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If I Made Another Monkey Island...

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Re: If I Made Another Monkey Island...

#21

Post by Fargren »

nollidge wrote: post #16

I hope no one minds if I hijack to ask: What are some really good MODERN adventure games, along the lines of MI or the Space Quests? Besides the Two Guys' Kickstarter campaign, I mean...

Most of the games by Wadjet Eye are great. I specially recommend Gemini Rue.

Also, almost anything by Ben Chandler[2], but that's usually short form. My favorite is Eternally Us[3]( I know, yucks at the name, but it's a beautiful game).

And Donna[4] is one of the best games I played las year, so there is that.

[1]http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/ [2]http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/author/Ben30... [3]http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1303/ [4]http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1523/

Re: If I Made Another Monkey Island...

#22

Post by rmc »

probably_wrong wrote: post #17
ComputerGuru wrote: post #12

Is SCUMM really better than Lua?

From what I've read about SCUMM, it was designed to be very similar to writing a regular script for, say, a TV show. The famous "hamster in the microwave" sequence was conceived, planned and implemented in one afternoon, and it even included some form of multitasking. Just by reading a piece of code such as this one ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SLVyjUCOIo&t=0m10s ) you get a sense of what is going on, and that m…

From what I've read about SCUMM, it was designed to be very similar to writing a regular script for, say, a TV show.

There's a programming language for writing textual interactive fiction games, Inform 7 ( http://inform7.com/ ), which reads as a natural language. For example, here's part of the "programme" of a game (copied from http://www.hpiweb.com/newmedia/i7/cbrk/source.html )

The Forest is a room. "This forest is cold and damp. Sunset is drawing very near and shelter must be found soon. The only apparent direction to go is north." A room called Before the Castle of the Big Red Key is north of the Forest. "The castle looms before you. Its massive front door has a lock that seems to glow a fiery red. You must continue north past that door. The only other exit is to the south." The big_red_key is here. The description is "It's a big red key." The printed name is "big red key". Understand "big", "red", and "key" as the big_red_key. It unlocks the massive front doorway. The massive front doorway is north of Before the Castle of the Big Red Key and south of the Castle Vestibule. The doorway is a door.

It would be interesting to have a graphical equivalent.

Re: If I Made Another Monkey Island...

#23

Post by mromanuk »

soneca wrote: post #10

I supported Double Fine Adventure on Kickstarter and lot of the last points of the OP refer to how Tim Schafer is managing it. But, in this case, if Ron Gilbert is making a proof of concept with this post, a MVP to check if Monkey Island 3a can be crowdfunded - or even if it is just a critique of Double Fine Adventure campaign, I am on Tim Schafer's side here. Crowdfunding is not about "give me the money and trust me…

I disagree with the first part. The crowd should support the artist vision and give him total freedom. If is not a substitute for having a publisher, what's the point?

I agree with your conclusion and I don't think it is necessarily the opposite, you can have artist freedom and access to the backstage.

Re: If I Made Another Monkey Island...

#24

Post by HeXetic »

nollidge wrote: post #16

I hope no one minds if I hijack to ask: What are some really good MODERN adventure games, along the lines of MI or the Space Quests? Besides the Two Guys' Kickstarter campaign, I mean...

I consider "L.A. Noire" the modern equivalent of an adventure game. Much of your time is spent walking around crime scenes picking up everything that isn't nailed down. The rest of the time consists of solving the game's "puzzles", which are all in the form of conversations, and sometimes involve using objects (evidence) to solve, while otherwise requiring careful observation. The combat and chase sequences are actually very incidental, with the foot chases in particular having extremely simplified controls (just hold "up" to climb a whole set of fire escape ladders and stairs) and if you screw them up enough then the game will simply let you skip them. Unlike old adventure games, there are multiple ways to solve each case, and there are no instances of "Moon Logic Puzzles".

Re: If I Made Another Monkey Island...

#25

Post by fusiongyro »

cskau wrote: post #5
PavlovsCat wrote: post #2

What business model is this? Give gamers blue balls and then wait until they inevitably ram down your door with money trucks?

You plant the seed for the violent revolt of rampaging gamers that will ultimately see Disney surrender the Monkey Island IP to restore global peace. Then you make a game.

Disney's takeaway from a "violent revolt of rampaging gamers" will be that this IP is tremendously valuable, which is probably the opposite impression you should be cultivating if you want to buy it from them at a low enough price to make third-party development itself practical.

Re: If I Made Another Monkey Island...

#26

Post by freyr »

soneca wrote: post #10

I supported Double Fine Adventure on Kickstarter and lot of the last points of the OP refer to how Tim Schafer is managing it. But, in this case, if Ron Gilbert is making a proof of concept with this post, a MVP to check if Monkey Island 3a can be crowdfunded - or even if it is just a critique of Double Fine Adventure campaign, I am on Tim Schafer's side here. Crowdfunding is not about "give me the money and trust me…

> Crowdfunding is not about "give me the money and trust me"

You speak on behalf of the crowd? The entire crowd? If Ron Gilbert's (hypothetical) proposal is unattractive to people, they won't support it.

Re: If I Made Another Monkey Island...

#27

Post by morganwilde »

This is absolutely brilliant! One on one with the community, speaking from the heart to people that understand you, no marketing BS, just the good old truth. I enjoyed Monkey Island for that same reason. By this point, I think it is pretty obvious Ron is just trying to gauge the readiness of the crowd, which obviously is there and happy to pay up. The one thing that scares me - he'll probably have start buy shelling out a ton of money to buy the IP and that may turn out to be a showstopper...

Re: If I Made Another Monkey Island...

#28

Post by derefr »

rmc wrote: post #22
probably_wrong wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I've read about SCUMM, it was designed to be very similar to writing a regular script for, say, a TV show. The famous "hamster in the microwave" sequence was conceived, planned and implemented in one afternoon, and it even included some form of multitasking. Just by reading a piece of code such as this one ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SLVyjUCOIo&t=0m10s ) you get a sense of what is going on, and that m…

From what I've read about SCUMM, it was designed to be very similar to writing a regular script for, say, a TV show. There's a programming language for writing textual interactive fiction games, Inform 7 ( http://inform7.com/ ), which reads as a natural language. For example, here's part of the "programme" of a game (copied from http://www.hpiweb.com/newmedia/i7/cbrk/source.html ) The Forest is a room. "This forest i…

I wouldn't call Inform 7 a programming language, so much as a DSL for entering fact-tuples into a graph database (though some of these tuples do attach "rules" [predefined functions] together using AOP join-points). When you actually need to tell it how to "make things happen", you basically break out into a separate, imperative programming language--which happens to be I7's ancestor, I6.

Re: If I Made Another Monkey Island...

#29

Post by runjake »

For the people going on and on about Kickstarter and crowd funding, note point #11: "The only way I would or could make another Monkey Island is if I owned the IP"

This seems more like a post to get the masses exited and perhaps help him get a license for or ownership of the Monkey Island franchise.

I hope he's successful, I was a big fan of the first two games (never got to play the 3rd). I'd certainly buy whatever he produced if it inspired the same awe of the prior games.

I do like the idea of starting fresh with a new story, ala The Legend of Gorilla Mountain, or something silly like that. After all, it was the wit of the writers and the artists that really sold the game.

Re: If I Made Another Monkey Island...

#30

Post by lobster_johnson »

nollidge wrote: post #16

I hope no one minds if I hijack to ask: What are some really good MODERN adventure games, along the lines of MI or the Space Quests? Besides the Two Guys' Kickstarter campaign, I mean...

Wadjet's latest, Primordia [1], is really good, especially if you are into postapocalyptic scifi. (Windows, but runs perfectly on Macs via Wineskin.) Retro graphics, looks like it was made cirka 1990. There is also their earlier cyberpunk game, Gemini Rue [2], also great.

There is also Machinarium [3] by Amanita (of Samorost fame). No dialogue, so less like MI, but still one of the finest games ever made.

[1] http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/primordia.html

[2] http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/gemini-rue.html

[3] http://machinarium.net/

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