in an adventure game, beating out EMI by a lot. Does any of that get better/change in later episodes? I think Episodes 3-5 are all great, and the interface is better once you get used to it. Be forewarned that I didn't hate the interface to begin with and I liked episodes 1 and 2, though they are definitely pretty flawed.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 22:05
|
|
|
I wanted to give everyone a heads-up on the adventure game I'm developing. It's based on Dropsy from my CYoA threads. It's a little artsy-fartsy ( ~ambient~) and has a few non-traditional elements (no text, open world + geographically oriented hints/puzzles.) There's an in-depth Games thread about it HERE. Here's a little audio system I'm messing around with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imws7w2mGa4 Hel posted:I bought Tales of Monkey Island based on some goon recommendations, and while I've only played a short while, it doesn't really seem that good. The humour seems a bit off from what the earlier MI games had and the interface is the worst I've ever seen in an adventure game, beating out EMI by a lot. Does any of that get better/change in later episodes? It's off to me as well. I feel like it suffers from that copy-of-a-copy thing. Like how Nickelback was influenced by decent bands, and those bands were influenced by excellent bands. Something is lost on the way down. I didn't have much of an issue with the interface, but I just didn't feel it captured the same vibe very well.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2013 22:34
|
|
|
I see you're working on a new Kickstarter, hope I have some spare money next time, I'll definitely contribute. Also, I can't remember if it was this thread or the last one, but I remember a some people complaining (justifiably) about the bugs in Deponia and Deponia 2, and they just released an update on Steam and GOG (and maybe other platforms?) with bug and performance fixes and Spanish and Italian voice. I'm curious if I can finally complete the train puzzle in 1 or the boxing dummy puzzle in 2 now.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 02:01
|
|
|
Weird Sandwich posted:Next I was thinking of playing Machinarium, what are peoples impressions of it? Machinarium is one of my favorite adventure games of the last decade. It has all of the beautiful art of the newer European adventure games with none of the disappointing localization issues. There's an incredible soundtrack too. I hope Amanita tries that kind of game again. Samorost and Botanicula are charming but they're more like toys than adventure games.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 02:09
|
|
|
choobs posted:There are definitely a few mini-games in Machinarium, but to say that the puzzles are "mostly minigames" is not really accurate. There's the Arcade games and the unfortunate end-game one, which I didn't like and ruined the finale's pacing but wasn't so bad that it ruined the game overall. Were there others I'm forgetting?
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 02:20
|
|
|
epmode posted:I hope Amanita tries that kind of game again. Samorost and Botanicula are charming but they're more like toys than adventure games. I believe their next game is going to be Samarost 3, which I saw described as a full length game like Machinarium. I'm really looking forward to that.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 02:31
|
|
|
choobs posted:I believe their next game is going to be Samarost 3, which I saw described as a full length game like Machinarium. I'm really looking forward to that. Machinarium and Botanicula strike me as being what happens the Samorost series is pulled into its two opposite halves, each of which is separately expanded. If Samorost 3 is what happens when the two halves are put back together after being explored and worked on, sold! Also, concerning Gabriel Knight - why did Jane Jensen get the rights to remake the first game after the Two Guys from Andromeda failed to get the rights to turn Spaceventure into a Space Quest game (which was clearly their original plan)? Is it because the Two Guys haven't done much for years, while Jane had her work on Gray Matter, Cognition and the upcoming Moebius to show Activision? Is there any hope of any other series coming back, or was this a fluke? BiggerJ fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Oct 13, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 06:34
|
|
|
BiggerJ posted:Is it because the Two Guys haven't done much for years, while Jane had her work on Gray Matter, Cognition and the upcoming Moebius to show Activision? (1) Reading between the lines - Jane and Robert have a bunch more money lying around than the Guys. (2) Activision refused to allow a new Gabriel Knight game, only a remake to test the waters. I suspect that the Guys didn't really want to remake Space Quest 1. (3) Gabriel Knight has been a viable property more recently than Space Quest. quote:Is there any hope of any other series coming back, or was this a fluke?
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 09:31
|
|
|
raditts posted:Yes, they thought everyone loved them so much that they gave them a scene where they die an explicit death by lava, eyeballs melting out and all, to drive home that you are never seeing those characters again. That's how much they thought people loved them. When Season 2 was in production, Chuck Jordan and some other Telltale dude were on the Telltale forums a lot, talking about the season and answering questions, etc. One specific word that came up over and over and over was "edgy". They wanted to make Season 2 edgy. That was basically their primary design goal, which already says basically everything you need to know about it. They killed Santa, for fucks sake! Did you think they did that because everyone hates Santa? That's why the Soda Poppers were the villains. Because they thought people loved them. Yeah you might think Chuck's post was flippantly sarcastic with the whole "It was a wacky misunderstanding, lol!" stuff, which might lead you to believe that "We thought everyone loved the Soda Poppers!" was a statement made in much the same tone as someone might say "You don't know who Ted Kaczynski is? Oh he's just the nicest guy", but no. The Telltale forums are a terrible place. There were the "worst character in the Sam & Max series" threads where all the MRAs came out to complain that Sybil Pandemik didn't have a completely subservient personality and was therefore a whore, and then the Soda Popper defense brigade, which inexplicably genuinely exists, coming out and saying what a shame it is that they went away. It's just baffling. Also all the "Is Steve Purcell single" threads which basically all ended with the Telltale Tool account going "I am sealing this thread because you all creep me the gently caress out". Great times. You ain't seen the poo poo I've seen, man.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 10:05
|
|
|
Tunahead posted:When Season 2 was in production, Chuck Jordan and some other Telltale dude were on the Telltale forums a lot, talking about the season and answering questions, etc. One specific word that came up over and over and over was "edgy". They wanted to make Season 2 edgy. That was basically their primary design goal, which already says basically everything you need to know about it. They killed Santa, for fucks sake! Did you think they did that because everyone hates Santa? I'm sure they did want to make Season 2 more "edgy". Season 1 was comparatively tame compared to Hit the Road or the original comics, so by being "edgier" they were actually being truer to the source material. I know the word "edgy" has rightfully gotten a bad connotation over the years due to people overusing and misusing it, so let's replace the word with "more outrageous", which I think qualifies for things like accidentally sending Santa to hell, killing your protagonists and having them come back as zombies for half an episode, having "alien abducters" actually be a time traveling mariachi band, and then making your most obnoxious characters the secret big bad for the whole season so you can gratuitously kill them in a gruesome and very final manner. And I'm still pretty sure Chuck Jordan was just trolling dude, which definitely seems like something one of the lead devs on a Sam & Max game would do. Edit: Though you're right about the Telltale Forums back in the day. They were (and maybe are still) awful. choobs fucked around with this message at 13:27 on Oct 12, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 13:24
|
|
|
ookiimarukochan posted:(2) Activision refused to allow a new Gabriel Knight game, only a remake to test the waters. I suspect that the Guys didn't really want to remake Space Quest 1. That seems to be their philosophy in general in regards to their library, since that's pretty much why Al Lowe said Leisure Suit Larry Reloaded happened rather than a new game.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 13:27
|
|
|
macnbc posted:That seems to be their philosophy in general in regards to their library, since that's pretty much why Al Lowe said Leisure Suit Larry Reloaded happened rather than a new game.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 14:56
|
|
|
I just played through Kyrandia 1 for the first time and gently caress that thing is hot garbage. Basically the whole game revolves around wading through huge mazes filled with identical looking screens and solving puzzles that are essentially non-sequiturs in that you just have to guess what you have to do based on no sense of logic whatsoever. Also many important items are just hidden for no reason. And good luck, because the game also requires you to find randomly spawning gems that you have no idea you need to use and you have to do a ton of just wandering around aimlessly, hoping you find the right colour and you don't know what the right colour actually is. And what's that? You went to the final area without a flower? Well, I guess you need to start over. Fuuuuuuuck you, you absolute turd of a game.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 16:09
|
|
|
That sounds about right for lovely point-and-clicks of the time. If I recall, King's Quest 4 had the same issue where you got the "bad" ending if you didn't get the magic apple to save the king, or if you just plain ate it yourself. The game's not even like "No you shouldn't do that you kind of need that to save your father!" it's just all "yeah go for it man, this apple is loving delicious and energizing!"
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 16:46
|
|
|
Hakkesshu posted:I just played through Kyrandia 1 for the first time and gently caress that thing is hot garbage. Basically the whole game revolves around wading through huge mazes filled with identical looking screens and solving puzzles that are essentially non-sequiturs in that you just have to guess what you have to do based on no sense of logic whatsoever. The 2 sequels are MUCH better about that (disclaimer - I seem to remember giving up on Malcolm's Revenge for easily a year once I hit the Isle of Cats, as - when it came out - walkthroughs were MUCH harder to find)
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 19:16
|
|
|
ookiimarukochan posted:The 2 sequels are MUCH better about that (disclaimer - I seem to remember giving up on Malcolm's Revenge for easily a year once I hit the Isle of Cats, as - when it came out - walkthroughs were MUCH harder to find) a Full Walkthrough for Kyrandia 3 is still hard to find. I did it as a pre-SA lp and it took me forever and the combining of several guides to get all the paths and solutions.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 19:23
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 10:21 |
|
|
ookiimarukochan posted:The 2 sequels are MUCH better about that (disclaimer - I seem to remember giving up on Malcolm's Revenge for easily a year once I hit the Isle of Cats, as - when it came out - walkthroughs were MUCH harder to find) Oh, I know. I like the sequels a lot, and I've played them both a bunch of times, just never the original. They're not perfect, but they're leaps and bounds beyond this poo poo. Isle of Cats ain't no thang compared to that loving cave in the first game.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2013 20:34
|
|