Yep, it’s not over yet! “Space Quest: Incinerations” has been nominated for thirteen awards and you would all be awesome if you went on over to the AGS forums, signed up, and voted for the game.
www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/awards/vote/
February 26 2013 | Stuff I Made, Video Games | 2 Comments »
The nominations are open for the 2012 AGS Awards! Now is the time to head on over to this site, get a forum account, and start spamming every category with SQInc nominations (well, except maybe best demo, non-adventure, short game, and voice acting.) But you can totally nominate for best game, best gameplay, best music, best story, best writing, best character (you know you love Doomtron), and everything else.
Additionally, I’d also like to cross-promote Akril’s “Pledge Quest” games for nominations. These fall under the “short game” categories, but you can show some love for Vohaul Cat by adding her nominations to the list. And if you feel you should nominate other people’s games, I’m a rather big fan of “Ben Jordan” and “Donna: Avenger of Blood”. The 2011 “Space Quest 2 Remake” is also in there, and I’ve thrown a few nominations its way (they DID deliver on voice acting). But totally nominate my SQ stuff instead. That’s how this competition thing goes. There can be only one!
Now go! Nominate! Make me proud! You owe it to your country!
January 24 2013 | Stuff I Made, Video Games | 1 Comment »
Woke up this morning. Couldn’t get out of bed. Only thing I could reach was a PS3 controller. Only thing in the PS3 was my Genesis collection. Decided to try beating the original “Sonic the Hedgehog” from 1990. I remembered why I don’t have fond childhood memories of this game.
To sum up, the whole game is booby-trapped and the only way to win is to go as slowly as possible. If you’ve ever seen one of those Mario mods where you can’t jump across a pit without hitting an invisible box, then you get the idea. The programmers were basically having too much fun watching the beta-testers scramble for rings.
“Hey, I’ve got an idea: how about we fill a pit with exploding robots, and then put fans on both sides that turn on at random and push Sonic INTO the pit? Also, the beta-testers really hated searching for air bubbles in the Labyrinth Zone. Wouldn’t it be funny if they got near the end of the game and suddenly had to play the Labyrinth Zone AGAIN?” “Ha! Do it!”
December 08 2012 | Video Games | 3 Comments »
So… to follow up from the previous “the Two Guys have reunited” announcement, they’ve now got their own Kickstarter going for the new game. Personally, I’m already very excited for this one as they’ve not only got Gary Owens onboard, but also Paul Robson (Yakko from Animaniacs), Robert Clotworthy (Raynor from Starcraft), John Lowrie (Sniper from TF2), and Ellen McLain (GLaDOS from Portal) all providing voices. Not to mention they’re already in talks with Supertramp legend Bob Siebenberg to return and score the game. This is shaping up to be one of the more exciting Kickstarter projects.
The game promises to be in the style of Space Quest, with the same brand of humor, tons of the usual deaths, and with more modern sci-fi references. So check out their Kickstarter video and go give them a few hundred dollars.
(I swear, that animated intro looks so familiar…)
May 13 2012 | Awesomeness, Stuff Other People Made, Video Games | No Comments »
I made this a few days ago for fun. Consider it a sneak peek at what SQInc might look like if Robert Downey Jr. played Roger.
April 28 2012 | Killing Time, Stuff I Made, Video Games | 1 Comment »
Okay, so – holy cow – this happened.
In the vein of things that only happen when hell freezes over, after 20 years, the creators of the “Space Quest” series have reconciled their differences and reunited to make a new game. And they want us all to spread the word.
I’m sure this has more to do with Tim Schafer’s Kickstarter success and not so much with the three massive Space Quest fan-games that came out three months ago (although I’m sure all three of our teams like to sit around grinning like idiots and twiddling our thumbs thinking “Yeah, we did this.”) But in any case, the legends are back and they’re in full costume once again. And The Narrator, Gary Owens, is back on board. How’s that for head-exploding crazy awesomeness?
And it’s not just the Two Guys either. Other fellow ex-Sierra developers are also jumping on the bandwagon.
Jane Jenson (creator of the Gabriel Knight series) has started her own Kickstarter page and will be developing a new sci-fi murder-mystery thriller called “Moebius”. As of now, she’s only half-funded, but I’ve already put in my two cents (or more) and I implore other fans of hers to join in.
Also: Al Lowe (creator of Leisure Suit Larry) wants in as well. His Kickstarter project involves a complete HD remake of “Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards”. As of now, he’s got two weeks on his Kickstarter as well, and if this one goes through, he, Josh Mandel, and a group of Sierra vets will be HD-ing the whole Leisure Suit Larry series (and I really want to see LSL2 and 3 get the golden treatment).
So all we need is Roberta Williams (King’s Quest) and the Coles (Quest for Glory) doing their own Kickstarters and we’ve pretty much got the entire Sierra family back in business. Providing we still have enough money left over to donate.
Incidentally, the Two Guys aren’t asking for money just yet. All they want is for you to spread the word. And then they’ll probably ask you for money. In any case, spread the word!
April 16 2012 | Awesomeness, Video Games | No Comments »
Wait – people are willing to just THROW money at you?
Okay, so I already sort of knew this thanks to such local celebrities as that guy who plays recorder on the sidewalk and the guy who stands outside the Safeway with a paper cup. But that’s chump change compared to what a well-earned reputation can get you.
Take Tim Schafer for example. I’ve blogged at length about the guy many times in my ongoing effort to get people to play “Psychonauts” and “Brutal Legend” and he’s at it once again. Only this time, he and Ron Gilbert are going back to their roots and making an old-fashioned adventure game. But the catch? No publisher will give Double-Fine Productions money because people don’t buy adventure games. So they came up with an alternate solution to raise money: go on kickstarter.com and ask their fans to help them raise $400K in one month.
So far, the internet his given them $2 million.
UPDATE: The final tally was $3,336,371, with 87,142 people backing the project. That should be enough for about 7-8 games, I’d imagine.
To his credit, I think very few people could bring in that kind of fan-funding. If Joss Whedon asked for donations on “Dr. Horrible 2″, he’d probably bring in enough to fund a full-length movie. In Tim’s case, he hasn’t even pitched an idea yet, so his fans are basically just giving him money to exist.
A few people have already sent me e-mails telling me to jump on this bandwagon, but I’m still iffy about the legal ramifications of getting donations to make more fan-games or especially “Ducktalez 7″. I still wouldn’t mind seeing how much money people throw at it, though. The average Kickstarter project normally brings in around $10K, and before now, has gone as high as $1.4M, so I can’t say I wouldn’t be interested.
Hmmm… I do have a novel in the works. Anybody interested in throwing money at that? I promise I won’t stop you.
For now, check out Double-Fine’s adventure pitch video. It’s pretty awesome.
February 21 2012 | Awesomeness, Video Games | 7 Comments »
I’m a big fan of Edgar Wright movies (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim), and after seeing these lists of films that inspired his movies, I’ve been wanting to honor my own source material for “Incinerations”. Obviously it’s not a complete list of in-game references (or it would go on forever) – and I won’t be including musical inspirations – but rather these are the biggest influences that inspired the style and story of the game.
On a side note, I’ve just made the point list and trophy guide for the game available today. There’s also a hilarious “Let’s Play” of the game being made by PawDugan and PushingUpRoses of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com with them doing all the voices. They’re still early in the game, but you can follow along whenever the stream goes live by subscribing to Paw’s Twitter account and joining in the chat. I’ll post the complete LP when it’s finished.
February 11 2012 | Stuff I Made, Video Games | 2 Comments »
It came to my attention that a few sites are linking directly to this front page for my game, so most of my blog posts will be SQInc-related for a while.
Version 1.1 has been uploaded for “Incinerations”. This new version fixes all of the bugs that have thus far been reported, including the infamous rocket bug and a crash during the arcade sequence. There have also been countless spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors fixed (hammering home the point that I should not rely on myself to proofread ever again). Finally, I’ve updated a few graphic glitches, meaning your old save games won’t work with this version anymore.
And there’s a few notes about the site as well. Frederik’s contributions to the soundtrack have now been uploaded to the media page and are available for download. And if you haven’t been there yet, there’s also wallpapers, Akril’s concept art, and Roger’s ringtone available. Also, the forum has been updated and re-archived to accommodate the game’s release (as well as clean up all those three year old posts cluttering the front page). While I’m not updating the points or trophies list just yet, you can discuss these in the forums where an unofficial guide has been posted.
There’s a few more happenings around the community as well. “Vohaul Strikes Back” is now seeking voice actors and you can audition by going to this page. There’s also been a fourth – yes, I’m not kidding – FOURTH Space Quest game released within the month. “Space Quest -1: Decision of the Elders” has just been released, although it’s a short ten-minute AGI game which will be periodically released in episodes. I can’t figure out what’s going on either. Why doesn’t Leisure Suit Larry get this kind of fan-love?
That’s all for now. Will keep you posted.
January 17 2012 | Daily Life, Stuff I Made, Video Games | 8 Comments »
I’ve been waiting almost twelve years to make this blog entry. From the humbling beginnings back in high school where this existed as a crudely-designed fan-project, to the revival spent making the first couple rooms on my laptop in 2006, to the four years spent animating battle sequences on my couch while juggling work between “Vohaul Strikes Back” and “The Silver Lining” to my move to Vancouver where I spent several months programming and beta-testing my fingers off and swearing never to make a project of this magnitude ever again. At the cost of my sanity, the game is finally here. You can go download it. You can go play it. You can come back and tell me it sucks – I don’t care. It’s finished, and that’s what matters.
I keep expecting some Highlander-type Quickening to happen to me, but so far, it’s a no-go. I’m pretty sure I’m out of shape and have very poor social skills, though. Is that a prize?
Most people would probably use an announcement like this to toss out a generic “special thanks” and describe the game… but I think on my own blog, I’m entitled to just spill my real feelings. This is huge for me. This is a right-up-there-with-#1 moment for me. Disneyland, being a best man at my brother’s wedding, Samosa Night with Nick, New Years 2006, DucktaleZ 3, the train ride to Toronto – I can add ” finished Incinerations” to the list.
And the people to thank – right off the bat: I won’t embarrass him on any other forum post, but Frederik Olsen stuck with me through to the end. He made a great soundtrack, we stayed up late discussing the games, he’s very passionate about his work and committed to see things through.
And Team VSB – Andres Kalle, Patrick C. Johnston – I’ve learned so much from working with them. The game wouldn’t be possible without their input and know-how (actually, it WOULD be possible, but it would be crappier.) I’ve thrown so many requests their way, and they’ve always thrown back quick and easy results. It’s just mind-blowing to me.
And I know I give “The Silver Lining” crew a lot of flack for having driven me completely up the wall at times, but Cez Bittar and Rich Flores – they helped make this game possible. They pushed me further than I’d ever pushed myself and once I built up speed, I just kept adding things to SQInc that was never in the plans. Would I work with them again? I would hesitate, but yes. Richard’s a talented and hard-driving animation director, and Cez flat-out knows how to run a team with that golden tongue of his – I swear I quit TSL about five times, and he still kept pulling me back in somehow. I don’t think anyone besides Frede stayed with SQInc’s team for more than 2-3 months, so I respect anyone who can manage a 40-person+ team of volunteers like that.
And of course, respect to the original developers and then some. Scott Murphy. Mark Crowe. Josh Mandel. Ken and Roberta Williams. Al Lowe. Daryl Gates. Corey and Lori Ann Cole. Not household names these days, but these people are my childhood. The Sierra family created something unique and wonderful with their games that holds the same kind of sway over their fans that Disney, the Looney Tunes and the Muppets hold over the world. “King’s Quest 6″ alone is as big to me as “The Lion King.” I think a big part of me just needed to share back the love they gave us in their own games.
The most embarrassing part about completing this game is just the whole “adventure” and “fan-game” aspect of it. I feel like I’m living in an environment where there’s only two types of games: shooters and Skyrim. And even trying to explain my game to my family at Christmas just met with a lot of confused reactions. A lot of people I talk to either don’t understand what an “adventure game” is, and they understand even less the concept of “letting people play it for free”. So support from my peers has been a very mixed bag when making this.
But to see this game finally finished, it feels like I’m reaching some undefined closure in my life. I’d be lying if I didn’t say the original SQInc’s failure didn’t hit me hard. People kept telling me to give up back then saying it was impossible, and they were right at the time. Nobody gets anything huge done at 17. That might have been what was driving me all these years. The Ducktalez cartoons, the Monkey Island games, The Silver Lining, Vohaul Strikes Back… sometimes, a little piece of your past just won’t rest until you’ve proven it wrong. It’s one thing to make a game for the fans, but it’s another to make a game for more than just the fans. This is for my inspirations, this is for my family, this is for my friends, this is for my friends’ friends, this is for everyone who believed and everyone who didn’t, and this is for myself.
Sorry for the long post, but I think I’m coming to the end now. This last stretch has been such a long one. The game was playable last December – and it still took a full year to get it ready for everyone. And how crazy is it to see “Vohaul Strikes Back” and the “Space Quest 2 Remake” all coming out at the same time? This is a very emotion-heavy time for me. I wish I could be putting as much effort into my schoolwork as I am into this blog post right now. But at least I feel like I can move on for a change. That I can put this behind me and start a new chapter in my life.
So. Looks like “Incinerations” is done. You better go play it.
Hmmm… what do I do now? Ducktalez 7? VSB Spin-off? Back to TSL for a bit?
Or better idea: go finish school and get a real job like a normal person.
This is just the beginning.
January 11 2012 | Awesomeness, Daily Life, Stuff I Made, Video Games | 20 Comments »