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The all-things-Tex Murphy: Tesla Effect thread
I didn’t think about this before, but now I’m afraid they will try to minimise the sales of Tex Murphy by biased and extremely picky (and sarcastic, of course) reviews. I really don’t want this to happen to Tex.
There is no games media cabal. The RPS article is one person’s opinion, and they didn’t write it to rob Tex of sales. They wrote it because it’s their opinion. We’re the minority here, the adventure gamers. The game may be made for us, but it doesn’t mean others have to like it.
These sorts of obstacles make sense to adventure gamers and they’ve long been a part of the genre, but they might seem silly to someone else.
Agreed, but if the game really is as “old school” as it seems, with extremely arbitrary and absurd inventory puzzles, then expect mainstream outlets to absolutely rip into it. It won’t be pretty. I’m not going to pretend that these types of puzzles are good game design—they’re probably the main thing that put people off adventure games, and people are right to criticise them. Tradition isn’t a good reason to include anything in a new game.
I haven’t played the demo, but from the RPS article, it sounds like the ladder puzzle was MEANT to be absurd, and that the author (and apparently everyone in this thread) didn’t get the self-referential joke about the absurdities of adventure game logic. Or maybe it’s just a badly written article.
Is the puzzle presented in a tongue-in-cheek way in the demo? Or do they play it straight?
Whether it’s a joke or not is irrelevant—it’s still a crappy puzzle. Pointing out how stupid it is doesn’t make it any better.
I hate self-referential stuff in adventure games. It’s horribly overdone and unfunny.
Is the puzzle presented in a tongue-in-cheek way in the demo? Or do they play it straight?
Everything in the game is played kind of campy and toungue-in-cheek, but the ladder puzzle no more than anything else.
The C4, puzzle, however, they deliberately make fun of after you complete it. So there is some self-awareness of this kind of thing.
Agreed, but if the game really is as “old school” as it seems, with extremely arbitrary and absurd inventory puzzles, then expect mainstream outlets to absolutely rip into it. It won’t be pretty. I’m not going to pretend that these types of puzzles are good game design—they’re probably the main thing that put people off adventure games, and people are right to criticise them. Tradition isn’t a good reason to include anything in a new game.
Disagreed. What put people off of adventure games were unclear and illogical solutions to puzzles, which is not the same as puzzles that are simply artificial. To the credit of the demo, it had like 900 inventory puzzles, but in every case, the objective was clear and the solution easy to intuit.
There will certainly be people that don’t “get” this game. It’s campy and old-fashioned, and dated graphically. Even the old games had their share of critics at the time. But Tex is a charmer, and I’m sure there will be plenty of reviewers that get it as well. It’ll probably score somewhere between Moebius and Broken Sword 5 in the press.
Disagreed. What put people off of adventure games were unclear and illogical solutions to puzzles, which is not the same as puzzles that are simply artificial.
Actually I believe that what more than anything put people off AG was the rise of other genres, and then they simply forgot about our beloved genre, more than it was a problem with the actual games.
And of course now we have a whole generation where many has never even heard of AG and doesn’t have the slightest idea what it even means 
Either way, I don’t think The Tesla Effect will chance things much, or reach a large audience that have never played AG before, but then again, you newer know…
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
I mean that’s kind of the beauty of Kickstarter; they don’t have to reach a mass audience. Backers pooled together to get the game THEY wanted, and they’re going to get it. If they can reach new fans, that’s great, but it’s a secondary concern.
I think that’s what Big Finish wanted too. This is a passion project for them and I don’t think they wanted to seriously change the formula either.
I mean that’s kind of the beauty of Kickstarter; they don’t have to reach a mass audience. Backers pooled together to get the game THEY wanted, and they’re going to get it. If they can reach new fans, that’s great, but it’s a secondary concern.
EXACTLY! I’m always a bit confused when people insist that these Kickstarted adventure games should try to reach a “new audience.” That’s not why they had successful campaigns. They had successful campaigns because fans of the genre wanted a game FOR THEM. That’s why it’s ultimately so disappointing when a game like Broken Age seems so much like it’s been watered down for “mass appeal.” Granted, much of the over-the-top success of that kickstarter has to do with all of the bandwagon pledges after it started to get big—people wanting to see how high it could go and all that. And Tim Schafer has had many fans over the years that came on AFTER the glory days of the Lucasarts adventure games, so if any kickstarted game could justify being watered down for the masses, it’d be Broken Age.
Tesla Effect looks exactly like what it’s supposed to be, and I’m really excited about that. I also totally agree that artificial roadblock puzzles are not the same as puzzles with illogical solutions. Artificial roadblock puzzles are just fine if not overused, and part of the fun of adventure games.
I mean that’s kind of the beauty of Kickstarter; they don’t have to reach a mass audience. Backers pooled together to get the game THEY wanted, and they’re going to get it. If they can reach new fans, that’s great, but it’s a secondary concern.
I think that’s what Big Finish wanted too. This is a passion project for them and I don’t think they wanted to seriously change the formula either.
Completely agree, the 7000 backers that gave an average of 85$ per backer probably wouldn’t be very happy if Big Finish decided to change the game mechanics to please “modern audiences”. I say let general gaming sites whine all they want about how outdated the game is.
The new Tex Murphy is as old school as it gets and yes, it almost makes one forget that 16 years have passed since the last one, BUT it doesn’t pander to the fans I feel. In some ways it’s with the times, too, it makes use of technological progress in sensible ways. And thank God, they changed the interface!
Tex’s old-fashionedness feels almost refreshing in light of modern adventure game design sensibilities. Yes, the puzzles are poorly integrated into the environment and the story, but mostly you can learn to ignore that.
I don’t think Tex Murphy will necessarily be bashed by critics just because its old-school to a fault, though this will certainly be brought in reviews as an issue. But you know, the JRPG Lost Odyssey, made by veterans of the genre, received the same criticism, but ultimately got solid scores anyway.
I’d say there’s definetly some amount of trying to cater towards modern audiences as well, at least based on the demo, which isn’t a bad thing. Most of the puzzles in the demo are pretty good.
But what annoys me the most in the ladder puzzles is that it’s basically a mundane hide and seek thing, where you try to find all the hidden items from the scene before you combine them into ladder. I don’t find it fun at any level, but then again, this isn’t the first time Tex game has had a similar puzzle. I could have lived with out one though.
I mean that’s kind of the beauty of Kickstarter; they don’t have to reach a mass audience. Backers pooled together to get the game THEY wanted, and they’re going to get it. If they can reach new fans, that’s great, but it’s a secondary concern.
EXACTLY! I’m always a bit confused when people insist that these Kickstarted adventure games should try to reach a “new audience.” That’s not why they had successful campaigns. They had successful campaigns because fans of the genre wanted a game FOR THEM. That’s why it’s ultimately so disappointing when a game like Broken Age seems so much like it’s been watered down for “mass appeal.” s.
Um. There’ say reason it’s called ‘Kickstarter’ and not ‘Fund Completely for Backers Only’. The whole point is to create a product that you can continue to sell after it’s made.
That’s, like, the entire point.
Adventure Gamer Since 1992
Um. There’ say reason it’s called ‘Kickstarter’ and not ‘Fund Completely for Backers Only’. The whole point is to create a product that you can continue to sell after it’s made.
That’s, like, the entire point.
No it isn’t. It’s the company’s prerogative how they want to handle it. But it’s silly and unrealistic to think that most of these kickstarted adventure game projects are going to reach anything but the audience that is already a fan of that sort of thing. They just don’t have the money to do the kinds of production values or marketing campaigns that a product would truly need to appeal to the “mainstream gamer.” It’s a sounder business strategy to stick to what you know and just do it really well than it is to water down the experience in the interest of mass appeal. If the product is truly good quality, it’ll make the rounds and interest will grow.
Safe bet would be that most of the KS projects won’t reach bigger audiences, no matter what type of a product we’re talking here. KS and any similar site is funding mostly niche products, despite there have been some with larger appeal.
Um. There’ say reason it’s called ‘Kickstarter’ and not ‘Fund Completely for Backers Only’. The whole point is to create a product that you can continue to sell after it’s made.
That’s, like, the entire point.
You’re exactly right. And I believe their goal is to both please backers and also attract new customers. The two things aren’t always mutually exclusive.
Adventure gaming remains alive in large part through new people discovering and enjoying adventure games.
I’d say there’s definetly some amount of trying to cater towards modern audiences as well, at least based on the demo, which isn’t a bad thing. Most of the puzzles in the demo are pretty good.
But even this seems more like an effort to accomodate an existing fanbase that is now 16 years older rather than attracting a distinctly different audience. What they said in interviews was that they want to give players the experience they remember having, not the one they actually did.
Big Finish spent several years courting a casual market and trying to hip them to the kinds of stories they want to tell, and Aaron especially seems remorseful of this. He said Tex would be casual over his dead body. So I think that experience of failure, followed by the success of the Kickstarter has helped them realize where they should focus.
I’m quite sure that TE will attract some new fans, just as Pandora and Overseer did over UAKM, but it’s not going to do it by reinventing what makes this series work.
But what annoys me the most in the ladder puzzles is that it’s basically a mundane hide and seek thing
In the context of the demo, it’s actually excellent player training. Teaching the player to scour the environment for anything not nailed down is Adventure 101. Of course this part isn’t actually from the start of the game, so that’s probably just a happy accident.
Um. There’ say reason it’s called ‘Kickstarter’ and not ‘Fund Completely for Backers Only’. The whole point is to create a product that you can continue to sell after it’s made.
That’s, like, the entire point.
Well only a fraction of a game’s audience is willing to back something in advance, sight unseen, but that includes the core audience. There are plenty of core adventure gamers and even die hard Tex fans that didn’t back and are still going to buy this. But no one things this is going to sell a million copies, and it isn’t designed to. It is made for a relatively small niche of people that believe that most of what the Tex games did was right and didn’t need changing.
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