syntheticgerbil

Are there any mediocre LucasArts adventures besides Last Crusade and Zak McCracken? I feel like they are all pretty solid besides those two. Never played the Labyrinth one. I kind of give Maniac Mansion a pass because it's pretty short and is kind of an early version of what Ron Gilbert was trying to do with adventures.

Hmmm, Maniac Mansion has a few unwinnable states, so make sure to juggle multiple saves and save often. It's pretty difficult to have it become unwinnable, but I'm pretty sure it's only if you do something to kill one of your characters. You can still play after that but it's pointless. You can also blow up the mansion in various ways but it's pretty easy to avoid doing that. I don't think there's any items that you can permanently lose or do something wrong with. Udvarnoky, aren't you the expert on Maniac Mansion? Are there any necessary items you can permanently lose? Also, I want to say it might be best to play the NES version. It has music and seems to be more of a favorite with people I have talked to. The graphics are a little bit less compared to the "higher res" version of Maniac Mansion on PC and it has some censorship.

I'd recommend you only play the 90s LucasArts adventures for now if you are interested in more. Then maybe move to Telltale stuff instead instead of digging up a bunch of other older games. If you do find you really enjoy graphic adventures of the 80s and 90s and you want to try other non LA games, I'd just advise you to ask around first because as Udvarnoky wrote, there's generally a lot of bad adventures hanging around. Most of Sierra's games are just not very good, but some are enjoyable enough.

Stoic did not hire me, but I figured since Banner Saga is nearly done, that wasn't going to happen. The art director responded within about five minutes and gave me some really nice compliments about my work and characters, so that's kind of made my day already.

Hahaha, every time I play this game, I make sure to name all colors. This game is why I have OCD.

Ha, good question. I'm sure if you sent him an e-mail asking, he'd reply rudely.

Wow, thank you for posting this, I was always curious of exactly how the art process went on. I definitely feel for the person having just come off a job working with a couple of crap outsourcers that also were used for political reasons (One company was led by a later LA artist who did some mediocre for us that I had to continuously ask for revisions. This guy also did some of the plain models for A Vampyre Story, funnily enough). But I'm confused with this person saying the outsourcers in Singapore did all of the character art when I remember seeing a few blog posts from some artists who did the new character concepts for the first remake, which equaled a lot of the bad decisions of the new character styles. Furthermore, I definitely agree that the prerendered 3D models for the main characters was a nonsense. However, they admitted they did the backgrounds for the first SE in house. While the character art was pretty misguided, the backgrounds were just trash. They have this ugly sharp edged painter style that is splotchy with copy and pasted elements over every fucking thing. A lot of them were also unfinished, let alone the pixel art (or white mask edges) they were drawing on top of would sometimes peek through. The usual rush for time excuse is used by this person, and while that is valid in many cases, I don't feel like whatever technique they were employing would have ever looked good. As much as I hate to say it, maybe it was for the best that all of MI2 SE was outsourced instead. It still didn't do it enough justice but it definitely more clean and the backgrounds were not garbage the second time around, being the only part or the artwork they truly did well in my opinion. However as this person points out, the very best option would have been to correctly budget the time and then hire up a talented staff in house to give the game the love and care needed. Maybe only outsource minor things like icons if needed. So that always is kind of the issue with remakes of things that were well produced the first time around, is it better off leaving it well enough alone if you are not going to be able to potentially put in the love and care the original creators had?

Wow, I love you animation!

Haha, wow, what a finely written humorous good news post on serious subject matter. Really wasn't expecting that. Glad he's okay Merus.

Personally, I don't think any of the upgraded graphics did anything for the games except for the redrawn backgrounds for MI2. The first remake is just hideous and garish in so many ways and has the addition of graphical glitches all over the damn place, it's almost a travesty. MI2:SE is more faithful but also has strange character models that are prerendered for some but then some that are 1:1 to the original designs (but in HD). That said, Guybrush still doesn't look or act the same and in general the animation just sometimes isn't as good as the original (dropped frames on certain parts because the HD animators couldn't be bothered or just some drawings and expressions don't match up). I think playing the classic MI2 with the voices should be reason enough alone for the SE. Maybe other purists would tell you to skip that too, but I think the cast did a great job for all of the remakes. I think everyone is true to the individual games and then fit in with the later post-Gilbert games. Commentary and art galleries are nice too. The UK PS3 disc also has the movie concept art in the menu, which is an awesome bonus.

Hahaha, that Republican jerk one is great It's not even because of bad misogynist joke, but because he somehow thinks Anita (or lots of women in general) must be poor and use government provided cell phones to play games. I mean I imagine you could probably install Bejeweled on one of those cheapo tracfones that you are supposed to get to find a job, but I can't imagine there's much overlap. ALSO THE FREE MARKET IS AMAZING! HAVE YOU GUYS HEARD OF THIS THING CALLED THE FREE MARKET?

Yeah that's kind of what I meant earlier. Somewhere in that mess of comments he apologizes, then starts acting like a total dickhead again, then apologizes again. Then it just takes the next outburst. It's like I can never tell if the guy is truly going to stop with this shit or not? I mean he must be learning since the Gay Gamer one, but I don't know. I don't even know if I care about what his personal views on gay marriage or whatever other liberal agenda stuff he's upset about, but he could make a major effort to just shut up about it or at least not be an insensitive jerk. He did an interview for Armikrog with this podcast and starts tearing up with the realization that he probably jeopardized the project from the beginning from the way he's acted in the past: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSwzBShEFls He just emphasizes the project isn't just about him or his political views, so I guess take with that what you will. My hope is TenNapel just doesn't let his career turn into Dave Sim type stuff and turns it around.

It's a Bachelor's in "Media Arts and Animation," whatever Media Arts means. I did enjoy sculpture in high school but it was ceramic only. I'm not sure where I would begin. I wouldn't mind getting out of video games though as it doesn't matter to me. Working freelance for yourself is tough, but I guess I could look in to what kind of niche I may be able to fill in this city. I kind of always wanted to break into children's book illustration or just plain comic books, but neither seems like a stable income unless you make a name for yourself. I suppose I have a lot of thinking to do.

Is it strange I want your life so bad right now? Maybe grass is greener, but I just kind of want to know I can have a job for decades to come without becoming irrelevant so quickly. Because it seems like I kind of got myself stuck. Last time I couldn't find a job as an artist for a while, I started trying doofy minimum wage jobs again, except this time no one would hire me because my resume was all professional work that just told a story of a guy who would quit the second he found a job on his career path again. The "Where do you see yourself in five years?" no longer becomes an easy question to answer in a Walgreen's interview (hint, the answer is always Walgreen's). I can't imagine switching a career wihout needing to acquire more crappy student loan debt and exhausting myself again with some super crappy job to pay the bills while I try to juggle school. I mean the end intention on a career change would be to just make art a hobby again.

Oh there's another comics thread. I guess I never go to this forum because I suck at reading. I should read more comics as my recommendations are pretty much the exact same as the other thread so far and I mostly just flip through art and animation books these days. I tend to read comics based on the art and usually only if the artist writes it. Just feels more personal that way. Lately I've only read two more Goon TPBs that I have not read for years even though they've been sitting around. Still haven't gotten to Chinatown, which is supposed to be the greatest. The comic tends to be a strange mix. Half are really base humor stories I really don't care for as they are too gruesome and violent but not for very good comedic effect (unlike comics like Scud or Evan Dorkin's work in general), but the other half are really engaging character stories I get engrossed in. Hopefully this gets a bit more balanced as it goes along, but I've read about 6 TPBs now, 1-5 and 0. The art is always great though. I also read Black Cherry by Doug TenNapel, but like mostly everything I've read by him so far except for Gear and Creature Tech, the story set up is nice but it just ends up feeling stupid and rushed near the end. I did also reread all the Malinky Robot stories in the newer TPB this year. Everyone really needs to read this comic, I can't stress enough how great it is. So simple and beautiful, but lots of heart within. The Stinky Fish Blues story goes on a Sunday newspaper extravaganza that tells a tragic story. Very medium pushing in my opinion.

Haha, yeah the double click traveling they added in Curse of Monkey Island was a god send.

Gosh, I have no idea how well designed the game actually is. I mean I replayed it two years ago for the special edition and really tried to pay attention to the design of the adventure this time. Everything seemed very nicely in order outside of the infamous monkey wrench and the stupidity of picking up the dog, but I might have glazed over some bad design because I already knew the solution. I remember as a child with no hint book or internet, it took me months to finish it on the hard (or regular) setting. Once I got fed up on part 2 in the hard mode, I just went ahead and finished the game on easy so I could see the story and then returned to normal afterwards. That said, last time I played it, I did the speed run trophy for the SE on PS3 and made 7th place on the leaderboards without actually trying. I've beaten Monkey Island 2 so much that the order of puzzles are just ingrained in my head. I know the original puzzle I was stuck on for a few months involved sawing . The one you are stuck on was definitely a tough one. You are on the right track though.

Oh yes, working on Free to Play games, I can empathize, that's exactly what I was doing last. It's gross when you work in a marketplace where you must create obvious sellers only. That means all women must have big tits and show a lot of skin, while all men must be power fantasies. I was working on a fairy decorating Farmville clone for a while, that was interesting. The idea was to outdo the other artists with the most frilly and color oversaturated thing ever, as those were the big sellers (at ridiculous prices even). The Evony style ads began about two months ago. But I think the designers were the most upset working on free to play, because if another game was not already doing some particular function or game loop, then they were not allowed to. Although the UI artist was never allowed to deviate either. Farmville, Smurf Village, Deep Realms, and League of Legends all must be mimicked not even improved upon. To add insult to injury, the company paid the designers the least, and never actually gave them an official title other than lofty "producer." We also were never allowed credits for fear of someone getting angry being uncredited for something they did (yes one of the actual reasons I was given on why not). Yeah I don't think I'd ever want to do the AAA thing either. I find the studio setting I feel most comfortable in is the one where I wear multiple hats, and AAA studios are not equipped for that. It's hard to find a small studio, let alone one that pays, especially with the current job market in Austin.

Unfortunately, not yet. Before when I had a job they'd go on before I could get out of work it seemed, but I have been getting the invites. I was going to go to the last one but I was working on my website stuff that evening. I will definitely be showing up to the next however since I have time and no idea of what to do except wait for rejection or acceptance letters.

So here's a long rambling post about me wanting to change careers: I was fired from my last job about three weeks ago shy of one month from about two years. It was a bad job from the start anyway and I knew that, but I couldn't never really find anything else promising. I won't go into the details but I wasn't the only one at fault, and I know the art director I did have during the last project listens to the Thumbs podcast and knows I post on the forums (but says he doesn't read), just doesn't know my username. But to get down to it, I get paid to do art for things, and I have been since 2007, except for an 8 month period of unemployment when I switched cities to this one. I'm not an exceptionally good artist, but I try my best and I guess the fact that I have been paid for years over means something. But that doesn't really matter all that much these days because you really have to get to be the best of the best in one discipline or you will have no job. Competition is stiff and companies want you ready to be amazing at what you were hired for with little to no training and within their art style, if not it's customary to just outsource the work to China where it's cheap and someone will eventually get their style. Even then, a lot of the ways you get a job in games is just by knowing someone because it saves everyone in HR time and no one has to review a bunch of portfolios. This is probably why a lot of video games tend to look the same since it is just a cycle of people having to fit a mold one way or another. Not positive, but it seems that way. I was about to close on a house my girlfriend and I were trying to purchase (that we currently live in, renting) but I got fired a week before closing. Now because of that, the owner is selling to someone else and we will have to leave and find somewhere else to live in September, even though we just moved here last September with no plans to move again. To compound that problem, Austin, Texas, is now apparently the coolest place ever to live (tip: it's really not) and people are moving here rapidly this year, with cost of living rapidly increasing. Since I'm the primary source of income and I was an artist with an incredibly unstable and volatile job, I really had no business buying a house, I know this, but I guess I just wanted to be "normal" and have somewhere to settle a bit. So the issue is, I'm stuck in Austin and it's very much a city with a very bro AAA game mentality at most of the companies, where I definitely do not fit in terms of style or personality. There's no other real paying art jobs outside of a 2D animation studio I'd love to work at and have applied (again). I can't move because my girlfriend loves her job at a vet she works at here and will probably not leave it ever if she doesn't have to. I don't know if I would want to move to somewhere like San Francisco even if I had the means, though the companies I love are there. The other issue is, I need to be a little bit more 3D centric because while I have 3D skills, they are either rusty and outdated or not good enough, since so far I've been mostly paid to concept, do vector art, digital paint, create characters, storyboard, and animate in 2D and 3D, which is fine, because my passion is not in 3D and working in 3D is usually one technical headache after another until you get to the good stuff. School I went to was very heavy in 3D teaching, but they did it all wrong and it was outdated even then, being staffed by a bunch of industry people who were dinosaurs (hooray Art Institute for sucking). I just finished all my recent portfolio stuff completely updated and new demo reel and all Wednesday and even though I've applied to places, I'm feeling really disenchanted. In many ways I kind of hate doing artwork now and it's all dictated by trying to keep up with whatever job I'm aiming to get. I mean it was foolish to think this, but the dream I had growing up where I wanted this career is that I would be designing some kind of look, world, or characters from the ground up and be some kind of creative gatekeeper for a project. You can easily do that any time, but no one is probably going to pay you to do that unless you are a name artist. How do you get to be a name artist though? Doesn't seem like working on random projects studio to studio ever gets you out there. I feel like everyone who starts loving an artist for their style has gone through a backdoor of creating a pet project or just doing what they want as amateurs and then building up a fan base. A lot of the artists I know by name art are just comic book artists who did that stuff while having a wholly different full time job until their career took off. So on that I guess I'm considering trying to switch careers to something stable and possibly outright boring. Where I don't have to work a ton of hours for someone's shitty grand scheme of video game mediocrity or just always second guessing everything I'm doing and wondering "is it good enough?" even when it's a personal piece that no one will probably see. Maybe if art were a hobby, I'd enjoy it again, but I don't know. I don't really want to go back to school again for something else and work at awful minimum wage jobs again for years to pay rent, but maybe it's time to do that. I don't even remember what else I was good at anymore except that I did exceptionally well in higher up classes in math and physics. What do you do with that? Be an accountant? How do you "engineer?" Mrrghgh, I mean I know I just started applying to places starting Wednesday and I shouldn't be complaining because I get paid to draw and do "creative" things, so I should be living the dream, right? First world problems I guess. I suppose I'm just worried because even if I land another job, keep it for five to ten years, it's just still going to be as unstable as before because you come out of the job being good at what you did there and in the style of that company but not necessarily relevant to the places on the market upon leaving. Anyone who can do this stuff their whole life and retire on it, good on them, but it seems to be a special case.

Yeah but freeway passes are the best because it means you happened to be near someone long enough to exchange the information. One of my first streetpasses was during some rain traffic on the freeway, felt super cool. Also, something nerdy: My former former boss offered to take my 3DS to Anime Con for me and check every 10 people and now I nearly have all the pink puzzle pieces and I have FINALLY met five females in a row.

I like to actively bar people from opening doors to public places.

Finally, now I can get some damn achievements and puzzle pieces.

I'll give you a Utrecht.

Okay now I read the part of the original post I glazed over. Errrr.... Olivia Wilde not representing femininity? But... every feature she has is soft and feminine.