Gabez

It didn't take long to write, and it went out to a fairly large audience so it was worth doing (that particular one went out to 100 people, including one of the writers on a popular UK PC Games magazine). The news in brief could have been a good section, like a protoplasmic version of Twitter, if I had made the summaries easy to understand. Instead I tried to make them funny. Some jokes landed, but most did not. I quite like the idea of Ron Gilbert eating alone at Pizza Hut because nobody won the competition. The comic is quite funny but you have to know that the quotation was stolen from the World of Monkey Island's secret admin forum, and I didn't bother to explain that. I think I liked the idea of injokes too much. The rest is very self-indulgent wank, but I was a seventeen-year-old trying to work out how to write! Ten years later and I'm still learning. Glad you liked it.

Also I am fascinated by the language used in corporate statements (e.g. 'market place realities'). This is what's being quoted from Disney: 'Minimizing the company's risk'? You are disbanding it completely! Of course there's no risk if it only exists as a game label. There's also something flippant about 'we've had layoffs across the organization'. I wouldn't discount the possibility that LucasArts might -- might -- come back as a games making company in the future (e.g. 20 years time) just because of the name. Maybe when Lucasfilm is in turn sold to McDonalds or whoever is next in line.

Hmm, I suppose their IPs will remain controlled by Disney -- there will just be little to no chance of anything being done with them (edit: I just thought that this news actually makes deals like TMI more likely -- since LucasArts will be all about licensing it opens up more opportunities, assuming there are 3rd parties who want to develop those IPs). I doubt Disney have any interest in exploring games as a medium for storytelling, which is what George Lucas created the company for. One of the LucasArts presidents from the early 90s talked about that in his autobiography: I guess they tried to get back at that a few times in the last decade but never really did -- not sure why. So many cancelled titles -- Sam and Max, FT2, that Indiana Jones game, now Star Wars 1313. I never understand the logic of cancelling a game rather than finishing it and releasing it -- don't you want to see a return on investment? LucasArts must have bled quite a bit of money. So I guess they really have been, mostly, a licensing company for a while, with a few exceptions like the MI SEs and Lucidity. In a sense not much will change -- but what's gone is the hope that things would ever get better.

I went to see Brave last night, fancying a break and interested by the semi-mythical Scottish setting. It's a pretty good film, but what surprised me at the end was seeing Steve Purcell's name (of Sam and Max fame) flash up so prominently in the credits: he co-directed and co-wrote it. I knew he was doing something at Pixar, but I didn't know what. Now I do! As to the film... I think the plot has a few weak parts in it. The overall structure is predictable, though the screenplay does a good job of deliberately throwing 'a spanner in the works' and surprising the audience, though what is expected to happen, always happens in the end anyway. Most plots do this but I would have liked a bit more bravery (ironically) and doing something that was really different rather than something that just appeared to be different but wasn't really. There's a point near the end that illustrates this... you think X is going to happen and then Y happens (for no discernible reason), but then X actually does happen after all. It makes it feel a bit unsatisfactory -- why did Y happen? Just to make the plot seem less formulaic. I also had an issue with the central plot which concerns a witch and a spell. Why did the witch disappear? Why did she leave a vague riddle? Just to create a problem for the characters to tackle. Which is fine, if the witch intended for the characters to work things out for themselves, but there's no indication of this. It's a common trope for the journey to be the important thing rather than a simple act, but it's implied that the simple act is what is needed to solve the problem, and the journey the characters take to perform the act loses the importance it might have had if the witch had been a stronger character. My last problem was that the film could have been funnier. The jokes it had worked well enough, but it didn't have enough of them. Again, it felt a bit too safe. All that said, it's a beautiful and entertaining film. The main character is particularly appealing, and her hair looks amazing. I imagine there must have been a lot of people working on her hair alone. Can you feel the Steve Purcell influence? Not massively -- and I had to double check it was the same Steve Purcell that we know from Sam and Max (which it is, unless IMDB is mistaken). There's a lot in the film about animals, which I guess is a Purcell interest. There might be something in the visual style which is Purcellian as well. There is a concept art picture on his blog: http://spudvisionblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Welcome to the forums! Try using ScummVM instead of DOSBox -- that should fix all your problems: http://www.scummvm.org/ If you copy the CD contents to your HD and point ScummVM to the folder then you can run the games like that. You can also access different rendering and ratio options (e.g. like this http://www.scummvm.org/data/screenshots/lec/tentacle/scummvm_0_8_0-full.png)

Not bad! In fact, pretty good!

Saw this on the Last Express Facebook page (381 likes! Coincidentally the total number of people who have played the game!) and it's great news. I don't own an iPad, but the game is a good fit for the device because of its clicky, Myst-like interface. Speaking of TLE, two interesting articles have emerged recently. One details the art of the game, and the other describes the game as art. http://25fps.cz/2012/interview-nicole-tostevin/ http://25fps.cz/2012/the-last-express/ I played the demo of Little Big Adventure back when it came out. Would quite like to have another look at it.

SurplusGamer: it doesn't hold that they won't start filming until the official project start though (when the funding deadline has passed) though they might wait until then to start releasing stuff. I can't imagine that they're sitting on their arses at the moment when it's obvious they've passed the funding requirement.

This is pretty cool. I love the video as well, especially the Ron Gilbert bit! I love the atmosphere in Double Fine games though the gameplay doesn't always appeal to me (though I've only played Psychonauts so I'm talking out of my arse, maybe). Also Telltale do some good stuff but often their games lack the magic spark that I think Double Fine has. I think their adventure game will be closer to Classic LucasArts than what Telltale produce now. I might be wrong, but it will be interesting to see!

Looks stunning! And great work getting Nicki Rapp on board!

Great work! The main theme has been done in rock style a few times but never the other ones and some of them sound really good like that (woodtick and captain dread). You have the skills!

Yikes, 12p. Does that even cover the cost of hosting a 320mb file?

Looks great! Love the Youtube video as well.

Oho, I have some of those. Didn't know it was out of print and hard to get. Wonder if £45 is really its going price of if you just got lucky.