toblix

Jane Jensen's Pinkerton Road CSG Kickstarter

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Great, I just realized that now that I have to pay for my PC repairs, I can't afford this Kickstarter, and this is the one I really wanted to fund.

Oh well, it's not like they'll make the games available only to funders, right?:erm:

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Yeah, the game will be available most likely everywhere in digital marketplaces. Just that the price will be higher I presume.

I still have to read through their pitch and the updates, I'm thinking about pledging in an amount, but haven't had time to really familiarize myself with Jane Jensen's project.

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I wonder how much higher? I hope they don't charge more than 30$ for the game.

I looks like I can afford the minimum pledge that gets me one game, I'm not actually sure they'll manage to create two games in one cycle.

I don't like hearing that Jane Jensen's game will be on Origin because of their new "crowd funded games deal", I hope they don't make it an exclusive or something, I really don't want Origin on my PC. :tdown:

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Honestly, I'd be surprised if most Kickstarter games cost a lot more than the pre-order price. And most indie games drop off in price very quickly.

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I looks like I can afford the minimum pledge that gets me one game, I'm not actually sure they'll manage to create two games in one cycle.

I'm pretty sure Jane has said that if it takes longer than one year to create the two games, you still get both when they come out.

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Really? That's good to know!

I don't know if I've said this on this thread before, but I'm sure I'm not the first to whine about the fact that you have to give them 100$ for a physical copy of the game. I may have already said that I already know that this is a funding project, but still...

I'm now debating on whether to fund the minimum or just enough to get both.

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I concur with the sentiment that it's difficult for some to finance multiple games/projects in such a short window. The truth is, if I spend $20 here, $50 there, $5 there... at the end of the day, I have tons of potentially awesome games to play in ~August 2013, but I'm out of cash to pay for what's coming out right now. Kind of a weird proposition.

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And it's successful! I funded right before the end, but this is going to be the last ones I fund for a while, like JonCole said, I'm out of cash to buy anything new.

I think the Space Quest one will be the last one I'll fund in a while... And I'm not sure either, I didn't fund LSL and I liked that series more than Space Quest.

The "younger me" is loving how the "Lucasarts" fundraiser has been more successful than all the "Sierra" ones combined. :mock:

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I really hate how this group wants to compare itself to a CSA... I love CSA's and spend about half the year as a member of them. The nice thing about a CSA is you're getting better food than at a supermarket, at a comparable or usually much cheaper price.

They want to charge fifty dollars a year for everything their studio makes? That's about what Naughty Dog or Rockstar or Bethesda Maryland charges. The analogy feels crass and stupid.

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I really hate how this group wants to compare itself to a CSA... I love CSA's and spend about half the year as a member of them. The nice thing about a CSA is you're getting better food than at a supermarket, at a comparable or usually much cheaper price.

They want to charge fifty dollars a year for everything their studio makes? That's about what Naughty Dog or Rockstar or Bethesda Maryland charges. The analogy feels crass and stupid.

I would say "forced," but I essentially agree. One of the reasons you subscribe to a CSA and get "whatever they grow" is that produce is a seasonal, consumable good. Different vegetables grow better or worse at different times, and other conditions (land, cost) may affect what is actually realistically available. Also, when you eat food, it disappears, and produce spoils, so you need a constant stream of it over a period of time rather than a bunch of it all at once. And you can't necessarily scale up according to demand, either: everyone loves summer strawberries, not so many people like turnips. But you can't grow enough fresh strawberries to please everyone, and it seems like you always have a surplus of turnips, so it makes sense to force people who want your strawberries in the summer to buy your turnips in the winter, too. (This specific example may not be accurate, but you get the idea.)

Absolutely none of this is true of video games. They don't spoil, you don't eat them, it's not easier to make RPGs in the summer and platformers in the winter. The games are obviously going to be sold at traditional downloadable game outlets, independent of each other and CSG subscriptions. So it makes no sense.

I get that, for Jensen, what the CSA means to her is that she gets to meet the farmers and build a relationship with them, and she wants to replicate that experience with her fans. (And also that she likes farms.) But, yeah, that's not a great reason to force the metaphor.

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Well, has anybody played the game yet? It's officially out and I got my Steam code.

 

I only played the first chapter and... The graphics of the characters seems... kinda wonky? I was also put off by the intro, it was so overly dramatic and I don't even know why. Is it trying too hard?

 

As for the gameplay? I'm kinda liking it, you play as an appraiser with a ridiculous knowledge on historical figures and for some reason, you have to investigate someone's live and.. compare it to a historical figure.

 

I only played the first chapter which only takes place in five sparse rooms where you investigate the life on a Venician lady, once you collect enough data, you play a mini game of sort where you must eliminate the ones that don't fit her description, I think it might be possible to do it with out all the data, but I'm not sure.

 

I'm guessing this will lead to some wacky conspiracy and intrigue shenanigans.

 

Frankly, the only thing that is really putting me off is the art, I'm pretty sure Jane Jensen's last game looked better than this. 

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Well, has anybody played the game yet? It's officially out and I got my Steam code.

 

I only played the first chapter and... The graphics of the characters seems... kinda wonky? I was also put off by the intro, it was so overly dramatic and I don't even know why. Is it trying too hard?

 

As for the gameplay? I'm kinda liking it, you play as an appraiser with a ridiculous knowledge on historical figures and for some reason, you have to investigate someone's live and.. compare it to a historical figure.

 

I only played the first chapter which only takes place in five sparse rooms where you investigate the life on a Venician lady, once you collect enough data, you play a mini game of sort where you must eliminate the ones that don't fit her description, I think it might be possible to do it with out all the data, but I'm not sure.

 

I'm guessing this will lead to some wacky conspiracy and intrigue shenanigans.

 

Frankly, the only thing that is really putting me off is the art, I'm pretty sure Jane Jensen's last game looked better than this. 

 

I'm glad the writing and gameplay seem to hold up ok. I was well aware of the artwork looking horrid from seeing the previews so I was pretty pessimistic about the rest of the game.

 

EDIT: I just started playing. Oh god, the animation and models in this are worse than they are in the trailers. The writing seems fine and I'm liking the music so far but even as someone who usually doesn't even care about graphics this is really bothering me. How did they think this was ok? Luckily it looks like the models in the Gabriel Knight remake are better.

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I just played the demo of this game and I think I'm glad I only got the demo -- but I think the analyze-people-and-jump-to-improbably-accurate-conclusions system is something that I'd like to see again in some form.

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I just played the demo of this game and I think I'm glad I only got the demo -- but I think the analyze-people-and-jump-to-improbably-accurate-conclusions system is something that I'd like to see again in some form.

 

I agree. I think the experience of playing a historical psychologist and exploring how that kind of person would solve problems is something that would be a great game, but it sounds like Malachi Rector is a vapid asshole and all the people he meets are vain, selfish assholes, so I guess it's a concept still waiting for a developer to bring it to life...

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The animation is super janky, but so far the game overall is not as terrible as I feared it would be from Walker's review. Maybe it gets worse. The Rape screenshot and the thing with his mom and the lion are both about as nonsensical as he makes them out to be.

 

As for the analysis mechanic and making the main character a jerk, I have a feeling they were totally going for a Sherlock thing but way missed the mark.

 

It's not great (Broken Age and Broken Sword 5 are both unquestionably better so far as KS funded adventures go), but it's ok. I'll probably finish it, but maybe my tolerance for janky animations is greater than average.

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Urgh, the graphics are really getting to me now... A guy is cleaning a counter with a cloth and the cloth physics are so terrible and it's clipping and... It's kinda amusing.

 

And the puzzle I just solved was so dumb and forced. As logical as it I hate the "I won't pick it up until I need to" thing they do in games.

 

You have to win a game of darts, but the AC is so strong it's affecting your aim and even if you get more points than the other guy, he still "wins" because puzzles.

You have to go to a back alley and turn off the AC, but it's dark, so you have turn on the light, which don't work, so you have to touch some LIVE WIRES to have some light, even though your phone is a light source good enough.

Then you move a crate, get a brick to smash open the lock to the AC controls and... find out they are rusted and then go find the oil the hero refused to pick up until now.

And then you can win.... despite me already getting a high score.

This is so dumb, the guy is FRONT of the AC, he should have noticed it was off and adjusted his aim, but you know.... PUZZLES!

╮ (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) ╭

 

I think I'm beginning to enjoy the game in a way I shouldn't... I'm calling it now, it's going to have one of those ending that tries to blow your mind and would... until you stop to think for a second and noticed nothing makes sense.

 

It's kinda soon to call it, but it seems so much worse than Grey Matter the more I play it. 

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Thank god the GK remake actually seems good. When it was announced I was certain it wouldn't be because the 3D models reminded me a bit about this. But it actually looks good in motion. Our at least a lot better.

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The more I play the more "Deadly Premonition" awesome it gets.... except even that game had more polish. This is "Guise of the Wolf" awesome now! 

 

The glitching, the clipping, the silliness in general... I don't know what went wrong, but it's ridiculously amusing.

 

I'm still invested in it story-wise, even I'm positive the story will be dumb, I can't say more without spoilers, but the cutscene I saw pretty much confirms my suspicion it's going to a "crumbling pillar" where the finale will be "epic", but the road to it will be filled with plot holes that ruin it. XP

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The real question I have is, does Malachi Rector eventually travel to a place that meets his exacting standards for interior decor? I took a bleak enjoyment from the fact that nearly every hotspot in the demo comes with a perfunctorily disparaging voice clip. (Also I agree with his rule of thumb about wicker).

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Yes, his apartment.

 

I'm getting close to the end and since my lost post I'm getting into it again, the scenes aren't as ridiculous, the glitching seems to have subsided somehow.

 

The one thing that does bother me is the 

anxiety problem he has... I've been diagnosed with it and I know there are degrees, but... seriously, he has to take a Xanax every 4 hours? He doesn't act like someone who needs Xanax every four hours...

 

Also can people really have panic attacks so bad that they literally have to restrain themselves and start convulsing like crazy? That sounds a bit far fetched or wrong. This doesn't seem like the right way to deal with seizures. *shrug*

 

I wonder if they glitchiness and all is due to the fact that she simply wanted to release the game on a certain date? I just checked the Kickstarter and it said March, so maybe she rushed things to try to be closer to the date she promised?

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OK, I finished the game and despite the ups and downs... maybe more downs and ups, I kinda really enjoyed the game in the if it weren't for the fact that the final puzzle was a friggin' GIANT MAZE. What is this? 1987? Nobody EVER liked maze "puzzles".

 

The ending was quite fun too, the jerk of a main character and his friend really grew on me. The game wasn't as great as I expected, but the worst parts were amusing and too good parts were pretty good.

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I have this downloaded as I gave to the Kickstarter but I'll probably put this off for years. As I saw the Kickstarter moving along, I was disappointed over and over with how the game was looking. Gray Matter had a lot of production issues and this thing looks like half the amount of production value was put in to it. Seems the story and puzzles aren't living up so well either.

 

With Leisure Suit Larry leading Kickstarter trend of Sierra developers coming back with mediocrity, I wonder what will become of the Space Quest project when it's finished? At least on that one I have been enjoying the art direction and sneak peaks so far.

 

I really don't want that Gabriel Knight remake. I'm guessing it'll just be worse than before even after getting past the bland 3D models. They are also revoicing everyone as well and I'm sure whoever they get to redraw all the graphic novel style scenes will just not be as good.

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Agreed about the Gabriel Knight remake being of questionable value.  The first Gabriel Knight game is actually the one that has aged the *best* of the three games, technologically speaking, and it's hard to imagine any of the new voices living up to the originals.  The art direction also seems to have drifted towards over-the-top-horrific. Still, it's probable that a publisher never would have funded a remake of a "2" or a "3" game, so this might be a necessary step on the path towards remaking GK2/3 and eventually getting a GK4.

 

I haven't started Moebius yet, though I am excited to do so tonight, bad reviews notwithstanding.

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