Adventure Gamers - Forums

Jdawg445 - 03 May 2022 02:08 PM

I hope you are right but to me those subtle shots he took at day of the tentacle and MI3 seemed a bit petty to me.

Well, he is the Grumpy Gamer, after all.

I love the art styles of those games, Ron, don’t do ‘em dirty like that!

i say we kidnap him and torture him to play all Sierra games

I get that a certain level of scepticism is always a good thing. but we do have to remember the only way of knowing if the game itself is good or not is to, well, get it released and play it.

Now it seems to me that a lot of criticism is geared directly toward how the game looks, which is understandable as that is the only thing we can really scrutinize, but it also seems to me there are certain people in the fandom who would want to dictate how the game should look despite they have nothing to do with the production of the game itself. I get why Ron doesn’t like it, as he is the one actually doing the game, so it’s his choices based on what he wants, not what, say, a Kickstarter audience wants.

I also understand his point about pixel art and how Thimbleweed Park is the only pixel art game he has done: TP is his only game where it was a deliberate choice of art style, not something dictated by the limitations of the tech of the era.

And it might not come as a surprise, that I have a dislike towards the part of the adventure community that is stuck in the past where the only proper way of presenting an adventure game is pixel art and a verb menu. I don’t dislike pixel art itself, I just dislike the notion that it’s all there is when it comes to adventure games.

I’m personally not 100% sold on the character design, but I’ll reserve my judgment for later when we see more of it. Background style I actually quite like.

uh, brains are resurrected, thank god

Advie - 03 May 2022 10:29 PM

i say we kidnap him and torture him to play all Sierra games

@tomimt: Agree with the first two paragraphs, not on the pixel art and verb interface though, at least not entirely.

Like you said, the first is a stylistic choice at this point in time, our understanding of how it works and the technological possibilities to give it depth have greatly increased. I’d say this development has moved the genre forward, indie games in particular. The verb interface, to me, is an underused piece of UI: I don’t mind easy pointing and clicking and one or two actions for interactions, fine. But verbs lend themselves to a broader range of interactions, puzzles and character exposition. The first thing you do in Full Throttle, for example: Punching your way out of a dumpster. I think it’s not the first thing people try, so it requires some evaluation. It also tells you something about Ben and about the tone/attitude of the game.

Completely agree with the last part: let’s wait and see what Ron Gilbert and co come up with. The game could be anything, but if Ron Gilbert conveys any message, it’s that he has some deep appreciation for and knowledge of adventure games.

And sometimes he says he hates them.

Ron has a very particular way of presenting himself and his views on adventure games.

Part of me says: if you’re going to be contentious about it, you’re grown and probably wise enough to know the response is going to be: “Ooooh no he didn’t!” or “take your game and shove it”. It’s probably part of the buzz, or something he uses for something (amusement? fuel? self-flagellation?).

At the same time, I don’t want to create a negative bandwagon. Excitement might have it’s highs and lows, but it shouldn’t turn into spite.

My expectation: it’s going to be an above par adventure game, about as good as the sequels he wasn’t involved in - slightly better puzzle design, or to be more exact: fewer bad puzzles, a bit more heartfelt and less goofy.. that’s about it. I feel Ron kind of underappreciates where the genre went after his classics, which in the end hampers him and allows him to be himself and make the game he wants to make. If you’re a Gilbert-head, you’re going to love it.

Fair enough

Burge - 03 May 2022 09:57 PM

Ron’s petty attitude towards the absolute classics of the past and his inexplicable misunderstanding of the target market for this game (hint: it’s not the under 35 crowd), have severely dampened my excitement for this one

but you do understand that Ron Gilbert as he is a pioneer, is also a different character from Tim Schafer for example; as they are both full of themselves but their approaches are quite different, we cant, I mean, we shouldn’t help the ‘cancel culture’ who always demand to be heard and engaged with to blur our judgment for the things that matter

and he is not alone away from the social media ethics and techniques, we have seen the Two Guys, Jim walls, and other pioneers fail to connect with social media quite as well as Agustín Cordes, for instance, whom his platforms helped him well enough to keep Asylum on the radar for many long years.

A little drama won’t hurt the sales I guess While I’m also skeptical about the art and some of his creative decisions where he contradicts himself, I’m planning to get Return as soon as it’s available. I actually respect him a lot for keeping the game secret for two years and making everything his own way without listening to the fans, avoiding the messy production of Broken Age. Even if Disney somehow influenced the technical side, I’m sure the game itself will be fantastic.

Advie - 04 May 2022 10:59 AM

Fair enough

Burge - 03 May 2022 09:57 PM

Ron’s petty attitude towards the absolute classics of the past and his inexplicable misunderstanding of the target market for this game (hint: it’s not the under 35 crowd), have severely dampened my excitement for this one

but you do understand that Ron Gilbert as he is a pioneer, is also a different character from Tim Schafer for example; as they are both full of themselves but their approaches are quite different, we cant, I mean, we shouldn’t help the ‘cancel culture’ who always demand to be heard and engaged with to blur our judgment for the things that matter

and he is not alone away from the social media ethics and techniques, we have seen the Two Guys, Jim walls, and other pioneers fail to connect with social media quite as well as Agustín Cordes, for instance, whom his platforms helped him well enough to keep Asylum on the radar for many long years.

You’re right. Perhaps this is also the pitfall of being the face of a project and someone who received massive amount of praise in the past. With on the other side of the table, people who feel strongly about something they’ve cared about for a long time, some of whom feel entitled to a certain type of game because they mistake their emotional investment for monetary investment.

I’ve always wondered why some many devs choose to personally engage with their audience, on personal title. It’s a job in and of itself. Why not have a mascot? There are probably loads of people with some kind of (social) media degree available - I’d say that’s a good investment if you can afford it.

I think the inverted April Fools post was really clever. Maybe this back-and-forth between one grumpy gamer and his the rest of ‘em works for buzz, maybe it will do the opposite and put people off, as Jdawg445 and Burge suggest.

Vegetable Party - 04 May 2022 11:37 AM

I’ve always wondered why some many devs choose to personally engage with their audience, on personal title. It’s a job in and of itself. Why not have a mascot? There are probably loads of people with some kind of (social) media degree available - I’d say that’s a good investment if you can afford it.

 

Well, let’s put it this way, I do understand why the Two Guys From Andromeda didn’t communicate with the people on their Kickstarter that much and left the, rather poor, communication to their social media dude.

Though I admit SpaceVenture is a terrible example, all in all, considering how badly that one has been going.