Adventure Gamers - Forums

we’re making a better game with a better developer that doesn’t disrespect Al & Josh

Oh, god it’s so obvious this guy is lying again. Remember when he claimed that ALL IS PISSED!!! when the Sam Suede kickstarter came out? Turned out Al was completely cool… a real pity he got in bed with this kind of scum.

supaplex - 17 July 2012 01:14 AM

I’ve noticed a recent message posted on this article: http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/15/leisure-suit-larry-publisher-trades-up-to-a-new-developer-exclusive/

<snip>

For a “regular” backer of LSL this guy sure seems to know some stuff the rest of us don’t know. Where did he read that anyone from Adventure Mob disrespected Al and Josh?

For comparison a tweet by Paul Trowe written at least an hour AFTER the above message was posted:

Could it be that someone is trolling again?

Oh, this is just lulzy. Did GamespyGeek find a new pseudonym?

Lucien21 - 17 July 2012 02:02 AM

I’m glad I stayed clear of this kickstarter as it has been nothing but hassle and controversy.

I, on the other hand, am starting to feel like I got my $15 worth just from all the drama alone. It’s like watching a bad soap opera plot steadily unfold, and I can’t look away.

As some will recall, in the early production of Gray Matter, dtp dropped the game’s first contracted developer, Tonuzaba Entertainment—a Hungarian start-up with no track record whatsoever.

I remember thinking at the time that for the project, it was probably a good decision.

Fien - 17 July 2012 06:29 AM

Martin Gantefoehr - 17 July 2012 05:59 AM

I remember thinking at the time that for the project, it was probably a good decision.

We’ll never know if you would have been right, will we… 

 

Well, we do know that Wizarbox actually got the game made and shipped. Looking at the development history of GM, I think this is not completely insignificant. 

(But now, on with the thread, sorry for derailing it.)

This just keeps getting better and better.

One of the main reasons I didn’t back a LSL remake (besides lacking the required nostalgia for the series) is I questioned just how capable the creators would be at producing a game in 2012. Switching developers early on isn’t necessarily a negative—it could very well be a huge positive, but the fact that it happened at all could be perceived as a lack of forsight. Why risk going with the original devs in the first place?

Ah well, will sit back and see how it pans out.

I too am glad I didn’t back this one. It smelled fishy to me from day one. I didn’t like the “remake of a remake” concept. But after all the controversies, it seems like they just didn’t have their shit together. I have no idea what to make of Paul Trowe’s antics, other than being repelled by them. I wouldn’t trust Paul Trowe with even a penny of my cash. His behavior has been so very odd. Why hasn’t Al reined in Paul?

I hope for the sake of people who did back this project that they get their money’s worth in the final product.

This just might be one lesson of more to come in the Kickstarter era about giving people money before they’ve made anything.

supaplex - 17 July 2012 01:14 AM

I’ve noticed a recent message posted on this article:
http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/15/leisure-suit-larry-publisher-trades-up-to-a-new-developer-exclusive/

Nfusion has been around for 15 years and just came out with Deepak Chopra’s Leela for 360 and Wii, among dozens of other titles over their lifetime. Adventure Mob has come out with nothing but a cheezy ass iphone game for kids and their previous company, which it looks like they abandoned, came out with shit titles too. I’m a backer for LSL and have been getting all the updates. They totally made the right decision to dump these guys, especially after doing their “due diligence” and finding out that nobody even really worked at the company. They have no employees, use contractors and when they went there, they didn’t even have an art director hired (contrary to what it says on their website). I do not work for Replay Games or Nfusion so I don’t care what I say about them. I simply emailed them on their Kickstarter page and got a very honest answer. Do I think they f’d up by going with those rag heads in the first place? YES!!! Do I think they’re doing a better job now? YES!!

That’s definitely Paul Trowe.  He’s making a habit out of this poor behavior.

Josh, I’ve been a fan of yours and Al’s since I was 7 years old.  You guys were heroes to me and I’m sad to see you both involved with someone like Paul.  This kind of behavior from a CEO is appalling (“rag heads”, “shit titles”) and goes against the spirit of both the adventure community and Kickstarter.

I’m curious as to your thoughts on this Josh.  It’s really affected my respect for you and Al.

I’m still happy to have backed this (shock horror, I know!)but this whole thing is…peculiar, to say the least.

If I’d given even half much as I had to other projects I might be a tad peeved, but I didn’t, so I’m not.

I dont mind if they switch developers. They flew down to Israel and didn’t come away confident so they switched to someone whom Josh knows well. They really should have done this due diligence before the Kickstarter, but fine, that happens.

What bothers me is Paul Trowe’s language. The way the headline talks about “trading up” the developers is really insulting to Adventure Mob. And if that comment was really made by him (and if you ask me, I do think it was him), then that is low and disgusting.

Whats wrong in just saying, “we screwed up in not doing the due diligence earlier, and we’re switching to developers who are located closer to us so that we can collaborate better”? I think people would buy that. But the way it is phrased makes it sound like Adventure Mob was out to cheat them, and so they got dumped.

Here’s another piece of wisdom from the man himself taken from Twitter:

“Josh and I got pretty depressed after reading some of the jackass comments people left on the Kickstarter page after we updated”

Even if the people who back your project are jackasses or maybe just regular people who leave “jackass comments” you don’t say it, you are supposed to act like a gentleman about it.
Since Josh reads this thread I propose he suggests to Paul to offer the option of giving the backers who are unsatisfied by the project their money back. That way Paul can be a happy camper and turn his frown upside down.

Also since Paul is becoming such a popular character on this forum I’d also like to take a moment to recall another delightful episode of Paul’s past behaviour, a moment which some people might not know.
In this week’s episode we will talk about how during a live stream that the Two Guys from Andromeda did, Paul Trowe appeared in the chat room and started typing very insulting words towards Activision, some guy whose name I can’t remember in particular (maybe someone who was in the chat room at the time can help me with the name), for not letting go of the Space Quest IP. Afterwards he started acting like a drunk and typing random things like (and the quote is very precise): “I WANNA HAVE SCOTT’S BABY!”, among other similar and stupid things, completely irrelevant to the discussion, after which he apologized on Twitter to Scott Murphy:

“@SlashVohaul Sorry you thought I was unprofessional…I was just trying to liven up the crowd….I just thought it was drab. Sorry again!!”
If you scroll to the middle of this page you can also see some of the reactions on Kickstarter:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spaceventure/two-guys-spaceventure-by-the-creators-of-space-que/comments?page=520

Since Paul behaviour is becoming more and more unprofessional (was that even possible?) I have to say for myself that in the future I will never support a project by Al Lowe or Josh Mandel as long as Paul Trowe is involved. It pains me to admit it because I am a big admirer of Al Lowe (I have patiently waited 16 long years for a new adventure by him) and of Josh Mandel (Callahan’s Crosstime Salloon is my favourite Legend game along with Death Gate and the Spellcasting series), but I really think that such individuals like dear old Paul should be weeded out from the industry, never to be seen or heard from again.

What an asshole this Trowe character is! Someone should teach him basic manners. Kickstarter backers (even if they’re sometimes jackasses) should be treated with utmost respect. They’re the reason this project is moving forward and that Trowe has a job.

This is becoming a PR disaster, I’m curious how this plays out…

The developer switch actually struck me as a good thing, shovelware dev or not, as my main worry from the kickstarter was that Lowe and Mandel would’t have a close enough hand in it to leave their mark with the devs being located so far away.
The Air Mail game doesn’t seem too bad by casual phone game standards either.
Hopefully Trowe will pick up the basics of PR (ie, not openly arguing with random internet people even if they make you feel like shit) before it becomes a big enough issue to possibly screw them over later down the line with the licensing deal.