criticism on Wizarbox
 

I've seen some reoccuring messages criticising Wizarbox during the development of Gray Matter. And it appears some people are misinformed.


1) The long development time: Gray Matter was outsourced to an Eastern Europe company named Tonuzaba, they created the game engine and alot of artwork. During development it became clear that Tonuzaba was not up to the standards and pace of develloping of a Jane Jensen game. probably the reason why DTP pulled the game out of their hands and went to look for another develloper. The transition took almost a full year!

2) Wizarbox visual standards where so much higher than Tonuzaba, that they ended up redoing or restyling all of the artwork, animations, etc.. already done. This of course took some time.

3)The engine the game used was a difficult and very basic tool, giving Wizarbox a hard time to finetune. They had alot more ideas to improve it, but there was no possibility to change the engine or update it. they had to work with what Tonuzaba left them with.

4)the cutscenes: the visual style was chosen due to the fact that the budget had practically ran out. I think that knowing this fact, they still did a good job with the limited funding they had.

5)the lack of close-ups and facial expressions: again something betatesters and Jane fought real hard for, but there simple was no more time or budget to incorporate that. Also a result of the whole streched out development.

I think all in all Wizarbox delivered a very "pretty" game (Jane seems to agree, because it's visually her favourite), but it was left with some serious flaws they wish they could have changed..

Nico, while I personally am familiar with this history, I thank you for taking the time to elucidate this matter! I sure miss the days of chatting away in the cort-x fan site forums;)

I agree; visually Gray Matter looked great and was even stunning at times, certainly in AG standards - Timmons Park for example looked beautiful. Totally loved that chapter just for that.

I'm not against remake of GK1 but it's still very playable to me and I'd rather have people using that time to do some more Jane Jensen games :)

The world, the characters and the cases of Gabriel Knight games are really something else, you don't just play a game anymore, you live it.

I'd rather see a remake of the third one. It's perfect in nearly every way, but the graphics are distractingly ugly.

As much as I love Gabriel Knight, and as I much as I feel that all three games have somewhat flawed user interfaces (and occasionally puzzles,) I think remakes are a bad idea. In general, game designs are made with technological strengths/constraints in mind. When you update a game designed around one set of technology for a new set, a *lot* gets lost. Either the old design starts to look awkward in the new clothes, or else you end up modifying the gameplay as well...and at that point, you might as well just start from scratch. Unless a game has truly aged the point of unplayability, I would much, much rather see Gabriel Knight 4 than an update of any of old games, despite their (sometimes very painful) warts. But I'd also equally be happy with Gray Matter 2, or Moebius, or "Anglophile Adventure." Perhaps I just have a short attention span. ;)

Despite all our handwringing over the amount of donations, Kicktraq still has it on pace for $750K+. Now, I know that donations will slow, but they may also speed up at the end - which, although it DID happen significantly for DFA, does not seem to be happening, to the same extent, for Wasteland 2.

Gonzo I don't think the algorithm of this Kicktraq thing is very well-thought. I'd be surprised if the donations exceed the 400K limit. I personally pledged more than a 100 solely because of what Jane has made in the past. I am not convinced if it will really worth it at the end of the day. I do hope that we will all see a great game I just don't know how realistic that is.

loooks like all that kicktraq thing does is take the avg overall rate and gives you the number if it stayed that rate for the rest of the time, blah. O_O

Yesterday we got 110 backers, and would seem to be a down-day in general.... except.... somebody added 10k to the donations.. without selecting the reward tier for 10k. So some weirdness is going on for sure.. hopefully that gets straightened out and we now have 2 10k backers.

Jane has announced that anyone who wants to vote for the first game Pinkerton Road will make needs to back the project by tomorrow at 9:00pm Eastern time. (I figure most people following this thread have already backed it - but just throwing it out there!)

I have no idea what to vote for. :crazy: Honestly I'd be happy with any of the three.

fov:
Have you sent the press release to Indiegames.com? If not, it's probably a good idea (or maybe just the next one), since it's arguably the largest indie gaming site, and they often write about Kickstarter projects :)

For the voting, I'll go with Moebius. And I'm 97.143% sure it'll "win" since they already sort of sold it as a Gabriel Knight-like game ;)

EDIT: Corrected the site name.

Okay not to rehash the discussion from a day or two ago, but this is exactly what I'm talking about. You won't find someone who receives less of a benefit of a doubt from her fans than Jane Jensen.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthre...5#post36845155

What I'm hoping for is that after the voting, the people who have been waiting come on board. Jane's probably going to need to provide a bit more concept art and some descriptions of the chosen game to entice people further. I hope and imagine she's working on that, or maybe the pdf the backers receive tomorrow will contain the information she publishes on the Kickstarter page.

Also, nice article and interview here that Jane just posted in the comments on the KS page: http://alternativemagazineonline.co....n-road-studio/

From the above article:

If that's not reason enough to donate, I don't know what is.

Yay! We reached the half-way point now! $150,120!!

If we can get some good press when the game is decided on and the kickstarter page is accurately geared towards the winning game, I think the campaign will easily push towards 300,000. I bet a lot of folks are still on the fence not knowing what the csg is all about. If there is a definite game to support there will be a huge uptick in casual supporters. Count on it!

Funny that Tim Schafer didn't offer anything definite, much less a definite game, and yet...well, you know :shifty:

But this is not directed at you, Terabin, so don't be taken aback or something.

^yeah, and nobody demanded that tim make grim fandango 2 or it wasnt worth donating. Its ridiculous.
EDIT: and on that note, expect everyone to lose their %$#@ when doublefines concept does come out and its not exactly how each person perfectly imagined it.

Anyway, its friday and we still havnt gone under 100 new backers per day!!!

To be honest, Tim has the advantage of never having done any sequels (well, except for Monkey Island 2 of course, but that's more Ron's game). So he showed again and again that he is capable of coming up with new and exciting fantastical worlds. Maybe there is a feeling, especially shared by people who didn't play or didn't like Gray Matter, that Jane is only capable of doing Gabriel Knight or at least at her best while doing it.

It's an unfounded feeling, I agree, but I think that might be an unspoken emotional argument shared by quite a few.

So just read the new GameInformer. Didn't expect a nice two page article on Gabriel Knight.

A really nice article (that includes an interview with Jane) has just been posted on Forbes.com.

Unfortunately when Jane did that interview, she wasn't able to talk about the new studio yet! But the coincidental timing was great, anyway. :)

They should have received the press release, yes. But thanks for mentioning it, I'll follow up with them.

Thanks for all the updates, great article. :)

Keep up the good work.

Beautiful article. With articles at major game news sites, the publicity is there. Let's continue to represent Jane as best we can on other message boards and websites!

It seems to me Moebius will receive the most votes. I personally would love to see a Gray Matter 2 as the first game Pinkerton Road develops. I loved GM and the story ended with so many possibilities to explore the origins of one particular character. I'd love to have some more closure to Sam and David's stories.

While I want to vote for GM2, I will probably cast for Moebius because, as much as I disagree, I acknowledge that Moebius will have broader appeal for the comparisons to GK, even though Gray Matter has very similar metaphysical aspects to GK storytelling. The most important thing is starting the studio. Each of these three game concepts will most likely be developed within a couple of years.

I cannot wait to receive the pdf. This is such a truly amazing thing, to get first hand information from Jane about her game concepts. Never would I have ever dreamed having this kind of interaction with her. Some people are really missing out, but there's time to make a pledge and get on the backers list by 9pm EST tonight.

Regarding those people who didn't like GM and are thus not confident in Jane doing anything other than GK -

First of all, Jane was involved in stuff other than GK - KQVI (considered by many the best in the KQ series), PQIII (or was it II), again - seen by lots of classic Sierra fans as the superior installment in terms of story quality and design. Also a couple of 'kids' games - e.g. EcoQuest and Pepper's Adventures in Time (both of which I found very good, especially the latter) and she has many credits in many other Sierra classics too (I *think* Laura Bow maybe?).

There are also the books she's written etc..

So bottom line it's not just GK - which to me is a good enough reason (I love each episode in the trilogy equally, could never choose between them).

I am so superexcited too!!
This is gonne be so FUN :D

I think I'll vote for Moebius.

Generally speaking I'm not a fan of sequels. Of course, it's different with Jane, but a brand new story from her is too exciting to refuse.

Anglophile Adventure...not really my cup of tea, but for her sake I hope she gets to make it someday anyway. Definitely different, at any rate.

PDF is under the updates! Backers only!

This is really, really impressive. Sad that I have to vote for only one game, but we'll get all three hopefully in the near future.

I voted for Anglophile Adventure.

I feel like a giant contrarian. All looked really cool and interesting. As I mentioned in the KS comment field, I don't like the character of Malachi.

I think I'd get the biggest kick out of AA, but I like the idea there are w...oh wait, am I giving stuff away?

Sorry.

Just voted for Anglophile Adventure too. It's her best, more original idea but it seems to be losing to the Gabriel Knight knock off... Oh well. :P

Argh... I can't decide! I want them all!! :frusty:

I actually changed my mind and went with GM2, because of the expanded story outline.

Really thought it sounded fantastic, the whole outsiders in a hostile town angle, and seeing as how much I loved the first game it was a no-brainer in the end.

Moebius just has that...I dunno, potential to be a bit too far-fetched. That sounds stupid, probably not the word I'm looking for. Just the premise didn't excite me as much as the premise for GM2.

Not much of a fan of the main character for Moebius either. I mean, from what little I saw/read anyway. I'm sure he'll be fine if that's the game that wins, but yeah, I went with the sequel in the end.

Anglophile Adventure, I don't mind the look of, but romance isn't exactly my thing. Very vibrant though, it has to be said. I like that.

Gray Matter 2 really is the most appealing story to me, but I love all three concepts. I think Anglophile Adventure sounds amazing, but for the Kickstarter it's not going to have as broad appeal as the other two games.

I also decided to vote for GM2 after all.

I like that there was a second question for people to give their opinion on each game, rather than just voting for one. That'll allow her to see what appeal each idea has.

I had a hard time deciding what to vote for. I wanted to go with Anglophile Adventure, just for kicks (and because I'd like to see Jane Jensen do something different from the whole paranormal mystery stuff at some point), but I don't want it to win because I'm afraid it'll put some people off. And I didn't want to vote for Moebius, because it's the one that least appealed to me, somehow. I was almost going to vote for GM2, as a kind of middle ground (and because it seemed intriguing), but then I thought that Moebius was going to win anyway and went with AA.

I really hope she ends up doing all three eventually.

I voted for GM2. I really liked the story and characters in Grey Matter and desperately want more of them. Moebius will probably win, and if that helps get this funded, I'm fine with that. I would be thrilled to have any of the three games to play. But since I have that emotional connection to the GM characters, I had to go with my heart.

Just managed to DL the PDF, and excited to read it.

I voted for Anglophile Adventure. I love Jane's dark mysteries but my favorite part about GK (and Gray Matter too, come to think of it) is always the unrequited love between the protagonists. So I think that one could be fun. (I'm not really expecting it to win, though.)

But it was such a tough choice. :crazy:

Moebius caught my attention right away, more than the others, though Gray Matter 2 looks more intriguing to me than it did before. I have to admit that for a second I really did consider voting for Anglophile Adventure, just to give a boost to the underdog, and I bet it has a great story and would be a great change, so I hope someday it too gets made.

Definitely a tough choice, but to have the luxury of a choice is pretty awesome!

Wow... the concept pdf sells these games so much better than kickstarter descriptions. I want all 3 of them now O_O

and the real fight looks to be for 2nd place... i would not have guessed it would be so close between GM2 and anglophile

When I read the premise of Moebius and the name "Malachi Rector" I imagined he would be a middle-aged spectacle wearing bookworm/intellectual, kind of like Johnny Depp in "The Ninth Gate". I was actually let down that he looks like the generic handsome, young and square-jawed adventuring globetrotter(Indy Jones, Nathan Drake, Rick O'connel, etc). Is it just me who is somewhat disappointed by his characterization? :P

Anyway, I ended up voting for Gray Matter 2. Never thought I would, but it read like the coolest and most intriguing premise.

Also, let the speculation begin:

- That concept art with a woman running through the streets of modern day Venice and her water reflection showing a toga-wearing lookalike... you guys think the concept of reincarnation/past lives is going to be a part of the plot? Sure looks like it. Self-evident actually.

- And Gray Matter 2... it looks to me like this time occultism and history are going to play a larger role than science. We have witches, an isolated and forgotten scottish village, hereditary curses... that is why I voted for it. Sounds closer to GK than Moebius.

Really want Jane Jenson' CSG (Community Supported Gaming) to succeed
 

Sorry if this has already been posted, and I'm sure most who come here know about it but -

They're a little over halfway to their goal, and only have 35 days left.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...-2012-2013-csg

Thanks

Yeah, there about 3 or 4 threads concerning the subject...

Gray Matter 2 sounds the most intriguing to me! But I haven't played the first one, and I don't feel I can vote without having played it. So I'll do something about that now. ;)