syntheticgerbil

I'm just more concerned with how nuts this guy is on starting tons of projects that they will not have the staff for. Just finish one game first! What the hell?

You sure it maybe wasn't a bug where a character said something they weren't? In most Humongous games, there's generally three random paths to each puzzle that change everytime you restart the game. I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't a case where someone was speaking of something not available in your particular started game just because the amount of alternate realities the game world has to juggle.

I don't like the idea that they have three different concepts everyone can decide on. I think if they just offered something very concrete without "what ifs" it would lead to more donations. Also, Jane Jensen's stepdaughter is ridiculously beautiful and I'm not afraid to ignore the rest of this thread to say it!

Oo ooo, I finally finished the game two weeks ago, even though everyone else kind of stopped! I meant to post something! I don't... know what to say...

Third one is my favorite and 2 has major issues (but I think I've wrote them too many places on this forum now) but I have not gotten to much in the HD collection besides clearing out VR Missions when I can in MGS2. Did you finish MGS3 last time Thunderpeel? I feel like also having these games available in widescreen finally really improves the gameplay since you can now see much more on screen at all times and when turning the camera or using FPV. I'm guessing it helps you stay much more aware of your surroundings in MGS3 where you can't really get away much without the right camo and small footsteps. I probably won't get to Peacewalker until much later, since I haven't played 4 yet. I'm currently trying to get through Portable Ops right now, and I'm honestly hating it more than any Metal Game ever. It just controls like garbage and the gameplay is incredibly uninspired and tedious. Peacewalker is supposed to operate the same as Portable Ops (obtaining troops through open areas with nonlinear missions), just with improvements. I'm not skeptical on whether you can improve the gameplay on Portable Ops from bad to average, but making it a great game is something I'm worried about.

The problem is detailed here: Codemasters is still involved, they are still named the publisher and that they have some creative control. If Replay specifically own the rights, how is this possible? They should really specifically say that the franchise is being licensed out to them. If you notice on their Kickstarter page, however, they don't mention Codemasters until you open one of the questions, which specifically says they have "licensed" the game, yet one of the first sentences on the actual description says they have secured the rights. It is incredibly important to be as up front as possible before everyone donates. I understand they are being honest, but it's concerning they don't even have a full team yet even though the project was started last fall. It makes me think that what they have so far is just some middling contract work done for the sake of a promo video, since he admits no engine has yet to be started. The problem is, the budget asked should be more than enough to remake Leisure Suit Larry 1, yet he's either too wide eyed with what he wants to do with the "reloaded " part or he's planning to get through by lowballing the employees(or contractors). And another silly thing about him comparing the funding for the Double Fine project is that he's completely missing the point about California money vs. Texas money, as we also spoke of in the Double Fine thread. A salary in Texas nearly doubles in California for the same job, yet he's asking $100,000 more than the Double Fine project on a very tiny adventure game. There's no talk of boxed copies outside of Kickstarter $100 donation and this will be released digitally otherwise. A video game artist in Texas should make somewhere between $40-45k a year depending on what the job is and who it's for. An entry level artist might expect as low as $30k a year. Let's assume Replay needs four entry level artists to work full time for a full year on this remake, which is very generous for this game. That's $120,000 right there. Let's say he also hires an unneeded amount of four programmers for a low entry level of $40k. So it's now $260k for a year of development on this, which is an unrealistic amount of time even if he secures only employees willing to work a lot of overtime for low pay. So the last $240 is just a big question mark. Of course some goes to Paul Trowe, some to Al Lowe, and overhead, but then what? Just doesn't add up, especially that this is a publisher involved with this as an unknown. He's not very clear on what role all of these other Sierra designers are supposed to play either, and to me it seems like there's just no room for them in such a small game. He says on the Kickstarter page that he won't even add new gameplay (rooms or puzzles) until they pass the goal, so what kind of work is supposed to go into a game that you can beat in 20 minutes? I'm just really annoyed. Apparently this guy has major stars in his eyes since his Kickstarter says in the questions that they are going to remake all 6 games and then they can somehow make Larry 8. When people dream this big and continuously count all of their chickens before they hatch, it's just trouble.

I'm sorry, I just had to invoke the name of Bad Brain, Rodi!

Why is Kickstarter becoming a farce for video games?!

Haha that's just my bad grammar. Actually now that you mention it, I must say that that is an amazing idea.

I love your username! Hello!

http://adventuregamers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=605968&postcount=38 So I saw this repost on some answers and this project just reeks of fish. They are misleading people completely. 1. They say on their Kickstarter page specifically this: "Prying the Leisure Suit Larry license out of the hands of Big Software. DONE!" Yet, it's obvious from the answers that there is still a publisher involved in saying what to do with the IP. The Kickstarter page fails to actually mention any of this, meaning they are outright lying to donaters. The point of all of these Kickstarters is to crowdsource funds WITHOUT the need of a publisher or people holding them back. This is obviously not the case here. Why should we even give them money? Why isn't their publisher backing the funding for them? This is pure dishonesty. 2. They are misleading people about the cost of remaking. Double Fine is not using their *3D* engine to make this game. If I recall the video posted weeks ago said they were originally thinking of using an open source one, but now they are creating their own. You might as well remake LSL1 in AGS honestly. There is nothing amazing going on in that game, they don't actually need to make it from scratch. Why not mess with SCI as well? I don't understand. Also, in another quote from Paul Trowe elsewhere, he says he has been having a hard time employing staff because everyone did not want to work over 8 hours a day. I'm sure in Austin that there is probably no one within the video game community that seriously expects a company is going to keep a strict 40 hours a week, so this means he is either going to be grossly underpaying people a salary that does not convert to a good hourly wage (maybe even bordering minimum, who knows?) or something just generally is not right about the general funding and what employees are willing to put in because of it. 3. Now Paul Trowe is announcing that he is getting the rights to Space Quest and calling up Scott Murphy. This is just getting to be too much, and he is taking on and getting people hyped about a ridiculous amount of Sierra stuff that mostly likely will not go through seeing how all they have for this LSL project are some extremly rough an amateur sketches and one area with animation NOT IN ENGINE. Good luck getting a good Space Quest license (definitely not rights) since if I recall they also have to colicense the brand from a children's museum. This just stinks of Bad Brain Entertainment all over again.

I want animated videos of Chris, Jake, Vanaman, Nick, and Steve only.

Oh wow, I just realized Dreamrift studios is in Austin. I wondering if they are hiring! I want more 2D developers here!

Mono is a disease.

3DS version is looking very slick indeed!

I wish I didn't have to keep spending $100 for the package I want. I love Gabriel Knight games so much more than LSL, so this sounds nice. I didn't play Gray Matter or any of her casual games outside of Betrapped. I've heard everything recently has been either average or above average, so I wonder if she still has it? A new studio where she has direct control sounds like it might make a big difference. (I put this in the Leisure Suit Larry thread on accident!)

The fact that this guy thinks animation or video games are strictly kids stuff means he can fuck off. He did specifically say, "Pixar movies" so maybe he's open to other animation, but eh. He also wrote the book a book on masculinity, which to me means he has some major hang ups. Ad hominem or not this guy can just fuck off. Who really cares if an adult wants to check out Horton Hears a Who, which he admits is well crafted? If something is made well, people should check it out for it's merits, not specifically who it may be targeted at. That's the end of the story to me, well said. It's basically just this thread again, although not from the amazing New York Times: http://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7654

I remember having that game pad as well. The stick broke very early on and did not withstand multiple super glues.

I wish I didn't have to keep spending $100 for the package I want. I love Gabriel Knight games so much more than LSL, so this sounds nice. I didn't play Gray Matter or any of her casual games outside of Betrapped. I've heard everything recently has been either average or above average, so I wonder if she still has it? A new studio where she has direct control sounds like it might make a big difference.

I really like Larry 5, 6 and 7, especially the latter two. They did exactly what the first game was attempting to do but with LucasArts design principles. 6 and 7 are also completely open to solve whatever puzzle you please in a large area, which is my favorite type of adventure design. They could sometimes be too sincerely dirty, making things awkward, or just have dumb jokes that fell flat, but I have a soft spot for the series. I just see this remake as extremely misguided and superfluous. If they are planning to do a whole design overhaul, it's basically going to have to be a different type of game. Larry 1 was a short game full of idiotic or cruel dead ends or doing something unrelated to trigger another essential event. If that's the case, I'd be much more likely to donate to support a brand new Larry game. I also don't know how they are going afford good voice actors like the previous games with this kind of funding. This company is in Austin (I might have already accidentally insulted one of the makers on Facebook ) and they'd have to fly people out. Al Lowe was definitely needed for the Larry series, the games after the Sierra disintegration are proof enough, but he's been out of practice for way too long and none of these people are obviously designing in house, so just so much of this stuff is iffy.

Yeah, I was about to say... this again? I was hoping this project was dead, honestly. I like Leisure Suit Larry games, but this remake makes no sense to me. It's using LSL7 style graphics and animation (but not very well drawn), redrawn versions of the remake backgrounds which are in a disjointedly separated style from the characters, and using archaic adventure game design which was rampant in Larry games until the sixth one. They also have a bunch of designers involved that had nothing to do with Larry games, so why bring too many cooks in the kitchen? I am also not a fan of Josh Mandel's painfully dense writing. What's the point? Just seems like a weird misguided fan remake, Al Lowe or not. This is just such a bad idea. It would be a better idea to just make a new one so there'd be more freedom since they've got Al Lowe and the license.

You can replay the chapters from the menu and get the missing treasures if you really want them. They tell you how many is in each and how many you're gathered so far. Surprised you thought the end parts were paced well. I felt like the game was just chugging to a halt in good ideas once I started on horse back up until I had to fight all of the supernatural jerks/minions right before the final confrontation. Just seemed so uninspired after the greatness of the cruise ship. The cruise ship was very much like a Little Nemo comic to me, that could be why I loved it so much.

I actually did have the first three Putt Putt games and the first Freddi Fish when I was younger, but I guess I had played Monkey Island and Sam and Max first, as I had gotten the Humongous games later after their release date. 10 year old me wanted to not play cutesy games, so I didn't appreciate them for what they were, even though I did beat what I had and enjoyed them to some extent. I guess partly I revisited them because I wanted to play the Ron Gilbert/Dave Grossman games I missed, even if they were kid's games, and my first job out of college was doing art on learning games, which ended up being a ton of fun.

I get the feeling that it's often thought of by those that are used to crunching when interviewing for new employees, but not communicated outright like that.

I played through all of the Freddi Fish and Pajama Sam games a few years back. I didn't really bother with Putt Putt since it was for younger players. Haven't gotten to Spy Fox yet. But truly these games are genius edutainment and are very appealing to adults. So many of the crap edutainment games in the 90s could never reach this level. It seems that class of games has died out since then. I'm also amazed how much great artwork and beautiful animation went into the Humongous games. There was a lot of skilled and difficult stuff going on that I don't think most edutainment companies would have wasted time on, let alone that they had better animation than many adventure games at the time. The voice acting was top notch and the games still run fine on modern computers without ScummVM. Seems to be a solid engine. Anyway, I really admire Ron Gilbert's venture into the edutainment world. Lots of crazy polish that probably went unnoticed by many. I bet it was a blast working there as an artist.