I was just looking on the LucasArts site and noticed it really does go out of its way to promote the Star Wars genre.
Look at the main page http://www.lucasarts.com/
It's like it's forgotten or abandoned any other kind of game, focusing solely on the Star Wars franchise. Everything else seems to have been swept aside.
Out of interest, I clicked on the classic PC games section, to see it still mentions games like the Monkey Island series, Grim Fandango, Outlaws, Full Throttle, Sam & Max & Indiana Jones to name but a few.
Do you think this situation is just temporary due to George Lucas making Episodes 1, 2 and 3 from 1999-2005.
Do you think this is why they've hardly focused on any other genre?
Do you think that now the Star Wars trilogy has finally come to an end, theyll get back to what they were good at and thats making top notch adventure/point & click games, or do you think the days of playing such games are well and truly over?
Whats your opinion on this situation?
It's been this way for a number of years.Ã, Lucasarts just don't make original adventure games anymore so they have no reason to promote them.Ã, Not since Sam & Max 2 and Full Throttle 2 were cancelled.
Now that the last (hopefully) Star Wars movie has been made perhaps they won't be able to ride on the hype from the movies anymore and will be forced to try making new franchises... but... the whole culture there has changed, all their adventure designers are gone to Double Fine, Telltale and working on their own things. I don't think they will ever be a major adventure game company again.
I don't they'll move on from Star Wars for at least another 7 years or something ... There's just too much cash atm.
And if they do ever move on, I don't think they'll rekindle the adventure game genre ... probably move on to third person action games or something ...
EDIT: And their 'classics' section doesn't even contain half the real classics. Pfffff, fancy calling a Star Wars game a classic!
"LucasArts" is just a company. All the people within that company who actually made good games left already.
I wasn't that interested in Bone, but after I saw the trailer I recognized the style. The monsters (sorry, don't know the names) look like something from Grim Fandango. Its marvelous.
Quote from: Mr Flibble on Wed 20/07/2005 17:02:57
The monsters (sorry, don't know the names) look like something from Grim Fandango. Its marvelous.
... The monsters are based on the monsters from the Bone comic books, which started being published in 1991. I'm afraid that any similiarity to Grim Fandango, at least style-wise, is completely incidental.
According to various news reports (search game or Indy news sites for them), LucasArts will switch from pumping out generic Star Wars games to pumping out generic Star Wars games and Indiana Jones games based on the new movie. Since the new movie will simply be delayed forever, they will be able to keep such a strategy running for quite a while.
Quote from: Zor on Wed 20/07/2005 16:57:38And their 'classics' section doesn't even contain half the real classics. Pfffff, fancy calling a Star Wars game a classic!
Well, I consider most of Lucasarts first Star Wars games classics. X-Wing, Tie Fighter, and Dark Forces I would call classic. The other ones vary from "Pretty Fun" to "Abysmal".
No.
It's rather one-dimensional to say that only the older adventure games from LucasArts are "classics" and the flight-sim or FPS types don't have any merit. Ah, but to each his own.
LucasArts got a couple new managers nearly a year ago. The finance manager was hired in order to try and turn it around. LucasArts was running in the red for awhile and Sam & Max 2/Full Throttle were two of the projects that promised the least amount of money from their investment. The people working on the adventure projects were laid off (most), transferred (a few) or quit after the cancellation announcements (the remainder).
I have to admit, business-wise it was the smart thing to do. I don't like it, and I think they've lost what little personality they had left. I enjoy (ed) some of the Star Wars games: Tie Fighter, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight Series, Knights of the Old Republic, but it's lost some of its charm for me since the games are becoming less and less original, without introducing anything worthwhile to a genre and becoming mainstream clones with Star Wars characters. Trying to purchase anything older (particularly adventure) from them isn't worth the effort (or, in most cases, possible). Better to go with eBay, obtain a copy of a desired game, and put a couple bucks in some fellow-gamer's pocket.
"Lucasarts" and "business smarts" don't belong in the same sentence.
Take this example. By the time Sam and Max 2 was canceled, it was nearly in alpha/beta form. This meant that the second most expensive part of the production was nearly complete (the most expensive part would be the marketing).
A little bit of time passed, then they entered negotiations with Telltale over the project. Roughly a month before Lucasart's contract with Steve Purcell expired (the license for the use of his characters), Telltale offered to buy the remainder of the project from Lucasarts. They refused. The contract expired. Now all Lucasarts has to show for their "business smarts" is an unfinished project that they blew a development budget on and can no longer legally release.
I mean, even a company run by unimaginative accountants would have cashed out, selling Sam and Max 2 even for a pittance. It's not like they will be able to do anything with the project in the future.
The teams LEC laid off can form their own company, create a new contract with Purcell, and make their own Sam and Max game if they so desired. By cancelling the project, LEC now knows the minimum number of their potential customers for Sam and Max 2 (probably only half, with volunteer bias and all). Talk about an expensive way to conduct market research!
I can't believe Lucasarts cited a game that they PUBLISHED as an example of their creativity (Mercenaries). That'd be like me buying a picture from a sidewalk artist, signing my initials next to his, then running around saying "Look how clever and artistic I am! Shove a tulip up my butt and call me Andy fucking Warhol."
There are only so many Star Wars games the market can handle before it'll be ready to move on to better franchises. Fuck Lucasarts.
EDIT: By Telltale, I meant Bad Brain.
Quote from: Al_Ninio on Wed 20/07/2005 17:20:19
... The monsters are based on the monsters from the Bone comic books...
Oh I know, but I mean the way they are modelled.
While the Lucas Arts webpage opens Star Wars games a-go-go, the Microids homepage includes a statement of their philosophy including this passage:
QuoteVideo games should push the boundaries of creation and inspire those who play them. Much like cinema, which has been enriched by the influence of art and literature, video games must draw from other creative spheres in order to find inspiration.
(http://www.microids.com/index_en.html)
We shouldn't look expectantly towards Lucas Arts because all of our heroes used to work for that company. People who have a real interest in producing adventure games exist elsewhere.
Yep. Instead of ranting and raving about the death of S&M2 and FT2, we should've realized that the cause was hopeless and had a mass funeral for LucasArts. Interesting that LucasArts was still in the very creative stages when it was Lucasfilm EC.. after adopting the LA moniker, it was only a matter of years before the creativity was used up.
I agree with Ali. Headshaking about LucasArts gets one nowhere - looking to other companies (The Adventure Company, Double-Fine, et al) provides the only optimism. It's not just LA, many Lucasfilm employees have been seeking other employment due to the current direction of the company.
Quote from: big brother on Thu 21/07/2005 11:10:29
This meant that the second most expensive part of the production was nearly complete (the most expensive part would be the marketing).
And the funny thing is, is that if they had gone back on their cancelation, they would have all the free publicity they could handle. Internet sites, games magazines all were in love with it, and were distraught when the game was cancelled.
The 31292 signers of the internet petition sure seem that if you sold the game at 50 bucks, plus had those installments sold later, you'd make a pretty penny off of it.
What ever happened to that Sam and Max licence anyway.
I heard rumours that after the telltale talks fell through, bad brain went straight to Purcell.
Did anything ever come of that?
I think we can thank LucasArts for loosing their creativity and firing their best guys. Since this happened, and the ex-employees set up their own companies, we can theoritcally expect more games than if LEC was making them one by one.
LucasArts is nothing but a Star Wars games-pumping shit company nowadays.
I can't understand how they went from such a good company to what it is today.
Money.
I remember hearing roughly the same things about Sierra not to long ago. Ah, the cycle of life.
LucasArts is interested in MONEY. No one will make games just because people will like them, but everybody will make games because they will be bought. Adventure games are
considered boring by todays generation of gamers. By gamers I mean idiots who play
"Kill, kill, kill, shoot, shoot, shoot!!!" games with lots of gore and brainless action. Where`s the fun in that? If a majority of people would like to sit in front of their PC for a full hour and THINK about clues and inventory to solve a puzzle, LucasArts would make abot 13 of these games in a year, and if we would be lucky some of those games might even be some mediocre crap.
I'm reminded of this excellent retrospective written by a former lucasarts employee, where he basically details alot of the ins and outs of lucasarts as well as George Lucas' own destructive management methodology-
http://www.fudco.com/habitat/archives/000021.html
Quote from: Dave Gilbert on Fri 22/07/2005 16:04:46
I remember hearing roughly the same things about Sierra not to long ago. Ah, the cycle of life.
Not to long ago? Sierra's been nothing more than a brand for how long...?
At least George Lucas said his going to focus on new Indiana Jones Moves now. So Im happy that Star Wars is finished, it just kept getting worse...
One day they will bring back or make new original titles when they find out they cant make any new original star wars games.
Mind you all the indiana jones games were fun.
Quote from: Alias on Fri 22/07/2005 22:09:02
At least George Lucas said his going to focus on new Indiana Jones Moves now. So Im happy that Star Wars is finished, it just kept getting worse...
So if Georgie fucks up the Star Wars franchise with god-awful movies, of course he won't do the same thing to Indiana Jones, right? Right???
Quote
One day they will bring back or make new original titles when they find out they cant make any new original star wars games.
By then it'll be a little too late. I mean, they already laid off all their talented employees. And their competition has been making original games the entire time. In the future, I see LEC being slowly downsized as their profit dwindles every year until all that's left will be some upper level managers and the accounting department. Then they will publish one Star Wars game a year. I did say publish, not create.
Quote
Mind you all the indiana jones games were fun.
The only two I enjoyed were Fate of Atlantis and the Last Crusade (adventure). If anyone has every played the FOA Action Game, they would know what I'm talking about. And the Infernal Machine? It took three years to rip off Tomb Raider? Just wow.
Quote from: big brother on Fri 22/07/2005 23:07:19
Quote from: Alias on Fri 22/07/2005 22:09:02
At least George Lucas said his going to focus on new Indiana Jones Moves now. So Im happy that Star Wars is finished, it just kept getting worse...
So if Georgie fucks up the Star Wars franchise with god-awful movies, of course he won't do the same thing to Indiana Jones, right? Right???
Yeah, but at least Steven Speilberg will be there, and he can lean over and just shake his head, saying, "No, George, no."
Quote from: big brother on Fri 22/07/2005 23:07:19
Quote from: Alias on Fri 22/07/2005 22:09:02
Mind you all the indiana jones games were fun.
The only two I enjoyed were Fate of Atlantis and the Last Crusade (adventure). If anyone has every played the FOA Action Game, they would know what I'm talking about. And the Infernal Machine? It took three years to rip off Tomb Raider? Just wow.
There's also Emperor's Tomb, which is fun, for what I've played of it already, but it just sits around on my desk, going unplayed.
Quote from: big brother on Fri 22/07/2005 23:07:19
By then it'll be a little too late. I mean, they already laid off all their talented employees. And their competition has been making original games the entire time. In the future, I see LEC being slowly downsized as their profit dwindles every year until all that's left will be some upper level managers and the accounting department. Then they will publish one Star Wars game a year. I did say publish, not create.
So there are only 8 guys who are talented and they all worked at Lucasarts but then got laid off? No one else at Lucasarts is talented? Pretty broad statement.
Also, the competition isn't making original games, if you take a peak at what games are coming out, a majority of them are franchise or movie tie-ins. I could have gotten a job at a game studio near me but then I decided not too when I learned that all they did for many months was port Doom 3 over to X Box [which means they basically just deleted polys] and then the next thing they're going to work on is 2 more games in the same franchise they've been working in for years...
Apparently it's like this in many places because games are so expensive to create that just like the movie industry you don't make something unless you can be sure that the lowest common denominator is met and there are big titties plastered all over it.
I never said that the competition was ONLY making original games. You read a little bit too much into what I wrote. In addition to whatever franchise shit and all that, other game developers HAVE been making original games. I don't think I'm going out on a limb with that statement.
See, what we need to do now that the Sam and Max license has gone back to Steve is find out where he lives, collectivly call in one day with a copy of AGS and convince him to make another game in his spare time!
Hey. thet're DEFINATELY going to be making more Monkey Island games.
That's good news, right?
...
Right?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/EggHeadCheesyBird/ugh.gif)
If Monkey Island 5 ever comes out, I'll be guaranteed to buy it "just to check it out". I'm pretty sure most other fan of the series would do the same. So there's a great bungle of money available, unless every one pirates it.
i'd play another monkey island.. but how can you repair it from the ending of 4? unless guybrush wakes up from a dream.. or it's ron gilberts monkey island 3
Red Dwarf, a British TV show, had a habit of changing things if they didn't like them. For example, in the first episode there was 169 crew members before the accident. By the last series that rose to 11, 169.
Personally I don't think EMI had a problem that couldn't be paved over or made light of.
But since its not going to happen, we'll never know. LEC has proven it won't sell licences, even for a cheap buck.
Back in the day Dynasty made a big-ass deus ex machina change in the story. During one year a lot had happened, people died and stuff. So the producers found themselves in a pickle with the characters and such. So they just decided to make Bobby wake up from a long slumber and hence erase everything that had happened during that year.
Same happened in Eastenders (Or Corry, I forget)¬¬
Thats the good thing, Steven is just amazing his new movie, War of the Worlds is simply amazing. Steven even makes great games (the dig).
Indeed Emperor's Tomb was really great, Im a massive Tomb Raider fan, one of the first games I played was Tomb Raider 1, I've got all 6 games. Truly rules. ;D
After i got sam and max and DotT last year and subsequently beat them, I downloaded the trailer for freelance police to see what it would have been like. :'( It makes me furious that they are making money on crappy rehashes while they could be making amazing games like freelance police! I am refusing to buy another star wars game made be them (developed) Knights of the old republic and classic games being the exception. God I hate Lucasarts >:(
Good article!
Hmmm... doesn't strike me as that destructive. Out of a huge money hole, Lucas fashioned Pixar, LucasArts and a company that made digital editing equipment similar to Avid or Premiere, years before its time. Pretty savvy management, if you ask me. As for the risk-averse nature of LucasFilm Games in those days, it worked for them, didn't it? Besides, even the best management policies have perverse side-effects. That's just the way it is.