KestrelPi

I chose PC, but I don't think it's the only way to play an adventure game, I'd just like to play this with a mouse, the first time. Also, my games PC is hooked up to my TV, as is my Switch so that doesn't make any difference to my choice - it's not like I'll be playing it in handheld mode so I might as well get the version that'll run in higher resolution and support more control modes.

Sounds like the music for this trailer is probably the version they use in game (aside from the weird jump it does, I assume because the theme isn't quite long enough to fit the trailer. Tentative Verdict: It's a lovely version of the MI1 version of the theme with a few embellishments, but I can't help but wish they'd done a fresh take on it, like MI2 did.

Nailed it.

ugh, fine, I'll bite:

It is super basic but from what I remember playing it that's basically the idea, yes. The list of verbs would change depending on the thing, and this 'think' concept didn't exist in that version, but I feel like there's going to be a bit more to the interface than what we've seen so far. (Also - there's always inventory. Like I've said before, inventory items are just fancier verbs, and they're not going away)

It's a bit frustrating to see the mixed reaction to this on social media. In a way I kinda get it, because we've only seen a little bit of what it's like, and we haven't seen it in the context of the rest of the interface, and how it's getting used in actual puzzles. I just wish folks gave a bit of trust where it's due. Ron Gilbert almost literally wrote the bible on post-1980s adventure game design, even me who has been (very mildly) critical of some of the stuff he's done/said in recent years can probably acknowledge if there's one person who understands what makes adventure games tick it's him. I think this is not only cool but exciting. The ways in which it can be used to tell new kinds of jokes are obvious and tantalising, the ways in which it can be used to write new kinds of puzzles are less obvious but just as tantalising, and I really don't think that the plan here is to completely throw out everything he not only learned but invented about puzzle design over the years in order to deliver an oversimplified, hand-holdy experience where the interface basically tells you what to do. Come on. Someone called it a 'hint-like' system. How? What's the hint? That the pirate leaders are in the scumm bar? Do they not think that would have already been established in in-game dialogue? Maybe this is a hint if you are extraordinarily forgetful.

You might have missed the conversation earlier, but to me this doesn't really appear to replace the look at lines, at least not completely - the scumm bar sign can still be interacted with when you hover over it with 'Ah, the Scumm Bar' and presumably it's fairly likely that Guybrush will just make a comment about the bar if you interact with the sign. Similar with the fireplace. I think of it more as a 'think about' box, where hitting the interact button acts on whatever that thought is (probably the most likely action, similar to how the RMB used to work). (edit: ah, based on Ron's tweet above, this is in fact exactly what they had in mind for it) Plus, you never know, additional actions including 'look at' might be hidden behind RMB now or whatever.

I think September 22nd is a believable release date. It's on a standard switch release day and the timing is about right... I still think they might have swung talk like a pirate day but if I had to guess another day that'd be it. Based on the Devolver tweet from yesterday, my guess is that the trailer today is going to be in the style of a cheesy local TV commercial with Stan trying to sell you on the game.

Bear in mind that if they do drop the game today, it'll be the smallest time between two game releases they've done all year. Not impossible, but not in keeping with their average month-long wait between releases. We know there's going to be a trailer (I can't remember how but someone confirmed that right?) and their tweet promises 'news', and to me that either means more platforms, release date or both. I'm guessing at least a release date, no point in another trailer otherwise. And I'm still predicting September. I'm still fairly confident it's their next release since I've been checking they're still not talking about any of the other games they're releasing this year on twitter. And leaving it until October would make it an unusually long gap between releases (and put it against some of the year's bigger releases). If it is october, then it'll be early I reckon. Looking forward to being wrong about all this, but not long to wait and see now.

This new inner-monologue type of text is full of fun possibilities for them to joke around with, the more I think about it. I can't wait to see how they use it in the rest of the game.

I'm glad, like you said with your examples, it could maybe sort of work... but I don't think it'd be a good way to do it. What if the reason I hovered over the shopkeeper was to get help with buying (or perhaps I thought I had to steal) the sword, but instead the game gave me a hint about following the shopkeeper. I think whatever they come up with will likely be more direct. Ask a specific question, get a specific answer. I think that vibes with how most people experience needing hints - they go to the system because they are stuck, so they want to be able to say what they're stuck on, and then they want a hint about that and only that, and nothing else, and (this is more of a matter of taste I guess) sometimes they want the hints to start out subtle and get gradually more overt until they have enough information to figure out the rest on their own. In other words, the UHS model, which TWP basically does. I've never seen anything that works better.

I hope (and think) not. Time-locked hint systems like that are annoying, and it wouldn't work for all kinds of hint. (like, how would that system work for the follow-the-shopkeeper puzzle, or the grog jailbreak, or insult swordfighting, or just generally knowing where to go next?). They also have a tendency to deliver me hints I haven't asked for, which is especially annoying when it's a puzzle I haven't even started to think about yet. When I want a hint I want to be able to ask about the very specific thing I need a hint for, no more and no less - and for that Thimbleweed Park's hint system was nearly ideal (the only thing wrong with it was that it was easy to go to the wrong part of the dialogue tree and then you'd have to re-dial from the start)

Yeah, this seems more like it, but also they've added 'flavour' to a lot of it by framing the ovbious action in a lot of cases as guybrush's thoughts. Thought: "Ah, the Scumm Bar" Obvious Action: Make some comment about the bar Thought: "Time to talk to the Pirate Leaders" Obvious Action: Go into the bar Thought: "Smells good in there" Obvious Action: Go into the kitchen Thought: "The Pirate Leaders are supposed to be there?" Obvious Action: Talk to whoever these people are. The nice thing about this is that the hover over text can change, based on what Guybrush knows. I saw a couple of replies from people worried it might make the game too easy but I'm not sure why - none of this seemed to be hinting at puzzle solutions or anything. Presumably Guybrush is thinking 'time to talk to the pirate leaders' because he's already said in the game that he wants to do that, it's not a puzzle.

The SCUMM Bar sign is still interactable, so I imagine that what happens if you click on it is get some sort of dialogue from Guybrush. So maybe it's more like the hover over action is saying 'think about' and the default interaction is 'act on <whatever that thought is>'. If that thought is 'Time to visit the pirate leaders' then the action is to go through the door. Perhaps sometimes you'll get various different possible thoughts to act on (and of course, the inventory, too)

If it were me designing it I might do something like... use left stick to move Guybrush around, and right stick to move between the various interactables.

It might be that it changes over time, for story reasons. But also, remember this is a visibly run down/struggling version of Melee compared to the Melee of MI1.

Ah, my favourite video yet. Main thoughts: That SCUMM Bar music, then the transition. Yesss. The INTERFACE. It's such a neat idea for the hover-over text not just to name the object but give us a few of Guybrush's thoughts about it too. You can sneak in all sorts of jokes that way, too.

I'll take the convenience over a feeling of ownership 99% of the time (almost every game I play nowadays I play once. I rarely go back, even if I'm really enjoying them because there are always new things i want to play. There's maybe one game every few years which I love so much that I want to keep a memento of it.) ...but that said the one thing I do miss are big old chunky game boxes. I still have all my LucasArts ones in my parents' attic, and since I'm going to have a bit more space soon when I move, I was thinking about going up there next time I visit and getting those boxes to put on display.

Some people see it as enforced DRM (I think it's a touch More Complicated Than ThatTM AND have enough problems with GOG's parent company that I do not see it as a good alternative... but I'm not gonna get into it here.) Some people also dislike the near-monopoly that Steam has (which I think is fair enough, it's just that to me all the alternatives are sort of.... 'swings and roundabouts' is the phrase I believe.*) *Except itch, I think itch is a great platform, but it's not really relevant here. If they put it on itch, I'd consider using that.

I understand the impulse to not want to see more but I do feel like there's been a shift in how this has been treated since the 90s. I think we've seen a bit more than we'd usually see of a game in the 90s, but I'd attribute that more to it being so much easier to do now. And in the end it's still only a few minutes of footage and a mere couple of snippets of mostly rather out of context in game dialogue. In 1996 Curse had a 3 minute trailer which showed off a substantial part of the game's intro (including some animation and music that was clearly unfinished, looking back on it.), as well as a demo which let you play the first part of the game. And at the time I feel like we ate it all up, and never worried about knowing too much in advance. My attitude towards it all is that while I don't want to know the big surprises, of course, I feel like the team know what they're doing, know what to show and what to hold back, and how to show it. Like... yeah, show LeChuck's voice -- but use a bit of a weird clip, so we don't hear too much of it in context. Yeah, show us some environments, but mainly ones we've seen before, so that the new locations can be a bit more of a surprise. Yeah, show some dialogue, but nothing super important. I get it, people want to play the game a lot, and don't want to learn too much before going in. We only get to play it for the first time once, it's true. But we only get to be excited about the release once, too... this part is fun too, right? The speculation? The scrutiny of each scrap we're fed to see what it might mean? The noticing the tiniest detail in a background and setting off two pages of discussion into what it might be about? I mean, I like it. That's why I keep coming here.

I think they're going to continue them up to the release of the game since it doesn't make a ton of sense to start doing less stuff in the run up to the game. But if they're gonna stop at any other point this would be it, because at least there'll be other stuff to show

Even with the best will in the world and the greatest of respect for folks involved, I have to admit I'd be surprised to discover that queer representation was preying heavily on their minds during the writing of this. Anything we get that's done well would be a lovely surprise, but I'm not counting on it. It has been almost nonexistant so far, which hasn't made me love it any less, but I don't want to get my hopes up for something that just might not be in their minds at all.

Yeah, the best part of this joke is how it just happens basically without comment. That's part of what I talked about before of how I felt like guybrush's comic style (and the game in general) has changed a bit over the years. In EMI and Tales I definitely feel like he'd have had something to say about that, and it prooobably would have aged even worse than this version of the joke from 1991.

I guess I meant it in the sense of, if they felt like that's what they wanted to do with the character, AND if they had a trans voice on the writing team to treat it properly, then I think that would be a viable way to go. I'm not necessarily saying that this is an angle I think they should go for. I'd just like to say briefly that even if I think we shouldn't dwell too long, how much I appreciate that we can have this conversation in here and it not turn immediately into hell.