This is the thread for LucasArts alumni/DoubleFine/Telltale games: Psychonauts, Costume Quest, Brutal Legend, Deathspank, Sam and Max, etc.

TellTale Games are the folks who put out Grim Fandango and were working on the Sam & Max sequel before LucasArts execs killed it at 90% completion. They're working on an adventure game for Jeff Smith's Bone, with is like $20 and downloadable straight from the company. Apparently, they plan to put out installments of the game in episodes, instead of the usual 3-5 year lag time between full sequels.

also, since Steve Purcell has full control over his Sam & Max trademarks again, word has it that he's working on a completely new Sam & Max episodic sequel with the Telltale folks....

That Bone game looks wack as hell and makes me fear the Sam & Max sequel. I know I should be all supportive of small companies etc but the graphics look like The 7th Guest and the voice acting (in the trailer at least) is awful. I'd rather play an old-school 2D Scumm-system-style thing--use the old technology and focus the energy and money on good writing and puzzles.

Psychonauts isn't available for another month - I have to return the Xbox on about a week :(

worst case scenario is that you can also order it from their website

maybe I haven't given it enough of a chance though. Too much talking.

how far did you get? and you did know that they deliberately designed it to be as much as an adventure game as the genre contraints of a platformer would allow, right?

word has it that Majesco has massive, massive problems with distribution, both in the U.S. and elsewhere...

this is the downside of going from publisher to publisher, i guess. Yeah, they got the game out, but in such a fucked up way...

Worst case scenario is that they don't release a PAL version. Also, see my note about not having an Xbox when it comes out.

I played the PC demo for a bit, I got the impression that a console version would rule :)

...Don't get me wrong--I love my sea monkeys. I raised them from when they were just a little sack of powder. I remember how proud I was when I first stirred them into this world! But our relationship is just going nowhere. They swim and swim, and they are beautiful and majestic in their own tiny little way. (Except for when they have that weird, turgid, black pouch on their... abdomen? Do they have abdomens? Anyway, I was going to go in there with an X-Acto knife and a crochet hook and see I can't extract one of the pouches for dissection--just in case it's delicious monkey caviar--but then I chickened out when I realized they're probably just constipated, or unable to fully scrape off the remains of some sort of conjoined twin.) They have many mysteries, but the only one left that I want to discover is how these beautiful, majestic creatures die, and how I can make it happen...

Talking to the folks at Telltale Games. Covers the Bone games(and negative reaction to), the new Sam & Max, etc.

http://www.telltalegames.com/comics/samnmax

"hundreds of secrets about DoubleFine's New Game" is all i can make out, along with the kitty whose as big as a mouse

also, the news post containing the image above mainly consists of Tim bitching about a nose pimple.

Maybe it's just a really huge monitor?

But I wonder if the reason it didn't click is the protagonist. I never found Raz (was that his name?) that interesting. I liked the drama with his dad, and the way the final boss ties to his own neuroses more than some made-up external threat. They wrote some slick stuff in the story. But the noble boy with a heart of gold thing didn't do it for me. He's too Luke Skywalker, and maybe a maverick would've worked better?

That said, they got many things right - Peter McDonnell's music when you're wandering around the camp really sticks with me, and the camp's great - I took the time to find all 16 things in the scavenger hunt, just because it was so much fun to explore the place.

It doesn't really get impressive until you get through the semi-disguised training mode.

The game really kicks in beginning with Lungfishopolis.

What game protagonist is interesting? Leon from Resident Evil 4 is one of the least interesting characters in the history of video gaming. Most video game protagonists are relatively empty tough-guy vessels. I think Raz compares pretty explicitly with Jak from the original Jak & Daxter, or perhaps Ratchet from R&C -- two relatively-annoying cartoon characters who recede into the background in favor of the more entertaining Clank, or Daxter, or every other character in Psychonauts, or...

To take another example, in Dreamfall, I liked April Ryan but hated the new character, whazzername. The game got better for me every time it switched over to April's perspective. But again, you had to spend a lot of time alone with them, listening to them talk about stuff.

Tim Schafer's Double Fine Studios (originator of the double-plus awesome Psychonauts) has joined up with Vivendi to publish a title. The property, as yet unnamed, will be published under the Sierra Entertainment label.

From the article: "Said an atypically straight Tim Schafer, president and CEO of Double Fine Productions, 'The Sierra team has been awesome to work with. Everyone we've met brings experience from a small developer background, so they know where we're coming from and what we have to do to make a great game. Combine a developer-friendly attitude, support for innovation, major-publisher status with a worldwide scope and you have a perfect match for Double Fine.'"

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10802

now distro'd by Steam, and marked down for $10 for PC/PS2

I hate using the joystick for steering but I'll admit that's a personal choice. It does piss me off that every time I come out of saving I fuck up and go into my satchel! That habit will fade I hope.

I have completed the first training missions and was nearly finished the sharpshooter when, wouldn't you know it, I was killed at the very last minute! After that I thought "Well why not buy that arrowhead divining thingy and spend a few minutes doing that." Two hours people, two hours following vibrations and a piercing tone. That is how much I was enjoying the look and feel of this game!

I don't much enjoy the aiming and the floaty bear things freak me out (I was seriously knackered though which prob didn't help). The script is okay, was dead happy to hear Invader Zim again though (Richard Steven Horvitz) even without his wee robot buddy. I like the way that there is movement among the other characters and that they react differently at different points in the game. Tonight I have to go out (damn you social life) but I'll try to get some more in soon.

man, what a great game. it was one of those where i really had to go do something else (like sleep) but i just had to see what the next level looked like and once i got there, god DAMN it if i didn't have to play through it. wash rinse repeat.

aw shit, missed this

Tho the theatre / Napoleon levels are bumming me out slightly. Fuck a jumping puzzle. ESPECIALLY fuck a "must run max speed and jump at JUST THE RIGHT TIME else you fall to ground and must start over" puzzle.

Note, Broken Age Act 1 keys are available if you kickstarted - should be in your email and redeemable via Humble Bundle store.

Isn't released until the 28th, though. Darnit!

I keep forgetting my steam password

Finally bothered to try Costume Quest in the spirit of the season; SO CHARM.

Need to try the sequel

i loved the first one... and that was the last double fine game i was into
in seeing this thread I remembered a dream i had a few nights ago where i was part of a military caravan going up a road surrounded by a vinery - some sort of mix of the vegetable garden hill climb from the film "Letter to Momo" and the storming of Normandy - and no one knew where we were going when it occurred to me that I had to explain to everyone we were going to DOUBLE FINE HEADQUARTERS
don't remember how that played out

heavy hints that GOG are going to announce LucasArts PC games in a couple of days time

whoo!

whoo x2
lol forks

As expected GOG are going to have LucasArts games - 30 of them apparently! 6 tomorrow, rest to come later.

the first six

Star Wars X-Wing Special Edition
Star Wars TIE Fighter Special Edition
Sam & Max Hit the Road
The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

hi dere my high school life

Much more excited than I expected to be about X Wing and Tie Fighter.

MAKE THOSE GAMES COME ON MY XBOX YE MIGHTY

Hopefully they DOSBox the '93/'94 versions for Mac - that had the better iMuse soundtrack anyway

tie fighter is prob in my top 3 all time

Gog lets you choose versions of XW and TF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW8W42FXze8

That has really got the feel of Psychonauts. The music definitely helps.

yeah, Peter McConnell always gonna have a place in my heart from the LucasArts days

Broken Age has finally been released. Remember that kickstarter? that seemed to have huge backer money, before Exploding Uno came along? The documentary is probably more notable than the game. It shows how Schafer never makes budget or time concessions, hoping that the game will be a perrennial seller that revolutionizes gaming business.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIhLvue17Sd7F6pU2ByRRb0igiI-WKk3D

Didn't realize the Maniac Mansion thread was in ILM. I guess this is next most appropriate thread:

So the remastered Day Of The Tentacle is out for PC, PS4 and Vita now. Which is supposed to be great but which I've never played, so I'm mostly just excited about playing the embedded Maniac Mansion for the first time in ages.

― I am very inteligent and dicipline boy (Old Lunch), Friday, April 1, 2016 11:44 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Haven't played the remaster but the original DOTT was basically my favourite adventure game, probably my favourite game. I replayed it again recentlyish and I admit the whole point+click adventure thing is a little more frustratingly hunt-the-pixel/trial-and-"I don't wanna" than I'm used to these days but it still stands up pretty well once you get over that, I think. Have fun!

(I may have said this about some other Lucasarts adventure in my ILXing time because Grim Fandango and Monkey Island are up there too)

Any other Thimbleweed Park backers on here?

― a passing spacecadet, Friday, April 1, 2016 1:39 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

DOTT is a wonderful game.

I like to root for Psychonauts as a cult classic in the making, even though I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I wanted to. I also read so many people who say, "I know this is a classic, I'll play it someday" - and then they don't.
― save the robot (save the robot), Friday, 8 September 2006 17:21 (9 years ago)

Hmm, this is me! I loved Lucasarts, loved the sound of this game, kept saying I would play it - and I still haven't. I even got it cheap in some bundle a while ago and it still sits unplayed in my Steam queue.

Also, re DotT, still after all these years it will strike me from time to time that I am walking in a slightly Laverne-like manner, or making a Laverne-like face, and I'll crack up. <3 Laverne

...OK, Psychonauts downloaded, I'm going in!

i should play it too. i actually have it installed and i still haven't touched it. i'll try to remedy that.

In the same boat re: Psychonauts. We should all play together!

psychonauts advice: don't watch the intro movie right away. it's like half an hour long and not that good. play past the warzone area at least, then start a new game to watch the intro.

some of the early levels are kinda nbd, but the mid to late levels are so awesome

it's really a rare example where it really IS worth slogging through the mediocre 5-hour tutorial to get to the wackadoo stuff in the second half of the game

I'm having fun but I don't think I've ever had the 3d-jumping-puzzle skills required for this game

the design and characterisation is lovely tho and yes I missed the voice of Invader Zim too

This is such a wonderful game in its writing and art direction and level design (even with pretty mediocre platforming mechanics), but the meat circus has to be one of the most frustrating final levels I can think of.

they fixed that one annoying jump in computer versions.

Yeah, I played it with those pc revisions, but I still found that level pretty thoroughly irritating. I'm not that invested in 3d platformers, though, and was mostly posting through this for the writing and level design, so that probably informed my frustration.

*playing through this, I mean

still in Basic Braining. hating the rotating log tunnel. resorted to watching a youtube in case there was one crazy trick, guy playing just breezed on through like it ain't no thing :(

tbf I am mainly playing (at least this level) with just the arrow keys as I'm on a laptop and touchpadding is too slow, but I'm also p. uncoordinated at all two-handed games so it's prob not going to go much better even if I hook a mouse/controller up

psychonauts is 100% a pad game, definitely get one. besides the analog control you'll later use more buttons for the different powers you get

I still haven't beaten the goddamned Meat Circus :( On the PS2, it was That Jump; on subsequent playthroughs I either trailed off before getting that far (the asylum tower is pretty tiresome) or, latest attempt, got stuck on the horrible Little Oly/save-the-bunny section of the Meat Circus.

I never got past the save the bunny thing either. Still think it might be my favorite game.

about to get started on thimbleweed park!

please let us know what you think, very curious about this game

I'm about two hours in and really enjoying it. I'm not a big gamer anymore, and was a huge Lucasarts fan as a kid, so I'm probably not best placed to critique this. But so far it's a lot of fun. Certainly way more enjoyable than Broken Age.

i spent most of the weekend playing thru it, just finished. it was pretty good but not nearly as good as it could have been with more focused writing imo, it kind of just abandons the twin peaks/x-files premise after the first act and becomes pretty slapdash by the end.

Psychonauts is free today on Humble Store:

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/psychonauts

As mentioned elsewhere, Grim Fandango(my personal fave Lucasarts game) is free today at GOG:

Is that a...
❄️G❄️I❄️V❄️E❄️A❄️W❄️A❄️Y❄️?!

The legendary and ridiculously delightful GRIM FANDANGO is FREE
Still pretty much the best adventure game you'll play in 2017

Just hit "Get It Free" on the front page, you can keep it where your heart used to be... 💀 pic.twitter.com/3SxSmfagY7

— ❄️GOG.com❄️ (@GOGcom) December 13, 2017

Double Fine bought by Microsoft.

Glad they have stability that they probably need. A little sad that the indie dream has died

being bought or funded by one of the big pubs IS the indie dream in 2019

all too true