Anyone else not excited at all for A Vampyre Story?
 

It just doesn't look all that fascinating and it's been in the number one spot for hype-o-meter for as long as I can remember. Is this game actually hyping the community the most?

Seeing is believing. Not sure why so many get so serious (either positive or negative) about the hype, but many of us like the concept, the art, the screenshots, etc. Besides, it's fun being psyched up over entertainment. Nothing wrong with that.

If it already doesn't put a smile on your face, don't buy it. But why spoil our fun? This isn't a debate, it's sheer pleasure, and to me the game looks great, it is different, and I'll reserve my profound and sober judgments for my day-job. :)

I was interested than quickly became uninterested as the informations began to spread out. That's it. But I'll wait for a review to make a proper judgment.

I can't wait to support Bill Tiller & Co. by buying this game and loving the heck out of it. :D

What are you talking about? This game isn't over-hyped. Heck, I'll probably buy a few dozen copies when it releases just for the fun of it. See? People aren't blindly in love with Tiller's work.

Wait, did I say that? :D :D

I'm not a big fan of the cute and colorful games so I'm a bit "meh" about it but despite that, I adored Grim Fandango and kind of like Kingdom Hearts.
So I'll probably buy it and play it, but I won't hype it XD

I know I would've been very hyped if the game had been released around the same time as Curse of Monkey Island (it very much reminds me of it, for obvious reasons). I'm not entirely in love with the 3D characters, but the backdrops are gorgeous. I'm sceptical though, 'cause every great point'n'click released the last few years, even from ex-LucasArts guys (Sam'n'Max I'm looking at you) haven't even come close to the quality of the games in the golden years. To me, it just feels like the bar has been lowered quite drastically.

I'm sceptical but hope for the best. I will most certainly check it out.

I'm feeling somewhat frustrated with this.

It's all about the bar....
 

It's true that the bar has been lowered, over the years, but if any game can raise that bar back up its this one. Bill Tiller is one of the guys that made adventure games so enjoyable, back in the day, so it's perfectly normal to hype up this game. Also, the trailer looked really good!

Really?

He is a wonderful artist: after providing artistic support on Full Throttle, he painted awesome backgrounds (and animations) for The Dig and CMI (these ones were really amazing), although I think that his work on Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine was pretty much forgettable.

I wouldn't say that, back in the day, he did too much to make the genre what it was. Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert, Noah Falstein and Hal Barwood* did it, but Tiller - at least in my opinion - is a great artist/painter that has yet to prove what is capable of in designing an adventure game.

*I'm intentionally not mentioning any Sierra-related names.

I'm more interested in this game than most. I think it's exciting to have industry veterans coming out with new projects, especially these days when most of the games coming out are so forgettable that nobody will even remember who created them. I have pretty high hopes for this game, but as always, the proof will be in the playing.

I can't wait for this one too, but haven't seen much in the way of gameplay so far, so we'll just have to wait and see. Artwork is top-notch, but as we know, looks aren't everything. And not coming out in time for Halloween was a travesty! :P

I''l have to disagree with that...sam'n'max is the closer we've come to the golden years. It's at least as good as the original sam'n'max lucas arts game. And I hope you don't consider it inferior because it is in 3D, that doesn't have to do with how good the quality of the game is, it's just personal preference.
That being said I don't consider the old sam'n'max a good representative of the quality of those days, I much prefer the other games by lucas arts.

As for vampyre story... I've learnt to have very low expectations for adventure games these days so the same goes for this game. I think many people seeing screenshots are reminded of monkey island 3 and because there's a ex-lucasarts guy involved they think it will be of the same quality. Personally I really doubt that. Also, I remember a while back seeing a little trailer of the game that included a rather poor attempt on humor.

I will definitely play it though and hope for the best...

Yes. Really.

I believe that I said he was ONE of the guys, not the only guy. His art was inspirational to those who came after.

He was a great artist on a great team, so he knows the value of a good story and voice acting. Many dissapointing games are made by low-budget companies that don't seem to understand the need for quality writing and voice acting.

You did see the trailer right? It looks very amusing.

Sierra put out a lot of decent games, but the production values were never as good as Lucas Arts. The only game on your top ten list that I enjoyed was LSL3. Everthing else, especially GK, was boring due to soddy story lines.

Heaven forbid that that a 2d illustrator's work on a primitive real-time 3D action game isn't mindblowing. Seen his concept art for the game? Also, there's probably a big difference between enthusiasm for a game you were simply assigned to versus a game that's your brainchild, and which you've been nursing along for ten years to make a reality (AVS). Sometimes you have to work on a game because you have to. There's a reason there's only one Tim Schafer, and it's not just because he's awesome, but because he was lucky. Unless you think those other designers wouldn't have wanted to head their own crazy adventure ideas too if not for this really inconvenient factor called reality.

Not a one of the guys you mentioned started as the adventure game gods they became, you know. They worked their way up from positions like playtester, co-scripter, and artist. Noah and Hal's contributions to the genre are significant, but pretty isolated. Other than Fate of Atlantis, I'm not sure what amazing thing Hal has gifted to the genre or the gaming industry in general, unless you're the world's only fan of Big Sky Trooper and RTX: Red Rock. Looks like I lost a bet. (Yeah, I think he had limited control on what he could do and had to deal with the mismanaged nonsense that was LEC back in the mid-to-late 90s, and Noah and Hal have done a lot of contract work and there's Mata Hari, etc. I'm just saying let's not hold one person to a standard and not someone else.)

You know that Larry Ahern was a lowly artist, just like Bill Tiller, and that CMI was his first game as a project leader, right? And look at how that turned out. I'm not saying we should expect every case to be like that, but I don't think you can begrudge people faith, especially when there's really nothing but good things to assume of AVS. Yeah, Bill Tiller is most known for his work as an artist, and I think it's safe to say that it's that aspect of AVS that most people are looking forward to from him. What of it? He's a guy who's been working in the industry for over a decade - I think he's as prepped to helm his own project as anyone else. Tiller has done design work, by the way. You may not be familiar with it and much of it may have been on cancelled games, but he's still had his hand in that aspect of development before. Maybe he hasn't "proved" himself, in your mind, but I'm not sure how he's supposed to do that if you don't give him the chance?

Furthermore, even though AVS is Tiller's baby, he's not the only person making this game. Like is the case with Telltale or Double Fine, Autumn Moon is full of a bunch of ex-LEC names. Legend Bill Eaken supposedly did a lot of design work for the game, and it has a head writer and designer. Bill's fingerprints are probably all over this sucker, but if you think he wrote every line of dialogue or constructed every puzzle (whether that's a negative or positive thing in your mind), you're quite wrong. Monkey Island may have been Ron's idea, but the brilliance of that games was the result of collaboration.

Bottom line: A lot of people consider AVS to be an incredibly promising game, and for damn good reason. Maybe if it turns out to be less than good you'll be able to derived some pleasure out of that, but if you can't see what gets people excited about the game, you're simply not paying attention.

I pretty much agree with you on everything you said about AVS, Udvarnoky, but why are you dissing Hal's games? I happen to be very fond not only of Fate of Atlantis, but (although to lesser extent) also of Desktop Adventures, Yoda Stories and Infernal Machine. Hell, the graphics in that last game may had a low polygon count, but they actually had their own style unlike that Emperor's Tomb disaster.

I'm not trying to diss Hal so much as introduce some perspective here. Don't say Hal has done more for the adventure genre than Bill Tiller, when his main claim to fame is one (amazing) adventure game. And good project leaders can come from backgrounds other than design.

OK. I agree with what you say about perspective. I've read dozens of interviews with people who worked on LucasArts adventure games and I'm amazed how much collaborative efforts they were and how many people with great imaginations worked there.

However, personally I will avoid defending AVS this way, or defending it at all. It is almost available at this point in time and I think it will stand on its own and should be evaluated without too many references to the old LucasArts. This thread should wait for people who have played the game. It's only 2-3 weeks away.

And some people are skeptical for equally good reason. Nothing you've said changes the fact that Autumn Moon is an unknown as a studio designing its first game from the ground up, with no experienced lead writers/designers at the helm. Having reservations about the result is hardly hoping it will fail or expecting it to be bad, as you seem to be wrongly implying. Telltale's first games were hardly masterpieces, if you're going to hold up them as a standard. They got better fast, but it took a while. Personally I wouldn't be at all surprised if AVS shows similar signs of growing pains.

A very mediocre game, if you want my opinion. Nothing Bill Tiller touched turned into pure gold, if you want my opinion once again so I'm not holding my breath.

Yes, I did see it and I found it nothing special. But, hey, that's my taste: I don't like the meaningless comedy, the cartoonish graphics, the humorous take on vampires.

I'll put out just a lol :D
And I'll further by asking you what did you find shoddy about the storyline, say, of Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within. Even if I'm partial to thinking you said that for totally another reason.