Adventure Gamers - Forums

I guess The Last Airbender is a “kid’s show”, but wow, an incredible one!
Oh, and Adventure Time is memorable as well, of course!

ozzie - 28 January 2014 07:38 AM

I guess The Last Airbender is a “kid’s show”, but wow, an incredible one!

BA is actually the first traditional point & click I have played for quite a while, and I was, for the most part, highly satisfied with the writing, the graphical style and the characters. I love that the dynamic camera and the close-ups really makes the world and characters alive in spite of the game being in “true 2D”.  I do agree that some of the puzzles were maybe a tad too easy, but this also gave the game a very nice pace and flow perhaps more fit to 2014 adventurers.

I really don’t want to complain, but there’s a part of me that expected a bit more of this release (given the enormous size of Doublefine’s Kickstarter budget). More game, interaction, perhaps a few more intricate puzzles.

That being said, I am greatly looking forward to Act 2

Doom - 28 January 2014 12:31 AM

Blackthorne - 27 January 2014 12:19 PM

I thought the writing was excellent.  In this matter, if someone doesn’t like it, it’s definitely a matter of taste compared to quality.

But I compare it to other Schafer’s games in the first place that were a blast 5-10-15 years ago. There is such standard as “a Schafer’s game”, and BA simply doesn’t meet it.

You know, I’m not a HUGE fan of Broken Age - I definitely think it’s a bit of a ‘Broken Game’ in some places, but I definitely think it fits the standards of a Schafer game.  At least writing wise - the wit and humor is there.  But it doesn’t fit, maybe, the standard of a GREAT Schafer game… or even a good one, to some - but like I said, I think it’s a matter of personal taste on that.  The game felt like a Time Schaefer game to me - with about 20 years of life, living and other pursuits tacked on, for sure, but a Schaefer game nonetheless.

Bt

Jim Purcell - 28 January 2014 04:55 AM

That might be true for you, but for many of us so called ‘kids shows’ often stick with us our entire lives. Why do you think stuff like Transformers and GI Joe are still iconic 30 years latter?

My youth was filled with shows I still think about today. Beast Wars & ReBoot & Duck Tales & Jumanji & The Real Ghostbusters & Men in Black & Animaniacs &... I really could just go on all day.

I think the reason they stick with our entire lives is because we watched them as kids. If you watched most of them as an adult for the first time they wouldn’t have the same impact.

I’m not saying there aren’t any exceptions, but in general shows written for kids don’t resonate with adults the same way a more mature show can.

Doom - 28 January 2014 02:19 PM

I also used to watch quite a number of kids shows - Disney, Hanna-Barbera, Ghostbusters, Batman, etc., and enjoyed many. But I simply grew out of them, my interests changed and now they feel like a bubblegum for brains (plus the nostalgic value) - even those of better quality. Haven’t watched Alfred J. Kwak, but from the description it doesn’t sound all that mature, nothing I haven’t seen in other kids media.

That said, I do replay old adventure games, and still enjoy them. I clearly see Schafer’s games are aimed at adults who are able to analise and make parallels to the world they live in. Why follow the kids/family route out of a sudden, present a one-dimensional world in a casual wrap when everyone expects exactly what you are good at? Maybe it’s a writer’s block - which is absolutely natural and ok.

But there’s no reason to overpraise it and lower adventure standards even more (“I’m actually glad that puzzles are not super-hard, I don’t like spending weeks on illogical puzzles” - OH C’MON! The game gives absolutely no challenge), so that you won’t look like a Schafer’s critic. He’s a pro and doesn’t need that.

There are two types of people.  People that are critical of what they love and those that invest their own self worth in their hobbies, and therefore a hyped title would be immune to criticism.  To criticize it would be like a personal attack on them.

For the record, I recently watched an episode of The Real Ghostbusters as an adult (“The Halloween Door”) that I don’t recall having seen as a kid. It was excellent and I almost certainly got more out of it as an adult than I would have as a kid.

Not really sure what this has to do with anything except to point out that one particular episode of RGB does stand the test of time?

Jim Purcell - 28 January 2014 04:55 AM

People who are down on today’s cartoons annoy the crap out of me. They are no worse, or less memorable, then anything any of us watched as kids. Their just different. The same way the cartoons of the 70s were different then the cartoons of the 80s and those were different from those of the 90s. Time marches on, styles change, production costs change.

Again, exactly like Adventure Games.

While this is true of many things (it’s partly what No Country For Old Men is all about), I don’t think you can make blanket statements like that about everything. It’s more than possible that television budgets or practices changed in such a way that cartoons got worse - for example, high-quality hand-drawn animation has gotten very expensive (or so I’ve heard?). As an aside - I have no idea, but I’d guess it’s slightly more likely that cartoons are actually better now, if anything.

Strongly disagree with that sentiment with regards to adventure games. They were basically the “AAA” games of the early ‘80s to mid-‘90s, whereas now they are generally budget niche titles. They don’t have the same attention and money being poured into them, and the overall quality is not what it was (although certainly there are still some gems).

Doom - 28 January 2014 02:19 PM

I also used to watch quite a number of kids shows - Disney, Hanna-Barbera, Ghostbusters, Batman, etc., and enjoyed many. But I simply grew out of them, my interests changed and now they feel like a bubblegum for brains (plus the nostalgic value) - even those of better quality. Haven’t watched Alfred J. Kwak, but from the description it doesn’t sound all that mature, nothing I haven’t seen in other kids media.

That said, I do replay old adventure games, and still enjoy them. I clearly see Schafer’s games are aimed at adults who are able to analise and make parallels to the world they live in. Why follow the kids/family route out of a sudden, present a one-dimensional world in a casual wrap when everyone expects exactly what you are good at? Maybe it’s a writer’s block - which is absolutely natural and ok.

Stories for kids/families can certainly have depth or multiple layers that also make them rewarding for adults. Obvious examples are some of Pixar’s or Studio Ghibli’s movies, shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender or Ren & Stimpy, and comics like Calvin & Hobbes and Carl Barks’ Scrooge/Donald Duck adventures. (One could also question whether most entertainments directed at adults are actually all that more mature and sophisticated than the kids fare. Dexter may have had murders and nudity and voiceovers talking about “my Dark Passenger”, but for all that, most of the time it was arguably more banal than your average My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode.)

In any case, I don’t see how that’s any different from most of Schafer’s adventure game history. The Monkey Islands, DOTT and Full Throttle were certainly “family games” that could very well be enjoyed by kids: I know because I played them and loved them as a kid. Grim Fandango was maybe somewhat less accessible to young’uns, with its tone of ennui and slight wistfulness, but I don’t see that as either a strength or weakness in itself.

To me, Broken Age seems to fit very well with that track record, and is very much in Schafer’s style (I think it’s particularly reminiscent of Grim Fandango and Psychonauts in tone and sense of humor). It’s generally family-friendly in content, but there are dark threads and serious themes woven into the story (to start off with, it’s the tale of a girl offered up as a human sacrifice and a boy raised by a computer in total isolation), and plenty of symbolism and analogies to real life if you just look. Then there are jokes and references kids just aren’t likely to get in the first place, like the hypocritical cult leader who just wants to hog all possessions for himself (IMHO one of the less funny characters in the game, though). I just don’t see where you’re coming from in calling it “one-dimensional” or “flat and in-your-face”. As far as the writing and dialog is concerned, I think it holds up about as well as any other Schafer game. (And about Jyn’s claim of it being excessive… WTF?! If anything there should have been more!)

Venkman - 28 January 2014 04:52 PM

While this is true of many things (it’s partly what No Country For Old Men is all about), I don’t think you can make blanket statements like that about everything. It’s more than possible that television budgets or practices changed in such a way that cartoons got worse - for example, high-quality hand-drawn animation has gotten very expensive (or so I’ve heard?). As an aside - I have no idea, but I’d guess it’s slightly more likely that cartoons are actually better now, if anything.

I believe it’s the consensus of cartoon buffs that the quality in the last decade or so is way above what it was in the 80s (which is generally regarded as something of a nadir for the form) in particular, mainly due to better writing and more creative freedom for showrunners – which has opened it up to a greater range of visual styles – as well as the end (more or less) of cartoons as thinly-veiled advertisements for toy lines. (Of course, the renaissance probably goes all the way back to The Simpsons, Animaniacs and Batman: TAS in the early 90s, so cartoons have been in pretty good shape for a long while now.)

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Doom - 28 January 2014 02:19 PM

I clearly see Schafer’s games are aimed at adults who are able to analise and make parallels to the world they live in.

Something which Broken Age delivers, when you consider some of this very boards own suggested metaphorical concepts the game alludes to.

Doom - 28 January 2014 02:19 PM

Why follow the kids/family route out of a sudden, present a one-dimensional world

Why do you automatically associate kids/family entertainment with one-dimensional worlds? It also therefore implies that ‘adult’ entertainment is never one dimensional.

You dismiss the description of Alfred J Kwak’s story - which contained death, racial prejudice and totalitarian Government regimes that allude to Nazis - as not sounding mature - what exactly do you consider to be mature themes to explore?

It’s possible that you’re so blinded by your narrow views about the medium through which the ideas are being communicated, you disregard them outright.