Adventure Gamers - Forums

Orange Brat - 11 June 2014 02:35 AM

If sequels/prequels ever come into play, I’d like to see more of a Telltale model. It would be nice to have small, bite sized episodes with each one being it’s own story. Or, something kind of like The Last Door, albeit with a bit more meat and game time thrown in.

I hope Disney will immediately revoke their license if they ever try something like that.

The voice acting in Grim Fandango is great, but what about the legal obstacles? Don’t they have to pay the voice actors a second time over?

If I remember correctly, during the re-release of Silent Hill 2, they had to bring new voice actors in as it wasn’t possible to present with the original VAs, and legally they couldn’t release with original VOs without their explicit consent (I could be wrong about this though).

Regarding an earlier question about what ‘remastered’ means, I agree, this is a really important question. I really do hope they leave the pre-rendered graphics and character models the heck alone. I’m hoping it’s literally just the same game in HD, with the wall bouncing taken out (and whatever ever other controls need tweaking).

Also, I’m surprised they aren’t considering mobile phones as an option. One guy has already managed to unofficially port it to mobiles.

I hope Disney will immediately revoke their license if they ever try something like that.

+1

The TellTale model sucks mouldy cheese (IMO).

Orange Brat - 11 June 2014 02:35 AM

After watching that feature, I think it sounds like minimal tinkering will happen.

Indeed. Since the remaster was announced with great fanfare at E3, I think maybe some people came to expect something very elaborate, but I don’t think that’s the plan.

Toward the end of the retrospective video, after describing all the fan patches made over the years, Tim says of the remaster that “This new version will hopefully take as much as we can of all that good stuff that’s been done to Grim over the last 15 years and put it together.”

This is just speculation, but to me that sounds like the remaster is:
* The original game, basically intact
* Probably running on ResidualVM or some modification thereof
* With some bug fixes
* Ported to platforms like PS4, PS Vita, and more that haven’t yet been announced
* Quite possibly with new camera-relative movement controls to replace or supplement the tank controls, and perhaps with Tobias Pfaff’s point-and-click control patch, especially if they intend to bring the remaster to PC and/or tablets eventually
* With as much added detail and resolution as DF can manage to patch into the game, a la Grim Fandango Deluxe, while still preserving the original artistic intent

It wouldn’t surprise me if a large portion of what Double Fine needs to do is actually work out all the legal contracts necessary to re-release Grim Fandango in this way, and get the game ported to PS4, PS Vita, and other platforms. I’m sure there will be plenty of art and technical tweaks needed as well to support the higher resolution (Grim Fandango Deluxe has been hampered in this regard and is an unfinished project), including things like improved in-game character models and textures. But I’m not anticipating an elaborate overhaul or a remake here, just a “perfected” version based largely on what’s out there already or in the original game. In my opinion, that’s good news, since that’s really all Grim Fandango needs, and too much mucking beyond that is risky.

Terramax - 11 June 2014 09:10 AM

Also, I’m surprised they aren’t considering mobile phones as an option.

Did they say they aren’t?

Remastering usually means upscaling of the existing graphics to HD and a few tweaks. It’s not the same as a remake. That said, everything that can be done with a minimum of resources is possible, including new control modes.

Orange Brat - 11 June 2014 02:35 AM

If they have the original environment 3D files, I see no reason why they couldn’t load it up (barring no hiccups after 15+ years), and simply create new high resolution prerenders.

tomimt - 11 June 2014 02:08 PM

It’ll be interesting to see how far they will actually go. All the old game scenes could be re-rendered in higher resolution given, that the original 3D files still exist.

Out of curiosity, is there any indication the original 3D files still exist? I’d certainly hope so, and maybe the Lucas empire or some of its ex-employees were good about archiving, but many game companies have historically not been good about archiving.

For what it’s worth, the Grim Fandando Deluxe project (which doesn’t seem to be involved in the remaster since they talked about the news as if it was a surprise to them) was just going to hack the game files and raise it to a 1280x960 resolution, but the pre-rendered backgrounds weren’t going to look much better—it was mainly in-game characters that would be improved. I could easily see the official remaster doing similarly, and that’s enough to put the “remastered” or “HD” label on it.

But if the original 3D files exist, that would be great for making higher resolution pre-rendered backgrounds.

tomimt - 11 June 2014 02:08 PM

The realtime 3D models will be redone almost surely, but I doubt the actual art direction will change in them.

That’s my guess, too. Just to make them a bit more like the cinematic versions, with slightly better hands, etc., without breaking the original rig so animations stay intact.

Orange Brat - 11 June 2014 02:35 AM

It may also be nice to rebuild it and present two modes. One be a classic mode with static cameras and another that takes advantage of the realtime environment and allows for more of a transition between camera angles (as needed).

I think a drastic change like that is unlikely even if the original 3D files exist. It would add a lot of extra development and testing to make sure the new mode would function correctly, and I’m not sure it’s enough of a value add to warrant that. I’m not even sure if the engine’s capable of treating the environment as real-time. Since backgrounds were pre-rendered originally, the engine may not have much in the way of camera control or advanced rendering, so that would probably require rebuilding in a new engine. I guess that’s what you’re suggesting and it’s a potentially cool idea but expensive.

Totally unexpected and awesome news! I can’t wait to hear more details about how they’re going to remaster it and what it means.

99.99% unlikely, but how cool would it be if they remade the game using Peter Chan’s art?

If they still have the original 3D models and assets (which I also think is unlikely considering this game is 16 years old), then theoretically they could do all kinds of interesting things—ie, re-render the background art to HD resolution, or even remake the game so that it can be played in real-time 3D. Of course, it depends on the scale of this project, and I imagine these options would entail a huge amount of work for them. So even if this was an option, I would be surprised if they had the time and resources. Then again, the headline “Sony and Double Fine to remaster Grim Fandango” was the last thing I expected to read ever, so who knows what crazy stuff they’re planning to do.

If they use the game’s original pre-rendered backgrounds, it would be nice if they could somehow “patch” additional art to the edges to allow for the game to be played widescreen without any stretching. This is a game that cries for widescreen. That would be enough to make me very, very happy.

Dag - 12 June 2014 06:02 AM

DustCropper - 11 June 2014 07:44 PM

99.99% unlikely, but how cool would it be if they remade the game using Peter Chan’s art?

You know, that’s exactly what I’ve been hoping for since… 1998! If they actually did that, I’d be ecstatic beying belief. I always felt bad for Peter Chan and how they desecrated his beatiful art by turning it into blocky first-wave 3D, stripping the art of all its charm, replacing it with rough edges and gigantic polygons. Even Shafer admitted to being reluctant about doing the original in 3D, because he just didn’t think it looked very good. When comparing the final product with the original artwork, it’s hard for me to have any other opinion than that the 3D overhaul was a serious graphical downgrade.

So true Dag.

Hundreds of thousands of years were needed for a man to evolve from an ape, but it needed mere few decades of this consumer society to downgrade back.