Adventure Gamers - Forums

Modern adventure gamers have conveniently forgotten that the GRAPHICS were the main appeal of adventure games from the very beginning up through the end of their golden age. Many are quick to criticize action game players for putting so much emphasis on “eye candy”, but adventure games were the eye candy of the ‘80s-‘90s.

@ Lamb
If by consistency you mean same textures with same colors on different props in the background than i take it, check first pic in my last post, all the props behind Rector
books,jars?? vase?? (cant even make them out :s), they all are recycled colors
and textures….its first gen ps2 game level stuff.

And its funny how some of you take “AGs cant be AAA level” as defacto statement.

edit: I dont know if Graymatter was more expensive than this, but looked way better.

Now for Cross reference (from JJ previous game), see the detail below, jeans and shirt are different, and the books, shelf, props are of different colors.
Its slick graphic novel type but with detailed and consistent rendering.

nomadsoul - 26 November 2013 05:11 PM

@ Lamb
If by consistency you mean same textures with same colors on different props in the background than i take it, check first pic in my last post, all the props behind Rector
books,jars?? vase?? (cant even make them out :s), they all are recycled colors
and textures….its first gen ps2 game level stuff.

And its funny how some of you take “AGs cant be AAA level” as defacto statement.

By consistency, I mean consistency. IS the stylization done in the same way and in the same amount across all characters and scenes?  I think the answer, in this case, is yes.  Not saying that makes it GOOD, necessarily, but that it’s a matter of style choice as opposed to lack of skill (though one could argue that the character artist’s lack of skill may have lead to the style choice. )  Gray Matter is a game that embraces a more realistic style of art direction, Moebius is not.  So comparing the two is really a bit unfair.

Also, nobody’s saying “adventure games can’t be AAA level,” they’re saying that a game made on the budget of Moebius can’t be AAA level.  It’s about how much AAA level production values cost to create, and Moebius just doesn’t have the funds for that.

UPtimist - 26 November 2013 12:47 PM

tomimt - 26 November 2013 12:37 PM

Anyway, Grey Matter came 2010 and it was a proper Jensen game. And had better character art and animation as well.

It could be argued that since she didn’t have full control, it wasn’t a “proper” Jane Jensen game in the sense of GKs. But I wouldn’t make that argument

I would. Grey Matter was heavilly influenced by Wizarbox involvement and so a lot of JJ’s vision got lost in the process resulting in a sub par game.

Lambonius - 26 November 2013 03:16 PM

I think it’s perfectly valid to critique the graphics in an adventure game, even a low budget one—within reason, of course.  Certainly we can’t expect AAA production values from a relatively low budget, but it’s also important to recognize that video games, even adventure games (excluding interactive fiction, of course), are primarily a visual medium.  Graphics and, more importantly, good art direction are an important part of getting the player invested and immersed in the story of a game.  If the graphics or art direction are distracting, it breaks the player out of the story and makes it harder for them to enjoy the game as a whole.

I don’t personally have a problem with it, but I totally understand why some people do.  It is wrong to stifle criticism of this aspect of the game just because it’s not the most important aspect to YOU personally.

I definitely agree with that. Like film or tv, games are a visual medium so the visuals do certainly matter. However I will state that it is highly unrealistic to expect top notch graphics from an adventure game. Simply because the budget isn’t there for that kind of look. You should play AGs because of the puzzles or the story and if you like the graphics then that’s nice but don;t play it for the graphics cause they’ve got much better looking games in other genres, Simply because they’ve got a much bigger budget.

That said, the most important aspect of good art direction is consistency, not realism, and the graphics in Moebius, while not exactly totally realistic, are definitely consistent across all of the characters.  They ALL have similarly cartoonish proportions, and it’s consistent enough that it certainly seems intentional on the part of the artists.  Whether or not it was the best CHOICE is debatable, but clearly, this style was agreed upon by all involved parties as the direction in which they wanted to take this game’s art.

I have no idea what you’re on about. To me the proportions seem fine and the character models look realistic but that is really my shortcoming. I don’t have a good eye for visuals. That’s why I’m a writer rather than an artist.

TimovieMan - 26 November 2013 06:41 PM

Lambonius - 26 November 2013 05:54 PM

Also, nobody’s saying “adventure games can’t be AAA level,” they’re saying that a game made on the budget of Moebius can’t be AAA level.  It’s about how much AAA level production values cost to create, and Moebius just doesn’t have the funds for that.

^ This.

AAA games have a budget that’s 25 to 200 times bigger. There’s just no comparing.

That’s what i was trying to say. Thank you for clarifying.

Also it’s funny how the graphics of Grey Matter are now suddenly praised. I remeber the outrage when the first batch of screenshots from the game were released.

Btw: I’d like to apologise for the many posts in a row but we seem to have lost the multi-quote button dy=uring one of the site’s reboot so this is the only way I can reply to everyone I;d like to reply to.

TimovieMan - 26 November 2013 06:58 PM

To be fair, it’s more a case of “less criticizing” than “praising”. Not a lot of praising going on, imo. Just mainly notions that it’s somewhat satisfactory…

Well, at least the whining has given way to decent argumented comments, so that’s definitely a plus.

Yes you are right in that. It does appear however that tie has somewhat softened peoples reaction to Grey Matter’s visuals.

And yes it is refreshing to finally see a decent discussion on this forum again. Personally I quite enjoy having a good discussion. As long as it doesn’t revert to bashing and trolling.

You could still do it manually: quote someone, type your reply, and instead of submitting it, copy it and paste it in your next quote. Repeat as necessary. Can be cumbersome, though, so it depends on your level of OCD.

Thanks I might give that a try. But then I am very close to having actual OCD.

Wait why is my entire post in a quote?

Well, the latest trailer got me excited for the game. I backed out of curiosity and the .PDF updates have looked decent, but this is the first time it has looked like it could be a fantastic adventure.

gray pierce - 26 November 2013 07:23 PM

Wait why is my entire post in a quote?

you are on AG forums, solve this AG puzzle

Heh…I’m more concerned about the way that guy on the left is sitting.  Looks like his leg is broken.  Ouch.

Although no one has specifically brought up Broken Age in these most recent posts, I feel like that’s the elephant in the room, especially since both it and Moebius are both getting close to release. Or maybe it’s just on my mind because I just got back from a visit to Double Fine, where I got to look over Tim Schafer’s shoulder as he showed me a few minutes of Broken Age. It looks stunning—and with eight times the budget Moebius has, it should.

For both of these games (and for adventure games in general), I care more about the story than anything else. With Jane behind Moebius and Tim behind Broken Age, both are poised to give adventure game fans the high-quality storytelling many of us have been craving for a long time and I’m super excited about that. But there’s no question that graphics and budget have some correlation, and I hope the people scrutinizing Moebius’s graphics will at least keep that in mind. I don’t know how much Gray Matter cost to make but I’m pretty sure even its budget was a lot higher than Moebius’s, not to mention the GK games, which were million+ dollar productions back in the 90s. And all of her adventure games have had some graphical/production hurdles to overcome. But even so, Jane’s storytelling always shines through.

(Full disclosure - I’m involved with PR for Moebius. But my Jane Jensen fandom predates that arrangement and my opinions about Moebius are all mine. )