Tales of Monkey Island - Graphics
This goes out for the developers of Tales of Monkey Island (TMI),
I really love what you guys have done so far. The story, the music, the characters, etc all looks superb and promising, EXCEPT for the graphics.
I'm pretty sure i'm not the only one complaining about the graphics. I have a bunch of friends who are hardcore monkey island fans and when i showed them TMI, they all gave the same response: the graphics of this game looks OBSOLETE! It looks dull, plain and utterly unattractive. If 3d graphics is not your forte, perhaps you guys may want to consider doing it in classic point-and-click 2d style, like 'the curse of monkey island'. that graphic doesnt look outdated, even until today!
Now, I'm telling you this now because this game has not been released yet and there is still time to make MAJOR enhancement to the graphics of this game, before it's too late. I think that if you are successful at enhancing it, not only will TMI rocks, you will gain a lot more consumer market. just a thought.
GOOD LUCK GUYS! Thanks for reading!
I really love what you guys have done so far. The story, the music, the characters, etc all looks superb and promising, EXCEPT for the graphics.
I'm pretty sure i'm not the only one complaining about the graphics. I have a bunch of friends who are hardcore monkey island fans and when i showed them TMI, they all gave the same response: the graphics of this game looks OBSOLETE! It looks dull, plain and utterly unattractive. If 3d graphics is not your forte, perhaps you guys may want to consider doing it in classic point-and-click 2d style, like 'the curse of monkey island'. that graphic doesnt look outdated, even until today!
Now, I'm telling you this now because this game has not been released yet and there is still time to make MAJOR enhancement to the graphics of this game, before it's too late. I think that if you are successful at enhancing it, not only will TMI rocks, you will gain a lot more consumer market. just a thought.
GOOD LUCK GUYS! Thanks for reading!
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Comments
These games aren't about the graphics anyway!
Yeah, five weeks. Plenty of time to redo the entire game, right?
Who's with me?
Guys?
Seriously, the graphics look fine. I mean, all we've seen is the trailer, and I think that was pretty spellbinding. Also, in anygame, graphics are always second chump to gameplay (and, for adventure games, story/puzzles). We haven't even seen the rest of the game.
Also, yes, 3D is Telltale's forte. It's kinda the only games they make. Maybe you should try Monkey Island Special Addition?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-4kr9QP6Mk
and if they are ready to take up the challenge and listen to the cries of fans all over the world to make the game in 2d style, they can always do it in SEASON 2. Again, just a thought. i'm just speaking on behalf of millions of fans out there who wanted their voices to be heard
How kind of you. You're like Gordon Brown kinda... Saving the world, one issue at a time :rolleyes:
Kinda a beggers can't be choosers scenario.
If they were really hard core fans, they would've already seen it before you.:cool:
I completely agree haha. Best post ever.
Teehee!
Monkey Island.. MONKEY ISLAND! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Monkey Island + Gameplay + Story > Graphics. Sorry.
What I've understood so far by your answers is that you guys consider "fake" fans those who care about graphics.
That's not true.
I'm a hardcore fan, I've been playing adventure games for more than 18 years, and I think that adventure games need good graphics to inspire and tell stories.
You all put graphics and good stories within an exclusive OR, why?
Why would you CHOOSE between narration, humour and graphics?
They're ALL very important.
Furthermore, if we all want graphic adventures to be competitive again within this crazy business and attract more young players, graphics must be very good looking.
So, open your eyes, the graphics in TMI truly look obsolete.
I've already bought the game, I don't care, I'm a MI fan and I'm happy anyway.
But stop saying they're fine, 'cause they're NOT: they look already old, admit it.
This trend should be stopped before "graphic adventure" becomes synonimous for "crappy graphics".
Once again, I invite you to think of the name itself: GRAPHIC adventure.
I can't tell if there's sarcasm here but I'm hoping there is..
Graphics are the least important part of any video game, plain and simple. The only purpose amazing graphics really serve is to attract two-year-olds that consider themselves gamers and are easily attracted to shiny objects over gameplay.
SoMI and MI 2 still look amazing.
But, as I said before, they had GREAT graphics for those years.
OVER gameplay? Why do you think great graphics exclude gameplay?
I didn't say exclude and in fact they aren't mutually exclusive, but in the end - if you have to sacrifice one - gameplay beats graphics. I like amazing 3D graphics as much as the next guy, they're just not really that important in my opinion and I'd rather take a highly stylized looked over realistic graphics as well.
In the case of Tales... Telltale not only has a smaller budget than LucasArts (2D significantly more expensive), dealing with less disk space due to episodic releases (limits a lot of things), and a limited time fame for their production schedule (in order for monthly releases and they stated not re-using as many assets), they are also trying to have to game run on as many systems as possible to reach a wider audience. Considering this is the first MI in 9 years, I think it's more important that the game be available to the wider audience and thus potentially introduce more people to the franchise in order to help revitalize it, then go for the ultra-graphics look that would work on less PC's (particularly laptops which are usually not high-end graphics wise and the computer of choice for college age students and young adults which are in the prime demographic; just look at the age poll on this forum). Not to mention Adventure games are hardly the best-selling genre anymore, and episodic releases don't have the same turnover as full games (many times people don't purchase all the episodes); having a lower graphics budget and having it work on a lot of computers makes the most business sense, especially if you don't want to sacrifice the quality of other areas of the game.
Considering all of this, the graphics are more than fine, helped by the stylized look which takes inspiration from MI 2 and CoMI.
I like the art direction, when I look at it I think of Steve Purcell, which is a good thing.
Although I kinda wish they used bump-mapping like they did with W&G. I would prefer a "clay" look than a "plastic" look.
My point exactly, well put.
Apart from the fact that graphics should not be discarded & thrown into the trash bin as 'unimportant', I personally feel that graphics are not as high on the list for an adventure game. It needs to be attractive. It needs to fit in the Monkey Island setting, so people are willing to spend their time in it! That's about it. It does not need to 'live up to' anything else, it does its own thing. ToMI graphics so far look comical, true & Monkey Island-worthy. Need I say more.
Never discussed that.
I just don't get why people consider graphics and contents mutually exclusive, as turingmachine said, or why people mark graphics as useless and unimportant.
First of all, when I say "great graphics" I DON'T MEAN realistic.
Great graphics can be very cartoony and just increase the potential of expressivity and humour. I see some ignorance from the ones (I'm not referring to turingmachine or Tim) who think of great graphics like photorealism for first person shooters like Doom or Far Cry.
Millions. If Monkey Island ever had millions of fans we would not be on the fifth game in twenty years, I assure you.
See Ceville, for instance.
http://www.enemyofreality.de/wp-content/gallery/screenshots/ceville_01.jpg
http://static.computergames.ro/cg/assassin/images3/ceville/ceville062.jpg
http://www.gamersgate.com/img/screenshots/DD-CEVILLE/12452_Ceville12.jpg
Still it's worth remembering that this is all work in progress! DUDES.
Man, I actually bought it the minute after it was announced.
I don't care if graphics look obsolete and old, I'd buy a MI even if it had the graphics of Maniac Mansion. The point is just I'd like it to look better.
The screenshots are not final. It's amazing how a little polish on the lighting and shaders can really improve the over all look of a scene. Trust me. You're commenting on an unfinished product.
I have to disagree here. Simply adding a bloom effect doesn't automatically make a game look good, a concept too many game devs can't seem to grasp.
First: I hope you're right, but I suspect the game will definitely look like that.
Second: if it was my real name, probably my parents would have been smoking strong weed before going to the registry office.
Well, think that if you like, but maybe you'll be encouraged if I say that I was speaking to someone off-the-record and I got the strong impression the final polished look of the game game will be much more like and possibly better than the best of the screenshots, like the one of the Voodoo lady and the one with Guybrush and the sword.
Now Ceville isn't a particularly good looking game, it sure is not. I merely used this as an example of a 3d game that appears to have a little depth despite not being any more complex than TOMI.
I agree: Bloom is overused, and often times used in the wrong ways. It's still a good filter for hiding polygons, particular with less complex modesls. However it's not about bloom effects so much, it's all about lighting in general. I'd argue lighting is the single most important thing in terms of 3d graphics. Luckily moby still has shots of the haphazard Resident Evil 4 PC port up on it's site. Most of the lighting found in the original Cube version was added later via a patch due to massive fan protest.
The difference is shockingly obvious, despite the game consisting of the same models and 3d art in as in the console version. Sure, it's extreme an example, but it needs to be to prove my point. http://www.mobygames.com/game/resident-evil-4/screenshots
Direct comparison.
I think they did a perfect mix of classic Monkey Island comic-style and "new" 3D graphics.