Mostly walking day9tv improv sketch: Bad game design choices in loom

[ollj]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm3lgIEa9gg&feature=youtu.be&t=1432

greatly sums up what may have gone arwy when Loom was made in 1990.

[Monsieur OUXX]

I've been watching that, and the end is hilarious, when they pretend to pitch the game to some producer.

However I can understand why Loom was such a success, and they never mentionned it in the video: It's fucking CINEMATIC. Like, all the time. If you look closely at the backgrounds and the special effects, there is a constant use of background, foreground, perspectives, themed lighting... I mentionned special effects: I don't know if you guys noticed, but there is a use of cast shadows and also in some scenes the characters get dissaturated (a.k.a. grey) when walking in the distance.

You don't see these things in Fate of Atlantis or Monkey Island. Loom is really, really cinema oriented.

Once again I'm not saying it's making it a good game, but instead a mind-blowing game (note the subtle difference) at the time it was released (it's fucking old compared to other games, don't forget that).

[Mandle]

Thanks for this thread as it introduced me to "Mostly Walking" and now I'm addicted to watching their videos!

I really love lets-plays and always wanted to find some quality adventure-game ones where they didn't just go through with a walkthrough, but not many people do such videos. I guess the genre doesn't lend itself to most lets-players' styles. Plus the "Mostly Walking" trio are all professional game designers so when they get stuck they have a lot of insight about the game-design reasons that contributed to the stuckness, instead of just wandering around going "duuuuuh...", and they NEVER resort to hints/walkthroughs. Also: they are funny as hell. A great show, and lots of insight on adventure game structure and design.

In fact: Right now I'm watching their videos playing Gemini Rue, which they are saying is the most solidly designed adventure game they have ever played. At one point they are wondering what engine the game was made on and someone in their livestream chat tells them it was AGS. They don't know a lot about AGS. They say:

"I've heard it's low-rent but servicable."
"Their website looks a bit janky."

but then the greatest comment:

"Well, if it's running this then it must be pretty damn good."

And I was like: "YAAAAAAAY!!!"

Cheers for the heads-up on the great show again!