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I cannot wait to play an FMV game in HD. Finally, LA Noire can get shown up for the overbudgeted pile of balls it was.
This'll be brilliant

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Roger Dinkum and The Bloody Fruit Shop Owners?


EDIT: The Two Guys have posted a special reunion video on the latest update. I really dig it. Took me back to their days of filming silly "Behind the Scenes" stuff with Sierra..

I'm pretty sure by this stage Episode 3 would have evolved into a full-blown Half Life 3. As even with Episode 2's late release Valve realised they failed utterly in delivering these titles quick which WAS the entire point of going episodic. Also... look at them. They have aged badly. Valve can't release another glorified add-on for Half Life 2 and not get laughed out of the industry. If we get any more Half Life it will be a whole new numeral.

That said, this is disappointing news, as Valve had at the very least hinted strongly that there was an E3 announcement/event coming. Even though to me it looked likely to be Meet the Pyro and the released of Source Filmmaker which isn't even a game, it had me looking forward to June. Now I'll just be trying to look forward to things that AREN'T on Valve Time...

I have an idea. But that's no guarantee of anything as a few other MAGS have proven...

Scrapheap Challenge  -  more an annual sort of thing, I guess but the idea to make a game where all the backgrounds or characters (depending on what you have the most of) that you've drawn but never used are the assets you use to make a game. It's similar to the complete your game challenge, but it's come up because I've noticed that my Pictures folder is crammed with pixel art characters which, of course, I've never used because I STILL have managed to not make a game yet.

Alternately if we could host a page where a heap of people upload unused sprites, backgrounds (pieces of music, I suppose, AGS is all inclusive ) and then the challenge is for people to make a game using only those resources...

Eh, as I'm typing this I'm going off the idea, actually, as it's similar to a lot of AGS stuff that's out there. But it would probably be fun anyway.

I don't want to be alarmist, but could there be a fault with the ignore list system? Dualnames came up as 'ignored' in a thread just then and I'm certain I wouldn't have done that. In fact, took a quick look there and I have no idea how to even ignore anyone lol. Quite strange.

Well, barring some unforeseen incidents in the future Larry is coming back! Fully funded 6 days out from the finish line.

Now they're talking about things to do if they get to a million.... I doubt that's happening. But still! Sierra is making a comeback.

(Although Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, for mine, having taken a bit of the thunder away..)

It's going to be so cool when this is released, after years of being drip-fed these tantalising updates... 

Jared - Trilby needs transparency!

So clearly I'm more n00bish than I thought - anyone know I give a .png transparency?

Well, I whipped up a Trilby in about five minutes. That was the first obvious choice to come to mind. Mind give it some thought through the day and try some others later.



(Yeah, I know I'm not great at this)

EDIT: Oh, I love that Dennis...

That IS something I've noticed about Kickstarter - there will still be people that have the mindset of a producer even though they've given $15 and have a sense of entitlement over the project. Handling the fans seems to be one of the trickier aspects of the process so far, and something that has intrigued me with Shadowrun Returns.

Lots of people backing that project are saying stuff like "If there aren't any Adepts I won't back this" others insisting everything from a specific sourcebook. There have been good things to come out of it - a lack of interest in some of the pitched ideas like PvP ability and an expanded multiplayer game have seen the developers react quick. But then there are things like the project lead expressing doubt about the viability of the Linux port which resulted in, from memory, about 30k of funding disappearing in protest.

All in all I'd still say Kickstarter's good, but giving fans any more reason to a sense of entitlement than they carry with them gives them a lot more reason to backlash. And has been seen recently, fans can backlash HARD when they feel a lack of return for their investment (*Cough* ME3 *cough*)

This has thrown me for a loop, because from the Replay Games talks this seemed explicitly unlikely to happen. They were quite definite that if there was a new Space Quest Mark Crowe wouldn't be involved... what a twist!

And what's more THEY ALREADY HAVE GARY OWENS! YES!

I'm irrationally paranoid that maybe The Two Guys are going off another calendar and are pulling an April Fool's or something. This is too awesome to be true!

I like the design, too. It's simple, easy to use and has a cheery quality to it a few of the preliminary designs were kinda lacking in.

This came up before when someone (maybe Cyrus?) asked a similar question about remakes instead of fangames, but yes, SOMEONE PLEASE REMAKE SIMON THE SORCERER 3 IN 2D!

There was a German team working on it, but it's beyond safe to say that project is dead by now. And they didn't seem to be terribly ambitious - backgrounds were scarcely detailed and they were just using the voice files from the game. It didn't take long to realise how many problems that would create with puzzles that would need to be entirely re-worked in 2D.

I would like to see it done simply so people could enjoy Simon 3. It is - and I must be the only person to say this - one of my absolute favourite adventure games. It's very fun, very long and its plot got pretty epic by the series standards. Sadly, it was glitchy and ugly nearly nobody seemed to really get into it...

Nice to see Jazz Jackrabbit mentioned. I'd add Halloween Harry as another 90s PC platformer.

For adventures... I'll second Simon the Sorcerer. I was put off the new games utterly by the trailer which just looked painfully un-Simon like.

One of the big ones for me is Discworld. 3 solid games (I wouldn't go so far as to say great because all have their flaws) and a massively popular franchise with tons of nerdy fans... I've been amazed that their hasn't been fan sequels for Rincewind or Lewton's ongoing adventures.

Lack of a fan Full Throttle 2 is also conspicuous. I mean, it has an open ending..

[In my book, the number one would be Space Quest because I just love Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, I thought that humour was just… I thought it was better than mine, y’know (laughs).]

Ooh, another update and this one is kind of a big deal. An interview with Rock Paper Shotgun with Al Lowe and Paul Trowe who's heading the project and a former Sierra employee...

(All emphasis has been added)

RPS: You worked on a bunch of other Sierra games, I know you worked on the Police Quest games, did lots of programming and dialogue for those. Do you have any ambition to bring… In your Kickstarter you’ve talked about wanting to bring back all those classic series, but is there any in particular that you have a real passion for, that you’d really like to give another chance to?

Al: In my book, the number one would be Space Quest because I just love Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, I thought that humour was just… I thought it was better than mine, y’know (laughs). I really liked it a lot, I thought it was just that wonderful sardonic and creative and wry humour, I just loved it. I just love stuff like ‘Thanks for playing, you’ve been a real pantload’. That was one of my favourite lines in all games.

RPS: [...] Do you think that would be a game you could bring back and get them on board with?

Paul: I already spoke to Scott. Scott’s down for Space Quest. Mark works for Pipeworks, which is a Foundation 9 company. Foundation 9 is a very large independent studio and Mark said that that would be a direct conflict of interest for him, but if you recall in the last Space Quest, which was Space Quest 6, it was all Scott and Josh.

Al: Josh Mandel. And Josh is in on board here.

Paul: Josh was already on board, so in my opinion Space Quest 6 was one of the funniest ones out of all of them, so I think to make either Space Quest 7 or to reboot Space Quest 1-6, it’s more of a legal right than anything else. I’ve been friends with Scott ever since they closed Sierra, and once we announced that we were doing Leisure Suit Larry, I called Scott immediately and I said ‘If we get the rights to Space Quest, will you hop on board and do this with us?’ and he said ‘Absolutely, yes.’

Al: That’s good news.

RPS: [...] So Paul, something like the licence for Space Quest, which I believe is currently in the hands of Activision, who obviously don’t have any intention of doing anything with it, how difficult is that process to start?

Paul: What you’re saying is actually not true. It’s been licensed out already, and we’re in negotiations with the company that has it licensed out. And I want to say it’s looking good, but right now I’d give us 50/50.

Replay Games are pretty serious about bringing back Sierra games. He goes on to mention talking to Ken and Roberta about King's Quest which... well, I'd imagine would provoke mixed responses here. Most surprisingly, for me, Paul Trowe's response when King's Quest: The Silver Lining comes up..

RPS: So also with King’s Quest, they’ve been uncharacteristically generous in allowing fan projects. Have you seen the project the Silver Lining?

Paul: The Silver Lining wasn’t available for sale…

RPS: That’s right, yes.

Paul:And in addition it wasn’t really a King’s Quest. In my opinion they did an injustice to the King’s Quest franchise.

RPS: That’s interesting, why do you think that?

Paul: I just don’t think it held true to Roberta’s vision, just like I don’t think the Leisure Suit Larrys that have come out after Al wasn’t involved held true to Al’s vision. And that’s why I refuse to work on a Leisure Suit Larry game if Al wasn’t involved. I refuse to work on a King’s Quest game if Roberta’s not involved.

Which I thought was a surprisingly purist mindset, given that Ken Williams was happy to move series from designer to designer when it suited him. But, hey, everyone's entitled to their opinion. I think somebody needs to ask Paul Trowe about Vohaul Strikes Back and Incinerations now!


EDIT: How come people always talk about doing more King's Quest but never more Quest For Glory when it's such a better series???

New update from Al Lowe here. He addresses a brief FAQ I gather from feedback so far, clarifies that Replay Games has the license, clarifies that the ultimate goal is to get the ball rolling for a whole new game, and re-iterates that he had absolutely nothing to do with the last two 'Larry' Games. Oh, and he gives Jane Jensen a shout out.

The biggest problem for Al, and one I hadn't thought of until right now, is probably Magnum Cum Laude and Box Office Bust. The gap between those and Love For Sail (way back in 1996!) is so big and they were such high-profile failures and gaming media punching bags, that a lot of younger people would think of those games when they hear 'Leisure Suit Larry'.

And it must be terrible to keep getting associated with games you didn't even get consulted on..

Vivendi's dead. It's Activision that owns it all now, except Larry.

Sorry, I probably screwed up with the tense I used in that sentence - I know Vivendi's not around now but at the time Josh Mandel and SQ7 were dealing with Vivendi. Around the time of the acquisition they were selling off the Sierra IPs - I don't know if they actually offloaded any other than Larry (since I think Telltale bought King's Quest more recently..)

And the Shadowrun guys are in a much different situation, they're dealing with a pen and paper RPG company, not Activision, and they offer an up to date, multi-platform RPG, not an old school PC adventure game, like most people proposed when they tried to deal with Activision.

So I guess Microsoft did give up the rights then? It's great news for gamers, anyway. I always like to see a creator get the rights to his own property back, and I get the feeling something awesome is going to come out of it.

I think it's a measure of how big I nerd I am that I'm instantly twice as interested in a project when the developers promise a level editor...


UPDATE: Wow, Shadowrun Returns is already funded. 28 hours.

Also I see what people were saying about Jane Jensen's daughter. If Jane's smart she'll ad a 20,000 reward for a date with Raleigh

Eh, it was clear from the date. Shame the Toonstruck 2 guys didn't think of Kickstarter first, though. With all the A-list developers on there now they'll be lucky to get a look in. 

The charity argument has come up before and... eh. I'm giving around $100 across three charities a month, which I think isn't too bad considering I'm only guaranteed $208 a week with my part time work right now. So my conscious is clear as to whether I'm allowed to spend the rest of my money frivolously.

I think it comes up with Kickstarter because the line is blurred between charity and consuming. Everyone giving money is basically paying for a product (assuming that conditions are honoured) and I see it more as cutting out the middlemen producers than a charity for game developers. The money is provided by the customers BEFORE the game is released, the game is developed with that money. Everyone gets what they want! Unless the developers want a profit. Perhaps. Nobody's gotten that far yet.  

I'll be collecting a few more pay slips and weighing up what I need to spend on annoying real life crap before deciding on what I'll help Kickstart - I'm pretty sure I'll be funding LSL, though, and my interest is very taken with Shadowrun Returns


Also, I'd have to assume Al Lowe does not have the rights and I'd guess he doesn't have the means to purchase them. Josh Mandel and the SQ7 pursued the idea of purchasing Space Quest as a property when Vivendi were selling off the Sierra IPs, and the quote at the time was "Unless somebody has an eccentric millionaire relative, it ain't gonna happen".

I don't know if that's just a matter of Vivendi playing hard ball, though, because apparently the Shadowrun guy obtained the rights back to the series which I thought would have been tougher what with it being used by Microsoft recently..