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While I've been planning to give Peter Chan's Star Wars DOTT artwork a make-over at some point, LRG's announcement of DOTT Remastered somehow put this on the fast lane. I wasn't really convinced by the poster they decided to include, so I got down to business, planning to offer them a new print-ready version of the art as an option. How could they say no to that? Well, while LRG seemed to be interested, Disney ultimately wasn't. So, here's the result of this effort, adding a much-needed improvement over my old version, both in terms of colors and detail. No more artficial brush strokes and oversharpened edges to suggest detail. I even separated the color channels of the scan to fix the severe alignment issues the Adventurer print suffered from, removing the color fringes and blurry edges caused by that. A few comparisons (at 70% size, enough to show the differences):

Even David Lynch is excited for ReMI!

Almost all of the time when I used the hint system in Thimbleweed park I thought, "Well, that was silly, I'm glad I didn't spend an hour wandering around until eventually trying that", and only once or twice did I think, "Ahh, I should have got that myself" so I expect I'll use the hints on occasion. I feel like with this game they've put a lot more thought into the interface and puzzle design, so I'm hoping that I won't need to dip into it as often (I really didn't like how much of the middle parts of TWP was correctly guessing the order that the game wanted you to tackle tasks). I'm hoping to be somewhat challenged, but not constantly stuck. I thought Ron or possibly Dave made a very interesting point. A lot of us would have played the games first time when we were 10 years old. I was a pretty smart 10 year old but I'm pretty sure that 40 year old me who has played a lot of adventure games is better at solving puzzles than 10 year old me who hadn't played this sort of game before, so I used a lot of hints to get through them, and remember them as being harder than they probably actually were (also really hard/unfair puzzles are memorable, regular ones less so). So I imagine this game will feel easier than MI1/MI2 but I'm not sure it'll actually be easier. I bet it will be fairer, as in less pixel hunting, less... knowing that you have to walk to a plank you have no reason to need to walk to to dislodge a seagull (I think I've watched about 10 lets plays of SOMI this year and maybe 1 person got this without help), less having to read the designers mind, just because people have got better with designing and QAing puzzles now, and to some people that equates to easier but to me it just removes the kind of difficulty that was never fun. Also, being that 40 year old I maybe don't have the hours in the day I had over a summer to while away being stuck in a video game. In summary, when I played TWP I used hints whenever I stopped having fun, which was quite often in the middle of the game, and I'll have the same policy here. But in ReMI I am hopeful that I won't need to as much.

There's a Monkey Island 8?! I'm so behind

I think they should release Monkey Island 8 days early, out of respect for the Queen.

I love that poster! I had your previous version printed 2 meters tall and hung it in my office when I was working as a desktop publisher. That was more then 10 years ago… My boss never gave it back when I quit (honestly he printed it for me, so it was technically his), so it might still be hanging there today! Thank you so much for your continued work!

This is a wild idea and I love it. They could have avoided the unfortunate fallout of Carrie Fisher’s death, by having her leave the story off screen in the past (a far cleaner way to pay tribute to her than the cobbled together performance they put in ep 9), and Luke could have continued to appear in the story without the time jump having any effect on his age, as he’d be a force ghost.

Good thing Indy is much more than a simple action hero.

Brits take note: KentNews is reporting that the Queen's funeral, which will be declared a Bank Holiday, is likely to take place on Monday 19th September.

I wouldn't worry about that

How?

How will I play ReMI? Now that I'm a dad, I don't have time to game. I'll still buy it but I will immediately try the Crtl+W function.

I guess my problem with the sequels is that most of the characters don't develop in particularly satisfying ways between movies. I like all the characters pretty well in TFA, and wanted to see them have another adventure. I think the characterisation of Poe and Finn is pretty thin, though, and this becomes a problem in later films. In TLJ, the scenes with Rey, Luke and Kylo are strong, and I also like the stuff with Poe as a deconstruction of the 'cocky rebel' trope. On the other hand, Finn's plot is weird. He doesn't seem like the same character as in the previous movie. ROS fails to do anything with the characters that felt meaningful to me, and doesn't pay off the interesting parts of TLJ. Rose could have been the 'Lando' of this trilogy, but she gets sidelined, which retroactively makes Finn's plot in TJI feel even more extraneous. Snoke being dispatched should have led to us seeing what would happen if Kylo took on an Emperor-like role, but they cart out Emperor instead, so we once again see Kylo being subservient to another Sith lord. Ho hum. I actually think Palpetine himself was creepy in a fun way, but he doesn't have a meaningful connection to the remaining characters. Having Rey be his granddaughter I guess is an attempt to give some purpose to his return, but there's no emotional heft to it, and it feels like a retcon. I don't really remember what Rey, Poe or Finn do in this film, except that they go on a mission that is boring. I think what they should have done with ROS is have a big time jump. TLJ had a real 'last adventure' feel to me, and I would have liked to have seen Episode 9 jump ahead like 10 or 15 years. That which would have mirrored the jump between Episode 1 and Episode 2, and let the first and last episodes in the saga feel like bookends. More importantly, it would have let us see what happens to these characters after they've processed the deaths and sacrifices of the OT characters, and how they shape the world in their absence. You could have had Kylo as a supreme bad guy (or, I dunno, a repentant outcast), and Rey mentoring some kind of new Jedi academy. Maybe Finn and Rose have a family. Maybe Poe's moved on to become a bureaucrat and hates it. Maybe Chewbacca is king of the Republic! Anything, just advance the characters in an interesting way.

I have a feeling that the Steam version will go live the same time Monkey Island Mondays happen, because Ron has been describing the game's launch as "the ultimate Monkey Island Monday" so around 8am PST.

No more, can't take much more hype lol Less than 10 days. Tomorrow starts the single digits.

I mentioned it on Twitter -- the big reveal is that "Guybrush" is an imposter as proven by him trying to perfect his signature. (Also love that short little repetition sting at the end of the theme.)

For Switch, it’s either midnight EST or noon EST. If it’s midnight EST and you live on the West Coast, like me, you’ll be able to play it at 9pm on the 18th. I was able to do that with other games I preordered in the past.

I don't want to set expectations because Aaron certainly hasn't promised anything, but for the past week or so he's been tweeting his adventures in emulating Grim and now EMI. It's fun to watch.

I used to watch his weather reports and his "today's numbers" daily. I love them. 🙂

That's more of less what Steam says. "More or less" meaning a hour after that. I think that it's a good question, actually. I'm not sure how much the event would distract people from buying and playing the game, but my hunch is that it shouldn't impact the release very much.

I think the most important part of the puzzles is not how difficult they are, but just that they're memorable. I want the game to have me doing interesting stuff, whether it takes me an hour or 5 seconds to work it out. Therefore I think in the long run I'd prefer a game I can figure out quickly but where all the puzzles have an impact over a tedious game that took me weeks to finish, OR an easy game with unmemorable puzes.

Me watching Indiana Jones. (Seriously, though, they're impossible to sit through.)

That's the question that I stood in the long QA line to ask at the end. Unfortunately, they only took 2 questions from the audience, so I didn't get to 😕 On the other hand - with Ron, Ken and Roberta working on new stuff, it might have been underwhelming, if she has said to have no new game plans plans at all.

Whew 👕 I beat #Mojole #171 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 6/6 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 🖤🖤💚🖤💛 🖤💚💚🖤🖤 🖤💚💚🖤🖤 🖤💚💚💛🖤 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

👕 I beat #Mojole #171 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 4/6 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 🖤🖤💛🖤🖤 💚💚💚🖤🖤 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

👕 I beat #Mojole #171 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 4/6 💛💚🖤🖤🖤 🖤💚💚🖤💛 💚💚💚🖤🖤 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

Thank you my friend, good to know!

Steam does an authentication check on program startup, but that's all. Steam also has an offline mode, so you don't need to connect to the internet at all after you've started the program. It just checks the internet once, its not always online. So unless RTMI uses DRM other than the basic Steam authentication (hypothetically possible but not likely) you should be good. Its about as much to deal with as the Switch's DRM, now I think about it. However, it seems the Switch has other advantages for you, so go for it. Just clearing up how Steam works.

👕 I beat #Mojole #171 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 3/6 💛🖤🖤🖤🖤 💛🖤💚💚🖤 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

Very useful, thank you!

Guybrush: "Sorry I never got that Love Bomb to you." Wally: "Love Bomb?" Guybrush: "Yeah, the one you ordered from the Voodoo Lady." Wally: "I never ordered a love bomb! I ordered a PLUMB BOB!" Guybrush: "Oh. You should probably cancel that." Wally: "No kidding! I never consented to this."

More sweet merch available at Fangamer. Merit badges in pin form (for some reason not as patches), a zip up hoodie, new shirt, and a sweet "figment" hot/cold mug. https://www.fangamer.com/collections/psychonauts

I'd call Black Widow a femme fatale, and she was hero.

As much as I’d love to go back to Scabb, I’m also kind of glad that it’s never been touched again. It’s my favorite one. Woodtick is so perfectly done with its art, cast of characters, and incredible music, Scabb’s locations are all lonely and a touch creepy, the map music is unique in its lonely backwater mood, and though the island seems small, it’s revealed to be full of little secret spots the more you play. I like to imagine that place is continuing on exactly how it is, maybe a little shabbier and a little more sunk into the swamp but otherwise unchanged by time. Scabb Island Romantic signing off.

Gonna take my time, explore, take in the atmosphere, talk to all the characters - but that's tbh pretty much always how I play video games with stories, and nothing unique to RtMI. Rushing to get to the end seems antithetical to this type of game, especially one we've waited for for so long. Not opposed to using hints, but only after getting really stuck.

I don't think that has to mean she's a villain. A Femme fatale can be more than that. But it definitely means she's trouble (something I kind of expect from Phoebe Waller-Bridge 😁). My guess: Mutt will be mentioned at best or not appear at all. LaBeouf has said enough negative things about Indy 4 and I don't think anyone will really miss him. His role was okay, but not breathtaking either (and I really can't stand the guy anymore...). As for Marion, I'd be happy if she appeared briefly at the beginning or end, as they are married. But I don't need her in a major role again (and it doesn't look like it so far). As for the rest, I have nothing against a reunion, but would really only be happy with Sallah - as long as it really makes sense for the story. I'm kind of sick of these cheap cameos, where someone waves into the camera again, just for the sake of it... I feel the same way about movie franchises (Star What?!). So I hope that they really got to make another great Indy adventure! And so far everything looks very positive to me. I'll miss Spielberg of course, but Mangold is definitely capable and the cast is great as well. So let's hope! 😊

I did... but only with the help of RiffTrax... and even with them making jokes all the way through it was tough going! So weird that Boba Fett appears in it, though!