• Log In | Sign Up

  • News
  • Reviews
  • Top Games
  • Search
  • New Releases
  • Daily Deals
  • Forums

Adventure Gamers - Forums

Welcome to Adventure Gamers. Please Sign In or Join Now to post.

You are here: HomeForum Home → Gaming → Adventure → Thread

Post Marker Legend:

  • New Topic New posts
  • Old Topic No new posts

Currently online

DalediegoLady Kestrelwalas74

Support us, by purchasing through these affiliate links

   

Moebius

Total Posts: 182

Joined 2012-01-08

PM

@OrionO: I don’t doubt Moebius has its problems but to me your main motivation seems to be a personal grudge against Phoenix Online and that’s not only sad but also annoying.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 1235

Joined 2013-03-31

PM

Shnubble - 15 April 2014 03:06 PM

@OrionO: I don’t doubt Moebius has its problems but to me your main motivation seems to be a personal grudge against Phoenix Online and that’s not only sad but also annoying.

Yeah, seriously.  Like it or not, Moebius is Jane Jensen’s game.  All the design choices were Jane Jensen’s design choices.  She didn’t just write the story and let Pheonix Online have at it.  In fact, if anything, she had far MORE freedom to do what she wanted precisely BECAUSE Pheonix Online was less established.  They were at her beckon call.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 41

Joined 2014-02-01

PM

zane - 15 April 2014 07:20 AM
teme - 15 April 2014 02:02 AM

During Jane’s Kickstarter the developer was going to be Signus Labs, who did Lola & Lucy eBook with Jane. After the Kickstarter campaign the developer changed at some point.

Careful, theyr touchy about this. Apparently the truth is, nothing was set in stone at the time of the kickstarter.. or they were keeping pos secret from us for some reason. They insist that signus was never supposed to be the dev.

They DID announce Signus Labs as the developer early on, a few weeks after the Kickstarter ended. They can try to hide it as hard as they want, it’s simply what happened. And I always felt that it was truly disrespectful to ditch those guys without any explanation. But anyway, I was still happy to learn that Phoenix Online took over the development afterwards, having enjoyed Cognition greatly.

During that early period, it was explained to the backers that Signus Labs was a great choice because of their quick development process, which was perfected in the casual game market, among others. They even shot a small video at Signus Labs which presented several team members, their workflow, their tools, offices, etc.

Enough of this nonsense. They were on board at the beginning. There is no way to deny that.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 59

Joined 2003-12-31

PM

News of the mainstream gaming sites reviewing Moebius poorly don’t surprise me. How do you find a common scale to review both Moebius and Bioshock Infinite? We’re talking the difference in tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars of difference in budget.

I agree with others who are saying that until the adventure game site reviews come out, there are no reviews worth paying attention to.

I’ll say that my own in-the-middle-of-the-game review finds Moebius as a colorful game with interesting characters, fun deduction puzzles, and clever dialogue through 2 chapters. I don’t like the characters as much as in Gabriel Knight so far, but I wouldn’t expect to feel emotionally invested until later in the game. The central conceit of the story is unfolding slowly, which I like very much. The pacing is great.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 619

Joined 2012-06-06

PM

Signus Labs would not have done a better job; if you are imagining some kind of amazing operation, you’re mistaken.  I mean, I respect that you don’t like the game, but I will say your assumptions about Phoenix Online in this are incorrect.


Bt

     

Total Posts: 76

Joined 2008-01-31

PM

OrionO - 15 April 2014 02:34 PM

When it was announced (AFTER the Kickstarter had ended) that Phoenix Online Studios would be developing Moebius, I felt cheated. Would I have supported the project knowing that such a low-level developer with a poor track record would be used? No. I figured that the situation had to be so dire for Jane to have to resort using backers’ money on such a developer.

I don’t know if four episodes of free fan-game can be called ‘track record’. Surely they were really unexperienced back then, but I don’t know about a poor track record, because even ‘Cognition’ wasn’t released when Jane’s Kickstarter ended.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 70

Joined 2006-05-18

PM

Terabin - 15 April 2014 03:15 PM

News of the mainstream gaming sites reviewing Moebius poorly don’t surprise me. How do you find a common scale to review both Moebius and Bioshock Infinite? We’re talking the difference in tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars of difference in budget.

Any reviewer worth their salt can recognize that - but Roger Ebert had to review Avatar the same time he was reviewing independent films. Money can change the ambition for a work of art, but it doesn’t change whether it’s effective at what it’s attempting to do.

As a general rule, the state of game criticism leaves a lot to be desired though, and with every gamer owning their own website, there are a lot of uncritical voices. That being said, sites dedicated to the craft, and genres (like AG) tend to be both more critical and incisive. Of course, the mainstream press can set the narrative too often (and there are many mainstream* reviewers which are excellent).

Which is to say, I agree with you, kinda, but for different reasons. And I need to get out of this thread - I haven’t played it! I’m just invested in the game’s success for its impact on narrative-centric experiences (hence very interested in folks’ thoughts).

 

*whatever that even means.

 

     

“The ability to dream is all I have to give. That is my responsibility; that is my burden. And even I grow tired.”
― Harlan Ellison, Stalking the Nightmare

Total Posts: 76

Joined 2008-01-31

PM

Within - 15 April 2014 03:12 PM
zane - 15 April 2014 07:20 AM
teme - 15 April 2014 02:02 AM

During Jane’s Kickstarter the developer was going to be Signus Labs, who did Lola & Lucy eBook with Jane. After the Kickstarter campaign the developer changed at some point.

Careful, theyr touchy about this. Apparently the truth is, nothing was set in stone at the time of the kickstarter.. or they were keeping pos secret from us for some reason. They insist that signus was never supposed to be the dev.

They DID announce Signus Labs as the developer early on, a few weeks after the Kickstarter ended. They can try to hide it as hard as they want, it’s simply what happened. And I always felt that it was truly disrespectful to ditch those guys without any explanation. But anyway, I was still happy to learn that Phoenix Online took over the development afterwards, having enjoyed Cognition greatly.

During that early period, it was explained to the backers that Signus Labs was a great choice because of their quick development process, which was perfected in the casual game market, among others. They even shot a small video at Signus Labs which presented several team members, their workflow, their tools, offices, etc.

Enough of this nonsense. They were on board at the beginning. There is no way to deny that.

Sure, that stuff & videos are still available in Kickstarter updates history.

     

Total Posts: 182

Joined 2012-01-08

PM

Lambonius - 15 April 2014 03:11 PM

They were at her beckon call.

Probably one of the most apparent problems of the big adventure kickstarters so far: Lack of a producer who has leverage to stand up to the whims of the veterans. Their money, their rules.

     

Total Posts: 76

Joined 2008-01-31

PM

Terabin - 15 April 2014 03:15 PM

News of the mainstream gaming sites reviewing Moebius poorly don’t surprise me. How do you find a common scale to review both Moebius and Bioshock Infinite? We’re talking the difference in tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars of difference in budget.

Usually it’s more about genre than the budget - action game reviewers hate every adventure game. However, for example the Gamespot reviewer gave Moebius 4/10 and 8/10 for Broken Sword 5. And anyway, small budget indie games are pretty popular nowadays and often reviewers do give good scores for them.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 41

Joined 2014-02-01

PM

Blackthorne and teme, I was perfectly happy with the decision to switch the development to Phoenix Online. I was merely saying that Signus Labs was the original developer. Every now and then I hear people saying otherwise.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 2653

Joined 2013-03-14

PM

I doubt Signus Labs would have done the same scale game POS did with the same budget. Despite I’m not a huge fan of the game it can’t be denied that even in its current state it must have been a monumental task, especially when tying to stay withing the meager budget it has.

But then again, those good intentions POS had might be the main reason why Moebius falls so short technically. It’s always far too tempting to say “yes” to a person if you’re a fan despite you’d know what they’re asking is not strictly reasonable.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 506

Joined 2003-09-10

PM

This article is the very first to be posted about the Kickstarter, simultaneous with its launch on April 4, 2012: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/gabriel-knight-designer-launches-pinkerton-road/1100-6369623/

Stated near the top of this article:

Jensen and Holmes will operate Pinkerton Road from the farm in Pennsylvania, with outside development on the projects handled by Phoenix Online Studios and Signus Labs.

Signus was already working with Jane on Lola & Lucy at the time, which was why she posted a video about their workflow during the Kickstarter.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 59

Joined 2003-12-31

PM

Gonzosports - 15 April 2014 03:23 PM
Terabin - 15 April 2014 03:15 PM

News of the mainstream gaming sites reviewing Moebius poorly don’t surprise me. How do you find a common scale to review both Moebius and Bioshock Infinite? We’re talking the difference in tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars of difference in budget.

Any reviewer worth their salt can recognize that - but Roger Ebert had to review Avatar the same time he was reviewing independent films. Money can change the ambition for a work of art, but it doesn’t change whether it’s effective at what it’s attempting to do.

Sure, of course I agree with you that mainstream gaming reviewers recognize the difference in budget and try to adjust accordingly in their consideration of games. However, I think they most likely review games on those sites to appeal to the audiences of their sites which primarily are interested in the A-budget games. The readers of the mainstream gaming websites wanna know, “Is it awesome like Bioshock is awesome?” And the answer the reviewers have to give is… no, not really. The graphics aren’t as good and the storytelling isn’t fast-paced and it isn’t FLASHY AWESOME, so… 40/100 is about right for those readers.

In my experience, most gaming reviewers are in no way objective like Roger Ebert and his site are objective because that’s not what their readers want.

Of course, blanket statements like I’ve just made are not always helpful. I’m just not going to throw in my personal gaming towel on the game based on reviews from mainstream sites.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 1235

Joined 2013-03-31

PM

Shnubble - 15 April 2014 03:25 PM
Lambonius - 15 April 2014 03:11 PM

They were at her beckon call.

Probably one of the most apparent problems of the big adventure kickstarters so far: Lack of a producer who has leverage to stand up to the whims of the veterans. Their money, their rules.

I agree completely, though without playing more of this game (I’ve played the first bit, a little ways beyond where the demo left off), I can’t make a judgment call as to whether or not that’s the case here.  But definitely that is a general problem with these big-name kickstarters.  Double Fine is an obvious example.  As much as people like to knock the intrusion of producers where they don’t belong, and how that can adversely affect a project, sometimes the lack of oversight can be equally, if not more, detrimental.

     

You are here: HomeForum Home → Gaming → Adventure → Thread

Welcome to the Adventure Gamers forums!

Back to the top