[Glenn Epic]

Nowadays its becoming more and more difficult to find an adventure that isn't simply just a rehashed point and click or a Myst clone. Sure, there are some modern adventure games have their own unique style and feel, but it's rare to find a game that oozes so much originality. So I'm intrigued as to what your biggest inspirations were during the making of Bad Mojo? and what factors affected the overall design and direction of the game?

[serpentbox]

Originally Posted by New_Order

Nowadays its becoming more and more difficult to find an adventure that isn't simply just a rehashed point and click or a Myst clone. Sure, there are some modern adventure games have their own unique style and feel, but it's rare to find a game that oozes so much originality. So I'm intrigued as to what your biggest inspirations were during the making of Bad Mojo? and what factors affected the overall design and direction of the game?

Complicated question.

First, David Lynch - Blue Velvet, Eraserhead, Wild at Heart - Lynch gets close to gritty subjects. He shows us abstractions that illuminate our humanity. He is dark and visceral. He takes us to worlds we live in but ignore.

Second, there was always an empahasis on realism, on real-world-complexity, on things both foul and dark. Drew Huffman was the spark. His idea, his passion for things digusting and for doing something with an insect was a key to this game.

Third, insects in general. F**king fascinating animals. What would their world be like? It sure as hell ain't Bug's Life or Antz.

Fourth, good ol' Joe Campbell, king of myth, sage of the epic, guru of the heroe's quest and inspiration to George Lucas. The transformation motif is ubiquitous in world myth. Kafka too was a big source of inspiration for the psyche of the characters....

Now there are MANY technical reasons why we chose bugs, roaches etc, and I will let Alex and Phill discuss those because I am an idiot in that level.

VC

[MojoAlex]

Remember this: At the time we were developing on 486/33 computers. We didn't have a lot of horsepower. Moving a large bit of screen data required a fast machine. We didn't even get our first Pentium computer until the end of the production cycle. (Actually Vin and I played through Full Throttle on that thing in two days.)

A small insect sprite was the perfect choice at the time.

[Glenn Epic]

Originally Posted by serpentbox

Complicated question.

First, David Lynch - Blue Velvet, Eraserhead, Wild at Heart - Lynch gets close to gritty subjects. He shows us abstractions that illuminate our humanity. He is dark and visceral. He takes us to worlds we live in but ignore.

Interesting. I'm also a David Lynch fan. The way he contrasts both good and bad, pain and pleasure in the one scene always draws me in to the dark worlds he takes the characters through.

Remember this: At the time we were developing on 486/33 computers. We didn't have a lot of horsepower. Moving a large bit of screen data required a fast machine. We didn't even get our first Pentium computer until the end of the production cycle. (Actually Vin and I played through Full Throttle on that thing in two days.)

A small insect sprite was the perfect choice at the time.

Woah, I wasn't aware that the computers used in the development of Bad Mojo were so old.

[fov]

Originally Posted by New_Order

Woah, I wasn't aware that the computers used in the development of Bad Mojo were so old.

That's what was available in 1995.

-emily (feeling very old at the moment)

[Mattsius]

Originally Posted by New_Order

Woah, I wasn't aware that the computers used in the development of Bad Mojo were so old.

Well, we're talking about 1994-96 after all.

EDIT: What Emily said.

[Glenn Epic]

Originally Posted by Fov

That's what was available in 1995.
-emily (feeling very old at the moment)

Originally Posted by Mattsius

Well, we're talking about 1994-96 after all.
EDIT: What Emily said.

Okay, thats another thing I didn't realise ... I guess I like to think that 1995 wasn't that long ago. Maybe because many of the games I play are from around or before that period. In reality 1995 was 10 years ago.

[fov]

I take it you don't remember those Windows 95 TV ads with the Rolling Stones song in the background, then?

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by fov

I take it you don't remember those Windows 95 TV ads with the Rolling Stones song in the background, then?

Now that MUST have been America only, because I didn't get those . I do remember downgrading back from Windows 95 to DOS, though. And not just because it was an illegal copy - I actually missed the command prompt.

Go figure.

[MojoAlex]

Oh man, my production schedule was on my Powerbook 165c. Wow a color laptop in 1995. I had to keep scrolling pages on the schedule because the screen was like 9 inches.

[RLacey]

I miss those days, bizarrely. I'm sure I worried less about upgrades .

[fov]

When I went to college in 1996 my dad bought me a used Performa 660. It was an all-in-one machine -- looked like a big Mac Classic (or a very retarded iMac). It was about 1 year old, so not quite top of the line, and he paid $1000 for it. That sucker was HEAVY... very hard to get up and down stairs. And the built-in monitor was like 12 inches, tops.

I still have it in my old bedroom at my parents'. How I loved that machine, even though it became obsolete pretty quickly... it had one of the last 64k processors so when games started requiring PowerMacs I was screwed. I remember having to send Lighthouse back to Sierra because it wouldn't work.

My roommate had a color Powerbook. I was insanely jealous.

Ahh, those were the good old days when I still insisted I would never use PCs...

-emily

[MojoAlex]

You'll be happy to know that the version on Mac side of the Redux disc still plays on 68K.

[fov]

Woohoo! I'm going back in time to 1995, baby!