Messages

A new screenshot and a reward tier: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/876324751/a-vampyre-story-year-one/posts/514906

What I hate about religion is not jesus or the bible, what I hate is how religious people remain willfully ignorant, and how they get people killed over unfounded and superstitious beliefs. I don't hate Christianity, I hate people who are stuck in ancient morality, people who let religions corrupt them into becoming abominable assholes, even against their better judgment. What I hate is how religions manage to turn nice, caring human beings into somebody who'll say that owning another human as property is not bad in every circumstance (and who actually believe this!), because they'd rather die than admit that their belief system is full of holes and contradictions.

This all comes from either misunderstanding of religion or intentional misreading. On the fundamental level, Christianity is about love and compassion, and everything else is secondary. Just like "living near a power line will kill you" or quantum theory-based esoterics aren't science, this blah-blah-blah about abortion and other stuff is nothing close to what Jesus said. Besides, the original Christians (those from the Ancient Rome, etc.) never put that much emphasis on Hell, torture and punishment for sins. The "punishment" aspect was heavily laid on by the Church in Middle Ages (most likely for political reasons).

Also, I don't believe in religion making people worse. There's a certain percent of "nastiness" inside many people that just looks for an excuse to manifest itself (like in the Stanford prison experiment); if it isn't religion, it can be patriotism, revolutionary ideas or virtually anything else. Just like "if you cannot be a good person without your religion, then maybe you're not so good yourself", if your religion made you a worse person, then perhaps you weren't as good as you thought you were.

As for the gay question, since it bothers everyone so much, lemme throw in my two cents. There is both innate homosexuality (probably a result of genetic changes) and brief homosexual experiences of mostly straight people (even Marlon Brando had one in his young years). My IMHO is that religion only disapproves of the latter, since no one can be judged for what they were born with.

Wow, I'm surprised there's no thread on it yet. Bill Tiller has finally started a Kickstarter campaign to release a prequel to the Vampyre Story, which is entitled "Year One": http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/876324751/a-vampyre-story-year-one

There are some pretty interesting rewards out there (like a Mona figurine or a live phone call with Mona, Bill and Froderick), the trailer is also a must-see 

[can]

The whole "religion versus science" debate seems pretty futile, since they do not actually overlap. Religion never tries to answer the materialistic questions like "What does matter consist of?" or "If we throw a rock upwards, why does it fall down?", and science can tell nothing about what lies beyond the material world (like I already said, you cannot discover God, angels or demons in a physical experiment). And while science gives us experimentally proven facts, religion and atheism are just philosophic paradigms that both can match those facts (why couldn't have God invented the Standart Model, after all?  ).

People can actually be good and moral without any sort of religion, but I think the best thing it gives us is the belief in afterlife. Because, if our loved ones are really gone forever and we'll never ever see them again, then we live in a really Crapsack world. And, since we'll never know for sure unless we die, we can only hope this isn't the case.

[both]

One thing that I do need to work on is my personal opinion that people who strongly believe in a religion are less intelligent than those who don't, because of their beliefs. I'll admit to the problem, but it's too hard to let go. I see you Monkey, and I say to myself "He's such an intelligent and logical young man, why is he so blindly holding onto this religion of his, maybe he's not as smart as I thought he was?". But when I see a severely less intelligent person, one who walks around breathing from their mouth, I do not question why they have blind faith in the man-made religions - because this person is clearly dumb. Like I said, it's something I need to work on.

I'd say that both believers and atheists sometimes show signs of the so-called "blind faith" since neither of them have evidence for their point of view (cmon, you cannot conduct a scientific experiment that would prove the (non)existence of God or life after death). For instance, Richard Dawkins' agressive anti-religious attitude doesn't look much better than religious fanatism. Therefore an agnostic position seems to be the most rational one.

[same-sex]

Nowadays gay people have all the rights straight people do, and same-sex marriage is a "new" right no one previously had (neither straights nor gays). To grant it, we must admit not only the equality of people, but the equality of sexualities themselves (i.e. not only homosexuals are equal to heterosexuals, but homosexuality is as normal as heterosexuality). Because, if we see homosexuality as an abnormality (like many conservatives and a small percent of medics do), a gay marriage would be almost the same as making six-fingered gloves for polydactyls (while at the same time no one in their right mind would approve discrimination/hate crimes against polydactyl people).

There is also the much more controversial question of church marriage for gay couples (it's a very touchy subject for many religious people, and I cannot blame them for it).

I'd also like to raise a more general question like "Does opposing LGBT movement/tolerance campaigns make you an asshole?". Because, for instance, even if you say things like "Dumbledore is not gay to me, because Rowling never said so in the books, and I don't see his character like that", you can still be stigmatized as a bigoted jerk.

Cool

How about making a sequel? 
You know, I'd love a longer Monty Python game in the similar visual style (maybe even a Holy Grail-based one: I never liked the official game by the 7th Level as much as the movie).

Well, I've always said that homophobophobia isn't much better than homophobia: anyone who is somewhat critical of the LGBT movement is automatically labeled as a homophobe and jerkass.

To tell you the truth, his (negative) opinion on Toonstruck is much more offensive to me 

Wow, a comedic Laura Bow pastiche! Definitely something I'll have on my waiting list!

[could]

Pendulo? Hell no!

As strange as it may sound, I think this actually could work. Come to think of it, the two installments of the series were very different from each other: Maniac Mansion was a horror B-movie spoof, while DOTT was themed after Saturday morning cartoons. So perhaps Pendulo's trademark multilayered plots and criminal intrigue would make an interesting combo with DOTT's universe.

But clearly this can not be *the* end. I was promised a DOTT sequel and a live-action Captain Future movie by the Interwebs, that's gotta count for something!

Well, it still is my pipe dream to see Maniac Mansion 3: Rise of the Tentacle by Pendulo Studios  Sometimes I even try to imagine what could it look like...

And what's about Handsome Halibut? 

Throwing in some other random suggestions:
1) Darkwing Duck (there's even a sprite sheet on the Net:

2) Freaky Stories
[embed=425,349]<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ogVgj1pevD0?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/embed]
3) Tom & Jerry: The Movie
[embed=425,349]<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ERKyNU1ECcU?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/embed]

BTW, in case anyone's still interested in Freakazoid, these could be used as loading screens:



And OMG, we can finally include Frikazette!

Oh, and yeah, a Freakazoid Adventure Game might be good... maybe in the style of Torin's Passage, but modernized in a way.

Wow, there are already three people on this thread who want a Freakazoid game! Time to start a project?

There are already two games based on the Killer Tomatoes franchise, but an adventure game would rock! I'd say the same about Bonkers: something along the lines of "Toonstruck meets Blade Runner".

[embed=425,349]<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CbqFGapihP0?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/embed]

I think there's even an Inspector Gadget fangame.

Hmm, now that's interesting. I only know the official adventure game. Could you please give the link to the fangame?

Maybe the Mask or Dumb and Dumber? (like I suggested about 2 years ago) Or Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries?

Cooooool idea I'd say, either Bonkers or Freakasoid.

[best]

I agree you're being too critical of yourself. If remade with better graphics, I would name it among the best AGS games.