... did you initially design LeChuck as "stonesque" to provide a more direct continuity with EMI, before the decision to distance it a bit?
That was the idea behind the Stone look in the concepts. We were attempting to show that he still retained some of the aspects of his past incarnations, but had mutated or evolved past them since. But is started getting out of control and was drifting into Silly territory, so we decided to go different direction and focus on the Sicklyness that was going to have some impact on the the rest of the story.
That was the idea behind the Stone look in the concepts. We were attempting to show that he still retained some of the aspects of his past incarnations, but had mutated or evolved past them since. But is started getting out of control and was drifting into Silly territory, so we decided to go different direction and focus on the Sicklyness that was going to have some impact on the the rest of the story.
That's kind of a shame really, I dig the stone representation of LeChuck. I'll just have to imagine he looked like that in MI5 then ;p
That and concept art! It's nice to see the development process behind the scenes! I trust this stuff will also be on the DVD when that releases, right?
no physics engine to incorporate all of those extra animated details?
[edited by author] You don't need a 3d physics engine to make something look cool! And I don't think it would take too much effort to animate by hand. You should be lucky that your games' engine doesn't require PhysX cloth or w/e. Where is your sense of adventure to trying something new in a game. That little element might just make the game shine!
Originally Posted by LukeSW Oh, absolutely, I agree and understand. It's easy for me to say that Guybrush should have a long, swishy coat since I'm not the one who would have to either animate it by hand or implement a physics engine to handle cloth-deformations in real time.
Never back down on your suggestions, Luke. You are the end user and you like what you know you like. Telltale should be taking note from anyone, those who are and are not artists/animators. Walt Disney and pretty much any studio worth their weight in gold, always did.
no physics engine to incorporate all of those extra animated details?
News flash: YOU DON'T NEED A PHYSICS ENGINE TO MAKE SOMETHING LOOK COOL. And I don't think it would take too much effort to animate by hand. You should be lucky that your games' engine doesn't require PhysX cloth or w/e. Where is your sense of adventure to trying something new in a game. That little element might just make the game shine!
Never back down on your suggestions, Luke. You are the end user and you like what you know you like. Telltale should be taking note from anyone, those who are and are not artists/animators. Walt Disney and pretty much any studio worth their weight in gold, always did.
We all do take into account everyones thoughts and feelings about what we are working on. Thanks for the News Flash, but I know you don't need a physics engine to make something look cool, it helps, but it isn't necessary. Bold font really gets the point across. Not that I really know what I'm talking about, i just like to draw pictures. I was simply just explaining our design decisions in terms of Gee LeBrush. Yea! VIDEO GAMES!
Ha. That's the thing about adventure games, isn't it? Even the most noble, moral, law-abiding protagonists turn into thieving scum-bags as soon as they embark on their adventures.
It's like:
"I will depose the King of Thieves and bring law and order back to this land! That wrench might come in handy. And what's this? A sleeping drunk with a loose gold tooth? Someone will mug him if he's not careful. I'd better take the tooth with me for safe keeping. Wait a minute. Is there a ball of string in that old lady's knitting basket? And is that underwear hanging on that washing line?"
Lol. Exactly.
The funniest thing for me is the logic that occurs in the users head. It goes like this: "Ok...so the carpenter in MI2 won't just let me steal his stuff while he's standing there. What a jerk!!! I guess I better get him out of here so I can rob him blind while he's gone."
It would never occur to me to be that devious in real life, but in an adventure game? Hell yeah I'm gonna steal his stuff!!! In fact, it's more fun if I didn't rightly earn something (ie pay for it).
Never back down on your suggestions, Luke. You are the end user and you like what you know you like. Telltale should be taking note from anyone, those who are and are not artists/animators. Walt Disney and pretty much any studio worth their weight in gold, always did.
The eighties called; they want their sense of entitlement back.
The funniest thing for me is the logic that occurs in the users head. It goes like this: "Ok...so the carpenter in MI2 won't just let me steal his stuff while he's standing there. What a jerk!!! I guess I better get him out of here so I can rob him blind while he's gone."
It would never occur to me to be that devious in real life, but in an adventure game? Hell yeah I'm gonna steal his stuff!!! In fact, it's more fun if I didn't rightly earn something (ie pay for it).
Oh, man... If adventure games do regain mainstream popularity, the people who claim that action and shooter games promote violence are going to go after adventure games for promoting theft.
Never back down on your suggestions, Luke. You are the end user and you like what you know you like. Telltale should be taking note from anyone, those who are and are not artists/animators. Walt Disney and pretty much any studio worth their weight in gold, always did.
We listen to and read everything that's said in these forums. Always have and always will! It's great to hear what everyone wants to see, it's great to have a sounding board for our and your ideas, it's great to get feedback on what people think is and isn't working. That said, one of the things you're investing in, one thing you're saying when you buy the games from us is that you trust our judgment to make the game we believe in, to have a creative vision we can execute, to know what feedback is wheat and what is chaff. We're creating a product which you guys are paying for, but we're not doing work for hire for a democratic client base of thousands. Down that road lies madness, and an easily watered down project (which are two things nobody wants).
In the case of Guybrush's coat, we obviously have love for the coat since it's in the game. We even have love for the long and swishy coat, as from Ryan's concept it's very obvious that we put strong consideration into it. That said, we decided to go a different direction, for reasons aesthetic, technical, and otherwise. I like the look we landed on -- we've got a Guybrush which evokes the Monkey Island 2 look (my favorite look!) but can also be realistically and practically animated in ways which can work in many situations without having to be special cased every time Guybrush is turning right while also leaning to the left and half squatting against a wall or whatever, and without a more procedural physics or cloth system (which our engine currently doesn't have, and realistically won't have any time soon). He's also got a really nice easy to read and recognize silhouette with the shorter coat, which is important in designing your main character. I think at the end of the day we made the right decisions there.
That said, maybe next time out Guybrush will have a huge coat which trails 30 feet behind him and winds around things like Noby Noby Boy, especially now that we know how much everyone likes bringing back that style of dress for the character.
Yeah, we noticed that too... which is part of the reason he doesn't look like that anymore! Bunny LeChuck is not very menacing!
Oh no? Bunnies aren't menacing? What about the Rabbit of Caerbannog?! Night of the Lepus?! Max?!
I also wanted to say, I love how Elaine and the Voo Doo Lady look. It's actually one thing about Telltale I've liked from the beginning; the way you guys design the female characters so they're just as interesting as the male characters. I'm not saying every female video game character is drawn as a super-busty, cute-faced bit of eye candy with all the emotive power of a porcelain doll, but a few of them have been. I'm not against attractive characters, but it's nice when they get to have personality, too. And Voo Doo Lady's boobs look fantastic! They look like real boobs, not helium-filled water balloons! Figthers are tons of fun, but I can't play as a female character. My back starts aching just watching them.
I'm glad that the coat isn't this tall and weighty, at least all the time. I remember that in MI2 it sometimes felt a bit after running around like Santa Claus after you were used to the lightwight outfit Guybrush was dressed in before. Furthermore it will be summer when i'll be playing the game, hopefully. When properly lit and with a decent texture resolution i think this Guybrush looks a lot better than those we got in the last two games. I hope with the chin-beard, when watched from the side, he doesn't turn too much into a Lucky Luke. He also could have been slightly more wrecked up but all in all i'm pretty fine with him.
As for Elaine i think she is the best one we got so far.
I'm not so sure about LeChuck yet. I guess we'll have to wait until there might be some more glowing in his beard? Altough he's looking alright, my first impression was that he was thinner than i expected him to be and i could have imagined a slightly different style.
Btw i love watching all the concept art. Sometimes to such a degree that i would prefer if the whole game would share the more painted look. The more of the style makes it into 3d the better. Anyway don't hestitate posting some more! :O)
Oh and physics engines can be great if you just use them wisely. It's just another ingredient you can use for pimping the appearance like 3d itself or the camera angles and so on.
I'm glad that the coat isn't this tall and weighty, at least all the time. I remember that in MI2 it sometimes felt a bit after running around like Santa Claus after you were used to the lightwight outfit Guybrush was dressed in before. Furthermore it will be summer when i'll be playing the game, hopefully. When properly lit and with a decent texture resolution i think this Guybrush looks a lot better than those we got in the last two games. I hope with the chin-beard, when watched from the side, he doesn't turn too much into a Lucky Luke. He also could have been slightly more wrecked up but all in all i'm pretty fine with him.
See, the reason that I liked Guybrush's appearance in LeChuck's Revenge was because it suggested that the character had developed. In the first game, he wants to be a MIGHTY pirate; in the sequel, he is getting closer to achieving his goal, and this is reflected in his appearance. As much as I love CMI, Guybrush's appearance felt like a step backwards, and the same is true for EMI.
What I like about Guybrush's appearance in Tales of Monkey Island is that Guybrush is clearly older - he's lived the adventurous pirate lifestyle for a while now, he's become part of the pirate community, and his appearance reflects this. It'd be nice if at some point in the upcoming series, he met a young idealistic youth who says to him "I want to be a MIGHTY pirate! Just like you!"
The fact that you guys (the Telltale Team) are listening to us, and caring about what we wish to see in the upcoming episodes, is the greatest thing I have ever seen regarding a game/project like this.
I really never thought that one day someone would actually do this! I’m not pointing out at anyone, but most game developers/producers seem to think more about money (and cool graphics/no story = tons of money) than what the consumers really want.
If only more companies would learn to think like you do, the gaming industry will evolve into something more than just “I make game, you buy!”. I really enjoy this type and level of communication, and I thank you once more for building this bridge between us all. (Even if sometimes we have to use the rubber-chicken-with-a-pulley-in-the-middle to get across).
Hm, from a personal point of view, I’d really like to see Stan return, along with Murray. Maybe even a team-up of the two. I consider them to be the greatest supporting-characters I’ve ever seen in an adventure game. The jokes, the atmosphere, the ideeas themselves should be trademarked. And, they probably are. The point: I think that if you bring them back in ToMI, with the original voices (Patrick Pinney as Stan and Denny Delk as Murray), you nailed a really good follow-up of the original series. That is, assuming that the story is great, and as far as I know your projects by now, I say that it is!
*histerical fan moment*
Oh! Oh! And, could you, like, have a contest with “Who has the greatest punchline on the following joke set-up”, and the winner gets to hear his voice in one of the 5 episodes?
*end of histerical fan moment*
Yeah, so…
I know you can’t give us any details regarding the charaters… But have you thought about bringing back Largo? There are so many good characters, we should bring back osme of the eeeeeevil ones.
See, the reason that I liked Guybrush's appearance in LeChuck's Revenge was because it suggested that the character had developed. In the first game, he wants to be a MIGHTY pirate; in the sequel, he is getting closer to achieving his goal, and this is reflected in his appearance.
If you would compare this to an RPG then it's pretty straightforward because first you start very vulnurable almost naked with your pants, after some time you got those heavy chain mails but if you advanced even more equipment gets lighter again due to some Mithril or magical involvement.
I always liked the RPGs the most when you weren't this mighty and had all this fancy abilities where a blink of your eye nukes the whole map. Actually it's much more fun beeing on your quest, maybe trying to get mighty (if that's the objective at all), at some point loosing it all again and starting from scratch instead of beeing mighty. Facing death in form of 123 voodoo dragons isn't as enjoyable as having to take care of one skeleton monkey.
Actually i think in a good adventure you don't have to get mighty at all.
But i agree that it also doesn't hurt if the clothes reflect what a charatcer already went through, at least as long as this doesn't prevent him from looking displaced most of the time. A pirate outfit like the one from Captain Sparrow for instance works because it's cautious.
A pirate outfit like the one from Captain Sparrows for instance works because it's cautious.
Speaking of which... Do you think that someone will make a MI movie? I mean, if PotC is allready based on the ride with the same name at Disneyland, and the MI series is based upon the same thing... would it have any problems with copyright infringement?
It would be really cool to bring Dominic to play as Guybrush in a MI movie.
Well there was a MI movie in the works at one time, Steve Purcell drew some art for various scenes and he drew LeChuck... but it got canned... I woulda liked to have seen it.
@ Silverwolf pet don't tempt me, @_@ I love the idea of galloping about in a big coat.
I must say I really like the art direction, I know this is a really weird thing to say but really like the shapes, that was one thing that really struck me about CMI too the clouds were super swirly.
Oh, man... If adventure games do regain mainstream popularity, the people who claim that action and shooter games promote violence are going to go after adventure games for promoting theft.
Oh no? Bunnies aren't menacing? What about the Rabbit of Caerbannog?! Night of the Lepus?! Max?!
I agree with you. Those bunnies are the one thing that secretly terrorizes the earth. I remember when my mother saw Max for the first time. She thought he was cute.
We listen to and read everything that's said in these forums. Always have and always will! It's great to hear what everyone wants to see, it's great to have a sounding board for our and your ideas, it's great to get feedback on what people think is and isn't working. That said, one of the things you're investing in, one thing you're saying when you buy the games from us is that you trust our judgment to make the game we believe in, to have a creative vision we can execute, to know what feedback is wheat and what is chaff. We're creating a product which you guys are paying for, but we're not doing work for hire for a democratic client base of thousands. Down that road lies madness, and an easily watered down project (which are two things nobody wants).
In the case of Guybrush's coat, we obviously have love for the coat since it's in the game. We even have love for the long and swishy coat, as from Ryan's concept it's very obvious that we put strong consideration into it. That said, we decided to go a different direction, for reasons aesthetic, technical, and otherwise. I like the look we landed on -- we've got a Guybrush which evokes the Monkey Island 2 look (my favorite look!) but can also be realistically and practically animated in ways which can work in many situations without having to be special cased every time Guybrush is turning right while also leaning to the left and half squatting against a wall or whatever, and without a more procedural physics or cloth system (which our engine currently doesn't have, and realistically won't have any time soon). He's also got a really nice easy to read and recognize silhouette with the shorter coat, which is important in designing your main character. I think at the end of the day we made the right decisions there.
That said, maybe next time out Guybrush will have a huge coat which trails 30 feet behind him and winds around things like Noby Noby Boy, especially now that we know how much everyone likes bringing back that style of dress for the character.
I respect your decisions on those cases alone. I understand how maybe that little adding of animation might get in the way of certain cases. It's appreciated that your team took the time to find a nice way of bringing the new design across. The design does have a nice clearly read silhouette, and I appreciate that you are showing us the design lead-up to the actual finished product.
I apologize now to Ry Guy, who I feverishly expressed my discontent onto. Unfortunately, I do not mean to intentionally be rude or arrogant, but I can understand how my post came across as such. I shall remove all formatting from my previous post :rolleyes:
Let me state my case: I am currently a 3rd year (of four) animation student and am studying every bit of what makes this medium so great. I've been a big fan of Telltale's approach to adventure games and do hope they continue. However, I've been always left with a bit of despair seeing how these games are executed - especially with the animation department. Animation is about bringing things to life, to make things extra-ordinary.
The things that aren't extra-ordinary are these moments in Telltale games where you're staring at the screen and little to nothing is going on. Some 3d puppet is giving a long winded speech with maybe a casual shrug or hand movement. No expression - nothing. This leaves me empty, and I am saddened because I know there is more behind these characters. I so desparately want to reach into the screen or the mechanics behind the game and make these characters a little more lively. Now, I have not worked in the industry YET, and therefore I cannot help but be a little unaware of the limitations a game engine poses. However, I do know what I'd like to see, and that is more life, more movement, more something to give these characters substance. Just adding that extra sense of depth would help immensely.
Again, I hope I've stated my case clearly, and hopefully no hard feelings are kept. For those not following the mini-drama happening in this nice thread, do not worry.
However, I do know what I'd like to see, and that is more life, more movement, more something to give these characters substance.
I understand your point of view. Might I ask kindly to apply this wish of yours to the ToMI game, and tell me honestly, after seeing the gameplay and character interactions, don't you feel that they are working on that? If you compare Guybrush's reactions to Max's reactions, you will see progress, and a lot of it!
Guybrush looks more "full of life" than he ever was in a MI game. The simple fact that he turns his head after an object (hotspot) is a great addition to his character. Don't you agree?
I am fully aware that the possibilities of making a character more "real" nowadays are greater (see GTA IV), yet... I kinda like the simpler way TTG Team approached MI. It's more cartoony, much more relaxing for the eye (and pleasant) and remember that in MI1 and 2 the story and puzzles were the basic points of the game... The fact the MI1 guybrush didn't blink enough has not ruined the experience.
The things that aren't extra-ordinary are these moments in Telltale games where you're staring at the screen and little to nothing is going on. Some 3d puppet is giving a long winded speech with maybe a casual shrug or hand movement. No expression - nothing. This leaves me empty, and I am saddened because I know there is more behind these characters. I so desparately want to reach into the screen or the mechanics behind the game and make these characters a little more lively. Now, I have not worked in the industry YET, and therefore I cannot help but be a little unaware of the limitations a game engine poses. However, I do know what I'd like to see, and that is more life, more movement, more something to give these characters substance. Just adding that extra sense of depth would help immensely.
I get the passion! And for that point, oh man, we've been addressing this issue. One of the main things is to not have the characters pretty much just staring and breathing at you. We have a whole lot of talented animators to address this issue. Everytime I walk by someone's desk and see the characters in motion, I'm simply blown away by it! I'm very proud of our animation staff, I think the animation of this game will be our best yet. Thanks to them and our art directors Dave Bogan and Derek Sakai who have seen to it that the animations are spot on.
The things that aren't extra-ordinary are these moments in Telltale games where you're staring at the screen and little to nothing is going on. Some 3d puppet is giving a long winded speech with maybe a casual shrug or hand movement. No expression - nothing. This leaves me empty, and I am saddened because I know there is more behind these characters. I so desparately want to reach into the screen or the mechanics behind the game and make these characters a little more lively.
I've played all the games Telltale has produced so far (with the single exception of C.S.I.), and I honestly don't know what you are referring to. Animation has always been good, and characters have always seemed lively enough, even when graphics weren't exactly top notch. Just have a look at the wonderful animated sequences in Mob, Mole and Meatball (2007) or even at dialogues in Out from Boneville (2005). I know what you mean: I've seen many adventure games with moments like the one you've described, but never a soulless puppet in a game by Telltale.
Comments
Heheh funny
I have some stuff for her, just need to scan it on monday..
Thank you!
That was the idea behind the Stone look in the concepts. We were attempting to show that he still retained some of the aspects of his past incarnations, but had mutated or evolved past them since. But is started getting out of control and was drifting into Silly territory, so we decided to go different direction and focus on the Sicklyness that was going to have some impact on the the rest of the story.
That's kind of a shame really, I dig the stone representation of LeChuck. I'll just have to imagine he looked like that in MI5 then ;p
That and concept art! It's nice to see the development process behind the scenes! I trust this stuff will also be on the DVD when that releases, right?
[edited by author] You don't need a 3d physics engine to make something look cool! And I don't think it would take too much effort to animate by hand. You should be lucky that your games' engine doesn't require PhysX cloth or w/e. Where is your sense of adventure to trying something new in a game. That little element might just make the game shine!
Never back down on your suggestions, Luke. You are the end user and you like what you know you like. Telltale should be taking note from anyone, those who are and are not artists/animators. Walt Disney and pretty much any studio worth their weight in gold, always did.
We all do take into account everyones thoughts and feelings about what we are working on. Thanks for the News Flash, but I know you don't need a physics engine to make something look cool, it helps, but it isn't necessary. Bold font really gets the point across. Not that I really know what I'm talking about, i just like to draw pictures. I was simply just explaining our design decisions in terms of Gee LeBrush. Yea! VIDEO GAMES!
Lol. Exactly.
The funniest thing for me is the logic that occurs in the users head. It goes like this: "Ok...so the carpenter in MI2 won't just let me steal his stuff while he's standing there. What a jerk!!! I guess I better get him out of here so I can rob him blind while he's gone."
It would never occur to me to be that devious in real life, but in an adventure game? Hell yeah I'm gonna steal his stuff!!! In fact, it's more fun if I didn't rightly earn something (ie pay for it).
The eighties called; they want their sense of entitlement back.
Oh, man... If adventure games do regain mainstream popularity, the people who claim that action and shooter games promote violence are going to go after adventure games for promoting theft.
We listen to and read everything that's said in these forums. Always have and always will! It's great to hear what everyone wants to see, it's great to have a sounding board for our and your ideas, it's great to get feedback on what people think is and isn't working. That said, one of the things you're investing in, one thing you're saying when you buy the games from us is that you trust our judgment to make the game we believe in, to have a creative vision we can execute, to know what feedback is wheat and what is chaff. We're creating a product which you guys are paying for, but we're not doing work for hire for a democratic client base of thousands. Down that road lies madness, and an easily watered down project (which are two things nobody wants).
In the case of Guybrush's coat, we obviously have love for the coat since it's in the game. We even have love for the long and swishy coat, as from Ryan's concept it's very obvious that we put strong consideration into it. That said, we decided to go a different direction, for reasons aesthetic, technical, and otherwise. I like the look we landed on -- we've got a Guybrush which evokes the Monkey Island 2 look (my favorite look!) but can also be realistically and practically animated in ways which can work in many situations without having to be special cased every time Guybrush is turning right while also leaning to the left and half squatting against a wall or whatever, and without a more procedural physics or cloth system (which our engine currently doesn't have, and realistically won't have any time soon). He's also got a really nice easy to read and recognize silhouette with the shorter coat, which is important in designing your main character. I think at the end of the day we made the right decisions there.
That said, maybe next time out Guybrush will have a huge coat which trails 30 feet behind him and winds around things like Noby Noby Boy, especially now that we know how much everyone likes bringing back that style of dress for the character.
So one can put things together like:
Oh no? Bunnies aren't menacing? What about the Rabbit of Caerbannog?! Night of the Lepus?! Max?!
I also wanted to say, I love how Elaine and the Voo Doo Lady look. It's actually one thing about Telltale I've liked from the beginning; the way you guys design the female characters so they're just as interesting as the male characters. I'm not saying every female video game character is drawn as a super-busty, cute-faced bit of eye candy with all the emotive power of a porcelain doll, but a few of them have been. I'm not against attractive characters, but it's nice when they get to have personality, too. And Voo Doo Lady's boobs look fantastic! They look like real boobs, not helium-filled water balloons! Figthers are tons of fun, but I can't play as a female character. My back starts aching just watching them.
As for Elaine i think she is the best one we got so far.
I'm not so sure about LeChuck yet. I guess we'll have to wait until there might be some more glowing in his beard? Altough he's looking alright, my first impression was that he was thinner than i expected him to be and i could have imagined a slightly different style.
Btw i love watching all the concept art. Sometimes to such a degree that i would prefer if the whole game would share the more painted look. The more of the style makes it into 3d the better. Anyway don't hestitate posting some more! :O)
Oh and physics engines can be great if you just use them wisely. It's just another ingredient you can use for pimping the appearance like 3d itself or the camera angles and so on.
See, the reason that I liked Guybrush's appearance in LeChuck's Revenge was because it suggested that the character had developed. In the first game, he wants to be a MIGHTY pirate; in the sequel, he is getting closer to achieving his goal, and this is reflected in his appearance. As much as I love CMI, Guybrush's appearance felt like a step backwards, and the same is true for EMI.
What I like about Guybrush's appearance in Tales of Monkey Island is that Guybrush is clearly older - he's lived the adventurous pirate lifestyle for a while now, he's become part of the pirate community, and his appearance reflects this. It'd be nice if at some point in the upcoming series, he met a young idealistic youth who says to him "I want to be a MIGHTY pirate! Just like you!"
Set and set. Nice job.
I really never thought that one day someone would actually do this! I’m not pointing out at anyone, but most game developers/producers seem to think more about money (and cool graphics/no story = tons of money) than what the consumers really want.
If only more companies would learn to think like you do, the gaming industry will evolve into something more than just “I make game, you buy!”. I really enjoy this type and level of communication, and I thank you once more for building this bridge between us all. (Even if sometimes we have to use the rubber-chicken-with-a-pulley-in-the-middle to get across).
Hm, from a personal point of view, I’d really like to see Stan return, along with Murray. Maybe even a team-up of the two. I consider them to be the greatest supporting-characters I’ve ever seen in an adventure game. The jokes, the atmosphere, the ideeas themselves should be trademarked. And, they probably are.
*histerical fan moment*
Oh! Oh! And, could you, like, have a contest with “Who has the greatest punchline on the following joke set-up”, and the winner gets to hear his voice in one of the 5 episodes?
*end of histerical fan moment*
Yeah, so…
I know you can’t give us any details regarding the charaters… But have you thought about bringing back Largo? There are so many good characters, we should bring back osme of the eeeeeevil ones.
If you would compare this to an RPG then it's pretty straightforward because first you start very vulnurable almost naked with your pants, after some time you got those heavy chain mails but if you advanced even more equipment gets lighter again due to some Mithril or magical involvement.
I always liked the RPGs the most when you weren't this mighty and had all this fancy abilities where a blink of your eye nukes the whole map. Actually it's much more fun beeing on your quest, maybe trying to get mighty (if that's the objective at all), at some point loosing it all again and starting from scratch instead of beeing mighty. Facing death in form of 123 voodoo dragons isn't as enjoyable as having to take care of one skeleton monkey.
Actually i think in a good adventure you don't have to get mighty at all.
But i agree that it also doesn't hurt if the clothes reflect what a charatcer already went through, at least as long as this doesn't prevent him from looking displaced most of the time. A pirate outfit like the one from Captain Sparrow for instance works because it's cautious.
Speaking of which... Do you think that someone will make a MI movie? I mean, if PotC is allready based on the ride with the same name at Disneyland, and the MI series is based upon the same thing... would it have any problems with copyright infringement?
It would be really cool to bring Dominic to play as Guybrush in a MI movie.
Well there was a MI movie in the works at one time, Steve Purcell drew some art for various scenes and he drew LeChuck... but it got canned... I woulda liked to have seen it.
I must say I really like the art direction, I know this is a really weird thing to say but really like the shapes, that was one thing that really struck me about CMI too the clouds were super swirly.
I see you are German?
I agree with you. Those bunnies are the one thing that secretly terrorizes the earth. I remember when my mother saw Max for the first time. She thought he was cute.
I respect your decisions on those cases alone. I understand how maybe that little adding of animation might get in the way of certain cases. It's appreciated that your team took the time to find a nice way of bringing the new design across. The design does have a nice clearly read silhouette, and I appreciate that you are showing us the design lead-up to the actual finished product.
I apologize now to Ry Guy, who I feverishly expressed my discontent onto. Unfortunately, I do not mean to intentionally be rude or arrogant, but I can understand how my post came across as such. I shall remove all formatting from my previous post :rolleyes:
Let me state my case: I am currently a 3rd year (of four) animation student and am studying every bit of what makes this medium so great. I've been a big fan of Telltale's approach to adventure games and do hope they continue. However, I've been always left with a bit of despair seeing how these games are executed - especially with the animation department. Animation is about bringing things to life, to make things extra-ordinary.
The things that aren't extra-ordinary are these moments in Telltale games where you're staring at the screen and little to nothing is going on. Some 3d puppet is giving a long winded speech with maybe a casual shrug or hand movement. No expression - nothing. This leaves me empty, and I am saddened because I know there is more behind these characters. I so desparately want to reach into the screen or the mechanics behind the game and make these characters a little more lively. Now, I have not worked in the industry YET, and therefore I cannot help but be a little unaware of the limitations a game engine poses. However, I do know what I'd like to see, and that is more life, more movement, more something to give these characters substance. Just adding that extra sense of depth would help immensely.
Again, I hope I've stated my case clearly, and hopefully no hard feelings are kept. For those not following the mini-drama happening in this nice thread, do not worry.
Thanks!
I understand your point of view. Might I ask kindly to apply this wish of yours to the ToMI game, and tell me honestly, after seeing the gameplay and character interactions, don't you feel that they are working on that? If you compare Guybrush's reactions to Max's reactions, you will see progress, and a lot of it!
Guybrush looks more "full of life" than he ever was in a MI game. The simple fact that he turns his head after an object (hotspot) is a great addition to his character. Don't you agree?
I am fully aware that the possibilities of making a character more "real" nowadays are greater (see GTA IV), yet... I kinda like the simpler way TTG Team approached MI. It's more cartoony, much more relaxing for the eye (and pleasant) and remember that in MI1 and 2 the story and puzzles were the basic points of the game... The fact the MI1 guybrush didn't blink enough has not ruined the experience.
I get the passion! And for that point, oh man, we've been addressing this issue. One of the main things is to not have the characters pretty much just staring and breathing at you. We have a whole lot of talented animators to address this issue. Everytime I walk by someone's desk and see the characters in motion, I'm simply blown away by it! I'm very proud of our animation staff, I think the animation of this game will be our best yet. Thanks to them and our art directors Dave Bogan and Derek Sakai who have seen to it that the animations are spot on.
I've played all the games Telltale has produced so far (with the single exception of C.S.I.), and I honestly don't know what you are referring to. Animation has always been good, and characters have always seemed lively enough, even when graphics weren't exactly top notch. Just have a look at the wonderful animated sequences in Mob, Mole and Meatball (2007) or even at dialogues in Out from Boneville (2005). I know what you mean: I've seen many adventure games with moments like the one you've described, but never a soulless puppet in a game by Telltale.
Maybe it's velvet?
Maybe it's made by the same guys who make Silver's longjohns (they breathe!)
See if that's good
http://picasaweb.google.com.br/lh/photo/4az5owxY9jBsjjOXvcttaQ?feat=directlink
*thumbs up* That is awesome, man! Great work! I bet that'll be on quite a few desktops before long.
Actually that sounds pretty cool! If it's a MI T-Shirt!