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Okay.

Once again, I'm going to quote something Tim Schafer said. Except I can't remember his exact wording, so I'm not going to quote it at all.

If I remember correctly, he once said something about games being produced in episodes or suchlike. For instance, smaller games that are released more frequently. I would imagine this to be somewhat like shareware, except more advanced. We've already seen this happening to a degree in Movies, with LOTR and The Matrix and... wasn't there another trilogy being released together?... and after debating this with Ade we both agreed that producing smaller games more frequently would actually be beneficial to companies.

My choice of wording is so crap.

Imagine if you're a small developer, starting up with your debut game. You're going to have a hard time finding cash to support you for the next four years, while you try to recruit staff to work in meagre conditions in your new place. In the meantime, any number of things could go wrong such as your staff leaving for better jobs or worse still, your publisher cutting off funding to you. It would definitely make more sense to release this debut game as say, three separate episodes. It allows a more frequent income for companies, and delivers games faster and hopefully with less bugs.

On the other hand, would this work for players? Hmm.

Rather than just Gameplay and Graphics, I hope that games are realized differently in the future as a valid source of entertainment instead of a geek hobby. Games are a completely valid art form, just like Movies can be. I mean, okay, Commander Keen or Doom... they're hardly art forms. But on the other hand, 10 Things I Hate About You or Shallow Hal were hardly artistic either. Yet think of Grim Fandango and Moulin Rouge, and they both prove that Games and Movies can be just as artistic as each other.

Hm, what am I trying to say?

What I am trying to say, I guess, is that I am pretty tired of my Guidance Counseller giving me dodgy looks every time I say, "Yes, I want to work in the Video Game Industry" as though it's some sort of Idiot Job.

Damn, did I make any sense?

[are]

Ha ha ha! PhilRoberts, you are funny!!!

I think you should do that Family Matters game! It would be completely awesome! And your sense of humour would surely make it the blockbuster game of the year!!!

Oh man! I can't wait!!!

I think my theory is more likely, based on the fact I yelled a lot more than everybody else, and used a lot of bad language.

Doesn't that stuff account for anything?

[FACES!???!]

Hey, the guy is just dumb and doesn't know how to act around people. It's a type of disease. It's not like he means to annoy us, he just genuinely doesn't have a clue. He might want to have a conversation with somebody but instead of saying 'hi' he says 'fuck you'. He'd try to ask you how your mother is, and instead he'd say something like, 'I FUCKED your MOTHER last night'. But it's the THOUGHT that counts, and he was thinking, 'I hope you are okay. I am okay. We could be friends. Would you like that you SON OF A WHORE?' because deep inside, in his head, he can't stop these irritating thoughts, that drive him to piss people off. All he truly wants is to make games, but PEOPLE just don't UNDERSTAND his PROBLEM, and sometimes they make fun of him and call him PHIL THE FUCKING IDIOT AND ALL HE REALLY WANTS TO DO IS MAKE HIS FUCKING GAME AND MAKE FRIENDS AND HE ONLY WANTS TO KNOW WHAT FUCKING ENGINE TO USE AND YET YOU PEOPLE ARE POINTING AT HIM AND LAUGHING AT HIM AND MOCKING HIM BECAUSE HE HAS THIS FUCKING DISEASE THAT HE WAS BORN WITH, THAT HE DIDN'T CHOOSE TO HAVE AND THAT HE IS FIGHTING, AS WE SPEAK. DO YOU THINK PEOPLE COME HERE TO FUCKING ANNOY OTHER PEOPLE?! IS THAT THE SORT OF FAITH YOU HAVE IN HUMANITY!??? YOU THINK HE WANTS TO COME ON HERE TO FUCKING PISS PEOPLE OFF BY INSULTING THEIR GAME MAKING FACILITIES AND LAUGHING IN THEIR COLLECTIVE, FUCKING, FACES!???!

Yes, a few people are. Which is why I stopped posting about ten posts ago. Even this post isn't really here.

Or is it? Why don't we debate whether this post exists?

I think Monkey Island 1 and 2 stretched the artistic barrier of the time as much as possible. There is plenty of color overlay in the second game especially, for instance in the Voodoo Ladies place, where her half is green and the other half is warmer brown, or in Guybrush's dream, red tinted. Or was it yellow? The colors used in MI1 and MI2 and the composition of the backgrounds presented a warm and appealing game in both instances, despite the technical restraints that existed back then.

Grim Fandango was just awesome. Also, Psychonauts makes my mouth water. In case I forgot to mention it 100,000 other times.

But CJ, the guy is trying to have an OPINION!! How can you tolerate such behaviour??

God, and to think I used to respect you.

I don't think things are working between us any more.

I have to go.

I casted my votes too, but one question... why is Flashbax in the P3n1s awards??? Flashbax was a good game! :  

SHIT!!! You mean p3nish isn't a GOOD award?!

Oops.

It can work, it just rarely does. It's up to the developer to make it work.

Some of the Star Wars games are very good (And this from somebody who despises the movies) and also don't forget Indiana Jones and Goldeneye.

Every single game ever released alongside a disney movie needs to be abolished.

So I would say it the quality of a game based off a movie is really up to the developer.

We knew you'd come crawling back for our sweet, sweet candy.

We'll forgive you (I don't know what you did, but this situation could be GOLD for me) if you change your signature to "Tim Schafer! Tim Schafer! Tim Schafer! Tim Schafer! WOOOOOO!"

Except without the quotation marks.

Yufster, you remind me of my favorite puzzle from "Zork Grand Inquisitor," where you play the brogmoid guy (Throg? Forget his name). He's basically a dumb beefcake type of guy

Thanks.

I also love Nomura's character designs, but if I said something looked like it came from a Disney or Pixar movie, I'd mean it as an insult.

Not Disney OR Pixar, Disney AND Pixar. There's a huge, huge difference.

XBOX Live? How can you have XBOX live without an XBOX? I don't have an XBOX.

I don't know what you are talking about.

I thought the safe puzzle in Grim Fandango was obvious... difficult, but obvious....

Something I heard somebody once say, (Tim Schafer to be precise) is that there always has to be a certain element of Wish Fulfillment for the player, too. Nobody wants to pick up a game and get a great plot, except with the same basic puzzles that are in 1000 other games that they've already played. You have to put the Player in a position where they are excited to be on this adventure with the hero.

Also, the puzzles in a game should be solved in a way that the HERO would solve them, not in a way that the PLAYER would solve them. For instance, and I think this is the example that was used in the interview I read... Ben Throttle would make an entrance by kicking a door down, whereas Manny Calavera would find a more subtle entrance.

Something else that I personally think is important in games, is innovation. It's great for a player to be able to say, "Woah!" when they play things that have been done for the first time in your game. Then you start to see other people using your techniques, and that's when you know you've done something right.

Ack, I forgot the ever-awesome BILL TILLER. I admire his backgrounds and use of color so goddamn much it's ceased to amaze me and moved into the realm of INFURIATING me that I can't seem to capture his damn techniques.

But Lili, if you have no computer, what did you make BR on? For that matter, what are you looking at right now?

I give up with you people.

Unusual Art can help a game stand out and provide an interesting element to a game. Can you imagine if Psychonauts used realistic characters? The design of the characters helps show the bizarre, Tim Burton-esqe style of the game. Realistic characters wouldn't be able to show this and might also take away from the tone of the game.

Or if Grim Fandango had used an Anime style, or if Full Throttle had used a Psychonauts-Style, would they be the same game, or if Monkey Island 2 had used Grim Fandango-style 3D rendered backgrounds... They'd be the same game, but would they be the same?

Well, this thread is for you to mention/show us your favourite Art Style or Artist. Maybe if people are looking for inspiration for the artistic style of a game they can flick through here and see what various people like. I'm gonna call it an Art Bible, and if anybody is ever stuck for inspiration they can read this thread and see lots of wildly different art styles, condensed into one useful thread, hopefully.

I'll start.

I admire the art of Tetsuya Nomura, who designed the characters for a lot of Final Fantasy games. My favourite of his designs have to be the characters from FFIX, which looked as though they'd walked straight from a Pixar/Disney movie.

I loved the characters from The Nightmare Before Christmas... they were so bizarre and weird!

I also love Igors art, because it's bizarre and weird, and goddamn beautiful, and is so simple but effective and atmospheric.

I don't think you understand what I'm saying.

I don't have a PC, so whenever I download AGS games I find myself unable to play them, because I have no PC to play them on. If I had an XBOX I could port the games I'd downloaded from the PC on to the XBOX.

Man. Do you want me to teach you to count to three, too?

As soon as they're developed, lil buddy. As soon as they're developed.

You saved the day.

I don't know how to thank you. Both of you.

I don't know if we made it through to the next round. Probably not. I hope not, because there's a lot of work that still needs to be done on that costume. But what I guess is important is that we tried, and that one day we will be able to look back and say, "Hey, there's that competition that we entered, and spent ages building a ridiculous costume for, and then got bitchy at each other on the competition day, and then screwed up the dance routine and for some reason the CD player wasn't working and the Amplifier exploded and then we all stopped and didn't know what to do and then Amy started crying and the headpiece fell off the costume and the wire-bits caught our teacher in the eye and her contact lense fell out and then everybody had to stop while they turned on the lights and everybody searched for her contact lense and held up the competition for half an hour and then we got sent out in disgrace."

Or at least, that's what some people will be saying! But WE'LL be saying stuff like, "It looked really cool! Man, were we awesome or what?"

Danielle and Sarah loved the part in Sandman when he says, "Yessss?". They said to say thank you, and Sarah asked me not to tell you her real name because she thinks internet freaks will track her down, rape her and murder her. So, if anybody asks, her name is Sarah, not Emma.