DeathSpank

[syntheticgerbil]

What's all this Ron Gilbert hate. Shit talk all you want about the Humongous games, but they were fantastic. My little brother and sisters got interested in games with them. I've heard more than one developer credit the put-put games as solid game design. The replay factor was an element of genius. Kids will watch DVDs a million times over, but adventure games don't really have as much appeal when you know all the answers. Every time there would be about 3 or 4 possible puzzles, and they'd chose 2. Then you'd have to find the missing pieces, and they could be 1 of 4 places.

Just because he was making games targeted at your siblings or budgeted for a small release, doesn't mean he stopped being a brilliant designer.

Uh... what hate?

I don't even see where anyone actually said anything bad about Humongous games. In fact I don't think anyone commented one negative word about their design at all (Unless you are upset I revealed Ron Gilbert didn't do much work on most of the Humongous games after the first few, with Dave Grossman coming more into the picture, where even then I didn't say anything negative). It's generally known Humongous games are all good and well suited for kids, except maybe those last two finished after the Atari takeover (A couple of years after Ron and Shelley's departure) and the subsequent firing.

[Udvarnoky]

Agreed, the early SCUMM Humongous titles were in fact some good and well-designed kids games, which isn't much of a surprise being that they were put together by the likes of Dave Grossman along with some other developers Ron managed to coax away from LEC at the time. No one has shit-talked them.

Anywho, I've been playing a little bit of DeathSpank, and I'm having fun so far. It's basically a goofy, high rent Diablo clone with a great art style and lots of dialog trees. What's not to like?

[Garden Ninja]

I just played about 15 minutes of the demo, and I'm really not impressed. I like the art style. Gameplay is fine, I guess, but nothing amazing. I guess they're trying to do a semi-2D throwback thing, but unless you are really working in a 2D plane, fixed camera is stupid. Everything is voice acted -- even though it doesn't really need to be -- which is fine, in theory, except that the characters speak so damn slow. It's also trying way too hard to be funny, and mostly fails. This is especially grating when the "Hey, don't you want to buy this game now?" dialog appears (which happened 4 times in those 15 minutes), and DeathSpank says something supposedly humorous.

It's not a bad game. It is pretty long for a download game (Eurogamer's review said ~15 hours), so it's a good value for the money, at least if the writing gets better later on. I'll probably play it eventually, when it I have less of a backlog.

[SoulChicken]

torch-lite

[Forbin]

Uh... what hate?

I don't even see where anyone actually said anything bad about Humongous games. In fact I don't think anyone commented one negative word about their design at all (Unless you are upset I revealed Ron Gilbert didn't do much work on most of the Humongous games after the first few, with Dave Grossman coming more into the picture, where even then I didn't say anything negative). It's generally known Humongous games are all good and well suited for kids, except maybe those last two finished after the Atari takeover (A couple of years after Ron and Shelley's departure) and the subsequent firing.

"Ron Gilbert hasn't created a game I've cared about in nearly 20 years"

I'd go so far to say that Ron Gilbert hasn't made a game in 20 years I don't appreciate. Some have limited scope, but that doesn't make them less impressive. A lot of developers would say it's more impressive.

[SiN]

Oh man, DeathSpank is HILARIOUS. I just played around an hour worth of it on Xbox. His voice is perfectly suited and well delivered. The rest of the cast is spot on (so far). The dialogue had me smirking and laughing constantly, and in stitches quite often. I never did wipe that grin off my face.

The graphics are wonderfully done too. Very bright and cartoony. The fixed camera hasn't gotten in my way, so I'm not complaining. Occasionally, I find that the characters and the background clash, but it's not a big deal.

Mechanically, the game is good, but not really special. It's basically Diablo-lite, but with adventure-isms thrown in. Honestly, as long as the dialogue keeps up DeathSpank may end up being the first RPG I actually enjoy.

My main beef with the game is actually how the dialogue is presented. The dialogue shows up in JRPG-esque portrait + text boxes, which is fine, except it's presented right in the middle of the screen. I wish it was off to the side (or better still, I could turn it off), because I end up reading the dialogue before the character voices are done, which occasionally ruins the delivery of the jokes.

Still though, hilarious, entertaining game. Go play!

Cheers,

Mo

[Tanukitsune]

I've already found a Monkey Island reference in the game.... Should I be surprised?

[Redbliss]

I have only played the trial version of the game on XBLA, but I am loving this game. I am going to have to buy it at some point. There are so many funny touches that Ive noticed in the trial alone, so I could imagine laughing at a lot of other stuff further in the game

[ThunderPeel2001]

"Ron Gilbert hasn't created a game I've cared about in nearly 20 years"

I'd go so far to say that Ron Gilbert hasn't made a game in 20 years I don't appreciate. Some have limited scope, but that doesn't make them less impressive. A lot of developers would say it's more impressive.

That's not hate, it's a fact. I don't care if "Putt Putt Joins the Parade", or what "Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise" is, or if "Freddi Fish Gets Flushed Down the Toilet". They're not games I love or hate. I just don't care about them.

To everyone else: Very glad to hear the positive reactions! Looking forward to playing it now... I think it sounds like something I'll enjoy. Excellent!

[syntheticgerbil]

"Ron Gilbert hasn't created a game I've cared about in nearly 20 years"

I'd go so far to say that Ron Gilbert hasn't made a game in 20 years I don't appreciate. Some have limited scope, but that doesn't make them less impressive. A lot of developers would say it's more impressive.

Well that's being daft. Thunderpeel brings up an interesting point.

Kids games and games meant for adults or all ages are almost a whole different animal in terms of design and presentation.

The guy ACTUALLY hasn't been a designer or project lead on a game since 1996. He's been credited as creative director at Hulabee and on a few Humongous games from 1997-1998. Then he functioned as a design consultant on the Penny Arcade games. Even though he has been managing and producing multiple projects and multiple companies since he left LucasArts, he still hasn't been in the thick of design or writing for a while. There is a five year gap from Hulabee to the Penny Arcade games. That's a long time!

Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer have been almost constantly active in designing or writing games since their LucasArts leave on the otherhand.

Skepticism on whether or not Ron's rusty on game design isn't exactly undue here. I'm personally not skeptical but I still find it intriguing that Thunderpeel is, and also understand as well.

And besides I think most of us here are major long time and ancient fans of Ron Gilbert/LucasArts/Monkey Island, and probably ended up at Idlethumbs through one of those fansites someway anyhow. So either way there's certainly no hate happening here.

Also I think I'm just going to get this game on PSN anyway tomorrow. I think if it does come to PC it's just going to be Steam or Direct2Download or something, which I'm not interested in.

My main beef with the game is actually how the dialogue is presented. The dialogue shows up in JRPG-esque portrait + text boxes, which is fine, except it's presented right in the middle of the screen. I wish it was off to the side (or better still, I could turn it off), because I end up reading the dialogue before the character voices are done, which occasionally ruins the delivery of the jokes.

Hmm... that's a strange place for a dialog box to come up at. Any chance there's maybe a way to offset it in the menu?

Edited July 15, 2010 by syntheticgerbil

[miffy495]

Hmm... that's a strange place for a dialog box to come up at.

Not really if they're going for the Diablo style. That's where dialog always was in those games.

[thorn]

Can someone with Twitter let Ron know how many people are holding off from buying this game until he makes a statement either way about a PC port?

Seems silly not to just tell everyone that it's definitively not going to happen.

[SiN]

Seems silly not to just tell everyone that it's definitively not going to happen.

You think he's doing this by choice? I'm pretty sure he'd spill the beans, but contractual obligations stop him from doing so.

Mo

[thorn]

You think he's doing this by choice? I'm pretty sure he'd spill the beans, but contractual obligations stop him from doing so.

Mo

I think he's a smartarse who loves getting a reaction from people. Which is why I love him.

[Forbin]

They basically stopped talking about a PC version around the time they struck a publishing deal with EA. To me that can either mean EA said fuck the PC entirely, or they want a timed release so they can squeeze more money out of the consoles first and avoid "piracy".

As for the Tim + Dave > Ron debate. Tim spent 10 years making 2 games, neither of which made much money, and only 1 that was critically acclaimed. I love his work, but to put down Ron for being inactive is kind of silly. The other factor being that he was always senior to them, so it's not surprising that he's been in higher-level roles for a longer time. Anyways I'm tired of splitting hairs, if you guys want to claim you're not hating on Ron so be it.

I just wish they'd make an official statement about the PC, because if it's officially canceled I'll pick it up on PSN.

[brkl]

Come on, he wouldn't repeatedly hint towards a PC version if it wasn't coming. If you have a console though, there's no reason really to wait for the PC version. The game seems to have been designed with a gamepad in mind.

[MrHoatzin]

Come on, he wouldn't repeatedly hint towards a PC version if it wasn't coming. If you have a console though, there's no reason really to wait for the PC version. The game seems to have been designed with a gamepad in mind.

Shit, the [REDACTED] console Ron keeps peppering his blog posts with could be something faddy and en vogue, like the iPad. Which would be a super dick kind of move, what with the PC being the obvious and easiest thing one could release the game for after the consoles have been saturated.

[syntheticgerbil]

Anyways I'm tired of splitting hairs, if you guys want to claim you're not hating on Ron so be it.

Yeah because we aren't, so it will be it, then. Stop whining.

Also I won't be near my PS3 this weekend, so I will get this game next Friday. Oops.

[Defenestrated]

I played through a few hours of the game (mostly with the roommate as sparkles the wizard) and... the combat seems a lot more difficult than I was expecting. Deaths can happen pretty instantly in some places, particularly if I'm going solo I'm having to stop and eat more and more. Am I doing it wrong? I've been trying to block more and sometimes it helps, sometimes it just seems to waste time.

It is funny, but man there was definitely a boss I died to at least 10 times in a row.

[syntheticgerbil]

How are the bosses so far, Defenestrated? Besides the dying and all, are they pretty creative looking and involve fun fights?

[Defenestrated]

Some of the fights have been kind of interesting for diablo type fights, mostly involving spawning waves of guys/chickens from various sources. The one I kept dying on however was just a demon that seemed to chain cast fireballs at me really fast, and when I got close had a big knockback attack. Since I've been going for melee damage, this seemed to leave me pretty screwed until I got Sparkles in the party later for ranged damage and healing while I ran around blocking fireballs.

[juv3nal]

Invulnerability orbs are pretty overpowered. Limited supply in that you can't buy them from stores (don't know if they're farmable off grunts. if they are, it's a really, really low drop rate), but they can turn super tough fights into cakewalks.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Tim spent 10 years making 2 games, neither of which made much money, and only 1 that was critically acclaimed. I love his work, but to put down Ron for being inactive is kind of silly. The other factor being that he was always senior to them, so it's not surprising that he's been in higher-level roles for a longer time. Anyways I'm tired of splitting hairs, if you guys want to claim you're not hating on Ron so be it.

WHAT'S WITH ALL THE TIM AND DAVE HATE??!?!?!!!1111

[ThunderPeel2001]

Can someone with Twitter let Ron know how many people are holding off from buying this game until he makes a statement either way about a PC port?

Seems silly not to just tell everyone that it's definitively not going to happen.

I think he knows. Every post on his blog is followed by "I want Death Spank on the PC or I'm not buying it!!!" type posts. It's been going on like this for months. You make a great point though: If he's just messing people around (and this IS the guy who gave us THAT ending for MI2 -- and he still enjoys not telling everyone about it) then he's shooting himself in the foot, as many people are holding out for it.

[Armchair General]

WHAT'S WITH ALL THE TIM AND DAVE HATE??!?!?!!!1111

Bonafide lol over here