The variety in storys, scripts, art and music that can be seen in the AGS forums is amazing, so I thought I'd start a thread where everyody can post the names of their main inspirations, for music, art, stories... whatever. It'll be interesting linking peoples styles to those of their mentors :D
For art, I love Tetsuya Nomura and all of the Monkey Island III team. I got loads of inspiration from the MI3 art, but mostly from Tetsuya who is constantly refreshing and new.
Storys, plots, scripts etc.,.... All the rest comes from Tim Schafer, who is truly truly godlike :D :D :D
I would have to say that my influence has come mainly from Sierra, as I played many of their adventure games when I was little. Those games made me want to make my own.
Other inspiration for me comes from various things and stuff.
I guess by myself.. I'm always thinking alot, and I can release it all in my adventures... i do not have a real INFLUENCE, although I did liked the games of lucasart
old seirra adventures, and phil reed, maker of what I really think is one of the finer comic adventures.
Strangely enough... Discworld Noir. That was the inspiration for "The Postman Only Dies Once." I loved how it recreated the feel of a classic black and white noir picture... the grittiness, the hard-boiled interior monologue, the smart back talk... plus using the notebook topics as inventory items was a brilliant touch.
The inspiration for the story "Another chance" I wrote a while ago was from my deceased friend Larry.
Lgm, m0ds, Girlfriend, Patrick Star (From Sponge Bob Square Pants), Space Ghost and company, Um that one show on Nick with the faries, Ralph Wiggum, Veggie Tales, Dungeons & Dragons, Ed and Courtny (Whos last name I dont know), Tom Green, Cast of The Screen Savers (Martin mostly :p ), that one Kristy chick from Days of Our Lives, Bruised Weasel, the voices that my father hears (No really), Happy Tree Friends, Igor, The little 8) smiley, the drugy next door, the other drugie next door, my cousin Michelle, Bonnie and Ashley, and lasty Lindsey... Um, thats most of them...
Edit: After reading it I realized I forgot the most important one... Jane Lane from Daria...
Manga! It got me to actually draw people in proportion.
Manga? Proportion? I guess so, except for the huge eyes, weird heads, and the fact that all the woman have perfect 18 year old bodies.
A perfect 18 year old body native to what country?
There's nothing like an absense to teach you the value of something.
You never know what you have til it's gone, and that goes for proportion as well.
David Gilmour(e),Phill Lynott, My dad, and Mark Crowe who did a great job making BiTCHiN graphics for Space Quest with only 16 colours.
Grim Fandango, MI series, Chrille's P:DA, KQ2VGA, Douglas Adams, Terry Prattchet, Quentin Tarantino, and that's just to name a few.
As there already is another thread about "who do you admire", where I pretty much cover my inspirations from other media, I'll keep to the adventure game designers this time around:
Jane Jensen (GK2 and 3 in particular) and Ron Gilbert (Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken, Indy 3)
Well, i dont usually compose music, but I do think that Rober Holmes(Gabriel knights) has much influence on the sound I do.
The LucasArts games gave me most influence.
literary inspiration: John Milton, Richard Adams
artistic inspiration: David Hopkins, 'miss mab'
game making inspiration: 2ma2
Musical inspiration: Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Mozart
links you shall have:
Mab's site: http://www.mabsland.com
Hopkins' site: jack.keenspace.com
milton's book: http://www.literature.org/authors/milton-john/paradise-lost/
Adams' book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380002930/qid=1057919852/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-5301038-0565708?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
you all know 2ma2
Ooh - I have a lot of influences... When it's about game-making I'm very inspired from the LEC-classics, of course, but my next project (Still writing the story, but I did post some pics in the Critics Lounge a while ago) will be heavily influenced by Gabriel Knight and Broken Sword.
Of course, many of the AGS-games also insprired me a great deal - P:DA was a total mind-opener to what AGS was capable of, for example.
And Dave: Discworld Noir was, and is still a great source of inspiration for me as well - It's just so incredibly atmospheric, and the story is both complex and brilliant.
Ooh... Got the urge to play it again now... Drat... ;D
I also draw a lot of ideas from books(Terry Pratchett, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming, Douglas Adams, Dennis Wheatley, Tolkien, etc...) and all sorts of good music, from Entombed and Slayer to The Beatles and Beach Boys.
I won't list everone that has inspried me though, since that would be far too many... Let's just say I'm inspired, and leave it at that...
monkey island 2 totally
My art style was developed over many years of stealing touches I liked from other artists.
Big, overlapping eyes: Matt Groening
Rubbery, sprigy-out mouths: Nick Park
A basic knowledge of drawing cartoons: A tutorial found in an issue of Sonic the Comic.
Anything I do comnes from somthing else I've seen, heard, read or experienced.
For instance: after reading Jhonen Vasquez for two days solid I had an overwhelming urge to draw a black and white comic that makes fun of vampires (look out for that ;) )
I recently got Cartoon Network on the TV and now all my backgrounds have no outlines.
I love ripping stuff off.
Well, I haven't made that much art, music, or anything else for that matter...
But when I do art, I tend to either aim for the style of one of the Indy games, either Indy and the Last Crusade, or Fate of Atlantis. Also, I don't think I've shown any of this, but I did try and emulate the character style of 'KGB: The Conspiracy' a while ago... the 'characterization' made the game cooler, but no less realistic looking..
For Music, I try and emulate the guy who taught me to use tracker, |Kamikaze|, and he uses the pentatonic scale a lot, which makes some songs weird... But I don't think I've released any music either, 'cept maybe in one of my games...
And for AGTV (released on the 15th, folk), I got mainly influenced by Letterman. Also, Michael Essany influenced it a little, but I started work on it before his show came out on tv in Britain (that's how lazy I am).
As far as story-development goes, I love Pratchett and wish I had his sense of humour and comedic insights. But I do try.
Graphic-wise, the original team of LucasArts are just amazing... look at MI, Indy and DOTT... they're wonderful games.
Also love Jane Jensen. Love her.
Art: eric, early 90's sierra, dott, grim, cmi, sam n max, helm, cornjob.
writing: dunno.
Music: i havent done game music.
That is my huge list.
Hey
Art:
I got a set of crayons as a child, and it kinda snowballed from there. For cartoony pics I kinda steal bit's from everything I've ever seen, if that fails.. I'll usually doodle for hours until something looks like what my head intended it to look like.
The background's I've had stabs at are mostly influenced my DOTT.. the kinda "just say NO to outlines" style.
I did have a general disgust of outlines (see avatar) but recently, I've started to like them on certain characters, as it provides a more comic feel to it. Comic like the ones on paper, not the kinda shonky daytime tv guest who tries to pass him or herself off as a comedian/comedienne.
I also have a liking for kid's cartoons like Fairly Odd Parents, Dexter's Lab, Powerpuff Girls, etc.. which I've tried to take on board more recently.
Oh.. and Duckman. Never forget Duckman.
Music:
For my band, it's usually Sonic Youth, Hole or Queen as my influence, and the other member's bring their influence to make a an ugly mish mash of noise and feedback.. but our stage show kicks ass.
For the in-game music I've tried, I seem to be most influenced by Muzak (the stuff you only hear in elevators or Eurovision Song Contest entries). It's the whole MIDI feel to it, I can't help but go for cheesy sleaze. (It's easy-peasy with cheesy sleaze.. now, new strawberry flavor cheesy sleaze..).
Oh.. and Duckman. Never forget Duckman.
Writing:
Usually comedy.. I've tried more serious stuff, but it always ends up looking arrogantly pretentious and more often than not: ass. So nowadays, if I find it funny, I'll make a note of it and keep it for future reference. Not things I've seen, just the things I've thought of. I'm trying to avoid plagirism as often as possible (in which case, ignore the whole "cheesy sleaze" thing). I also try has hard as I can to avoid pop culture references, unless the thing I'm refering to has been around for a while. "McDonalds" you know, the "Fast Food Song" by the "Fast Food Rockers" you probly don't. If you do know them, you didn't last month and won't next month.
As for people I've ripped off.. it's usually a one-liner every ten or so episodes, of things like the previously mentioned kid's cartoons, and Futurama, Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, Ren and Stimpy etc.. usually cartoons.
Red Dwarf, now that's something I've been heavily influenced by that in the past.
Oh.. and Duckman. Never forget Duckman.
Game-making:
I played the "Wayne's World" and the "Beverly Hillbillies" games, and thought: "These blow, even I could do better". I'm still in the process of trying to.. it wasn't as easy as I first thought.
Hugs
Iqu
Oh.. and Duckman. Never forget Duckman.