Adventure Gamers - Forums

Coming next year.

Been a mixed bag of games for this franchise, so who knows what this will be like.

a new studio and a non-adventures publisher? expect for willy morgan.
hope they know what they are doing, really

It looks different, but the style is nice. This one could go either way.

What a year for comebacks.

Hmph. 30 years later the saga returns, and art/animation looks 30 times worse. What does it even mean, “30 years later”? Even if they exclude the German sequels and the 3D game, there was a canonical 1995 sequel - and it also looked so much better. I’m not playing it unless Simon Woodroffe is involved. Although they claimed he was part of the team behind the 4th game, and it turned out pretty bad…

100% agreed, instead of continuing making those inferior sequels and special additions they should just remake the third game as a proper 2D cartoon adventure - like it was originally conceived. I think the 2D version was nearly finished before they were ordered to make a new game in full 3D. Just get hold of original assets and release it, or redraw the whole thing with original artists and designers involved, it would be an instant hit.

I’m surprised people are so skeptical about this, considering it’s in the Curse of Monkey Island style which receives so much praise.

Charophycean - 19 May 2022 12:11 AM

I’m surprised people are so skeptical about this, considering it’s in the Curse of Monkey Island style which receives so much praise.

More like one of those kids games.

I just played Feeble Files by AdventureSoft the other day, and the artwork in the jungle level was really incredible, and so was the animation for running water. For some reason it was the only part of the game which was not rendered, but hand-drawn, like they used some art left from the earlier version of the game, or maybe the unreleased Simon the Sorcerer sequel. But the new art looks insultingly amateurish and lifeless even compared to the 4-5 Simon games. It’s like some student project. In fact this is how I imagine those games are created:

-Latest news?
-Here, boss: Disney announced a new Monkey Island.
-What’s that?
-A puzzle version of Pirates of the Caribbean, sort of.
-Good. Do we have something with pirates?
-I’m afraid not. But there’s a Simon the Sorcerer license.
-What’s that?
-A British clone, only with sorcerers instead of pirates.
-Did it sell?
-Well, there were 4 or 5 sequels.
-Good. Oh, and there’s a new Harry Potter game on the way. Call Mario, quick!
...
-Hello, kid. You’ve been working for 3 months now, you did well.
-Thank you, sir, I’m finishing this Cuckoo-Boom-Boom-Man sketch…
-Good, good, but I have something better for you: Simon the Sorcerer!
-Is that like Marvel?
-Nah, it’s a game series, kind of Harry Potter in a bottomless hat who solves puzzles. I think you are big enough to handle it. I expect a trailer next week.
-But, sir, we didn’t study animation. And I don’t know any puzzles…
-We all learn new things every day, Mario, we all do.
-But I know nothing about this Timon, sircerer! I mean, sir.
-Well, make it a prequel about some random sorcerer kid in a fantasy land. Do I have to think for you? Improvise, it’s your project. Oh, and come up with a name, you are now a studio.
-Oh, thank you, sir! This is all so exciting… How about Big Fuc…
-For God’s sake, it’s just a puzzle game, a small thing. Right, you will be known as Smallthing Studio. Heh heh. Now run along and make this damn trailer.

On the positive side, it’s almost impossible for this to turn out as bad as the 4th and the 5th game.

I do like the background art, the animation seems a bit janky and the character design looks a bit too much like Disney. I’m not sure that’s a proper fit.

As others stated, making a proper remake of the 3rd game could have been a good idea. While it was a terrible game, it did have some things I liked. The story wasn’t bad and it had some solid laughs in it, unlike the last two entries.

There are some screenshots of the game on the developer’s own site. https://smallthingstudios.com/

I do have to say, that in these pics, the character art looks even worse than in the trailer. They don’t even always match a single style.

From the looks of it, I suspect that this is being made with a budget.

Interesting. Both co-founders are actually experienced developers who led the production of Belief & Betrayal (2007) among other things according to Mobygames. It got 2 stars from adventuregamers, but it still looks like a more solid and competent game. And there are 5 open vacancies at their website for senior programmers and animators - which explains a lot, but who announces a cartoon game without having enough programmers and animators? I still say give it to Simon Woodroffe. Last time he appeared in news was in the late 2020 as he left Rare where he had been working as a creative director of Everwild, a big-budget Xbox adventure/god sim/MMORPG or whatever it is going to be since they changed the concept of this troubled production all the time. I think he would be happy to work on a simpler adventure of his mascot, even with little budget. Although it seems like Woodroffe never takes the easy way.

I have to admit I now roll my eyes when I see “Origins” in a game title. It’s so lazy and I can’t think of any of the dozens of Origins games which actually have been good.

Doom - 19 May 2022 05:15 PM

Interesting. Both co-founders are actually experienced developers who led the production of Belief & Betrayal (2007) among other things according to Mobygames. It got 2 stars from adventuregamers, but it still looks like a more solid and competent game. And there are 5 open vacancies at their website for senior programmers and animators - which explains a lot, but who announces a cartoon game without having enough programmers and animators? I still say give it to Simon Woodroffe. Last time he appeared in news was in the late 2020 as he left Rare where he had been working as a creative director of Everwild, a big-budget Xbox adventure/god sim/MMORPG or whatever it is going to be since they changed the concept of this troubled production all the time. I think he would be happy to work on a simpler adventure of his mascot, even with little budget. Although it seems like Woodroffe never takes the easy way.

Is that the guy who invented the Schnibble of Azimuth?