Orange Brat
06-30-2006, 02:43 AM
The 234MB demo for Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine is now available. Get it here:
http://www.alemmo.com/
If you'd like to help promote this title then use the banners provided at the following link and make sure it directs the user to http://www.alemmo.com/:
http://www.himalayastudios.com/images/Banners/
Here's the official Al Emmo Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/alemmo
This is one of the more eagerly awaited adventure games in a very long time, and it is intentionally old school Sierra/Lucasarts in nature(aesthetically, humor), etc. I've played it a bit and have enjoyed it, however the main character's voice takes quite a bit of getting used to. I liked the narrator a lot, though.
Here are a few remarks from an Adventure Gamers forum discussion from one of the creators. Note that it contains remarks relevent to that discussion, however it addresses a few more general points. The term "KQ2VGA" is a reference to the team's King's Quest II VGA remake. They did it, as well as the first game. The recently released KQ III remake is a different team.
I think I worded the "being stuck in a bad situation and thinking "this sucks"' the wrong way. The player isn't supposed to think the experience sucks. They are supposed to think that it sucks for the main character, creating the motivation and intrigue for them as the player go and explore the rest of the land. Why have this set up? Well, why not? In my opinion, there's no 'right' or 'wrong' way to start a story. We had the intention to make a game reminiscent of the old Sierra games. These Sierra games usually started out being very contrived and had far less of a back-story. I.e. KQ1: Find 3 treasures. Larry: Start outside Lefty's bar and find a way to get laid.
The appealing-ness and 'hook' of the story comes down entirely to personal opinion. Some people will love it; some will hate it. It's beyond any designer's abilities to cater to the satisfaction and personal taste of every single individual player out there, because it's all subjective and everyone likes different things. All we can do is make the game the way we envisioned it. If a game doesn't appeal to a particular player, then no amount of changing things is likely to make any difference.
-If you look through the thread, there are just as many people saying they like each feature, as there are those saying they dislike them. Again, it comes down to personal tastes. If you don't like the voices, you don't have to listen to them. That's why there's a voices on/off option included. The game is FULLY playable from beginning to end without hearing a single voice, and even the cutscenes and comics are set up for this. No matter which voices were chosen, some would like them; others would dislike them.
-Al's voice isn't pitch-shifted.
-In regards to why we didn't make the game 320x200 to retain a nostalgic appearance: Simply because it wouldn't go down well as a commercial game in 2006. 640x400 is four times the detail of 320x200 and some people still think that's too low. It wasn't our intention to make a next-gen game; it's supposed to be nostalgic, but with higher detail to make it more appealing visually. Our aim was to improve in every way over the KQ2VGA+ remake. More detailed backgrounds, original story, professionally recorded dialogue, lip-synching, more detailed animations and more frames in those animations. It's somewhat ironic that people praised KQ2VGA for it's "beautiful graphical innovations" when most of the artwork was collaged together from various sources, and the animations consisted of 3-5 clunky, low-res frames. Al Emmo's artwork is a vast improvement by comparisons, yet people seriously aren't noticing the difference? We also started creating this game in 2003, which is when we made the decision to go with the resolution. Three years have passed since then...
-A remake is by no means easy to make. It's true that it's easier than making a game from scratch (or at least, less time consuming), but to say it's easy is a severe underestimate of the work involved. KQ2VGA+ was worked on for a full year, basically all night, every night; and most days too. That's the equivalent of working a full year on something for no pay. I'm not sure that many people would be willing to sacrifice the required amount of time and money, and then still call the process 'easy' after a year of work. Vivendi allowed us to use the KQ name for promo purposes because a lot of time was spent on the remakes and so that we could have some added benefit from making them
-We created Al Emmo based on feedback primarily from Sierra fans who played the AGDI remakes. We asked them what they liked about the old Sierra games and what they would want to see in a new Sierra type game, if one were released. Their feedback played a large part in what got included in this game. I understand that AG is a more diverse bunch of gamers, not only limited to Sierra fans. Many of the 'features' in Al Emmo also existed in the Sierra games, and this is the type of style we've tried to remain true to. Sierra games are obviously not everyone's cup of tea, but try to remember that this is the game's main target audience.
-Truth be told, Britney had never played Larry or Freddy Pharkus prior to designing Al Emmo's characters or plot. Absolutely nothing in the game was intentionally taken from Larry or Freddy, despite the fact that there are some very close similarities in places; so much so that you'd be forgiven for calling me a liar.
-No animals were harmed during the making of this game.
http://www.alemmo.com/
If you'd like to help promote this title then use the banners provided at the following link and make sure it directs the user to http://www.alemmo.com/:
http://www.himalayastudios.com/images/Banners/
Here's the official Al Emmo Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/alemmo
This is one of the more eagerly awaited adventure games in a very long time, and it is intentionally old school Sierra/Lucasarts in nature(aesthetically, humor), etc. I've played it a bit and have enjoyed it, however the main character's voice takes quite a bit of getting used to. I liked the narrator a lot, though.
Here are a few remarks from an Adventure Gamers forum discussion from one of the creators. Note that it contains remarks relevent to that discussion, however it addresses a few more general points. The term "KQ2VGA" is a reference to the team's King's Quest II VGA remake. They did it, as well as the first game. The recently released KQ III remake is a different team.
I think I worded the "being stuck in a bad situation and thinking "this sucks"' the wrong way. The player isn't supposed to think the experience sucks. They are supposed to think that it sucks for the main character, creating the motivation and intrigue for them as the player go and explore the rest of the land. Why have this set up? Well, why not? In my opinion, there's no 'right' or 'wrong' way to start a story. We had the intention to make a game reminiscent of the old Sierra games. These Sierra games usually started out being very contrived and had far less of a back-story. I.e. KQ1: Find 3 treasures. Larry: Start outside Lefty's bar and find a way to get laid.
The appealing-ness and 'hook' of the story comes down entirely to personal opinion. Some people will love it; some will hate it. It's beyond any designer's abilities to cater to the satisfaction and personal taste of every single individual player out there, because it's all subjective and everyone likes different things. All we can do is make the game the way we envisioned it. If a game doesn't appeal to a particular player, then no amount of changing things is likely to make any difference.
-If you look through the thread, there are just as many people saying they like each feature, as there are those saying they dislike them. Again, it comes down to personal tastes. If you don't like the voices, you don't have to listen to them. That's why there's a voices on/off option included. The game is FULLY playable from beginning to end without hearing a single voice, and even the cutscenes and comics are set up for this. No matter which voices were chosen, some would like them; others would dislike them.
-Al's voice isn't pitch-shifted.
-In regards to why we didn't make the game 320x200 to retain a nostalgic appearance: Simply because it wouldn't go down well as a commercial game in 2006. 640x400 is four times the detail of 320x200 and some people still think that's too low. It wasn't our intention to make a next-gen game; it's supposed to be nostalgic, but with higher detail to make it more appealing visually. Our aim was to improve in every way over the KQ2VGA+ remake. More detailed backgrounds, original story, professionally recorded dialogue, lip-synching, more detailed animations and more frames in those animations. It's somewhat ironic that people praised KQ2VGA for it's "beautiful graphical innovations" when most of the artwork was collaged together from various sources, and the animations consisted of 3-5 clunky, low-res frames. Al Emmo's artwork is a vast improvement by comparisons, yet people seriously aren't noticing the difference? We also started creating this game in 2003, which is when we made the decision to go with the resolution. Three years have passed since then...
-A remake is by no means easy to make. It's true that it's easier than making a game from scratch (or at least, less time consuming), but to say it's easy is a severe underestimate of the work involved. KQ2VGA+ was worked on for a full year, basically all night, every night; and most days too. That's the equivalent of working a full year on something for no pay. I'm not sure that many people would be willing to sacrifice the required amount of time and money, and then still call the process 'easy' after a year of work. Vivendi allowed us to use the KQ name for promo purposes because a lot of time was spent on the remakes and so that we could have some added benefit from making them
-We created Al Emmo based on feedback primarily from Sierra fans who played the AGDI remakes. We asked them what they liked about the old Sierra games and what they would want to see in a new Sierra type game, if one were released. Their feedback played a large part in what got included in this game. I understand that AG is a more diverse bunch of gamers, not only limited to Sierra fans. Many of the 'features' in Al Emmo also existed in the Sierra games, and this is the type of style we've tried to remain true to. Sierra games are obviously not everyone's cup of tea, but try to remember that this is the game's main target audience.
-Truth be told, Britney had never played Larry or Freddy Pharkus prior to designing Al Emmo's characters or plot. Absolutely nothing in the game was intentionally taken from Larry or Freddy, despite the fact that there are some very close similarities in places; so much so that you'd be forgiven for calling me a liar.
-No animals were harmed during the making of this game.